Hi all!
We've been busy updating and improving the game, and now the update is out! We've been listening to your feedback and fixed some of those things, thanks alot for the reviews and suggestions!
Some of the improvements/changes in this update are:
Better sound!
- 3D surround sound support
- More dynamic sound
Better 3d models!
- Lots of models and textures are updated with improved quality (and more are also on the way), here is an example of the difference:
New languages!
- Russian
- Simplified Chinese
Updated camera control!
- Now you can control both left/right and up/down with thumb and zoom with fingertips :-)
Checkpoint progress is saved!
- If/when you rage quit, now you can continue that level from the last passed checkpoint the next day when you're calm again, instead of having to restart the level from the beginning :-)
New render settings menu!
- Here you can tune the graphics how you like it :)
Apart from this, some have asked what things are new and/or changed in Switchball HD, compared to the original game. Quite a few things actually! We have compiled a list of all the stuff here:
Changes in Switchball HD
Uses the most recent levels of the old versions (PS3 version)
- We first developed Switchball for PC. After that, we ported it to XBox 360, and finally PS3. During the porting we streamlined and improved the levels, as we learned new things for each port. The HD version contains the best versions of the levels, now finally on PC.
Tweaked physics for better responsiveness
- The old game was made for a 30 fps experience. When we decided to improve the rendering to 60fps, the old physics felt a bit sluggish. So we re-tweaked all of the physics to feel better with the new 60 fps experience.
Simplified camera control for improved user experience
- Improving does not always mean to add more things. Sometimes it’s better to remove stuff that’s superfluous or working poorly. The old camera had several modes, with each mode having both pros and cons. It also got a lot of critique. So we decided to simplify it, and put the control in the players hands instead. That way you have full control, and the camera never does something unexpected.
Added 64-bit and Windows 10 support
- The old PC version of Switchball was made for 32-bit processors on Windows XP. A lot has happened since then in the PC-space, so we’ve rewritten the engine to support 64-bit processors and the modern Windows 10 operating system.
Added wide-screen and 4k support
- Back in 2007, wide screen and 4k wasn’t a thing on PC. The most common monitor type was 4:3 and 1024x768, so we optimized the old PC version of Switchball for that. In 2021 things are quite different, so we added support for wide (and ultra-wide) aspect ratios, as well as high resolutions such as 4k.
60 fps support
- The old versions of Switchball was hard limited to 30 fps. This was mostly a technical constraint to be able to guarantee that the physics was stable and behaving as expected (for the most part :)). In 2021, thanks to increases in processor speeds, we could increase that to a smooth 60 fps experience.
All in-game textures have been remastered from 1k to 4k
- The old PC version was made to work with GPUs having 64MB of RAM. Today, mainstream GPUs have about 100x that! So for the HD version, all in-game textures have been remastered from their original 1k resolution to 4k.
Rendering has been modernized:
Linear (gamma corrected) lighting
- For more information about linear lighting, see this link: Chapter 24. The Importance of Being Linear
HDR rendering with logarithmic tone mapping (much less clipping to white)
- For more information about tone mapping, see this link: Tone mapping
NOTE: this is NOT the same as support for HDR displays - Switchball HD does NOT support that yet.
Improved shaders with more faithful material rendering
- For example, metal materials now looks more like actual metal instead of shiny plastic
Color grading
- Added contrast and saturation to improve color reproduction
Performance improvements and better scaling
- Simplified renderer to use fewer rendering passes, resulting in better performance
- Improved batching to reduce draw calls
Depth of field-effect
- Helps to separate foreground and background elements
Colored depth-fog effect
- Gives nice colors to distant geometry, and blends it with skybox a lot better
Improved normal map encoding
- Less compression artifacts, cleaner normal maps
Replaced MSAA with FXAA
- improves performance and memory consumption
Scoreboard via Steam
Achievements via Steam
Translations to Russian and Simplified Chinese
We hope you'll enjoy it ! ːsteamhappyː