Weekly Update - September 22
Aloha Thrivers,
As we approach the release of the game, happening this October 18th, we want to give everyone more frequent updates on the work we are doing.
Let’s start by talking about Performance. As everyone probably knows by now, following the engine upgrade, we all agreed the biggest priority to publish the game on Steam Early Access was to make Fractured Veil accessible to more machines.
With our last update, earlier this September, we received positive feedback from many of you regarding performance. However, we now have a significant list of to-dos that we will address in the coming months, some even after our October Release.
Progress on Performance
It’s impossible for us not to go a bit technical when talking about performance, but we’ll try our best!
The most significant news about performance is that we finished the process of rebuilding HLODs, these are necessary components that reduce the number and quality of objects that are rendered by the game at a distance. While we use Nanite for many elements, not every single part of the game supports this technology and this system works in tandem with Nanite and World partition ensuring we are not rendering stuff that the player doesn’t necessarily need.
Graphics settings (Low, Medium and High) have been retouched further, alongside the way we spawn grass and foliage across these 3 profiles to be more consistent regardless of your settings.
Lights and small objects that are far away no longer cast a shadow or even disappear in some cases. This system was in place before but it has received further adjustments.
What’s next for performance?
Over the next week(s), we are going to use one of the new UE5 Features, Level Instances, to further improve performance on areas with a lot of objects. Also, after switching to Lumen for our global illumination, we still have a lot of loose ends to tie together both in terms of performance and visuals which are going to be addressed soon. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! We’ll keep you updated week after week!
Queue System
Another important system we are working on is a Queue System. A fun thing about launching a new game, even if indie, is that you can never accurately predict how many players you will have at launch. For this reason, we want to have a Queue System in case our servers are too busy. This way players who are playing can hopefully get a great experience, and players trying to join know that they will have to wait a bit longer before starting their adventures.
Other Improvements
Moving on to other matters but still on the gamedev side, here are some of the other areas of the game that are getting improvements.
This was the first of a new series of weekly updates. We want our community to be part of our launch journey, and with these posts, we aim to do just that while being as transparent as we can.
See you next time!
PS: we are releasing a cool new video, make sure to watch it as soon as it’s live!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
As we approach the release of the game, happening this October 18th, we want to give everyone more frequent updates on the work we are doing.
Let’s start by talking about Performance. As everyone probably knows by now, following the engine upgrade, we all agreed the biggest priority to publish the game on Steam Early Access was to make Fractured Veil accessible to more machines.
With our last update, earlier this September, we received positive feedback from many of you regarding performance. However, we now have a significant list of to-dos that we will address in the coming months, some even after our October Release.
Progress on Performance
It’s impossible for us not to go a bit technical when talking about performance, but we’ll try our best!
The most significant news about performance is that we finished the process of rebuilding HLODs, these are necessary components that reduce the number and quality of objects that are rendered by the game at a distance. While we use Nanite for many elements, not every single part of the game supports this technology and this system works in tandem with Nanite and World partition ensuring we are not rendering stuff that the player doesn’t necessarily need.
Graphics settings (Low, Medium and High) have been retouched further, alongside the way we spawn grass and foliage across these 3 profiles to be more consistent regardless of your settings.
Lights and small objects that are far away no longer cast a shadow or even disappear in some cases. This system was in place before but it has received further adjustments.
What’s next for performance?
Over the next week(s), we are going to use one of the new UE5 Features, Level Instances, to further improve performance on areas with a lot of objects. Also, after switching to Lumen for our global illumination, we still have a lot of loose ends to tie together both in terms of performance and visuals which are going to be addressed soon. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! We’ll keep you updated week after week!
Queue System
Another important system we are working on is a Queue System. A fun thing about launching a new game, even if indie, is that you can never accurately predict how many players you will have at launch. For this reason, we want to have a Queue System in case our servers are too busy. This way players who are playing can hopefully get a great experience, and players trying to join know that they will have to wait a bit longer before starting their adventures.
Other Improvements
Moving on to other matters but still on the gamedev side, here are some of the other areas of the game that are getting improvements.
- Item Persistence - This is an issue targeting containers (and dead bodies) where items get corrupted and can’t be interacted with. Our team is aware of this and has been working on this issue iteration after iteration. We are narrowing down all the causes of this and we will be releasing a potential fix on the next update.
- Optimizing Thorcon (spawn area) - Those who are currently testing the game can agree that our spawn area still needs some work. The team is optimizing the area, improving performance, and embellishing it with new Diaramas.
- Dynamic Sky System - Much is being done here, improving both looks, lighting, quality, and performance of our Sky System.
- Flare Gun - We are working on a few improvements, changing the way the flares arch when fired in the air.
- Many UI Fixes - This includes missing icons, and the Repair Bench’s UI not updating properly.
- Dungeons - These have been separated onto their own servers and we are actively working on polishing and improving these areas. Starting with the Mines, we have been fixing bugs and making sure AI, loot, and collisions are all fully functional for the the next update.
- Server and Client Crashes - We are currently investigating both client and servers crashes happening on the current build. The good news is we have identified some of the causes, and we're working on getting those fixed for the next build.
This was the first of a new series of weekly updates. We want our community to be part of our launch journey, and with these posts, we aim to do just that while being as transparent as we can.
See you next time!
PS: we are releasing a cool new video, make sure to watch it as soon as it’s live!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]