Requires the full BETA 02 base version.

Revised: 02-21-09

BETA PROGRAM

The Beta of this major upgrade is free to all owners of a pre-existing version of this game. To participate, please visit the discussion forums.

KNOWN ISSUES:

1. Some Frontend (Tactical, Logistix, Tradcom, Navitron etc) screens are misaligned. They are fully functional however, you just have to guess where the older buttons were and move your mouse there to activate it. All of them need to be re-aligned to match the new 1024x768 default Frontend GUI resolution.

NOTES:

1. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the new system requirements!!!
2. This is not a mandatory upgrade and thus will not be available via the in-game patch updater
3. Single player upgrade only. NO plans to port multiplayer version at this time.
4. All GBS graphics tools (PTEStudio and BCStudio) included with v1.x will not work with this version
There are no plans to upgrade them.
5. This version will update all versions of the following versions, including patched versions. However, you are advised to apply this only on top of a vanilla (new) installation. There is no need to apply any of the v1 patches first.
* Retail DVD-ROM
* Direct2Drive ESD
* Gamers Gate ESD
* Digital River ESD
* BMT Micro (UCSE to UCCE upgrade special offer ESD)
* To upgrade your pre-existing UCCE v1.x install:

Run the update and point it to your game install folder as you would a normal patch.

WARNING: This is a one-way street. To revert back to your v1.x install, you will have to
uninstall, kill the folder (including all files) and re-install from scratch. Then patch
to the latest v1.x patch as normal.

v2.0 BETA 12 (02-21-09)

1. FIXED: mouse flight mode was broken.

v2.0 BETA 11 (02-20-09)

1. VTT now show distance in meters when its below 1000.
2. Revised laser damage. Previous revision was too weak.
3. Mobile EAD units will no longer move around the base on their own.
4. FIXED: NPC personnel had incorrectly high armor values.
5. FIXED: NPC personnel escorts would ignore threats when they stopped outside leader range.

v2.0 BETA 10 (02-20-09)

1. Performance tweaks to radar detection.
2. Laser damage is no longer tied to the current frame rate
3. NPC personnel with escort orders will no longer stray past 16m from the leader
4. NPC personnel will now pause for 500ms before shooting again
5. NPC's escorting player will now always receive orders from the player; even after being given escort/defend orders via the TOM.
6. FIXED: lasers were causing damage twice, once as lasers and a second time as fragments.
7. FIXED: NPC's were shooting at targets they weren't supposed to attack. This was also causing NPC's to ignore line of sight to their target.
8. FIXED: a revision to radar detection performance improvement in previous update caused issues with friendly target detection. e.g. when you play a ROAM career in fp mode the starbase didn't detect you, so no friendly NPC escorts were dispatched.

v2.0 BETA 09 (02-17-09)

1. Minor performance tweaks in first person mode
2. Compiled with latest FMODex (4.22.00) audio SDK.
3. Non hostiles, civil and misc units are no longer tracked on radar. Performance improvement
4. FIXED: Issue with improper sound card initialization
5. FIXED: multiple missiles sometimes firing when using joystick/gamepad/xb360 controller

v2.0 BETA 08 (12-29-08)

1. Compiled with latest DirectX (November 2008) SDK. Requires November 2008 Runtime!!
2. Compiled with latest FMODex (4.20.06) audio SDK.
3. Removed CONFIG entries from Frontend drop-down menu. Can now only run CONFIG from the main menu.
4. FIXED: MD5 digital signature was missing in ItemMgr.ini causing a crash when playing in fp mode.

v2.0 BETA 07 (12-14-08)

1. Updated fpitems.html appendix file entry for GLE22
2. The prox grenades in the GLE22 have been replaced with flashbang grenades
3. FIXED: In the DIE/TVM mode the NID/LOC text was displayed outside the extents of the viewport
4. FIXED: Cloaking was rendered incorrectly

v2.0 BETA 06 (12-02-08)

1. FIXED: Destroyed units which could rebuild were rendered/located incorrectly
2. Minor tweak to NPC persons in escort/defend mode

v2.0 BETA 05 (11-26-08)

