Highly recommend everyone run a verify on their game files as this one is large and includes removal of punkbuster. To get the pb files out of your game files, you must verify. To do this:
Right click on H-Hour
Select Properties
Click on Local Files tab
Click on Verify integrity of game cache and let it run
Since this is a very large patch, I am providing a "Highlights" section on the patch as well as the usual detailed version to make it easier to take it all in at a glance.
Special thank you goes out to the mappers who participated in testing the new workshop tools and providing feedback to the team. Poison and SelflessOne gave it an extra push and made the deadline so have a map in our free DLC pak for everyone to enjoy.
Enjoy and let's G^ !
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Highlights of Patch:
- Now in UE4 4.15 with new tools for custom mapping community
- Approved custom maps are provided as free DLC -- NO more workshop downloads needed
- Variety of security features added to secure the game
- Ranked/Unranked Server framework introduced
- Audio Overhaul (first pass)
- Major overhaul of Animations and Character skeleton (first pass)
- Reworking of Graphics, Textures and Optimizations to take advantage of 4.15 features
- Weapons retuning
- Changes to PMN and Flashbang appearance
- Fall damage changes
- All official maps updated to new tonemapping and optimized to improve appearance and FPS
- Networking improvements
- NEW- Claymores added
- NEW- 4th Camo including a special oiler worker for those who like to be unique
- NEW- Memorial for Baskee, original alpha tester and dear friend, may he rest in peace
- NEW- MiniMap Compass Points
- NEW- Crosshair Customization (first pass)
- NEW- NVidia SLI supported
- NEW- Graphics auto-detect button to quickly set your settings
- NEW- MSAA now used
- Steam changes for workshop to DLC and removal of Punkbuster
- Spectate for late joiners
- Game Summary display improvements
- Many, many bug fixes
Full Notes on Patch:
Programming:
Migrated game to Unreal Engine 4.15.1:
- This was a huge task that was more challenging than any previous migration as Epic made many framework changes between 4.11 and 4.15
- See Epic’s Release Notes from 4.12 to 4.15 to obtain more information regarding improvements made within the Engine and new features made available to our programmer, developers and community content creators
- Updated H-Hour Workshop Project and Uploader tool to accommodate 4.15.1
Began utilization of new Security features available in Engine:
- Began implementations of Epic’s new framework to better protect critical game files and processes from common exploits
- This is only the first step of much more work to come, and is only as good as reported exploits and their reproduction. Please keep reporting areas of compromise you’ve seen or found so we may further leverage the new tools at our disposal
Ranked/Unranked Server framework:
- Dedicated servers now have the configurable option to enable/disable Ranking (submission of player stats)
- UCRs & Respawn maps are Unranked (will no longer submit player stats)
- The Server Browser display has been updated to provide visual information indicating whether a listed server is a UCR and whether or not it is Ranked
Audio Overhaul (First Pass):
- Implemented the new Audio Framework since Epic’s overhaul in 4.12
- These changes allowed corrections to numerous audio related issues, such as sound effect volumes in various areas across all maps
- Ambient sounds have been reworked, and allowed us to no longer need the temporary “Ambient Audio Volume” setting in game. As a result, this setting option has been removed
- Audio adjustments are expected to continue to be needed, so please provide constructive feedback we can use to better tune the player’s in-world experience/immersion
Animations:
Major overhaul of Animations:
- Migrated assets to a standardized Skeleton structure
- Major revamp work performed on Animation sub frameworks to accommodate changes in this patch and future animation work
- Overhaul (first pass) of character jump & movement systems to address immediate issues and enable future/continued refinements
- Expanded Animation library by 150% to address immediate issues and enable future animation expansion. Over 200 new assets were added to the library, with more to come in future updates
- Major refinements made to numerous existing assets for more appropriate placements and interactions with the Skeleton
- Numerous improvements to Character weapon handling (for example, strafing no longer forces “Guns Hot”), with many more to come
- With the underlying framework sorted, we expect to see new animations and improvements to come in over the next several patches with reduced “in between” time compared to this release
- Lean and Prone animation sets now accommodate pistols
- Character movement sounds volumes now adjust to movement speed
- Player’s ability to “return fire” is returned sooner when impacted by “Knock Back” (although movement remains impaired until the player fully recovers)
- Beginning work with smoothing out character movement by use of proper interpolation and aim-offsets. This is a WIP feature, and is not finished, thus has limitations at present that will be improved throughout coming patches
- Partial reskinning of some characters to new skeleton. This is a WIP feature, and is not finished.
