Xen Engine Public Release
We have patched the latest version of the Xen Engine and released it to everyone. Please let us know on the Steam forums if you run into any game breaking issues. As we have mentioned before, this is important to test our new features so that the Xen release can be as flawless as possible. We will probably do one more “Engine” release just before we drop Xen, in order to make sure that everything is running smoothly on everyone's machines. We want the Xen release to be as close to a simple content release as possible! Here is what is in the latest patch:
April Patch List
Fixed screen freezes / crashes on Radeon RX 3XX 4XX 5xx cards!
Fixed most dynamic shadows flickering and improved the overall quality and performance
Fixed most dynamic lights flickering on lower quality levels Nvidia GPUs (and some AMD GPUs)
CSM quality and perf improvements
Fixed CSM not working on some AMD cards
Fixed decals flickering in some maps
Fixed full screen blur when using dynamic light godrays
Fixed zombie headshots with the crossbow. Now when you headshot a zombie using the crossbow, they will no longer spawn a live headcrab.
Fixed assault points for Houndeyes
Added texture scrolling for dynamic light cookie textures
Fixed tilemap animation bug in light cookie textures.
Fixed rim lighting not working with old light entities
Fixed Phong/skin shader specular not working on static props
Flashlight intensity and range increased
Settings optimization for new deferred lighting and shadows
Known Issues
Flashlight Doesn’t Have Shadows
We have a more advanced plan for the flashlight in the works. This will be deployed at a later date.
Haloing Around Props/Object
MSAA is causing outlines around certain objects. MSSA is a performance killer and we hope to have a better solution for anti-aliasing with the Xen release. To remove the haloing/outline, simply turn off MSAA.
Dynamic Shadows Flickering On Moving Dynamic Lights
These should be completely fixed, but if you DO get them try:
Try running the game in windowed borderless mode.
Try turning off Vsync, lowering your overall settings, or turning off dynamic shadows entirely.
Stencil Shadows
We have removed the old Source stencil shadows. This helps performance and fixes the double shadows that happen in outside environments where CSM is used. We plan on using new dynamic lights to get more realistic shadows in key interior sections.
Always Run
Always run has an issue where after every map load you have to press “shift” for it to work. We will be fixing this for Xen.
Outlines Around Weapons
If you move the screen fast in areas using dynamic lights, you may see small outlines around your weapon. This is very minimal and is something we will look into fixing.