Poached : Hunt The Hunter News

[h3]This update mostly includes optimizations made to performance, but also contains further other small fixes.[/h3]

NB: This is one of many optimization updates planned over the next year and in NO way reflects the final performance state of the game.

It's time for round 2 of the new regular update schedule!
This update might be boring for some, but I have decided to focus on optimization for this patch as some users have reported suboptimal FPS when playing on lower end devices such as Steam Deck as well as older i5 laptops using Intel GPU chipsets and lower RAM.

Of course, this is not a perfect optimization, and I still have a long way to go to truly reach the FPS goals I require to support the widest range of devices, but it's certainly a step in the right direction and I look forward to collecting more data on performance as a result to see how I can further increase framerate. A lot of the notes below may not make sense to people not working with Unity, but I've included them anyways as I generally always write my change notes as I go to keep me sane whether they are worth sharing or not. So here they are! I hope that this update helps improve performance even just a little bit for those affected. To benchmark I managed to get myself an old dying laptop from 2016 with a half dying screen and overly full hard drive to test with and managed to move from completely unplayable to at least enjoyable. No Steam Deck to test with currently, but hopefully this should help still. Let me know how it goes!

Please Note: Each of the following optimizations are merely "micro-optimizations" and generally only gain small amounts of frames or cycle milliseconds. There is no one-cure-fix-all way to optimize a game such as this, but by continuing to add as many individual improvements as possible to the CPU and rendering thread no matter how small, the performance will increase. This is certainly not the last optimization update, but just some necessary changes that needed to be done this week.

It is only worth noting, that a lot of the optimizations have been made to graphics settings below Ultra, so players already playing on the maximum setting won't be affected by those. Thus, I have split the notes into optimizations applied to the game overall and into a list of those which apply to certain graphic settings below Ultra.
In some cases, changes were less about optimizing the lower settings but also making sure that lower settings looked better while retaining the performance boost (such as lowering the shadow settings)

Lastly, I have also included a list of other non-optimization related fixes included in this update for a small value add.

I'll be back next week with a new content update that focuses on a vehicle garage for customizing your trucks performance and appearance. Thank you all for your patience!