Graphics & Textures:
Reworking of Graphics & Textures for Optimization on 4.15:
- Lighting adjustments and rebuilding across all SOF maps to adjust to new 4.15 tonemapping system
- Major work with object Level of Detail (LOD) settings for numerous game & building assets in all maps to reduce system demand when objects are far away and improve overall FPS for low-end systems
- Corrected LOD materials on numerous foliage assets
- Updated Character & Hostage textures for proper appearance within the 4.15 rendering system
- Updated identified prop textures in all maps for proper appearance with the 4.15 rendering system
- Implemented new 4.15 map tools to improve lighting of character in game
Updates to Existing Features:
Weapons:
Throwables:
- PMNs have been returned to their original green coloring
- Reworked Textures & Materials on PMNs and Flashbangs
Fall Damage:
- Damage rate has been reduced slightly; TIP: Jump vs fall from same distance has different results as jumping adds force to the fall
Sismis:
- Fixed floating trees where identified
- Reworked tree assets in scenery to address “popping” issues
- Corrected exploitive mesh gaps in Hostage Building and “Chicken Coop”
Temple:
- Adjusted tree movement speeds to be a more natural fit to the scene
- Lighting adjustments in most interior areas, additional lighting work will be performed in the tunnel in the future
WolfRun:
- Corrected an empty space in the background map scenery by SOF spawn
- Corrected area where players could glitch through terrain
Factory:
- Adjusted electrical props to reduce “popping”
- Added lighting to Mannequin Shipping building 2nd floor loft
- Roof Top AC units have moving fan blades to better reflect the audio for operating units
- Minor lighting adjustments at various locations to improve the effectiveness without compromising the original designer’s vision for Night Vision and ambiance
Networking:
- Adjusted default server tick rate to 90 to improve communication speed
- Improved client logic & triggers for blood spatter through the addition of further checks and validations on the server
New Features:
Claymores & Trigger for SOF:
- SOF Characters can now equip Claymores in their loadout
- Claymores are limited to a single slot of 2 (like with PMNs)
- Dropped Claymores can be “scooped” by other SOF players
- When a Claymore is placed, the player will auto equip and switch to the CM Trigger that is used to detonate all planted claymores on the map by that player
- Players can switch from the trigger to another weapon or back to claymores if they wish to plant more
- Be aware that the trigger will be the first Equipment slot and other slots will be shifted down.
- For example, if your Grenades are slot 3, and you plant a Claymore.... The trigger now becomes slot 3, and your grenades were moved to the next position over (4).
- Claymores take 5 seconds to become “armed” but they will detonate immediately if shot; this matches the behavior of PMN mines
- Claymores can be detonated by the Player’s equipped Trigger (only accessible with 1 or more CMs planted), gun fire, or explosives
- They are NOT proximity detonated
- Planted Claymores will remain in world after the owning player has died, and can still be detonated with gunfire or grenades
- Due to the nature of the current planting animation, it will appear that the character can/is planting inside of objects (if too close). The claymores will adjust their location so this cannot be exploited. More work on this animation will come in the future
- Claymores will only do damage to players that are in the CM’s forward-facing direction
Camouflage:
- Added an “Urban” camo set for all characters other than the Serbian; the urban camo is much darker and appropriate for low light maps
- Added “Jack Hammer” camo for the Serbian character; which allows the daily oil worker to get involved in the fight!
Memorial:
- Added memorial for TJ Baudanza (aka Baskee); including pic, frame and plaque to interior of Sismis church by stairs
- Baskee was an original alpha tester and a friend to many of the devs, staff and alpha testers. His memory lives on.
