Stardock has released its first major update to Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar. The award winning strategy game has garnered universally positive reviews since its release but Stardock’s update not only addresses minor bugs and play balancing but includes a brand new graphics engine!

"Many of our game developers have been working on our next game, a fantasy strategy game and in the process have made real advances in 3D engine development," said Brad Wardell, Designer of Galactic Civilizations. "We wanted to bring some of those performance advancements into Galactic Civilizations."

As a result, players have reported seeing a 10X graphics performance improvement.

"Now players can play on gigantic maps and be zoomed out quite a ways to display hundreds or thousands of ships and still get fantastic performance," said Wardell.

While significant features are common in Stardock’s free updates for its games, a full-blown engine upgrade sets a new bar. The new version also includes dozens of new features as well based on player feedback.

Registered users can download the update via Stardock Central, the company’s unique download manager that not only allows users to update its games but can install the entire game from scratch without requiring the CD onto multiple home computers.

Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition is available at most retail stores in North America and includes both the original Galactic Civilizations II as well as the Dark Avatar expansion pack.

A full listing of what's changed can be found here: https://forums.galciv2.com/?aid=154562. The home page for Galactic Civilizations II is https://www.galciv2.com.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar v1.6
Requires: Galactic Civilizations II or Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition
Price: Free Update to existing customer, new users can purchase at www.galciv2.com or at their local PC game retailer
See it at: https://www.galciv2.com

Developer:
Stardock Corp. (www.stardock.com).
15090 Beck Rd.
Plymouth MI 48170

Screenshots:

It's time for another update for Galactic Civilizations II and this time we've put our energy into not just adding new features, fixing various reported issues, and tweaking game balance. This time we integrated in a new graphics engine for the ship rendering that should result in a performance boost of 10X to 15X depending on your setup and what is happening on the screen.

This update should be available via Stardock Central by around 5PM EST on June 7, 2007.

Here's a complete list of what's been changed:

+ NEW: New Graphics Engine for ships which should result in a 10X to 15X performance improvement for most players

+ NEW: Computer AI updated to be better in diplomacy

+ NEW: AI ship design more optimized

+ NEW: More differentiation between alien races on what technologies they research

+ NEW: The popup for adding money to negotiations on the trade screen will now open with the value needed to make the AI accept the offer (or the total amount in your treasury if they won't accept it).

+ NEW: Graphs and mini-map rewritten using Direct3D instead of GDI

+ NEW: 3 New Custom Maps

+ NEW: Galaxies tend to have more stars and planets

+ NEW: Stacked ships will only show one ship in the tile

  + The ship that is displayed is chosen like so:

     + If a ship is the galaxy’s selected ship it is always shown

     + Otherwise, the toughest selected ship is shown

     + If no ship in the stack is selected, the toughest ship is shown

    + An icon appears next to ships that are in a stack

    + when you move a ship off of a stack, it will show the next ship in that stack

    + This significantly increases performance in my tests.  I had a stack of about 50 ships and no major hit to frame rate.

+ NEW: Added code to save score data for non-metaverse games locally in the My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar folder

+ NEW: You can now change the social project (if there is stuff in the queue) from the colony list in the civ manager

+ NEW: Some additional dialog (but no new trees) for computer players

+ NEW: Added Starbase module to repair the starbase with Tech Requirement Advanced Hulls.  Will only show up if the starbase is missing HP, and can be 'installed' multiple times.  This module should not count towards the total modules.

+ NEW: Option to use old graphics engine for users of video cards that don't support the DirectX features we're using

+ FIX: Fixed bug where non-optimal defenses were never decreased as the defenses absorbed damage during a battle round

+ FIX: Fixed end of turn crash that happened if you had the Force AI to use Max CPU option ON.
 
+ FIX:  Made Build Menu update after a project is decomissioned. 1 per planet improvements like Orbital Terraformers will now show up in the build list again if you remove them from the queue or destroy an existing one.  1 per civ and 1

per galaxy improvements may not be destroyed and rebuilt - this is by design.
 
