New RF-X 1.5 public beta (1.50.004) is available

[Ryan Douglas]

We are pleased to announce early access to an RF-X 1.5 public beta! We've been hard at work on improvements and new features for RF-X. Now we want to get them into your hands and get your feedback as we continue work on 1.5 this year.

New Features:
Here are the big new features we've added so far!

• Float Flying - New water physics and visual effects!
• Wright Island - A lush green island in the middle of a calm ocean. This new world sports several flying sites, including a float-flying dock.
• New Airports - See the full list in a subsequent post below.
• New Vehicles - See the full list in a subsequent post below.
• Remember Reset Position - Press 'P' to store your vehicle's current position, velocity, motor RPMs, etc. for future resets. Press "Ctrl-P" to clear the saved position.
• Radio Display in HUD - Press 'R' to toggle between simple (stick positions and trims), full (channels 5-10), and off.
• Race Drone Flight Controller - This new electronics component simulates the behavior of current race drones. It supports Acro and Horizon modes.
• Enhanced Heli Blade Sounds - Helis have more "whump" sound during hard collective maneuvers.
• New Cloud System - Updated volumetric cloud generation.
• Smoothness Improvements - Content optimization to reduce hitching when flying from the ground.
• VR Support (Experimental) - Supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. This is disabled by default because performance is insufficient. We will post more information in the RF-X forum for those who are interested in trying it.
• Unigine Engine - Upgrade to Unigine version 2.4

A more complete list of changes is still to come.

Known Issues:
We discovered a few bugs that we did not want to let hold up this release. They will be addressed at a later time.

• Motion blur does not work correctly in some circumstances. We recommend disabling it at this time.
• Headless mode (enabled on the xCraft X PlusOne) is not using the correct heading, and is not displaying correctly in the HUD.
• The 'H' & 'J' keys do not control input channels 9 & 10. Those channels still work if your controller supports them.
• There have been some issues with the update process. Please read post #4 in this thread for more details.

Download Instructions:
This is a large update. At about 4.5 GB, you can expect the download to take a while. Please follow these instructions:

1. Disable all antivirus software. (Required during update process only.)
2. Close other programs to free as much memory as possible. This is especially important for 32-bit applications. (Required during update process only.)
3. Start the RF-X Launcher
4. Click Technical Support
5. Click Enter Tech Support Code
6. Enter the following code: PBEC#54yh3xehxjfj (If successful, you will see a message saying "You are now registered to use the Public Beta site until the new version is posted to official download site.")
7. Go back to the main Launcher menu and click Registration/Updates
8. Make sure that in the bottom left corner it says Temporary Public Beta. If not, try reentering the code
9. Click Update to Latest Version; alternatively, click Update to Specific Version, choose 1.50.004 from the list, and click OK.

The LauncherHelper will need to restart partway through this process. Answer "Yes" when it asks if you want to continue downloading the new version. When this process is finished, you will have the latest available version of RF-X.

Feedback:
Please tell us about your experience and any bugs you find in the RF-X discussion forum.

[Ryan Douglas]

Grouped by the world in which they exist.

Wright Island
Harbor Dock
Lighthouse
Meadowlands RC Field
Radio Station
RC Ranch

Sierra Nevada
Alpine Lake - A new float-flying site in the existing Sierra Nevada world.

Misc.
Blimp Hangar - A massive and detailed structure for indoor flying. Not as lightweight as Green Grass Flatlands, but still much faster than Sierra Nevada or Wright Island. Exists in its own dedicated scene.

[Ryan Douglas]

Airplanes
de Havilland Beaver float plane
Riley Model B

Helicopters
Gremlin 280
Synergy 766

Drones
Rise RXS255
Tiny Terror 150

[Ryan Douglas]

Problem #1
During the download phase, a file might fail to download. A retry message is displayed: "An error occurred while downloading a file. Would you like to try downloading this file again?" This might happen repeatedly, either for the same file or for a different file each time.

This is annoying but ultimately non-destructive. The workaround is to keep retrying, or to cancel and try again later. Nothing you've already successfully downloaded will be lost, and if you cancel you can keep using the older version of RF-X in the meantime.

We don't yet know what is causing this issue. We're looking into it on the server side. In recent tests from within our office, sometimes we see it, and sometimes we don't.


Problem #2
After all the files are successfully downloaded, an out of memory error can occur while decompressing and copying downloaded files to their final destination.

This is more serious than problem #1. If it happens, it will leave your installation in a corrupted state. The bad news is that requires reinstalling your software before retrying the update. The good news is that you do not need to re-download the update, as long as you follow the instructions below.

1. Uninstall RF-X, but leave your serial numbers, user content, and update cache intact. See the attached screenshot of the uninstall dialog and make sure yours looks exactly the same before you continue.
2. Reinstall RF-X from your original disk.
3. Re-register the software to get access to updates.
4. Restart your computer and close other programs that are running. It is especially important to close 32-bit programs, which are often--though not always--labeled in the Task Manager. See the attached shot of a task list, where Chrome is a 32-bit program using over 1 GB of memory.
5. Update to 1.50.004.

Please note that we are adding two steps to the original download instructions: Shutting down other programs, and disabling antivirus software (for the duration of the update only).