Quote from Huor

Okay, okay, the small objects should be arranged a bit more randomly; that would look better. When everything is arranged exactly the same way, it looks strange.

In the video I used the “auto arrange stuff” button. I guess I still have to optimize it a bit more, since right now it uses a mix of randomization and some hardcoded offsets based on existing Freelancer fields.

In the end, everyone can still modify the arrangement manually and check it in the editor before launching the game. So of course a field created in just a few seconds will not be perfect. It’s more like the 80/20 rule: getting a field to 80% is quick, but making it 100% perfect takes most of the work for the remaining details.

I also tested existing vanilla fields in the editor, and from some angles you can see repeating patterns there too. Ingame you usually don’t notice it because your view distance is limited, and Freelancer also has some kind of cube randomizer: some cubes are left empty and others are rotated, so the field looks more natural. I tried to mimic that in my tool as well, but it’s not 100% accurate yet, since not all of that information is stored in the INI files.

FLAtlas V2 v0.8.0.4

has been released. From zero to this build I made 436 committs.

Download here: Releases · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

Tools Included

• Mod Manager - Manage Freelancer installations, mods, and the active editing context.
• Universe Editor - Inspect and edit universe-level system data and connections.
• System Editor - Work visually with system objects, zones, bases, lanes, fields, rings, and related system data.
• File Editor - Browse and edit Freelancer INI files directly inside FLAtlas.
• Trade Routes - Analyze commodity routes, base prices, and trading opportunities.
• IDS Editor - Edit IDS names and infocards used by Freelancer resources.
• NPC Editor - Edit mbases NPCs, bribes, rumors, outfits, voices, and related base population data.
• Faction Editor - Edit factions and relationship data.
• News Editor - Edit news and rumor text assignments.
• 3D Model Viewer - Browse and preview Freelancer models.
• BINI Converter - Convert BINI-coded INI files into editable text INI files.
• Translator Tool - Scan IDS entries and optionally translate selected text after explicit opt-in.
• Plugin Catalog - Browse external Freelancer tools with provider links and license notes.
• Field Creator - Create asteroid and nebula field templates with placed assets.
• Shortest Path - Find routes between systems in the current universe.
• Launch Freelancer - Start Freelancer for the active editing context.

FLAtlas V2 v0.8.2

This release focuses on safer editor persistence, REM Lua integration, update reliability, and News Editor usability.

Release FLAtlas V2 v0.8.2 · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

Highlights

• Improved REM Lua IDS and infocard staging across System, Base, NPC, and News workflows.
• Added News Editor base faction visibility and multi-select base assignment via Add Selected Base.
• Fixed News Editor selection so clicking a news item no longer rewrites rank formatting or refreshes the view unnecessarily.
• Added local translation provider profiles and shared translation support services.
• Hardened INI rewriting paths so comments and blank lines are preserved more reliably.
• Improved updater/download staging, installer staging, script patch transactions, and screenshot PNG writes.
• Refactored several tool services, descriptors, path/context providers, and preview components to reduce coupling.
• Expanded test coverage for tool pages, field previews, translation support, update flows, and News Editor behavior.

Verification

• Built FLAtlas V2 v0.8.2 as Windows x64 Release with Qt 6.8.3 / MinGW.
• Passed release-build tests: ctest --test-dir build-release --output-on-failure (142/142).

FLAtlas V2 v0.8.3

Releases · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

v0.8.3 is primarily a large internal refactoring and test-hardening release. The monolithic editor pages and Freelancer file loaders were decomposed into focused, individually unit-tested model/controller/service/decoder classes, growing automated coverage to 244 tests. It also adds a few system-editor conveniences and Linux build support.

Highlights

• Added system-editor object duplication by placing the copy at a clicked map position.
• Added patrol-zone batch creation with selectable templates.
• Added a cursor-menu action to select zones and improved sidebar rotate-action state handling.
• Improved 3D model decoding and texture resolution for several station and ship models.
• Fixed vanilla system infocard XML preview and zone infocard assignment keys.
• Added Linux build support

FLAtlas v0.8.5

Releases · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

v0.8.5 is a feature and reliability release with new search, equipment, audio, NPC, and translation workflows. It also completes the English and German in-app guide catalog and hardens several shared persistence, update, and 3D decoding paths.