[h3]General game optimizations:[/h3]
1. Switched scripting backend from Mono to IL2CPP.
2. Changed all non-terrain/tree meshes used in extremely high volumes such as brown rocks and wooden items/pickups to use GPU instancing instead of static batching.
3. Added GPU instancing to skinned mesh renderers such as enemies as well as animals that appear multiple times on screen at once.
4. Improved texture compression ratio without affecting texture appearance by compressing all uncompressed textures to lighten the load on the GPU VRAM as well as build size and memory usage.
5. Added aggressive dynamic culling for engine parts inside the truck/vehicle that can't be seen unless viewing the truck from the bottom or if the hood is open due to explosion or upcoming repair mechanics. The internal parts of the truck are now only rendered when they can be seen to save a fairly high amount of GPU draw calls, and many smaller parts that do not need to be separate have been batched into a single mesh.
6. Added simple culling to smaller parts of the vehicle such as wipers and internal blinkers etc that can be seen but only when close to the vehicle, saving on draw calls when not near the vehicle.
7. Optimized radio station sample rate decreasing the audio file size by 400% without affecting the audio quality.
8. Removed unused items from scene memory in all scenes.
9. Removed double buffering skinned motion vectors on unimportant skinned mesh renderers.
10. Set certain unimportant skinned mesh renderers to not update skinning when off-screen.
11. Ensured all skinned mesh renderers adhere to the global bone skinning quality settings.
12. Increased the threshold of certain items adherence to camera per-layer culling distances.
13. Removed unnecessary ContentSizeFitter components on U.I. text labels.
14. Leader hideout and additional nature zone in that region no longer exists within the scene memory and is now part of the game's asynchronous loader level streaming for a smaller memory footprint during general gameplay within the main reserve.
15. Removed all unused packages from project manifest.
16. Re-mapped all mesh occluder/occludee status settings with more discernment and rebaked all occlusion culling for each level.
17. Optimized rendering footprint of campfire, lantern and other "non-important" light sources by changing their render mode. The main skydome day/night cycle now uses the important rendering mode as the main pixel light while all secondary lights do not unless they are significant such as flashlights etc.
18. Set physics system broad phase type to use box pruning algorithm.
19. Set physics system to reuse collision callbacks so the garbage collector should reuse only a single instance of a Collision type for all collision callbacks.
20. Increased level of animation culling for items such as animated flags in ostrich racing when not visible.
21. Optimized size of specular/metallic/occlusion maps used in some complicated textures.
22. Identified all meshes with read/write enabled this storing twice as much memory and disabled the parameter.
23. Disabled all unnecessary model import parameters such as blend shapes, lightmap UVS and any other parameters not being used.
24. Deleted some rocks that were below the terrain and thus permanently invisible.
25. Optimized braai model's internal grill geometry with manual batching of separate meshes.
26. Optimized player trigger system algorithm slightly.
27. Increased GPU Async upload buffer size from 4 to 16.
28. Moved rigid body based calculations out of Update() methods into FixedUpdate() methods.
29. Changed all use of OverlapSphere to use the Non Allocative OverlapSphereNonAlloc version of the API.
30. Optimized certain shaders to use property hashing instead of string parameters for parameter manipulation.
31. Optimized screen space shader based antialiasing algorithm code.
32. Optimized internal algorithm for rendering ADS scope overlay for carbine weapon.
33. Enabled sprite packing atlases for UI sprites.
34. Optimized the usage of OnCollisionStay() on player rigidbody walker, player is now also better at walking up slopes as a result.
35. Pre-cached all animal NavMesh wander positions to prevent CPU spikes caused by NavMesh position sampling.
36. Optimized memory used in the on-screen damage indicators assigning frequently to the garbage collector, optimized to use non-allocative algorithms.
37. Optimized triangle count as well as LOD distances for R4 weapon pickup, as well as when held by poachers as the poly count was quite high and the weapon did not have LOD's even though all other weapon pickups did.
38. Stripped project of unused shaders.
39. Disabled terrain unified heightmap collisions.
40. Removed unused canvas elements from lootchest/tutorial overlays.
41. Created new LOD's for certain high poly meshes that did not already have a level of detail system.
42. Removed shadows from certain models already enshrouded by other shadows that did not to be casting shadows themselves.
43. Removed all graphic ray casting from U.I. elements that do not require clicking such as health/ammo/crosshair and HUD elements.
44. Manually batched some grouped meshes that were too small individually for GPU skinning, and too numerous for effective static batching into single meshes.
45. Bloom is now off by default for new installations but can be enabled at any time.
46. Replaced some uncommonly used material shaders with other common shared shaders.
47. Optimized file size and memory footprint of nature sfx ambience from 6.4mb to 1.0mb.
48. Optimized background tension music loop from 1.0mb to 76kb.
49. Optimized bulk of action/drums music tracks from 53mb to 20mb for all 5 tracks total.
50. Optimized remaining musical soundtrack pieces from 30mb to 4.6mb for the remaining bulk of ingame soundtrack music in total.
51. Optimized compression algorithm for animal sounds.
52. Adjusted bone quality for smaller animals such as birds & insects.
53. Reduced the amount of MeshColliders overall in place of primitive colliders that function the same relevant to each individual objects needs. Bullet decals are still projected directly onto the mesh, so it doesn't matter how accurate the collider is in order to align the decals onto the mesh.
54. Added more aggressive culling distance threshold to some much smaller objects.
55. Recalculated some LOD Bounds on certain meshes.
56. Optimized "Aim Assist" for GamePads to not use memory allocative algorithms such as OverlapSphere and use static fixed-length collider arrays.
57. Optimized "Sun Shafts" screen effect rendering algorithm.
58. Made some small optimizations to the relief terrain shader system codebase.
59. Minor optimizations to pickup trigger volume.
60. Removed possibility of duplicate yellow glow "Loot" overlays on items would lead to increased vertex count on meshes. (And also, sometimes result in a glowing ghost left behind after an item has been picked up in rare cases)
61. For weapon pickups with complicated LOD systems, the "Loot" overlay will now use the lowest LOD to prevent doubling the vertex count for detailed meshes.
62. Optimized the loot over system triggering algorithm to not retrigger the instantiation of meshes every frame during movement.
63. Removed root motion and root bone for any skinned mesh renderers using a generic rig that did not need it.
64. Optimized instantiation of 'yield return new WaitForSeconds();' instances in coroutines.
65. Converted all radio mission briefings to mono to save memory, especially since they were not recorded in stereo to begin with.
66. Converted numerous SFX clips to mono for the same reason as above.
67. Also converted all poacher vocals to mono since they were also not recorded in stereo and doing so reduces the memory footprint by roughly 4x.
68. Various other small code refactorings.
69. Removed deprecated key binding data structures, references and storage methods leftover from previous input system.
70. Finally, as a result of all the optimizations performed, I am happy to report that the game build size has gone down from 7.7GB to 5.9GB which of course lessens memory consumption as well as general storage space and download speed.