+ FIX: Fixed bug where if you changed the settings for a custom opponent's Natural Abilities and/or Financial Resources, the values would not remain the same after leaving the tab.

+ FIX: Fixed error where invalid information was being returned by the activation code in Win98 and Windows ME by adding alternate code if the first instance failed.

+ FIX: Fixed bug where save game was not saving the campaign file name and added code to fix save games currently exhibiting this bug (should fix problem with people continuing their campaigns)

+ FIX: Fixed crash bug where if the random event that creates a new minor race happened mulitple times, the minor races would end up with the same name and then delete each other's ship designs, causing a crash on the end of a turn

+ FIX: Fixed bug where the turn a ship was created was not saved/restored when loading a save game, which could cause a ship design to be deleted too early

+ FIX: Fixed bug with loading height maps for planet surfaces

+ FIX: Fixed bug where ending the game from the planet screen resulted in a crash because the planet screen was not hidden before the end game screen was unhidden

+ FIX: Added strings that were not being saved to scenario save game code

 + FIX: Made it so that your allies won't declare war on you in the mega event Allied War where the good races gang up on you.

+ FIX: Minimap and line graphs now uses Direct3D for drawing, which should show an increase in framerate.

+ FIX: Updated the QUICKSTART command line parameter code to work with DarkAvatar's settings

+ FIX: The minimap scrolling lag on Vista should be resolved, and scrolling in general should be smoother with better frame rates.

+ FIX: On Vista PCs, the debug.err will now be saved in the Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar folder. (This will not work if you run the exe in WInXP compatibility mode.)

+ FIX: Fixed a minor bug with the money popup in the tradewnd if you were in debt.

+ FIX: Fixed bug where the influence and morale bonuses did not show up correctly on the summary screen (from the planet screen) if there was a influence or morale bonus (respectively) on that tile.

+ FIX:  Flushes resource manager’s resources when game exits

+ FIX: Fixed crash in invasion ground units

+ FIX: Fixed crash if memory does not allocate in ResourceGraphic

+ FIX: Fixed crash in ship design code if hardpoint data failed to load

+ FIX: Fixed bug where minimaps were not refreshing immediately when you started a new game

+ FIX: Added code to handle if you or your trading partner are in debt to fix flakiness with the money popup in the TradeWnd. 

+ FIX: Fixed bug in the function that calculates the morale of a colony to fix a longtime bug where your morale could permanently drop to 1%

+ FIX: Made it so that ships on the Governor minimap should show up larger when they are affected by the switch.  Also made starbases not show up on this minimap to reduce clutter.

+ FIX: Fixed typo in XML files that caused land and background textures in Invasion window to be black

+ FIX: Added code for the super hive to adjust the costs of factories in the queue when they take over another colony.

+ FIX: Fixed a lockup on Trade screen when you have a huge amount of money in the treasury and you try to offer money.

+ FIX: Fixed lockup on Governor screen when you click on the Starship rallypoint governor

+ FIX:  Found a solution for the graphical glitches on AMD machines.

+ FIX: Optimized new batch renderer so that ship instances of the same type will share the same vertex and index buffers.  This will save memory over the previous implementation where each instance had its own vert and index buffers.

This should also fix the where ship parts sometimes would not show textures in the designer.

+ FIX: Fixed some alt-tab crashes present in 1.6 beta 5.

+ FIX: Added code to remove AI ship designs from the graphics cache when they are no longer being used

+ FIX: Fixed bug where, in 1 on 1 battles, if both ships kill each other, the stronger surviving ship would have hp restored instead of receiving 1 hp.

+ FIX: Added support for mixed vertex processing which should help some people with older video cards who would normally be running in software vertex processing mode.

+ FIX: Changed the way that vertex and index buffers are created to help framerates for cards running in software or mixed vp mode.

+ FIX: Fixed bug with loading save games that could cause the cheater flag to be tripped

+ FIX: Fixed bug where you could change AI mining bases to send to your planet

+ FIX: Fixed bug where the repair starbase module was showing up as a bonus in the starbase details screen after it was applied

+ FIX: Fixed bug where the repair starbase module was being counted as one of the available modules even when the starbase didn't need repair, which threw off the total count by 1.

