Pre-Release: Final coming soon, too!

* More polishing of Volumetric Clouds
* More polishing of new lighting overhaul
* Brightness fixes for Snow on Planet Orbits close by the Sun
* Mod Option for enabling Global Illumination
* Mod Option if you like brighter nights
* Many fixes and upgrades

vonBiomes 17:
Volumetric Cloud System with different cloud types, integrated cloud lighting, randomization, and more
Enhanced and extended light system with all the variables in calculations, from orbit distances, space nebulas, sky bodies colors and distances, cloud densities, biome modifiers, randomization and more
New Night-vision Material
Mod options for volumetric clouds settings, performance & more
Fixes and improvements from various biomes
Instant Action randomization for sun classes and planet orbits

Beta Patch 3 with more light balancing and a new mod option for disabling ground smoke for performance / coop clients

Mini-Update for Steam: lowered the Volumetric Clouds Sample setting (normally accessible via Mod Options) to 1 because some of you on Steam do not have the Mod Options Mod installed.

This is a major overhaul with much work put into it during the last week! It not only extends the already existing volumetric clouds from Xenofungus and Desert Moon to all Biomes, but also has a widely reworked lighting system with tons of parameters. Each planet is different, each mission unique.
Since that is quite the thing, here is an official Beta Release first.

What is new:
Volumetric Cloud System with different cloud types, integrated cloud lighting, randomization, and more
Enhanced and extended light system with all the variables in calculations, from orbit distances, space nebulas, sky bodies colors and distances, cloud densities, biome modifiers, randomization and more
New Night-vision Material
Mod options for volumetric clouds settings, performance & more
Fixes and improvements from various biomes
Instant Action randomization for sun classes and planet orbits

If you encounter anything off, please drop a screenshot (always;) and feedback in the Discord channel ⁠#vonbiomes17-beta - thank you! Also, regular screenshots are (highly) welcome in ⁠#screenshots .. Let's rock this beast!
❗ As usual, please be sure no mod is overriding vonBiomes (otherwise the whole feedback thing wont make much sense;) - Std. brightness setting in MW5 at 4 on my end

* Major Performance optimization update!
Basalt Pillars, Rocky Desert and Space Port City should now run fine

* Atmospheric Haze and Mist updates:
Color correction and fixes

* Basalt Pillars:
Add-on of new huge pillars for more.. pillar-esk biome flair

* Updates to general contrast settings

* Object optimizations for many background elements

* Minor fixes and improvements

vonBiomes 16 Finally Final Edition:

Optimization of City Backgrounds objects + Randomization of buildings
New clouds! Set of 8 random clouds masks for your skies
Sky lighting: adjustments for brightness
Instant Action light update
Collision Fixes: Desert Rock, Desert Whale Bones, (test) Top Wall parts on SPC indestructible once more.
Ocean scenery tiles with random objects
Mission Screen: Lore Integration: Each Solar System has direct access to their Sarna.net Article
Mission Screen: Planets are now present as preview and background
Large Background Mountain randomization and new mountains
New Biome: Lichen World
Biome overhaul: Basalt Pillars: Pillar randomization + destructibility
Volcano Smoke updated (no green hue)
Biome overhaul: Rocky desert: Pillar randomization + destructibility
Cave Tile: some cleanup for rocks
Holographic ads on Space Port City + many new ones
Adjusted landscape texture scale on some biomes
Option for disabling biome-special Volumetric Clouds in Sky (for those need to squeeze out performance;)
Major night lighting adjustment and light calculation
Slight adjustments for Space Nebula light strength
Sliiightly reduced fog density at extremes
Adjusted values for automatic exposure to be better in line
Space Port City: Flags - changing with star system owning faction!

UPDATE! Hotfix vonBiomes 15
Sorry for the second notice, but thanks to a brave tester, two issues have been found in the latest release. Both issues have been fixed.

* Hotfix for smoke columns appearing when destructing some tree objects
* Update to the Burned Forest Smoke Effects
* Further safety implementation to kill various smoke effects at the end of mission
* Update to the new Fortress Tile for not having parts reappear in following missions

I hope that was it ;) Sorry again for the update so short after release, but better fixed than broken on Christmas Eve:) Have some wonderful holidays, everyone! 🥂⛄

* Special visual options: Pixalator 3000 Retro (with Mod Options, restart mission after setting)
* Update to Old Forest Plant Set
* vonBiomes Secret Christmas Special! Play the game between 23th and 27th of December! ;)
* New Biome: Old Forest Winter
* Rural Hills: Grass set update
* New tile: giant tree
* New tile: Fortress variant 2
* slightly reduced size of crystals on Crystal fields
* vonBiomes lighting: finetuning of night settings
* Contract Screen layout updates for optimization of vertical space
* Hill Fortress tile: Repair bay placeholder removed for mod compatibility
* New Crashed Dropship tile: Overlord
* Salvage Operation Tile: made new metal beam objects for break condition fix
* New Tile: Volcano
* NoSkyObjects Modifier for vonMissions Mod (to remove space stations in case)
* removed changes to tree class from mod (MercTech compatibility)

Hotfix for Steam release of vonBiomes 14

Instant action: default to Orbit 4
Vanilla fix: if Orbital = 0 (at some story missions) it is set to 4
vonBiomes Water Material Upgrade
Major Lighting Upgrades:
— Sky body scale minimum lowered (small planets in sky)
— Sky body Backlight scaled by sky body size
— Overhaul Planetary Orbit lighting
— Update to Atmospheres & Cloud values
— Complete Overhaul of Fog System densities
— Revamp of lighting parameters and dynamic calculations
— Included planet distance in night lighting calculations and sky body variables
— Tons of additional minor adjustments and variables tweaking
Volumetric localized dust/smoke (Red Moon & Icy Moon, needs Volumetric Fog enabled)
Max Fog Opacity Modifier (via Mod Options)
New space station for moon biomes
New Planets in the sky body library

Public:
New Biome: Coastal Dunes
New Biome: Icy Moon

Available extra on Patreon Early Access:
New Biome: Red Moon (v2 finish)

Instant action: default to Orbit 4
Vanilla fix: if Orbital = 0 (at some story missions) it is set to 4
vonBiomes Water Material Upgrade
Major Lighting Upgrades:
— Sky body scale minimum lowered (small planets in sky)
— Sky body Backlight scaled by sky body size
— Overhaul Planetary Orbit lighting
— Update to Atmospheres & Cloud values
— Complete Overhaul of Fog System densities
— Revamp of lighting parameters and dynamic calculations
— Included planet distance in night lighting calculations and sky body variables
— Tons of additional minor adjustments and variables tweaking
Volumetric localized dust/smoke (Red Moon & Icy Moon, needs Volumetric Fog enabled)
Max Fog Opacity Modifier (via Mod Options)
New space station for moon biomes
New Planets in the sky body library

Public:
New Biome: Coastal Dunes
New Biome: Icy Moon