Companion 8.6 now in development

For the past three years our civilian software development has been focused on completing Companion's big 8.5 update. This update emphasizes reduced processor load, and was aimed at solving region gridlock issues caused by the popularity of our systems. We've seen a lot of success in reducing unnecessary script overhead, but also a multitude of new challenges brought about by the mixing of new and old code. By design, many parts of the system in 8.5 remained essentially untouched, and customers testing 8.5 builds have encountered many related issues, mostly in the form of settings rollbacks and other configuration problems.

The solution to this is to go forward, and to start digging deeper into the parts of the OS that went unchanged in 8.5. That's why, in keeping with our planned development cycle, we're now calling the new version 8.6. Along with the realization of these planned upgrades, we'll be introducing exciting new technology previews and features targeted at 8.6, including both in-world and web-based remote control, a new scripting language, Unix-style shell pipes, and so much more. To keep up to date on all future releases, remember to keep an eye on the Group Notices section of the Nanite Systems User Group.