Insurgency: Sandstorm Pre-Order Beta 2 Patch Notes - September 6, 2018

Today we are releasing our first full update for pre-order Beta #2! The update contains a lot of critical fixes, improvements and optimizations. We look forward to all of your continued feedback as we continue polishing the game.

The game now offers a lot of ways to customize video settings, so please be sure to fine-tune quality and performance depending on your system specs. In particular:

• Texture Streaming Pool Size needs to be adjusted depending on your video card. We recommend starting low and increasing to see what your GPU can handle. Setting this too high will cause noticeable hitching because your GPU is overloaded.
• Shadow Quality as well as Dynamic Shadow Resolution and Cascaded Shadow Map Resolution have a pretty sizeable performance impact, so we recommend lowering these settings as much as possible if you’re experiencing performance issues.
• Full Screen display mode is really important to ensure you’re getting an accurate depiction of performance. If you are struggling with performance and haven’t already ensured you are in full screen mode as was advised in the last hotfix announcement, we highly recommend you switch to full screen mode as soon as possible.

While there are many new settings to tweak, the ones listed above are particularly useful. If you are still struggling with performance after fine-tuning your video settings and ensuring you’re running in full screen mode, please share the details with us HERE.

General Improvements

• Added South America server region. See “Matchmaking Preferences” in the Play menu to select it.
• Expanded Video Settings Menu
  • Video Settings are now only applied when the user presses “Apply Changes.”
  • Advanced settings can override Quality settings if changed manually. This change is represented by a blue tint.
  • Added new Advanced options.
    • Super Sampling
    • Ambient Occlusion
    • Anisotropic Filtering
    • Tessellation
    • Screen Space Reflections
    • Texture Streaming Pool Size
    • Maximum Dynamic Shadow Resolution
    • Maximum Cascaded Shadow Map Resolution

  
  

Major Fixes

• Fixed issue with hit registration which would prevent bullets from dealing damage to an enemy, sometimes resulting in a higher time to kill.
• Fixed bullets not properly penetrating arms and hands which was preventing them from dealing any subsequent damage to the torso.

Optimization & Performance

• Disabled Nvidia Aftermath as it was a possible cause of some hitching issues.
• Improved animation logic processing speed.
• Moved all character cosmetics to a new mask shader system.
• Improved character cosmetic system logic.
• Scaled particle spawn counts for surface interactions based on the user’s Effects Quality setting.
• Moved all bullet impact particles to be processed by the GPU instead of the CPU.
• Limited the number of bounce effects created on ejected brass to three.
• Removed spawning of weapon drop and body fall audio if not audible by the player.
• Disabled water tracing for anybody not performing foliage interaction.
• Updated Security and Insurgent Weapon Cache objectives to use a material swap instead of mesh swap.
• Improved light audio spawning.
• Improved textures for the following:
  • Russian Transport Truck
  • Large Technical
  • Gunship
  • Support Helicopter
  • Destroyed Support Helicopter
  • Bomber Drone
  • Various small level props

• Fixed a bug where dying in a vehicle would continuously play a blood impact effect on the ragdoll that reduced performance when exploded.

Gameplay Improvements

• Player Movement
  • Reduced player acceleration slightly.
  • Force players into a crouch when completing a slide.
  • Increased prone to standing transition time from 0.65 seconds to 1 second.
  • Cap player speed to prone speed during the prone to stand transition.

• Weapon Balance
  • Reduced Light Armor effectiveness slightly.
  • Reduced Heavy Armor effectiveness slightly.
  • Reduced sway caused by stamina loss slightly.
  • Reduced sway speed from suppression.
  • Melee Bash animation can no longer be used on opened doors.
  • Increased bullet drop slightly for 5.56, 5.45, and 7.62 at long ranges.
  • Increased Ammo Check speed by 40%.
  • Increased free aim recoil slightly.
  • Fixed Laser Sight lasers not displaying correctly for other characters.
  • Light Carrier no longer gives one extra rocket.
  • Heavy Carrier gives only one extra rocket instead of two.
  • Reduced the cooking timer for M83 Smoke grenade from five to four seconds.
  • Increased M84 Flash grenade draw, put away, and throw speeds by 30%.
  • Bipods now allow for more realistic angles based on the deployed surface height.
  • Decreased Bipod max pitch.
  • Greased Bolt Upgrade
    • Increased supply cost to three in Versus and Coop.
    • Increased supply cost to four in Competitive.

