Hey everyone,
I have been working hard to improve performance, so this update includes a couple of ways I have attacked it. The biggest and most obvious one you will notice, is that the next time you open up The Night Shift, you most likely will see a Shader Compilation screen before the main menu - if you don't the shaders compiled super quick on your system.
I wanted to implement this earlier but I was running into issues (technical mumbo jumbo incoming).
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the pre-PSO loading was crashing the game when loading into Night 11. After a google, there is a known issue with Unreal Engine 5.4 and pre-loading shaders causing crashing. So... now knowing this, and really wanting to get PSO shader caching in, I updated The Night Shift to Unreal Engine 5.6.
I'm sure this will come with it's own bugs, so hoping to squash any that pop up. However, there is a slight performance increase that comes with moving to UE5.6 as well as the shader compilation.
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You should see quicker load times, smoother intro's into each shift and less shader pop-in.
I am planning to improve this.
Now the second improvement will be less obvious, you may see a hitch or two in the later shifts as you moving around the store. This is because areas are now being loaded and unloaded as you move through the store allowing smoother frames as you move around the store. In saying this, I will be monitoring and looking at ways to improve this as well.
Changes
Added Shader Compiling when opening the game
Supporter Pack: Updated where the "I'm Stuck" button would place the player.
Bug Fixes
Supporter Pack: Fixed decorative light having incorrect materials in The Reporter.
Supporter Pack: Fixed a warehouse door clipping into a box in The Reporter.
Supporter Pack: Fixed missing shelves for the party items in The Reporter.
Supporter Pack: Fixed alleyway building popping in, in The Reporter.
Major performance and optimization improvements.
Report any bugs or issues on the Steam Discussion board, the Discord, or the website.
Chat soon!
Marty