[h3]Lower graphic setting option optimizations:[/h3]
1. Shadow quality now also adjusts screen space ambient occlusion quality.
2. Texture quality settings other than Ultra now disables near-imperceptible lens distortion post processing effect.
3. Texture quality settings below High disable post processing vignette for an extra frame per second.
4. Environment detail settings now set the max pixel light count respectively. 1 for low, 2 for medium, 3 for high, 4 for very high & ultra.
5. Lower environment detail settings now optimize terrain rendering better via a higher pixel error value.
6. Birds flying in the sky, dragonflies and other smaller details are now disabled on low environment detail settings.
7. Vegetation wind is now disabled on low environment detail settings.
8. Low quality shadow settings now affect the shadow projection close/stable fit setting internally.
9. LOD bias is now lower when using low environment detail settings.
10. Shadow from weapons cast onto arm now only happens during Ultra shadow settings, mostly as it looks quite bad when shadow quality is low, as well as for performance reasons.
11. Removed an almost imperceptible light flicker script found on campfires as the fire light sources still look great without and it removes unnecessary scripting oscillation on the intensity.
12. Shadow quality now sets shadow projection to a close fit instead of stable fit when on the lowest setting.
13. Environment detail setting now affects the detail level of the vehicle internals, but not the exterior.
14. Lowered physics engine solver iteration count when using the lowest bone skinning weights setting, will increase performance but might possibly create some weird ragdolls at times.
15. Changed bone quality from low/medium/high to low/medium/high/ultra with the last 3 being the same as the original 3 with low now being the new lowest, use only in extreme cases if physics calculations is too demanding for your system. As per the previous point, low might cause weird ragdoll behavior in fallen enemies, but otherwise can help performance.
16. Player radio (Weapon #1) will use a lower poly model when playing below Ultra texture quality, as the model is quite severely detailed so assumed to only be best used on high end systems, and since there isn't specifically a weapon geometry graphic setting its been tied to texture settings for now.

[h3]Main menu optimizations:[/h3]
1. Optimized terrain pixel error threshold used for settings preview.
2. Cleaned up unused objects from main menu memory.
3. Removed all objects not visible between character selection screen and settings menu.
4. Baked occlusion culling for menu scene.
5. Slightly Optimized triangle count on player models and removed unnecessary items for the campfire such as holsters, backpacks etc.
6. Disabled the Relief terrain shader light application for self-shadowed direction.
7. Disabled imperceptible light flickering script that was using almost unnecessary CPU cycles.
8. Better animation culling for animated elements featured off-screen for the settings menu when not visible.
9. Decreased camera render distance, usually needed for horizon rendering in-game but not needed for the menu.
10. Removed ragdoll physics internal systems from the example enemy shown next to ostrich in the graphics options menu so as not to use unnecessary physics resources even for kinematic rigid bodies not in use.
11. Added additional GPU instancing where possible/applicable.
12. Integrated better separation of character selection screen vs graphics preview menu detail meshed.
13. Disabled unnecessary collision geometry.
14. Cameras no longer render/clear a solid color behind the skydome since you never see it.
15. Selected a faster antialiasing algorithm for the character selection screen.
16. Removed third party scion post processing shader set entirely from main menu.
17. Removed unnecessary entity interaction scripts from small animals and birds as well as other small destructible objects seen within the menu.
18. Removed any additional unnecessary shaders left over from previous "Film" menu found in V0.8.7.2 and below.
19. Removed many unused components found in the tertiary cameras used for submenus such as scores & mods.
20. Removed duplicate nature sounds audio sources found inside the menu setup.
21. Optimized scene hierarchy to avoid over nesting of prefabs and empty transforms within the settings menu example scene.
22. Removed duplicate Event Systems from the scene.