Highlights

• Added global search across Freelancer files, INI contents, IDS names and infocards, with direct navigation to matching files, IDS entries, and FLAtlas tools.
• Added validation for INI structure diagnostics and unresolved IDS references, accounting for the resource DLL slots actually loaded.
• Added the Equipment Visualizer for inspecting weapon models, projectiles, damage, firing values, effects, sounds, and animation references.
• Added a WAV Converter for batch-converting PCM WAV files to 22,050 Hz, mono, 16-bit PCM without modifying source files.
• Added guided NPC knowledge-map editing for know, knowdb, and rumorknowdb entries, searchable map targets, and their IDS offer texts.
• Added FLRocket language-pack import to the Translator so existing translated DLLs or overlay.json packs can be continued in FLAtlas.
• Added system infocard generation in the Universe Editor.
• Added a flight HUD to the System Editor's 3D flight mode.
• Added tab context-menu actions for closing tabs to either side, other tabs, or all closable tabs while preserving pinned tabs.
• Added 49 new guide topics in both English and German for the main editors, tools, and common Freelancer modding workflows.
• Improved System Editor and base-dialog responsiveness with reusable catalog caches, deferred loading, and coalesced 3D preview updates.
• Improved Help Browser language handling so context-sensitive and currently displayed topics follow the selected language.
• Improved WAV conversion reporting for overwrites, duplicate output names, safe metadata, and per-file results.

Fixes and reliability

• Preserved Freelancer substitution tokens such as %F0v1 and %d0 during translation and added [GF_NPC] bribe/rumor scanning.
• Fixed IDS write-back to the selected resource DLL and exposed all loaded DLLs in the IDS filter.
• Improved NPC and REM Infocards.lua handling for names, rumors, knowledge targets, repeated assignments, and retry behavior.
• Hardened System, Base, and Universe persistence to preserve source structure and avoid unsafe rewrites or partial cleanup.
• Hardened CMP, UTF, and VMesh decoding and 3D model loading against malformed or unsupported input.
• Improved guide cache repair, atomic updates, language filtering, and interrupted-download recovery.
• Improved update extraction and installation safety, including traversal and malformed-archive checks.

Hi Andrej,

thank you for your input, I will try to reproduce the issue and will implement a fix for the next release.
Maybe you can upload the FLAtlas-change.log in your freelancer hd root directory.

Quote from [Dacia]-Andrei

1. For target system and reputation fields it would be much easier to have a search index instead of the whole page appearing for you with all the systems and reputations as its very hard to find a specific reputation and system through all

2. At object positioning in 2D (because 3D view has it already) instead of Yaw+15 and -15degrees maybe a slider would work much better so we can set it to any degreee

3. At the universe tab when you link two systems maybe it can be implemented an automatic reload/refresh to see what has been linked directly as if you modify multiple maybe you forget that one is already linked (or at least my fish memory forgets :)))))

The new release will basically have all three things implemented. The whole jump creation dialog and the feature itself made many problems in the past, i did several reworks of it already and i am still not happy about it. I would say the current state is still object to changes until i am fully satisfied . I also found somes issue with the jump hole deletion, i hardened it at several stages but as I could not directly reproduce the issue on my computer, i'm not sure if the fix will work in your special case. The new release will also have better error logging so this will help more in the future.

FLAtlas v0.8.6

This release focuses on safer cross-system editing, faster editor workflows, diagnostics, and 3D preview reliability.

Releases · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

Added

• Privacy-aware rotating diagnostic logs and crash reports for unhandled
  failures, with diagnostics kept separate from the in-app activity history.
• Search fields for long system, faction, NPC, base, pathfinder, and other
  reference lists while preserving the active selection during filtering.
• A System Editor yaw slider with live preview, undo support, localization, and
  synchronized editor state.

Changed

• Universe views now refresh jump connections in place after system edits,
  preserving diagnostics and avoiding stale connection data.
• System opening no longer eagerly fills dialog catalogs, keeping the program
  responsive while the editor becomes available.

Fixed

• Hardened jump-connection creation, editing, and deletion with reciprocal
  rewiring, rollback-safe file and IDS writes, endpoint validation, multi-select
  planning, origin positions, and protection for open target systems.
• Restored 3D system lighting by honoring Freelancer DYNAMIC_DIRECTION, light
  range and attenuation, plus the system ambient color. Tau-31 and similarly
  configured systems are no longer rendered almost completely dark.

thank you, that helps me a lot. The issue will be fixed in v0.8.7.

For the next update I will also look at some performance issues, especially when opening dialogs, saving, deleting etc.

I also made some changes in the creation workflow for jump connections:

FLAtlas v0.8.7

Release FLAtlas v0.8.7 · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

This release focuses on safer cross-system editing, faster editor workflows, diagnostics, and 3D preview reliability.

Added

• A Dynamic Economy Generator in the Trade Route tool with mod-local templates,
  configurable minimum flight time, cargo capacity and maximum profit per
  minute, plus a preview that highlights routes outside the configured limits.
• Interactive source and target maps in the jump-connection dialog with system
  selection from the universe map, middle-mouse panning, placement crosshairs,
  draggable 2-D jump objects and live yaw controls.

