DevBlog

Aurora Sector Studio – Alpha 1 Is Here

2025-07-12 · Aurora Sector Studio

What’s new in Alpha 1?

Unified Sector Loading

Whether you open a file from the menu or simply drag an .isc into the window, Aurora Sector Studio parses it, resolves referenced files, and constructs a complete project model.

Project & File Explorers

Automatically built from your sector’s structure:

  • Proper folder hierarchy derived from the include/ system
  • Folder-first sorting
  • Clean separation between sector model view and file tree

Perfect for navigating large FIRs.

A Modern, Monospaced Editing Experience

Every open file gets its own tab with:

  • Cascadia Code font
  • Dirty flag tracking
  • Tab reordering
  • Find & Replace panel
  • Full Undo/Redo, Cut/Copy/Paste, and Select All

This already feels like a serious editor — because it is.

Save & Save All

You can edit any referenced file from your sector and write changes straight back to disk. Alpha 1 intentionally skips a full Save As workflow to keep the scope tight.

Safety Features: No More Accidental Loss

Alpha 1 introduces long-awaited protection for your work:

  • Warn when closing a tab that has unsaved changes
  • Warn when exiting the application while any file is dirty
  • Consistent behaviour across window close, menu close, and Alt+F4

These safety nets make the app genuinely usable for real-world editing.

Light & Dark Themes

Easy toggling, consistent styling, and a polished WPF shell.


Why Alpha 1 matters

This marks the point where Aurora Sector Studio becomes practically useful — not just a tech preview. FIR Chiefs can start evaluating:

  • File navigation workflows
  • Editing ergonomics
  • Project structure visibility
  • Overall UI design

Your feedback from this stage will directly shape the Beta roadmap.


What’s next?

The roadmap toward Alpha 2 and Beta includes:

  • A proper Save As flow
  • New Sector wizard
  • Pluggable map viewer
  • Syntax-highlighting editor
  • Plugin system foundations
  • Better error reporting and logging UI

…but for now, we celebrate: A.S.S. has entered Alpha :tada:

If you’d like to support development, visit:

https://ko-fi.com/sectorstudio

Your support truly helps keep this one-person project moving forward!