[h3]Other game & bug fixes:[/h3]
1. Made further small improvements to enemy behavior.
2. Fixed an issue that would cause the player to shoot up in the air when pressing against the giraffe collider.
3. Fixed chromatic aberration & reflections turning on when resetting defaults, even though the new default factory settings the game came with had dictated the chromatic aberration & reflections to be off as default.
4. All graphics settings now go backwards from Ultra->High->Medium->Low and then wrap round back to Ultra, as opposed to the starting on Ultra and wrapping round immediately to lowest then increasing back to Ultra when switching as it was before, which allows you to slowly tweak lower until you are happy. Later on I will add arrows to choose which direction you wish to go.
5. Fixed a rock that was rotating on its axis on different LOD's found near the camp.
6. Added further input agnostic tooltips (I.E., press "Fire" or press "Aim" instead of displaying the keycode or controller button) for better support of different controller schemes without needing to display device specific glyphs.
7. Fixed some NavMesh issues that could cause the leader to run through cactuses in the hideout hostage mission fight.
8. Clarified description of Character #4 special abilities, that the damage boost applied only to silenced SMGs as well as silenced rifles, not silenced SMGs and rifles IE only to silenced weapons.
9. Fixed Y position in menu of secret hidden time of day slider that was overlapping other elements when activated via the cheat code.
10. Improved appearance of satellite dish rendering material found above caravan in camp.
11. Fixed missing collision in Mission 6/Warehouse.
12. Increased warehouse lighting moodiness.
13. Adjusted nature ambience for less ear-piercing crickets and audio fatigue after long hours of play.
14. Fixed a weird running issue for Legendary Volstruis caused by an unaccounted collider on the cigar causing it to collide with itself while running.
15. Further decreased overly loud end-level-stats sound.
16. Fixed issue causing option labels to not always reset when resetting graphics option.
17. Decreased chance of terrain flickering caused by camera near clip plane issues.
18. Improved animal pathfinding system to prevent them from freezing up sometimes when trying to calculate their next path.
19. Fixed issue with mouse rotation inside vehicle not adhering to the mouse sensitivity settings if mouse sensitivity is changed in game.
20. Added a new "HUD Scale" option in the menu to increase or decrease the size of HUD elements such as Ammo/Armor/Health & more so that users on smaller screens such as Steam Deck can adjust the HUD to be better visible, or just to individual player preference on any screen.
21. Various other small tweaks & fixes.

The next few updates are going back to focusing on new content, but I'll be releasing another update focused update again after this, as well as adding a few optimizations to each update following this one in the update cycle road to V0.8.8

As always, I'm excited to hear your thoughts, and happy hunting!

'Poached : Hunt The Hunter' V0.8.7.1 - Menu, Weapon & Character Update

Hello everyone! Over the past year, I’ve focused on releasing substantial updates monthly or quarterly, each packed with up to 100 changes, including major improvements and extensive revisions. As we near the first anniversary of the early access launch in August 2023 and reflect on four years of development since 2020, my goal remains the final release by August 2026.

Moving forward, I plan to shift to more frequent, modular updates—weekly or biweekly, depending on complexity. Each update will center on a single core principle, supplemented by smaller tweaks. This approach will allow for more precise development of new mechanics, provide clearer insights into my workflow, and maintain excitement with regular new features.

As we approach Major Cycle V0.8.8, filled with surprises and new features, I've scheduled 10 smaller updates. These will roll out between 3-4 days to 1-2 weeks apart, depending on my workload. Kicking it off this weekend is the new menu and character update, which focuses on improving the main menu in a way that doesn't potentially cause headaches or epileptic fits like the old "film cutting" style menu did, while breathing more life into the interface, especially regarding the character selection, and also expanding on the characters and their unique abilities and appearance. I have also, as usual, fixed a bunch of smaller issues that required attention.

Thank you for your continued support. Here are the detailed update notes—I hope you enjoy them, and I look forward to your feedback next week!

Main update features:

• New full color main menu without heavy flickering or potentially headache inducing flashing, featuring a full color game logo and more immersive elements.
  
• A brand new character selection screen round the campfire that also helps explain the characters better with improved animations and personality traits.
  
