Version History

3/2/08 - Version 2.83 includes manufacturing processes, compressed sound support (Sebastien) and logging (Sebastien).

11/30/07 - Version 2.82 includes repair/maintenance parts, automatic UI settings loading/saving, and bug/performances fixes.

9/16/07 - Version 2.81 includes a new trade mission, credit system and goods valuing system.

3/30/07 - Version 2.80 includes a new mission tool for creating, editing and viewing missions.

7/23/06 - Version 2.79 includes rover rescue/salvage missions, resources containers, and lots of bug fixes, refactoring and performance inprovements.

10/22/05 - Version 2.78 add UI sounds (w/ Dima Stephanchuk), individual person configuration, cooking task, chef profession, mission and task refactoring, and lots of bug fixes and small improvements.

10/3/04 - Version 2.77 adds EVA suit tear malfunction (Rik Declercq), frost bite/nip illnesses (Rik Declercq), anxiety attack illness (Rik Declercq), teaching skills, settlement EVA maintenance, settler gender, settler social relationships (w/ Paul Speed), settler MBTI personalities (w/ Paula Jenkins), sound support (Dima Stephanchuk), Alpha Base settlement template, lots of bug fixes and small improvements.

8/4/04 - Version 2.76 adds settler stress level, settlement and building crowding, landmark display (Dalen Kruse), settler job specialities, medical and botany science research, and settlement resupply missions.

4/15/04 - Version 2.75 adds configurable settlement buildings, settlement power grid, resource processes, ice prospecting mission, historical events in the monitor tool (Barry Evans), vehicle trails and improved configuration files.

5/21/02 - Version 2.74 adds a medical system (Barry Evans) and a malfunction/maintenance/repair system that allows settlers to die as a result of an illness or accident. A general inventory system has been added along with EVA operations as a part of missions or repair. The Monitor tool has been updated to allow custom tabs and real-time charts and graphs.

12/27/01 - Version 2.73 adds the ability to save and load simulations (Barry Evans). XML configuration files allow the user to set simulation properties. A new Monitor Tool shows a table of units and their information (Barry Evans). Many bugs have been fixed (Dalen Kruse).

8/18/01 - Version 2.72 includes a Martian timekeeping system (clock/calendar), orbital tracking and day/night tracking. The settler AI is completely refactored and includes support for missions. Two missions are included: Travel to Settlement mission and Collect Rock Samples Mission. Sleeping and eating meal tasks have also been added.

1/31/01 - Version 2.71 is primarily focused on refactoring the code and reorganizing the directory structure. The simulation and the user interface are now cleanly broken apart into two packages. Greg Whelan added a new USGS mode that allows 8x zoom on the Mars Navigator surface map with an Internet connection. Resources are produced and consumed a great deal more in the simulation. INSITU resource processors have been added to the settlements to generate oxygen, fuel and water.

The problematic Installer application has been removed, but the download for the project is much larger now.

9/8/00 - Version 2.7 includes random mechanical failures for vehicles, periodic vehicle maintenance in settlement garages, and a mechanic task and skill. The crew of a rover that gets stuck will now slowly winch it along until it's free again. Fuel is tracked in vehicles. Configuration text files are included so that the user can modify the names of people, settlements and rovers. The Martian globe in the Mars Navigator tool renders much faster now.

5/25/00 - Version 2.65 concentrates on fleshing out settlements and improving the look and feel of the application. Facilities were added to settlements, including working greenhouses. The project now has a centered logo and a tiled background on its desktop, along with a splash screen at startup. The toolbar has been broken up into tool and unit toolbars. A new tool, the "Search Tool", has been added to improve searching for units. A "Tend Greenhouse" task has been added.

3/4/00 - Version 2.6 provides more functionality for people in the simulation and displays the new information in a larger person detail window. People now have natural attributes, skills and tasks. The basic infrastructure for tasks are in place, but only two tasks, relaxing and driving, are currently implemented. Sklls are fully implemented, but only one skill, "Driving", is currently used in conjunction with the driving task. Natural attributes are fully implemented with many attributes, but only one, "Experience Aptitude", has current practicle use in conjunction with the driving task. There have been some significant structure changes in the program and all classes have some additional documentation.

9/6/99 - Version 2.5 adds obstacle avoidance for rovers so they can go around rough terrain to avoid getting stuck. The can still get stuck in really bad terrain, but they generally do better than they used to. People also tend to drive to closer settlements now. Many bugs are fixed and there are a lot of internal changes that are transparent to the user but should make adding new features later easier. Rovers also have designated drivers, rather than just a list of passengers. Link buttons have been added to unit dialogs that will open up new unit windows. A "center map" button has also been added to each unit dialog to center the navigational window on the unit. The install application has been modified to use less memory. More people have been added, some with made up names.

7/19/99 - Version 2.4 replaces the old topographical map with a new one based on recently released Mars Global Surveyor data. It is a lot more accurate as the previous one was based on Viking orbiter data, but doesn't compress as well. I ended up with a download of 2.05Mb up from 1.6Mb in the last version. It has a new color legend and the rovers have been calibrated to the new scheme. I came up with some sample names for settlements and some of my friends and family have agreed to let me use their names for sample people. The code has been cleaned up some as well. The undistorted original large data files are available on the site if anyone cares to download them. They have a slightly better image quality than the install data files.

6/30/99 - Version 2.3 has the entire interface redone in Swing. There's now a desktop to contain the simulation with a flexible toolbar. All interface windows have been heavily redone. The source code has been cleaned up quite a bit as well. I've copyrighted the project under the GNU Public License to assure it remains free and cannot be used as a part of a proprietary project. The sample people and settlements from Kim Stanley Robinson's novel, 'Red Mars', have been removed to avoid copyright problems, and has been replaced by random settlements and all units have simple names for now.

5/11/99 - Version 2.2 includes an installation application and compressed data files, resulting in a much smaller download (1.6Mb compared to 6.5Mb). Both a new Swing and an older command line version of the installer are included. You have to run one of the installers to decompress the data files, but I think the download time saved is worth it. The data files are slightly degraded due to the compression, but still acceptable. I also improved the vehicle terrain grade effect on ground vehicles. The source code is freely available in a separate download. I've included a README file with instructions for installing and running the program.

2/15/99 - Version 2.1 includes terrain elevation and average grade effect on vehicles, as well as some major changes in the vehicle info dialog window. I have also included the source code with the full installation.

11/23/98 - Version 2.0 includes a sample group of people, (based on some of the First One Hundred in Kim Stanley Robinson's novel, 'Red Mars') randomly distributed among the settlements, as well as 15 vehicles. People, vehicles, and settlements have behaviors and can take action, and the navigation interface updates every couple of seconds to reflect positioning changes. Only the most basic actions are currently built in, but the foundation is layed for more advanced behaviors later. Settlements, vehicles, and people each have a pop-up dialog window that displays their information and updates itself.

10/20/98 - Version 1.3 includes a sample group of settlements (based on Kim Stanley Robinson's novel, 'Green Mars'.) Also added distance legend.

10/6/98 - Version 1.2 incorporates a topographical mode to show elevation.

9/28/98 - Version 1.1 allows the user to recenter on any point on the map by clicking on it. I also used double buffering to reduce flash on both the map and the globe.

9/21/98 - Version 1.0 is the basic navigation interface. The interface produces a 300x300 pixel map centered anywhere on the surface of Mars with a resolution of approximately 7.4Km per pixel edge.