MAJOR CHANGES
- Added party matchmaking system with the ability to host private lobbies for larger parties
- Added a new comprehensive keybinding system
- Fixed memory leak eventually leading to a crash when driving (Long technical explanation about this issue at the bottom of patch notes.)
- Added the ability to bind mouse buttons and other special keys
- Added the ability to bind actions that were previously only accessible in the action wheel
- Fixed all existing issues with the key binding system
- Added visual feedback when a player is using their microphone
CHANGES
- Added 20 new scenarios to the rotation
- Added SevereStudios t-shirts
- Added raccoon bobble head cosmetic named Cior
- Updated the wording of offline play to solo chase and clarified progression saving
- Increased timeout duration when server is loading the scenario for slower computers to still be able to load into a game
- Increased previously played scenarios taken into account in matchmaking from 8 to 16
MAJOR FIXES
- Fixed multiple issues causing players to randomly die
- Fixed a rare memory leak occurring on some systems
- Fixed an issue causing vehicles to vanish when exiting them
- Fixed an issue preventing cars to be started on match start
- Fixed an issue causing probes to give points when unintended
- Fixed an issue causing errors on vehicle exit
MINOR FIXES
- Fixed several floating roads and objects throughout the world
- Fixed an issue causing one road to not be drivable
- Fixed an issue causing the world signs not displaying the proper town name
- Fixed an issue causing the towing feature to spawn players incorrectly
- Fixed an issue with exterior being visible through the Magnitude's hood when driving
- Fixed DOM3 windshield not displaying proper rain effects
- Fixed an issue with the lightning emitter
- Fixed an issue with a tornado having the incorrect flow
- Fixed an issue causing "enter vehicle" prompt to not display
- Fixed an issue causing bumpable objects to be movable by characters
When we first launched OUTBRK, we had some frustrating performance issues cropping up during gameplay. Players would experience occasional lag spikes, where the screen would freeze for up to a second—far from ideal when you're trying to enjoy a smooth driving experience. To address this, we cleaned up a lot of our scripts and assets. This helped reduce the amount of data being loaded and unloaded in memory, which significantly improved the situation.
However, as we dug deeper, we discovered a more persistent issue. Unity's default memory management system wasn't releasing scene content from memory after unloading it. Given the vast size of OUTBRK's open world, we had to split the environment into many chunks that would load and unload around the player as they moved. The problem was, the more you drove, the more RAM the game consumed, because the unloaded assets weren't actually being freed. This led to memory bloat, causing further performance headaches like game crashes or streamers having issues with OBS after playing for a while.
The Solution: Rebuilding Our Streaming System with Addressables
To solve this problem, we knew we had to overhaul our entire streaming system. Enter Addressables—a Unity feature that allows us to take control of our memory management. With Addressables, we gained the ability to load and unload specific assets on-demand, releasing them from memory as soon as they were no longer needed. This switch resulted in a much more stable memory footprint, allowing us to better manage resources and improve overall performance.
The Implementation: A Massive Undertaking
Switching to Addressables wasn’t a simple task. We had to comb through the entire game’s assets and reorganize everything to fit the new system. It involved an unbelievable amount of work and debugging, but the results made it all worthwhile. Not only did we stabilize the game’s memory usage, but we also gained the ability to further optimize our memory management down the line.
As a bonus, this massive reorganization allowed us to reduce the game’s size on disk by about 20 GB, making OUTBRK more accessible for players with limited storage space.