+ FIX: Memory leak in ship gfx when you alt-tab out of the game

+ FIX: Fixed the “Missing Mining Base Graphics” bug

+ TWEAK : Turned off some debug strings to try and improve loading time

+ TWEAK: Added dialog to warn you if you start/load a metaverse game with a cheater flag

+ TWEAK: Pirates event less common, somewhat less lethal

+ TWEAK: AI deals with Disease event better

+ TWEAK: Various tweaks to AI behavior

+ TWEAK: Extreme Colonization more expensive

+ TWEAK: Visual updates to some planetary improvements

+ TWEAK: AI more focused on what it builds on planets (long story)

+ TWEAK: AI tweaks to tech tree

+ TWEAK:  In the Ship Designer, when using auto-place to place a component, the component will use the current scale and rotation settings

+ TWEAK: You are no longer permitted to change your capital to another world, and bonuses for the capital city have been increased.

+ TWEAK: The display of stars on the minimaps should now  be more visible on large and gigantic galaxies.

+ TWEAK: Made a slight change to the code that starts the AI threads which may help with the AI seeming to get a free turn at the start of a new game or when loading a save game. 

+ TWEAK: Planet Surface Variety Option now defaults to 50%

+ TWEAK: Converted star box to use vertex buffer for point sprites and optimized it for point sprites, and optimized it for software vp if running in software vp mode

+ TWEAK: Added option for “Enhanced Ship Rendering” - if you are running in software vp mode, turning this off may increase your performance

+ TWEAK: Added option to allow the game to start in mixed vp mode when it would normally start in software vp mode.  Turn this off if you encounter problems in mixed vp mode to start in software vp mode.

There's so many things we could do next with Object Desktop but we're having a hard time narrowing down what we should focus on.

After all, with only 15% or so of the user base moved to Vista (a LOT slower than anticipated) it doesn't make much sense to pour all new development into Vista specific tech.

But at the same time, we don't want to get into the path of making "legacy" software as well.

One of my personal peeves with Object Desktop is that it's too eye candy focused these days and not enough productivity.

The OS/2 version of Object Desktop was almost purely productivity software:

Here's a link to the OS/2 version of Object Desktop (10 years ago).

Now, a lot of features that were part of Object Desktop have become part of the OS today.

But still, I think there's a lot of room for growth in other areas.  Before I post my ideas for what I'd like to see in there, we'd love to hear some things you'd like to see us work on.

Peggy Noonan, one of my heroes, has an outstanding column in today's Wallstreet Journal about George W. Bush and how he has torn the Republican party asunder.

It has always amazed me to see Bush haters trying to paint Bush as a "typical" Republican or "typical" conservative. He is neither.

His out of control spending, his preference for loyalty over competency, his incompotent handling of Iraq, his left-of center views on federal education, immigration, and even welfare make him not a Republican or a Democrat but some sort of bizarro President.

It's as if "Bob down the street" somehow got elected President. Bob, who knows little on politics, has little interest in it, gathers about him his Sunday afternoon Football buddies to hang with him and set out policy based on their "gut".

Except I suspect Bob wouldn't be stupid enough to call the base of his support unpatriotic as Bush did yesterday.  Only in Bush's world would those who are against lawbreaking considered unpatriotic.

Check out Peggy's column below. It is well worth the read.

TownHall.com has a great article outlining just how bad this current Immigration bill in the senate would be for the United States.

The most detrimental point of it is that it would immediately legalize the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens in the country by giving them "Z-Visas". 

As someone who has spent thousands of dollars trying to get a handful of visas for skilled labor, it's quite an outrage to see the government about to hand out free visas to people who broke our laws. It's simply unbelievable.

But more than that, it would be a disaster for the United States in the long-run as low-skilled labor tends to pay little in taxes but still can reap the benefits of our social safety net. On top of that, as anyone who has recently been to the American South West (or Miami for that matter) can tell you, hispanic immigrants not only actively resist assimilating but many of them are openly hostile to the United States and see the American Southwest as belonging to their native country.