1. Increased the range at which NPC persons will stop before attacking a non-moving target
2. NPC person will no longer stop shooting if it didn't have a target. This was a half second pause that is no longer required.
3. Revised handling of NPC ships when in defend mode.
4. Revised handling of NPC persons when in escort or defend mode
5. FIXED: Decoupled cap ship gun crosshair was not rendered correctly
6. FIXED: The hyperjump timer in the VDD/VID was not rendered correctly when viewing a ship in hyperspace

v2.0 BETA 04 (11-24-08)

1. Removed Frontend background blurring effect.
2. FIXED: Several planetary models and textures were incorrectly replaced/deleted by BETA02. Have now been restored.
3. FIXED: VDD/VID rendering was causing several other rendering issues.
4. FIXED: DIE and rifle zoom scope masks were being rendered incorrectly.

v2.0 BETA 03 (11-22-08)

1. Key command revisions:

SHIFT+H : Game Commands
h : HUD Color Change
CTRL+M : GALAXY MAP
ALT+M : *deleted*
ALT+R : *deleted*

v2.0 BETA 02 (11-20-08)

1. Revised PERSCAN color scheme to match new GUI color scheme
2. Revised space skybox shader
3. FIXED: Player asset textures are now pre-loaded by the asset streamer
4. FIXED: Some text rendering in VDD/VID were not rendered correctly
5. FIXED: Icons (e.g. weapon) in first person interface were not rendered correctly

v2.0 BETA 01 (11-15-08)

1. Minor tweaks
2. Added Engstrom super carrier asset
3. Added bitmap pages for Game commands (6 pages), manual (100 pages), tutorial (115 pages) & galaxy map available via the in-game document viewer

G : GALAXY MAP
H : GAME COMMANDS
ALT+H : GAME MANUAL
CTRL+H : GAME TUTORIAL

v2.0 BETA 00 (10-31-08)
Game engines based on Universal Combat CE v1.01.00

1. Completely replaced the following engines with versions used in GALCOM: Echo Squad SE.
* Terrain rendering engine
o All shaders upgraded to improved SM 2.0 versions. Game will no longer run on SM 1.x hardware
o All new terrain and environment lighting
o All new water rendering
o Volumetric clouds
o Revised Sun (and sunlight) rendering
o Increased terrain data resolution
o Revised weather (rain, snow, heatwave etc) rendering and handling
* Graphics rendering engine. Now requires SM 2.0 card as a minimum.
o All shaders upgraded to improved SM 2.0 versions. Game will no longer run on SM 1.x hardware
o All new shader based effects including, shield/armor impact, hyperspace, hyperjump, explosions, particle filters, cloaking, contrails, gun fire, damage etc
o High Dynamic Range lighting with blooming and tone mapping. Can be disabled for cards with problematic drivers.
o Motion blur
o Multiple dynamic light sources (e.g. from planets, explosions, other scene objects etc)
o New space skybox rendering with ambient cube maps
o Normal mapping
* Frontend GUI engine. NOTE: The CONFIG option in the drop-down menu is no longer active.
* Input interface module. Minimal support for gamepads and XBox 360 Controller For Windows controller.
* Asset streaming module
* In-game document viewing module
2. Replaced all legacy assets with newer versions which were revised for Echo Squad SE
* Various 3D models
* All skybox assets
* All specialFX assets and shaders
* Frontend GUI assets
* Planetary terrain rendering assets
* Space rendering engine assets
3. Commandline parameter revisions
* Obsolete: -j, /j, -w1, /w1, -w2, /w2
* New: -w, /w (run in windowed mode. unsupported)
4. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Minimum:

Windows XP SP3, Vista SP1 (with all service packs)
DirectX 9.0c or later
Pentium IV 3.0 GHz or equivalent
1GB system RAM
256MB video card with pixel and vertex shader 2.0

nVidia chipsets: GeForce 6800 or better
ATI chipsets: ATI X800 or better

DirectX 9 compatible sound card
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
Multiplayer requires LAN or broadband connection

Recommended:

Windows XP SP3, Vista SP1 (with all service packs)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or AMD X2 6000+ 3.0GHz
2GB system RAM
512MB PCIe video card with pixel and vertex shader 2.0 or 3.0

nVidia chipsets: GeForce 7800 or better
ATI chipsets: ATI X1600 or better