MiniMap Compass Points:
Compass now displays all four major points to ease inter-player callout communications
CrossHair Customization (First Pass):
- Players can now access the “UI Interface” menu under game options
- Players can use this new display to adjust Crosshair Scale, Color & transparency
- Support for different crosshair graphics will come later
NVIDIA SLI is now supported:
- Players with 2 or more matching NVidia graphics cards can now run them in SLI and the engine will make use of SLI rendering modes, such as Alternate Frame Rendering 2 (AFR2) http://www.nvidia.co.uk/docs/IO/83809/instructions.pdf
- The referenced instructions above are a little dated, but still appropriate to get setup Until the game is released and obtains an NVidia Game profile, players will need to follow the instructions above for creating a 3-D Profile for their H-Hour executable
- By default, the game’s executable resides in this location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\H-Hour Worlds Elite\HHourGame\Binaries\Win64\HHourGame.exe
- Depending on hardware, using SLI can even degrade game performance
- Epic does not support AMD Crossfire at this time
NOTE: In testing, we have seen mixed benefits from enabling SLI
Enabling this feature may not have a desirable effect for all players
MSAA is now being used:
- We have changed the Anti-Aliasing system from Temporal AA to the much-improved Multi-Sampling Anti-Aliasing framework (MSAA)
- The results in testing have been very desirable, but MSAA may not be supported on all systems, so if you encounter issues, let the studio know
Steam:
- Implemented Steam changes to now accommodate Workshop maps as automatic game DLC vs the traditional subscription system
- Update of maps will be tied to patch updates going forward
- Players will no longer be required to subscribe and download maps separately before they can join a server
- Removed PunkBuster from build files
Spectate:
Late joiners can now spectate other team players while waiting for the next round
Game Summary display:
Now shows the Player’s Round Win/Losses as well as basic MVP player stats
Bug Fixes/Closures:
B(017) – Jumping off the back of Sismis Church and surviving with limited damage
B(019) - Sismis: Various reported Mesh gaps
B(056) – Offline Games (UCRs) are Ranked
B(092, 085, 087, 103, 105) – Various Temple texture/rending “pops”
B(091) – Various Temple false crosshair “shot blocks”
B(097) – Sismis – map exterior darkness
B(113) – Factory – stuttering when crossing destructible bridge
B(123) – Factory – popping shadows
B(129) – Slow Motion movement Glitch
B(141) – Factory Shadow Caching issue causes “glowing” characters
B(149) – Grey Crosshairs remain even after moving away from cover
B(153) – Starting game with an empty loadout
B(160) – Joining game as Terrorist can have SOF loadout
B(168) – Breaking of grenade arc
B(171) – Wolfun/Sismis – Grey Crosshairs on Windows
B(173) – Hair clipping on Tina Hostage
B(183) – Odd thumb placement
B(190) – Odd loading of textures
B(207) – Maps are too bright
B(214) – Broken Reverb Volumes after 4.11 update
B(222) – Quick turns with Grenade Arc visible will leave “trails” of the arc
B(228) – Able to shoot over half wall in FPV, but blocked in TPV
B(231) – Prone to Crouch movement glitch
B(232) – Terrain/Camera clipping glitch at WolfRun Tunnel River entrance
B(236) – Picked up weapon not properly attached to player (appears very far away from character)
B(259) – Unable to “Look” when performing DTP followed by nade throw
B(265) – Unable to Lean after spamming the Action Button
B(275) – Unable to shoot during transition from Prone to Stand
B(282) – Spamming Door actions can break ability to “Look”
B(288) – At Random times, Lean cannot be performed; can be restored by pressing F
B(293) – Able to Prone in WolfRun rivers
B() – Emptying pistol and interrupting reload to switch slots caused reload not to work without stance change or multiple mouse fire clicks (now one click reactivates the reload animation)
B(301) – Unable to walk slow when holding Shift
B(302) – UCR Host will keep SOF loadout when playing as Terrorist
B(313) – PMNs consumed from inventory, but not planted
B(314) – Impaired character controls when jumping while also planting a PMN
B(317, 319) – UCR players get double loadouts
B() – Exploits by a player could allow them to damage another player when otherwise not possible
B()--Exploits by a player could allow them to mess with critical content
B() – False blood splatter effects displayed when player was not shot/damaged