• New special character abilities, explained during the character selection screen.
  
• New arm accessories for certain characters to improve unique appearance for each from FPS view.
  
• The combat shotgun has been replaced with a new classic shotgun more suited to the aesthetic of the game. The old combat shotgun is still available to be found elsewhere in the game though.
  
• New achievement for playing the game with each character. Although you do not have to actually finish the game with each character.
  

Additional fixes & changes:

1. Improved combat shotgun texture, added more rust and dust to fit the environment.
   
2. Poachers in the field will now also use the standard shotgun instead of the combat shotgun.
   
3. The price of ammunition in the shop has been increased to better balance the game and reflect a more realistic pricing model.
   
4. The cost of first-aid kits and invincibility power-ups has increased in the shop for Chapter One of the game, but the prices will decrease for these specific items after Chapter Two.
   
5. Added some more props and detail to the shebeen/bar.
   
6. Improved design of slot machine found inside shebeen.
   
7. Added additional slot machine inside shebeen.
   
8. Optimized the rendering frame rate inside the shebeen.
   
9. Redesigned the score opt-in landing page and moved it to the main menu before starting a new game for the first time, instead of before the splash screen, to preserve the impact of the game's initial opening.
   
10. Consuming food now grants less health to make the game more balanced as well as allow for certain character abilities to increase the effectiveness where applicable.
    
11. Fixed a minor issue that could occasionally cause weapons picked up from fallen poachers to fall through the floor when swapping weapons.
    
12. A few more arm material texture improvements.
    
13. Fixed an issue where auto-saved game thumbnails displayed the loading screen as the thumbnail when moving between areas.
    
14. Changed texture quality setting to change descending instead of wrapping around from max to min. Although maximum texture quality is always recommended if possible.
    
15. Changed skin weights terminology in options from 1/2/4 bones to low/medium/high.
    
16. Neatened a few elements and labels in the options menu.
    
17. Removed a few deprecated functions as well as meshes from codebase.
    
18. When using a controller, you now use 'B' to navigate backwards in main menu instead of only with start/select.
    
19. Optimized loot generation algorithm for fallen poachers to use less memory by spawning "on-demand" when the enemy is searched, thus reducing the need for all loot items to exist in the scene until they are needed.
    

Note: The unique abilities assigned to each character are currently experimental and are subject to change and rebalancing as the game’s development progresses. While most characters are fairly balanced with minor variations in movement and endurance, their distinct abilities offer numerous strategies to succeed and excel in the game. Ultimately, choose the character that resonates with you the most, and please share your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. I’m eager to hear your feedback!

- Happy Hunting!

[h3]Poached : Hunt The Hunter v0.8.7[/h3]

The purpose of this update is to address as much testing feedback as possible, as well as improving game stability and A.I. performance. Creating a solid foundation for upcoming new content including new missions, new radio stations and vehicle customization that will be available in v0.8.8

This update includes 70+ crucial game changes, as well as 12 fixes to the controller support features that apply to players using controllers. The game is still optimized for Keyboard/Mouse input but controller support mode is activated whenever a gamepad is connected, and will also serve as the input method for the upcoming console PS/XBOX releases next year.

The game demo has also been updated for this release to reflect the games latest state. More to follow soon. As always, thank you everybody for the continued support, feedback and bug reporting. Happy hunting!

