New Update Cycle
After a week at GDC which, while very fun, disturbed the previous update cycle, I think this is the perfect opportunity to adopt a more sustainable release schedule. This will be a bit of a trial run, and if it doesn't work out perfectly that's fine, but I'd like to see how it goes.
Tuesday is will now be Patch Day. While there will still likely be a number of update throughout the week, Tuesday will be the 'Main Branch' patch day, while all other updates will be submitted to the beta branch. Therefore each beta patch will be fairly small, but the Tuesday patch will likely have many more changes, and today is the first of them!
Workshop Integration
This update sets the stage for workshop integration similar to CS:GO, where players will be able to submit armor skins for curated selection and implementation in the game.
There is now a Workshop Uploader folder next to the QuiVr executable with another application that will let you upload items to the workshop, as well as an example package that has all the base outfit items' models and textures for you to use as a base.
The workshop is currently only available to view by owners of the game until I ensure that everything is working correctly.
Multiplayer Difficulty Changes
The multiplayer difficulty curve has been significantly changed in this patch, leading to a much slower ramp up time. This is primarily due to the way that spawn points activate in multiplayer. Enemy spawn points close to a gate will remain inactive until difficulty 200-500 as opposed to 20-50, this should lead to more time fighting enemies at long range during the beginning stages of a round.
Launch Options
Several launch options have been added to the game
- Auto-join multiplayer on load: "+mpjoin 1"
- Custom multiplayer sessions: "+versionAdd suffix"
- Override AFK timer for custom multiplayer sessions: "+overrideAFK 1"
Graphics Jobs
After no serious crash issues were found on the beta branch, an experimental Unity3D setting, Graphics Jobs, have been enabled for QuiVr.
This, in theory, should dramatically increase CPU performance by allowing the Render thread be distributed among multiple threads, allowing parallel graphics processing.
Target Practice
The target practice minigame has been changed from a wave-based mechanic to a timer based mechanic.
- Target Range is now timer based (1.5 minutes) instead of wave based
- Targets no longer "time out" in range (much nicer for new players)
- Target Practice scoreboard updated to new UI style
- Arrow based abilities no longer work in Archery Range
- Improved Archery Range size (25mb -> 4mb)
- Improved Archery Range performance (similar to earlier canyon optimizations)
Other Changes and Fixes
- SteamVR plugin updated to version 1.2.1 (up from 1.2.0)
- Initial work on Linux support (requires Unity 5.6 in future)
- Fixed spawning boss when new player joins while Continue Panel active
- Work done on fixing Continue Panel vote discrepancies across network
- Enemies per boss increase with difficuty
- Enemies per boss multiplayer multiplier increased (0.6 -> 0.75)
- Wrist panel in tutorial updated to new UI style
- Started work on Vive quick-rotate option
- Player mic volume no longer uses spatial audio (still 3D but custom falloff)
- Removed upside down teleporter in first area (was confusing new players)
- Physical interactions disabled while menus are active (main and continue)
- Gate can no longer be closed while a boss is alive