Changed

• Added clear theme-aware icons to the System and Universe Editor toolbars
  while retaining labels for compact, discoverable controls.
• Moved the frequently used Center to Object control from the 3-D toolbar into
  the left sidebar, where it remains visible next to the object selection.
• Moved expensive loading, scanning, calculation, persistence and preview work
  out of the UI thread across the System, Universe, Base, INI, Trade Route, IDS,
  NPC, Faction, News and Mod Manager editors.
• Improved responsiveness throughout the BINI Converter, Audio Manager, Field
  Creator, Pathfinder, Equipment Visualizer, Model Viewer, Translator, Help
  Browser and updater through caching, incremental updates, proxy models and
  asynchronous jobs.
• Trade Route calculations are coalesced, saves run asynchronously and generated
  economy prices are applied through the existing safe Save All workflow.

Fixed

• Enabling model textures in the System Editor 3-D view now loads them in the
  background, keeps the interface responsive and shows determinate progress.
• Reference searches now preserve canonical faction and system values without
  appending technical codes to the text being edited.
• Camera rotation in the System Editor 3-D MOVE mode now stops immediately when
  the right mouse button is released, even when the transform gizmo consumes the
  release event.
• Hardened jump-connection creation, editing, saving and deletion against stale
  endpoints, inconsistent reciprocal links and deletion-time crashes.
• Reduced redundant System Editor reconciliation, persistence and tab-restore
  work that could cause visible pauses while opening or saving systems.

v0.8.7 has a feature to enable textures in 3D system view ... I work mostly with my 64GB RAM System so i didnt notice FLAtlas will grab 30 GB RAM easily ...

I guess for v0.8.8 I will have to implement something for systems with less RAM

Atlas will get some more frequent updates in the upcoming weeks.

I will start to make the system and universe editor more stable and fix bugs. From there i will go through all the tools and just push out what I have found and fixed.

From the feature and tool side I guess I am 90% done, so atlas will not get more features, only those which I am currently working on.

FLAtlas v0.8.8

Release FLAtlas v0.8.8 · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

Changed

• System and universe creation dialogs now use English source text with complete
  
  German runtime translations.

Fixed

• Planet texture segments now keep their fallback marker sphere disabled after
  display-filter and model refreshes, preventing blue texture z-fighting.
• 3-D system textures now load only near the camera with bounded resident sets,
  decode batches and embedded-image cache memory, preventing multi-gigabyte RAM
  growth in large systems.
• New-system validation now reports invalid input consistently and keeps the
  dialog open until the data is corrected.
• Undo and redo now refresh the System Editor UI and no longer conflict with
  text-editing shortcuts in focused input fields.
• New bases now receive a valid dockable archetype instead of an unusable
  placeholder.
• System saves preserve inline semicolon comments and CRLF line endings without
  creating duplicate carriage returns or growing blank lines.
• The Base Builder preview now resolves texture paths from the active mod and
  Freelancer installation.
• Ring objects now frame correctly in the 3-D camera and retain their fallback
  visualization when no model can be loaded.
• Zone creation now shows the second placement step and its instruction banner;
  Escape and right-click reliably cancel the operation.

FLAtlas v0.8.9

Release FLAtlas v0.8.9 · flathack/FLAtlas-V2 · GitHub

This release adds an Omarchy/Arch Linux build and improves Base Builder interaction, News Editor, and editing reliability across several tools.

Added

• An Omarchy/Arch Linux x64 release
• Linux support for reading and atomically editing IDS strings, infocards, and version resources in Freelancer PE files.
• Direct manipulation and magnetic snapping in the Base Builder preview.
• Searchable base assignments and in-game base names in the News Editor.

Changed

• WAV preview uses Qt Multimedia on Linux. Freelancer and external Windows tools can be launched through Wine.
• Linux updates select Linux release assets. Windows and Linux packages are built and checked in separate CI jobs.

Fixed

• NPC Editor changes are preserved when switching entries; deleting an NPC no longer overwrites the next entry. Rumor previews and unresolved name IDs are handled consistently.
• Faction Editor filtering, selection, dirty state, and relationship editing now stay in sync. Background loading can finish safely after the editor closes.
• IDS Editor CSV import and export now handle quoted multiline fields correctly. Dataset changes, new entries, and infocard previews update the editor state reliably.
• Mod Manager export now validates its inputs and reports unreadable references before writing an archive. Changing paths invalidates an earlier export plan.
• News Editor saves preserve comments and CRLF line endings. Failed loads retain unsaved work, and an older asynchronous save cannot replace a newly opened document.
• Model Viewer selection and details now update correctly when the model catalog changes or a model is missing.
• Registering resource DLLs preserves comments and CRLF line endings in freelancer.ini.
• Windows PE version strings no longer include trailing NUL characters.