While everyone was relaxing on the New Year holidays, we continued to work hard to please our audience! Today we are introducing a major update 0.7.0.0 by our standards! This update takes the release of the game one step closer. Early access allows us to fix a lot of bugs and shortcomings, as well as add new content to the game.
This update was developed in parallel with the previous two updates. And we've done a great job!
This is a quick overview of the update in video format, showing key changes.
Game engine upgrade to Unreal Engine 5
The game engine has been updated to Unreal Engine version 5.1. This opens up a huge scope for the development of the game, including the addition of new modern technologies introduced by Epic in its game engine. This is probably one of the biggest changes in this update. Previously, we used Unreal Engine 4.
New anti-aliasing method - TSR.
We have added a new image anti-aliasing technology - Temporal Super-Resolution (TSR). With its help, you can natively expand the image with minimal loss of quality.
This technology is an analogue of DLLS and a similar anti-aliasing method Temporal Anti-Aliasing Upsampling (TAAU) built into the engine. This technology is already in use in the game and can provide a performance boost depending on the graphics settings you select. Compared to DLLS and TAAU, TSR has a lightweight algorithm and does not use tensor cores.
Below is a comparison of anti-aliasing methods (TSR, FXAA, MSAA, TAA) and rescaling in the game.
Updated network part.
We were aware of the issue of characters twitching as they moved. This was especially evident if there was a large ping between the players. For a long time we have been working on developing a solution to this problem, and it seems that we have succeeded in doing it! Now the players will not "stutter", they will move smoothly. The only thing is that teleportation of players is still possible (due to desynchronization with the player-server due to high ping) and twitching of objects.
Updated first-person view.
Previously, first person view looked ugly, and most players were swayed by animations in first person view. Now we have completely redesigned the display in the first person. In addition, we have added unique animations for reloading weapons, aiming, and you can also twist it in your hands.
Updated third-person animations.
Also, we have not forgotten about third-person animations, we have updated them too. Sometimes there may be bugs and animations may not be displayed correctly, but we promise to fix them in the next updates.
Added a new weapon for hunters.
I think some players could guess this by the appearance of the pistol icon in the bottom corner 🙂 This innovation is designed to refresh the hunting experience and dilute the gameplay a bit.
In addition to the standard pistol, the following types of weapons are now available to hunters:
- Assault rifle - shoots often, but does little damage per shot.
- Shotgun - shoots rarely, but it hurts. A single pellet does not feel as painful as a full charge;
- Sniper rifle - shoots far, accurately, and painfully. In terms of rate of fire, it did not go far from the shotgun;
Each weapon is individual and has its own strengths and weaknesses. In addition, each weapon has its own spread when fired. Tip - to shoot accurately, you need to aim.
We tried to balance the weapons so that both hunters and props can play comfortably.
Effects from hitting surfaces.
If players shoot at the ground, wood, iron objects, everything will have its own bullet hole, its own effect and sound. Not all surfaces meet the requirements yet, this is still being finalized, we will completely finish it in one of the next updates.
The correct flight path of the thrown object.
We have changed the flight path of thrown objects and added a visual display of the trajectory. Now players will be able to know exactly where the bomb will fly and what will be in its path.
To see the trajectory, you need to hold down the ability key (for a bomb, the default number is 1 or the middle mouse button).
Snowballs are back to props.
We previously cut this mechanic for the reason above (lack of legibility of the flight path). With the introduction of item flight paths, we're bringing snowballs back, and this mechanic is now working the way we originally intended! Now the prop in the form of a man can raise the card, and when the left mouse button is pressed, he will see the flight path. After the player releases the button, the character will throw a snowball.
The animation of throwing bombs and snowballs will be added in the next update, this is currently in the works.
Of the most significant major changes, these are all. Below is a summary of slightly less important changes:
- Objects are highlighted only when aiming at them. Previously, a group of objects within a radius of the player were highlighted. We have changed this mechanic in test mode, if necessary, we will return the previous version.
- Changed the effect of transformation into an object and back into a person;
- Changed the effects of hitting the player;
- Changed the mechanics of the shot;
- Optimization of the game code;
There were no changes to the maps in this update.
We want to warn you that no matter how we test, we might miss some bug or error. We urge all players who encounter bugs to report us via a special thread in the Steam community. We will try our best to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
These are all the changes in this update. But do not rush to get upset, we have a lot of work ahead of us! Of the most important things we can talk about:
- Work on sound accompaniment;
- Work on the user interface (UI);
- Work on maps and lighting;
- Continued work on optimization and bug fixes;
- Finish what you started in this update;
Thank you for your attention, eat apples!