[p]Hello, Chasers! This month, we’re giving you a sneak peek at an upcoming feature:
Daily Contracts. We’re also sharing progress on ongoing iterations across several core systems, including
probe gameplay,
visual effects, and
vegetation.[/p][p][/p]
NEXT UPDATE: DAILY CONTRACTS
[p]Our next feature, Daily Contracts, is almost ready for release![/p][p]Each day, players will receive one new contract with varying difficulty and rewards, up to a maximum of three active at once. Don’t like a contract? You’ll be able to reroll one per day for a fresh challenge. This system adds a steady way to earn more while chasing and introduces fun side objectives to mix things up.[/p][p]We’re excited to hear what you think once it’s live![/p][p]
![]()
[/p][p][/p]
PROBE GAMEPLAY
[p]Last month, we introduced a new vision for the probe gameplay. Since then, we’ve refined that concept to make it more unified, more realistic, and more grounded in the world of OUTBRK. We’ve decided to remove the filling bars shown in the last newsletter and replace them with a diegetic module.[/p][p]The module presents wind speed, pressure changes, and temperature shifts, while most notably adding a visual representation of the tornado’s distance or path as it moves around the probe. This change helps retain key aspects of the gameplay, such as the anticipation of watching a tornado’s strength build in real time and providing actionable data to improve your probe placement during future intercepts.[/p][p]Here’s a work-in-progress design mockup of the updated probe UI module:[/p][p]
![]()
[/p][p][/p]
VISUAL EFFECTS PROGRESS
[h2]New Tornado System[/h2][p]The team has begun laying the foundation for a revamped tornado rendering system. This updated system continues to use volumetric rendering, with a focus on enabling more flexible control over tornado shape and behavior. The goal is to eventually support a wider variety of realistic formations, including multi-vortex and wedge tornadoes. This marks the first major step toward that objective.[/p][p]
[/p][h2]Better 3D Wind Integration[/h2][p]Work is underway to make better use of the weather model data to drive wind behavior in the atmosphere. This includes integrating full 3D wind fields, which will result in more complex and varied cloud motion throughout the sky, especially around mesocyclones, inflow bands, and in time-lapse views. It will also allow tornado circulation to have a much more noticeable impact on surrounding cloud structures, actively shaping and affecting them based on rotation and intensity. This is an important step toward making the visual systems more tightly connected to the underlying simulated weather.[/p][p]
[/p][h2]Vehicle Windshield Rain Effect[/h2][p]A new rain-on-window effect is well into development. It includes more detailed visual features, improved view obstruction in heavy rainfall, distortion, and window fogging, all of which contribute to a more immersive and challenging driving experience during severe weather. Here is an early development capture where the team is playing with some parameters that will eventually be controlled by the weather.[/p][p]
![]()
[/p][p][/p]
VEGETATION UPDATE PROGRESS
[p]We’ve generated a representative slice of the new vegetation to validate our technical workflow, performance, and visual direction across different biome recipes. This phase provided valuable insights that are helping us refine our world-building tools, asset selection, and vegetation density values.[/p][p]Here are some of the next steps we’re taking:[/p]
- [p]Major tool improvements to significantly boost performance when rendering dense forests: Trello link .[/p]
- [p]Reduced overall tree density by ~30%, as the initial vegetation recipe was too heavy. [/p]
- [p]Replaced all ground foliage assets with highly optimized versions—reducing triangle count by up to 20x per patch of grass, and resolving several visual issues. [/p]
[p]Here’s a short preview GIF of the new ground foliage (work in progress, in-editor, not final rendering):[/p][p]
![]()
[/p][p][/p]
NEW 3D MODEL
[h2]HEAVY DUTY LAPTOP[/h2][p]
![]()
[/p][p] [/p][p]You can follow our progress on all our tasks here: [/p][p]
https://trello.com/b/nsBmMfIa/outbrk-game[/p][p] [/p][p]
[/p][p]That's all for this development update ! Thanks for all your support, consider leaving a review on the steam store to reach more potential future chasers ! [/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p]Till next time,[/p][p]-The OUTBRK Team[/p][p]
[/p]