1. 4 new Steam Achievements to unlock.
2. A brand new mobile home upgrade that can be purchased for your caravan, this gives you all the modern amenities of a real home and costs R130,000. If you have completed the game and want to take your stay on the reserve to the next level, then saving up for this purchase is a great incentive to keep playing. The mobile home can also be customized out the box with different curtains, tiles, fittings, surfaces for free at any time. [Only unlocked after the final campaign mission!]
3. Improved enemy cover finding and flanking capabilities by manually placing best cover spots by hand in every battle as opposed to allowing only a deterministic algorithm. The deterministic algorithm is still used in scenarios that might spawn random battles, but any battles in a specific location now uses finely tuned hand placed cover spots. The current location of all cover hints will need to be tested and fine-tuned over the next few updates with some patch updates to this one but a much more solid foundation is now in place to work with.
4. As a result of previous point, improved cover finder lookup memory - as well as scene loading time.
5. Fixed issue with all "Press Any Key To Continue" scenarios to not function properly with the keyboard if the player Alt+Tabs the game at any point, caused by the Alt key being locked into polling upon game window re-focus.
6. Tutorial tooltips have been enhanced to be more educational. They now provide clear distinctions between hunting and poaching, explain the conditions under which certain animals like zebras and goats can be legally hunted, and emphasize the importance of conservation and following hunting regulations.
7. Optional screen-space reflections & chromatic aberration are now off by default for new installations.
8. Added more grass detail to outskirts of terrain focusing on making the outskirts look a bit more beautiful for vehicle exploration.
9. Improved the on-screen holding position appearance of the shotgun as well as sprinting animation orientation and finger-on-trigger position.
10. Fixed an issue causing insane crazy shadow flickering when the player steps underneath the awning of the shebeen building staring out at the map in certain missions.
11. Introduction scene now has subtitles like the rest of the game, and will also adhere to current subtitle settings.
12. Increased collision timing accuracy of rhino stampedes and ability to destroy your vehicle if angered.
13. Fixed all remaining cactus colliders that were missing from the map, particularly near outskirts.
14. Slight improvements to enemy reaction times and movement procedures as well as animations, particularly when turning corners while running.
15. Ostrich racing waypoints now have animated flags to mark the location instead of only using waypoints.
16. Fixed issue which allowed ostrich racing to be cheated via simply walking to each checkpoint before jumping into the ostrich and officially starting the race. Also fixed some other small ostrich racing minor issues.
17. Increased variety of different eye colors between enemies for slightly increased realism.
18. Added new slot machine minigame to shebeen.
19. Added some new furniture to shebeen and fixed some missing colliders on existing furniture.
20. Added some new décor to shebeen.
21. Improved shebeen lighting slightly.
22. New introduction scene visual look & feel update.
23. Slightly improved sniper rifle weapon rendering material.
24. Slightly improved FAL/FN on-screen alignment appearance, sprint height and left thumb holding position.
25. Fixed a bug that caused the scores leaderboard to not load a second time if you view the scores, exit the leaderboard back to the main menu and then try to view the scores again in a single main menu session.
26. Fixed all missing "Hover" states in main options/graphics/control menus, including all sliders and buttons.
27. Improved the "Hover" state audio when navigating menus to sound less annoying/high pitched/clicky.
28. Fixed an error causing the stock market status to not save in-between dealings if player doesn't always interact with the PC each time they enter the caravan.
29. Made the stock market more profitable overall and also increased the risk factor.
30. Fixed "Hold Any Key To Skip" function for introduction sequence to also include mouse clicks.
31. Removed secret snail entrance to "Noise Complaint" secret level. Level can now only be accessed through certain actions after completing the game.
32. Fixed issue with bakkie still having a 1 sided glass mesh on the inside of the cab after the window glass has been destroyed.
33. Vastly improved the quality of the broken glass shards created by shooting the windows of the vehicle as well as fixed some collision issues relating to the shards which could even cause the vehicle to go flying.
34. Increased the size of the zone responsible for triggering an asynchronous spawning of gazelles to prevent the player from seeing gazelle pop into view prematurely.
35. Reduced the amount of gazelles found in the Delta Zone for increased realism.
36. The insert coin interaction when playing the "Piet Of The Jungle" arcade game now requires an actual payment of 1 coin to play.
37. Fixed issue allowing weapon wheel to be brought up during crafting of items such as tents or campfires.
38. Fixed issues with the pool table found inside the shebeen that could cause balls to disappear randomly sometimes when hitting the edge of the table too hard, and also added internal rules to track the amount of balls sunk with a win condition if the black ball is sunk last after sinking all other balls first.
39. Fixed issue causing a weird unfunctional pause to occur if weapon wheel button is attempted while piloting a drone.