Read the whole article below and contact your senator to make sure they know you do not support this bill.

Raymond E. Feist is the greatest living fantasy author. The author of Magician and the subsequent books, Feist has created a vivid world full of interesting, wonderful characters that are a joy to read.

His latest work, Into a Dark Realm, is book two of a new series. It still exists in the world that has been created by the preceding books but begins a fresh epic.  And boy it is an epic.

In the previous book, readers are given a glimpse into the world of the Dasati, a world in which evil reigns supreme. The sick and twisted Dasati live for cruelty and evil. It is their natural way.  What's worse, they are looking to come to the world of Midkemia and Kelewan (where all the previous books have taken place on).  These unstoppable, evil, super-warriors would love nothing less than to exterminate every living thing on the worlds we've come to know and love.

Magician hero, Pug and his friend Nakor, son Magnus and the mysterious and erratic warrior, Bek have taken a journey to the Dasati homeworld to figure out what can be done before it's too late.

The real joy of the book, however, comes as a great surprise in the form of Dasati characters. Feist builds an intricate backstory and culture for the evil world of the Dasati that is both frightening and exilerating. Seeing how a world of pure evil actually functions and, functions quite well and logically is amazing.

My only gripe is that, being the first book in a new series, it leaves the reader hungry for the next in the series.  It is a must-read for any fan of Raymond E. Feist and not a bad start for any new reader.  Few authors deliver such great characters and worlds as Feist does and this book represents a new triumph for the author.

We have released what we hope will be the final beta of GalCiv II: Dark Avatar 1.6 before we do the official release.

New in this build:

+ FIX: Fixed some alt-tab crashes present in 1.6 beta 5.
+ FIX: Added code to remove AI ship designs from the graphics cache when they are no longer being used
+ FIX: Fixed bug where, in 1 on 1 battles, if both ships kill each other, the stronger surviving ship would have hp restored instead of receiving 1 hp.
+ FIX: Added support for mixed vertex processing which should help some people with older video cards who would normally be running in software vertex processing mode.
+ FIX: Changed the way that vertex and index buffers are created to help framerates for cards running in software or mixed vp mode.
+ TWEAK: Planet Surface Variety Option now defaults to 50%

--

Basically the goal of this build is to "have cake and eat it too" in the sense that all users should experience the new graphics engine (or at least as good as it was before) without any downsides.

We've also reduced memory usage further.

We're still doing more work but hopefully this will be the last beta. Then we'll move onto starting 1.7 which should have new Mega Events, new constructor handling, updated AI, and more.

Please let us know if you have any problems. Assume this is a "real" release.

Update from Cari (6/5/07):  If you are still experiencing slowdown issues, please try this build and turn OFF the Enhanced Ship Rendering option.  You may also need to turn off the Allow Mixed Vertex Processing option.  This build also fixes a memory leak.

http://sd.stardock.com/carielf/da_1_6_rc1.zip

Stardock developer Jeff B (best known for leading the development effort on ObjectDock, ObjectBar, Keyboard LaunchPad, RightClick, and much of DeskScapes) is very ill. 

Our thoughts and prayers are with him.

With the immigration bill fiasco looming (does he understand what he would be signing?) one has to wonder, does anyone support Bush?

Democrats already loathe the man.  Conservatives have no use for him and his incompotence. 

So I'm genuinely curious, is anyone here actually approve of the job Bush is currently doing and if so, why?

Michigan isn't a bad state unless you're trying to run a business. Then it pretty much blows. For years, we had the stupid "single business tax". But on top of that we have horrible roads, Detroit, and apparently brain-dead politicians in the state capital.

Last month, the Michigan house of representatives proposed providing every child an MP3 player for "educational" purposes.  Mind you, we have a $1 billion deficit.  So how to pay for this? Higher taxes.  Unbelieveable. 

Michigan has one of the highest tax burdens in the country and we get the least out of it.  We have a 6% sales tax, a 4% income tax rate, high property taxes.  And what do we get in return? Crumbling roads and businesses fleeing the state for greener pastures.  And what do Michigan politicians think is the cure? iPods for every kid and higher taxes? Good God.