New patch in publicbeta (v132)

So it turned out the last experiment with the HUD was kind of controversial, about half the people who replied liked it and the other half didn't - particularly those who were used to the old UI. In this patch I'm making it an option in the Graphics menu so you can choose the old one or the new one if you prefer, and I've also added options to turn the grass and tree quality up and down. Grass and trees are big contributors to the frame time.

Previously these grass and tree options were available in the F8 debug menu (and they still are), but they weren't saved when you changed them - now they will be. You can also now turn the grass and trees up higher than you could before, so that the grass looks lush and thick like a proper post apocalypse.

Here's the default grass setting, with the old sidebar back:

Here it as at the highest grass setting, and with the new HUD:

Here it is with grass turned off, and the tree quality turned down:

I've made the PiP background and the sidebar layout independent settings. (The thing that's expensive is the PiP background. The sidebar layout is more a matter of taste)

I've also made some changes to the action menu - in general you won't have to equip things like the axe or wood in order to see options like "Chop Tree" or "Add Wood to Fire".

Here's the full change list:

• Options in Graphics Settings menu for Sidebar, PiP Background, Grass Density, and Tree Quality
• For options in action menu that require equipment, such as using an axe to chop a tree, show them whenever the equipment is in your inventory, even if it's not currently equipped
• Korean Update
• Fixed some crashes

EDIT - released a patch to fix a crash, v133. Here's the changelist for that:

• Added tooltips to Graphics Settings menu
• Fix for crash when holding a sealed container in snow

EDIT - another one, v134, to fix a crash and to fix the ordering of the grass and tree quality tooltips.

What's this publicbeta thing?

v134 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:

• Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
• If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
• If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".