The month of march gave us some much needed time to execute our plans for “Streaming 2.0”, which is what we’re calling all the fancy new mods and improvements we’ve made to our level streaming component - which in turn rewarded us with some very nice gains in framerate. In addition to focusing mainly on optimization, we’ve also added in our first iteration of a revive system aptly named “Nano-vive” since it relies on nano-med use (see below). @Zenity’s made plenty of nice progress on our WIP ranking/scoring system based on all of your feedback, and our crack audio team, @TomWrightSound and @AudioDev, were able to get a bunch of audio polish and new sounds in that were sitting in our backlog for a while. So overall, definitely a productive month and I think all you Alpha Testers will be pretty happy with the performance gains and polish you’ll notice over the weekend due to @Tomble nd @talun’s ongoing quest for frames.
If you haven’t seen the alpha schedule for this weekend, make sure to check out the announcement we posted in regards to Solos/Duos mode days and our dev hunt event hours: Alpha Wave 16, Dev Hunt, & Pre-Orders!
TL;DR
- Hefty boost in overall performance. See @tomble’s dev diary about it here: Dev Diary - Tom on Optimization 1
- Substantial reworks to Swamp, Pirate Lake, Lagoon, and Tiki Hut areas
- Nano-Vives added to Duos and Squads modes (revive system requiring a nanomed)
- Match results UI and flow now provides better info on ranks and ratings. Last Match box in main now displays latest match report when clicked (artwork WIP)
- Private servers added
NANO-VIVE SYSTEM
Keep in mind we’re still experimenting with this system and will be looking forward to all your feedback after Duos testing on Sunday and Monday.
- In gamemodes duos and squads players if a player takes lethal damage, they will go into a Downed state. There is no overkill.
- Players can only revive their team mate(s) with a nano med
- Time to revive is 5 seconds
- Downed players can hold the interact key to slow blood loss but will not be able to move
- Downed players will not be able to access their inventory (this means they can’t drop a nano for their teammate to use on them)
- When revived, players have 25 health
- Players have an unlimited number of revives but bleedout time speeds up each time
PERFORMANCE & STABILITY
Tweaked HLOD settings to improve overall performance around map
Various static and skeletal mesh LOD optimizations
Significantly lowered level streaming distance cap
Fixed various crashes (thank you for all the reports!)
Disabled animations on weapons when not relevant to player
Prematch levels now unstream on BR start to reduce occlusion costs
Changed streaming distance during landing, in observer cam, and when new map loads
AUDIO
Adjusted levels on various sound events for a more consistent mix
Added new ambient sounds and replaced some
Replaced UMP gunshot sounds with ones that don’t sound like ass
Improved P90 gunshot sounds
Gunshot sounds are now more dynamic
Added wind sound based on player velocity when
MAIN MENU & UI
Added private servers. They now show up in the Custom Matches tab when hovering over Play Match
Added new rank badges
Added achievement and event scheduling system (for Dev Hunt and future events)
Added a menu alert if you try to join a game mode with more than recommended members
Added dynamic news feed
Match report screen reworked. Now shows correct scores, ratings, and labels.
Invite player button (+) in friends list now only shows when a player is in an invitable state
Main Menu character platforms repositioned (WIP)
WEAPONS & ATTACHMENTS
Desert Eagle iron sights now easier to aim with
M9A1 fire animation improvements (shooting feels a lot better)
Weapons don’t disappear anymore when dropped in Training
Disabled weapon switching when underwater
Lowered reddot emissive on rifles (rifle reddot is now “less glowy”)
Ion Blade improvements
Regen time after throwing is easier to gauge
Slashing feels better, more responsive
Changed idle and sprint animations
Fusion Grenade throwing should feel more responsive
OTHER
Increased FPS cap to 250 from 144
Improved diagonal sprinting animations (less slidey)
Disabled ability to crouch when underwater
Added splash image when booting up game
Added desktop icon