Hey everyone! Today we released a special Unity 5 build of Distance on the experimental branch and I wanted make sure everyone was aware of it. This is a massively fundamental change to the game since nearly every aspect of Distance had to be modified to support the upgrade. You can read below a bit more about why we're upgrading and what changes you should expect.
Like all experimental builds this build is significantly more unstable than the main branch and won't support multiplayer with regular players. Only upgrade if you like living on the bleeding edge. Here's how:
How to access the "experimental" branch of Distance: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233610/discussions/0/612823460263079814/
TL;DR, the physics engine was replaced so the controls and car physics underwent the most changes. If you experience something you don't like in this build, we want to know about it! Assume that if you don't tell us about your concerns they won't be addressed. Feedback on this and future Unity 5 builds will be immensely helpful towards ensuring that this conversion process is smooth.
Unity 5 experimental build feedback thread: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233610/discussions/0/530646080845947820/
Experimental Beta 3700 Changelog
- Upgraded to Unity 5 which affected nearly every aspect of the game
- Post process image effects use faster and more unified system
- Fixed issue with dynamic fonts disappearing when application gains focus
- Removed Very Far and Very Near from the draw distance Graphics settings
- Added clamp to rumble to fix issue where rumble would go on for a very very long time after taking a big impact
- Lightning spawner should now reset properly in multiplayer and not infinitely spawn in lightning
- Smaller install size on Windows due to relocating of certain assets
Things to note about Unity 5
- It helps us simplify and unify our PC platforms and PS4 builds
- Loading of levels and generating of levels with Trackmogrify is much faster
- Smaller runtime RAM footprint
- Minor graphics performance boost
- Internal Unity PhysX has been updated making the physics feel different
- Car physics feel different and we're looking for feedback on it
- Wheels have less friction in certain cases
- Chunks cut off by lasers can fly off erratically
- The car feels more bouncy when landing and rolling
- Some impacts feel like they should have blown up the car but instead stop the car suddenly
Other notes
- The Linux experimental build was not updated to Unity 5 since there's a game breaking Unity bug that causes keyboard input to not work. This is a known Unity bug and will be fixed in a future Unity release soon
Thanks to those that are willing to brave the uncharted waters of this experimental build! We're super excited to read what you like / don't like about the overhaul.
- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)