Dear Junkers! 🔧😄
This update focuses heavily on deep engine optimizations, UI stability, dismantling gameplay upgrades, and overall game responsiveness. A huge amount of work has been done under the hood to reduce stuttering, improve long-session stability, and make gameplay smoother across the entire world.
I’ve especially focused on optimizations, NPC, vehicle dismantling comfort, memory handling, and reducing FPS drops while driving and exploring. This patch also improves quest readability and introduces many quality-of-life changes for players using both mouse & keyboard and gamepads.
Vehicle dismantling has also received major improvements — including better camera handling, cleaner visuals, and removal of frustrating tiny interaction points on vehicles like the Blue Car and Pickup 1950.
As always — the game is still evolving heavily during Early Access. More redesigns, optimizations, and gameplay improvements are already in development. Thank you for supporting the development and helping me shape the future of the game! 💪
⚙️ Performance & Stability
• Fixed issues causing stuttering and possible crashes while driving vehicles
• Improved stability of item spawning and cleanup systems
• Added protections against invalid array access errors
• Fixed issues related to incorrect array cleanup during world streaming
• Improved dynamic actor loading and cleanup systems
• Enhanced level streaming and garbage collection performance
• Improved game stability during fast travel and rapid map traversal
• Optimized memory usage during long gameplay sessions
• Fixed several issues causing FPS drops during world exploration
• Added additional protections for quest and interaction systems
• Improved overall game stability and prepared further backend optimizations for future updates
• Reworked Level Streaming systems to reduce FPS drops during loading/unloading levels
• Added staged activation of level elements to reduce sudden CPU/GPU spikes
• Improved NPC activation logic — AI now activates with delay after level loading
• Reduced active AI calculations and character ticks for distant NPCs
• Optimized NPC animations by disabling animation updates for invisible characters
• Reworked streetlight systems to improve performance in urban areas
• Reduced lighting rendering cost by optimizing dynamic shadows and light ranges
• Added environment instancing (including lamps), significantly reducing CPU load
• Added gradual light activation after level loading
• Reduced the number of simultaneously active components during level streaming
• Improved gameplay smoothness while traveling between locations
• Enhanced memory management during level loading/unloading
• Continued optimization work for large urban areas and NPC systems
🚗 Vehicle Dismantling Improvements
• Improved visual aspects of dismantling mode
• Improved camera controls during dismantling
• Improved dismantling camera zoom in/out behavior
• Improved gamepad camera zoom controls during dismantling
• Blocked the ability to pick up items through vehicle body parts during searches
• Improved camera movement animations during dismantling
• Improved automatic camera centering after using Hint mode during dismantling
• Reworked dismantling for Blue Car and Pickup 1950 to remove frustrating tiny interaction parts
🧠 Quests, UI & Gameplay Improvements
• Fixed a bug where Pickup 1950 could teleport under the starting shelter while driving in some areas
• Fixed the “Buy Workstation” quest not completing correctly in some situations
• Fixed infinite loading screen after starving to death
• Added hints during Parcel quests when using the Parcel Computer
• Added quest task descriptions directly in the Parcel Plan widget
• Added optional extended help text explaining workstation purchase, worker assignment, and stocking systems
• Added arrows highlighting correct buttons/icons during Parcel quests
• Added highlighted Buy / Stock buttons for Parcel quests
• Improved NPC animation disabling range on the Parcel
• Fixed incorrect hint in the Stationary Crusher constantly showing “Lower the press pusher”
• Improved flying bird animations
• Fixed floating orange circles appearing above vehicles when exiting the Tow Truck near quest targets
• Improved translation consistency on the Large Map
🖥️ UI & Interface Optimization • Optimized UI performance during intensive gameplay
• Reduced unnecessary UI widget rebuilding during gameplay
• Reduced dynamically loaded fonts in the interface
• Improved text rendering and font cache performance
• Reduced risk of microstutters related to UI refreshing
• Improved systems responsible for refreshing markers and on-screen messages
🛠️ Small Fixes & Improvements
• Fixed an issue where using the Renovation Station while holding an item (e.g. a fridge) could result in two active tools/items at the same time
• Temporarily blocked Fast Travel on GPW
• Removed the “Reset Character” button from the Main Menu
• Improved tutorial hint visibility — tutorial text now flashes instead of the background
• Fixed tool glitches that could occur when picking up objects during renovation interactions
• Improved positioning of the “Buy Workstation” quest hint arrow during Parcel quests
• Restored the fix preventing issues when interacting with food from the fridge near the Renovation Station
• Further improved the Renovation system to prevent unnecessary overlap messages related to the Tool Wheel
• Fixed missing throw trajectory visualization
• Fixed visible Goal Actor issue during the “Buy Workstation” Parcel quest
• Fixed a blocker issue where starving to death could result in an infinite loading screen
• Added another safeguard for the Parcel “Buy Workstation” quest to ensure proper completion
• Fixed missing fade animations for quest hints when selecting Workers and Workstations
• Added additional hint arrows for hidden tabs when the scroll position is too low
🚀 What’s next
1. A few hotfix updates and polishing of features I didn’t manage to include yet (coming within the next 2 weeks)
2. Next, I’ll be focusing on redesigning core mechanics based on your feedback to make the gameplay more intuitive and enjoyable. After that, I’ll move on to adding new languages and fresh content to the game.
🙏 Thank you
Big thanks for all your feedback and support — it really helps shape the future of the game 💛
The game is constantly being developed — I strongly recommend checking the integrity of the game files!
Massive junkyard hugs from your favorite rust whisperer —
Junkman Adrian 😎🛠️💛
