Himalayas DLC Supported!
One of the main tasks for us this patch was to prepare everything needed for the ability to add Himalayas DLC into the game. Biodex, Data Tool Maps, Biodome Creation Screen, and tons of balance and polish to make sure it would all work and be awesome for you.
Himalayas has launched!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/479230/
Plant Grouping for Performance Improvements
The other main change we implemented was additional plant grouping. Previously we did this with grass to help with performance issues. Basically: every plant in the game was calculating its own leaf regeneration, health, etc., when animals searched for food they were processing across many objects, and on your graphics card, each plant was a separate draw call.
Now, when you place a group of plants down (like 7 grass or 3 bamboo) they will all count as one single object and share their leaf count. This greatly reduces calculations needed on both your processor, and your graphics card as these are all now just one draw call together. We were able to keep them randomized so that they will still be placed in unique groupings, so we’re really happy with this solution and the performance improvements it led to. Please note this will only apply to NEW plants placed since this patch. Your old ones will still operate as they have been.
(We were able to make the Himalayas biodome 25% bigger because of these gains! Important when you have Elephants and Rhinos and so many large animals!)
Additional Changes:
- You are now able to move the camera while you are placing species.
- The camera can now get closer to the ground (improves pictures for small animals).
- When you use “G” to take a photo, the territory markers will be excluded for a cleaner image.
- Changed the fox from a carnivore to omnivore for our categorizations.
- Plants placed will now rotate up to 360 degrees when you spawn them so that there is more variation visually instead of them all positioned in the same direction.
- Entries in the Data Tool under “All” are now alphabetized together.
- Added an additional song to our background music soundtrack.
- Sound options now have sliders instead of “on/off” toggles.
- Added fading in and out to our music tracks.
- Improved normalization for sound levels for effects and songs.
- Added Biodex Facts to the Load Screen since you see that a lot more with the time skipping feature now!
- If a territory is down to 1 in population, its reproduction will say, “Cannot Reproduce.” This is something we’re looking at changing in future patches, but right now they cannot reproduce so we wanted to add clarification.
- Your scroll wheel in Add Life will no longer accidentally zoom your camera when you reach the end.
- Changed the Grassland starting tutorial plant to Milk Vetch.
- Fixed an occasional problem with double notifications for a low population notifications.
- Expanded the range for camera speed options so that low speed is slower and high speed is even faster, to cover a broader range of preferences.
- Renamed biodome options to Mojave Desert, Amazon Rainforest, and Great Plains, to better reflect a more specific ecosystem selection process.
- Lowered brightness on the selection shader.
- Implemented a leave game confirmation dialogue.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes after alt+tabbing out of the game, the game resolution would change.
- Fixed territory health of mushrooms being incorrect as they are populating on placement.
- In the Data Tool, clicking on animal territories will now have a higher priority than clicking on a plant to make them easier to select in busy domes.
We are working on additional art updates to make the original Tyto Ecology ecosystems as beautiful as the new Himalayas one. Looking forward to hearing your feedback on all the updates and the new ecosystem!