  • Mosin Stripper Clip Upgrade
    • Increased supply cost to two in Versus and Coop.
    • Increased supply cost to three in Competitive.

• Game Modes
  • All
    • Added Gas Mask to the default Loadout for all Insurgent classes.
    • Removed drum magazine upgrade in Versus and Competitive.

  • Checkpoint
    • Added Marksman, Breacher, and other unused classes as enemies.
    • Disabled Autocannon Strafe fire support when playing as Insurgents.
    • Added AK suppressors to Security Commander, Observer, Rifleman and Demolitions classes.
    • Added Insurgent sidearms to all Security classes.
    • Added drum magazine upgrades to all classes.
    • Increased enemy AI spawns at the final objective.
    • Improved insertion vehicle navigation paths.

• Fire Support
  • Gunship and Minigun Support
    • Increased turret angle at which helicopters begin shooting at players, making their initial shots less accurate.
    • Reduced Support Helicopter minigun spread by 10%.
    • Reduced hover time for Gunship from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
    • Reduced hover time for Minigun Support from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

  • Smoke Mortars
    • Reduced round start cooldown from 30 seconds to five seconds to be consistent with Smoke Artillery.

• Supply Cache
  • Resupplying will now restore a player’s health to the max.
  • Set cooldown for Resupplying to 45 seconds.
  • Added UI element which communicates when Resupplying is on cooldown.

• Vehicles
  • Set Gunner seat to use the vehicle’s full view rotation.
  • Set Gunner seat’s aiming to be absolute instead of relative, allowing it to move independently of the vehicle’s movement.
  • Improved collision for bus prop steps to stop players from becoming caught on them.

• Visual
  • Adjust eye exposure levels when transitioning between the Loadout screen and the game world.
  • Improved FXAA anti-aliasing quality.

Updated Content

• Animation
  • Improved body alignment with the ground for characters in prone.
  • Added remaining first person weapon animations for the Uzi including Speed Reload, Foregrip, and Drum.
  • Improved Grenade Launcher poses.
  • Improved Grenade poses.
  • Improved Binoculars, C4, mines, and similar item poses.

• Weapons
  • Added new Compensator for the M45.

• Customization
  • Unlocked items will appear at the top of the list of variations.
  • Female hair, including Covered, can now be used with Headgear.
  • Added texture layer for Facial Hair.
  • Reduced “Rare” cosmetic costs from 900 to 600 credits.
  • Reduced “Very Rare” cosmetic costs from 1800 to 1200 credits.
  • Reduced “Rare” cosmetic camouflage costs from 1000 to 800 credits.
  • Reduced “Very Rare” cosmetic camouflage costs from 2000 to 1500 credits.
  • Assigned Cheap under the Insurgent Eyewear slot to the “Very Rare” category.
  • Assigned Shades under the Insurgent Eyewear slot to the “Rare” category.
  • Renamed “Shades” to “Stylish”
  • Removed Track Top Black/Dark Red under the Insurgent Legs slot.
  • Removed Track Pants Black/Dark Red under the Insurgent Legs slot.
  • Replaced Dark Brown Cargo with Brown.
  • Improved material for Bump under the Headgear slot.

• Audio
  • Added chemical cough voice over for when taking damage from Chemical Mortars.
  • Updated cache rigging audio to be the correct duration of the timer.
  • Updated all counter attack music.

