While I continue working on the exhausting Civilizations update, I decided to take a break for a few days to work on something different and give you an update.
This patch contains some new small stuff and changes.
But there is one which is quite IMPORTANT:
After testing the game with an AMD Radeon GPU, I found there were some graphical issues I couldn't solve without breaking the game for Nvidia GPUs.
This is because I was using an old OpenGL version for rendering the game. This decision was make having in mind that the game should be compatible with very old computers also.
But, I didn't expect that because of this I was breaking compatibility for some modern PCs!
This is why I decided to replace the default rendering method from OpenGL to Vulkan, which fixed all issues (I think so) and also allows me to improve graphics futher.
I'm not leaving back those with old computers, so you will still be able to launch the game using the old rendering method.
I added two launch options in Steam where the one called "Compatibility" will use the old method.
I hope the game now runs much better in everyones computer, but in case you found anything regression let me now ASAP!
By the way, during these changes and after start using the new shiny Vulkan API, I decided to upgrade the graphics a bit, so you will see the game a bit different :)
New features
- Vulkan first as rendering method. The old OpenGL rendering method is still available as an optional launch method in Steam.
- Added a button to create basic fungi (you must create a fungi using the cell stage first to unlock this button).
- Added new zoom between galaxy view and star system view, allowing players to travel between stars.
- Added option to tidally lock a planet. This will have temperature consequences in both sides of the planet.
- Added Life Vault button in the main menu to get access to all exported lifeforms.
- Possibility to import lifeforms from the Life Vault anywhere in the planet (water is not a mandatory requirement anymore).
- Added a new tutorial tip to tell about the tile history logs.
Changes
- Small visual upgrade: atmosphere, lighting, grass, tree leaves, etc…
- Now tiles with water will calculate temperature based on its height including water (This will affect simulation, so maybe screw ups some old planet's balance).
- Temperature too high or too low notifications will trigger only when the temperate changes more than 25% from recent previous measurement.
- Increased the carnivores digestion time, so they get less hungry.
- Decreased shells and osteoderm skin defense by 1.
- Added “No tutorial” warning for Unlimited mode.
- Duplicated the total number of stars in the galaxy.
Bug fixes
- Fixed long insect legs flickering.
- Fixed temperature and other values not rendering well in the minimap image.
- Fixed skill menu showing in wrong zooms.
- Some minor fixes and changes in the UI.