Fixes

• User Experience
  • Fixed an issue where players could sometimes be locked into planting an explosive on an enemy Weapon Cache objective.
  • Fixed “High Speed Low Drag” achievement.
  • Fixed an occasional crash caused by the movie player during the splash screen sequence.
  • Fixed a crash occurring with the Tactical Map.
  • Fixed a crash occurring from scavenging weapons.

• Weapons
  • Fixed AN-M14 Incendiary grenades not showing any effects if they detonated in mid-air.
  • Fixed third person shotgun hand position.
  • Fixed PK-AS optic reticle alignment.
  • Enabled post processing on PK-AS optic.
  • Fixed shell in the magazine tube showing for the M870’s empty reload start animation.
  • Fixed floating magazine blocking the player’s camera when using an L85A2 with the Extended Magazine upgrade.
  • Fixed the G36K stock disappearing when using the Extended Magazine upgrade.
  • Fixed audio not playing when deploying a Bipod onto a surface.

• Fire Support
  • Fixed Rocket Barrage projectiles occasionally bouncing off of terrain.
  • Fixed issue with Support Helicopter’s targeting logic.

• Voice Over
  • Fixed delayed playtimes for:
    • Fire Support Being Finished
    • Observer Thanking Station
    • Helicopter Leaving

  • Reduced time to play Kill Confirmed voice over for Gunship and Minigun Support.

• AI
  • Improved navigation to the objective during a counter-attack
  • Improved Vehicle Gunner aiming.

User Interface Improvements

• Added empty rank badge icon for players who haven’t completed enough placement matches to be ranked in Competitive.
• Added Commander and Observer icons in the Tactical Map.
• Added Primary/Sidearm toggle button under Binds.
• Added Advanced option to disable the HUD entirely under Video Settings.
• Various tweaks to class icons.

Map Balance & Fixes

• Crossing
  • Landscape optimization pass.
  • Moved Security Skirmish spawn a bit further back.
  • Moved Security spawns for A and D back a bit on Push Insurgents.
  • Tweaked interior lighting to improve readability.
  • Fixed various terrain bugs.
  • Improved shadows on some level props.
  • Fixed insertion vehicle path on Checkpoint.

• Farmhouse
  • Made various optimization improvements.
  • Revised Skirmish scenario to make it less of a spawn trap for Insurgents.
  • Particles no longer have a second delay before they become inactive outside players view.
  • Fixed AI being able to see through the crop fields.
  • Fixed floating issues with roads.

• Tweaked post-processing to reduce washed-out look and improve contrast.
• Adjusted placement of dynamic level props.
• Fixed an issue where Security players couldn't capture objective A in a certain spot on Push Security.
• Fixed insertion vehicle path on Checkpoint.
• Improved AI vehicle navigation on Checkpoint.
• Improved AI’s ability to use cover.
• Fixed other miscellaneous bugs.
• Hideout
  • Optimized terrain to lower triangle count.
  • Adjusted playable area to make it feel less restrictive.
  • Made river near Insurgents Skirmish spawn more shallow.
  • Moved Security spawn closer to the river and relocated D to a different building on Skirmish.
  • Moved Supply Crates closer to faction spawns on Skirmish.
  • Removed a few balconies that were obstructing firing positions.
  • Fixed insertion vehicle path on Checkpoint.
  • Fixed other miscellaneous bugs.

• Summit
  • Optimized buildings to reduce draw calls.
  • Optimized background rocks and buildings.
  • Modified culling to make it more aggressive at longer range.
  • Made particles despawn more quickly if outside player’s view.
  • Improved HLODs.
  • Switched teams on Checkpoint Security and Checkpoint Insurgents scenarios.
  • Removed roads from the hilltop to make them less navigable for vehicles.
  • Lowered railing on the bridge to improve defensive positions.
  • Improved AI vehicle navigation on Checkpoint.
  • Fixed insertion vehicle path on Checkpoint.

Known bugs

• If you find yourself with missing cosmetics please just hit the randomise button