40. Improved the physical appearance of reflection materials in the warehouse interior Mission 6.
41. Improved flashlight lighting balance in Mission 6 warehouse interior.
42. Increased font size of on screen indicator for switching between radio and notepad for clearer visibility.
43. U.I. now has simple onscreen indicator for when flashlight or lantern is equipped.
44. If a player wanders in the dark for a while without equipping any form of light, such as a lantern or flashlight, the game will suggest that the player turn on a light. This suggestion will occur only once per session when the inventory is opened, and only if the player has not already activated a light source. If the player prefers to move in the shadows, the message can be safely ignored.
45. Fixed an issue that caused the camera's Y-axis to adjust unexpectedly upon the player's first movement input. The camera now loads in the correct state initially.
46. Fixed some more weird waypoint issues causing leftover stragglers in Mission 2 to conglomerate around a weird position if not found during the second "Open Field" enemy wave.
47. Game now includes a first-time disclaimer upon first launching, letting players know that their scores will be submitted to the leaderboard, allowing players to opt-out before even starting a new game, with the knowledge they can reactivate the score submission at any time if they change their mind.
48. Improved appearance of weapon wheel pause menu by adding a radial blur behind the wheel when paused.
49. Added a new exit sign to shooting range to make it clearer to players how they may exit the range if they don't wish to exit via the main menu.
50. When selecting characters upon starting a new game, you can now see their stats when you hover over them for a more informed decision.
51. Fixed issue where looting enemies while moving would halt movement input.
52. Fixed an LOD issue with a rock near the shebeen that would cause it to physically rotate its orientation at different distances.
53. Improved vehicle dynamic navmesh obstacle to help prevent animals and enemies from walking into it as frequently.
54. Saved games now remember if the vehicle radio was turned on or off.
55. Radio station audio is now streamed from disk instead of loaded into memory. This allows the voice & audio team to create theoretically infinite amounts of radio stations without affecting performance. Also, games memory consumption overall will be improved slightly.
56. Fixed potential stretching issues in loading screens when using aspect ratios other than 16:9.
57. Daisy seeds can now be purchased from online shopping for camp gardening aesthetic purposes. Each planted seedling takes a 24 "game hour" cycle to grow from seedling to full plant.
58. New modern drones to replace the attack B.I.R.D. scouts in mission 7 & 8 as it's less confusing for the player. The game will still have drones disguised as birds that the player can pilot, but the exploding rewired drones are now more recognizable as drones.
59. Decreased the amount of exploding drones in Mission 8 to lessen potential player frustration. The amount of drones will remain the same as before however if playing on the "Hard" difficulty setting.
60. Pressing spacebar during navigation of the personal computer inside the caravan no longer exits the system. The system can now only be exited by pressing escape or by selecting the on-screen exit button within the system, or using them start/select buttons on gamepad.
61. Fixed some issues with stealth foliage near Mission 1 Wave 1 enemy hideout disappearing at distances of 75 meters.
62. Decreased volume of "Mission Complete" explosion sound. [Potentially heart-attack causing.]
63. Fixed a critical issue that could cause asynchronous detail loading zones in the outskirts of the terrain to double spawn items if the player drives into the zone with a vehicle instead of walking.
64. Fixed scale of elephant in Zone F near the fishing zone to be more realistic.
65. Optimized loading screen memory footprint during gameplay.
66. Fixed small issue that might sometimes cause commands to not be recognized in the online stock market if player exits and re-enters the app using the PC.
67. Fixed issue causing a disembodied enemy conversation loop if the player loads a save game inside the camp during a battle in the Mission 1/Wave 2 poacher encounter.
68. Improved quality of the bed model used inside the caravan for sleeping in-between missions.
69. Fixed a critical edge case issue that would cause certain game triggers to not work properly if atmospheric fog is disabled via the options menu.
70. Improved character #4 arm material.
71. Improved poacher camo beret rendering quality.
72. Experimental feature can now disable head bobbing by using a cheatcode in the main menu. [Available through discord.]
73. Numerous code refactoring operations for best performance as well as project maintenance, and also a few things I don't want to mention for sake of spoilers.


[h3]V0.8.7 Controller-Support Update Notes[/h3]
[These only apply when using a controller, otherwise the game functions as before with the Keyboard/Mouse setup] 74. Controller-support stability improvements.
75. Shops and crafting tables menus can now be exited by pressing "B" instead of only back or select.
76. When using a controller, the pause menu can now be toggled on and off using the menu/start button itself, as well as being able to close the menu with the back button as before.
77. Fixed some issues with buttons not always auto selecting when buying from shop with controller.
78. Changed action terms in the game to be input-device agnostic. I.E. instead of saying "Hold R Mouse for notepad" or "Hold Left Trigger for notepad" a universal language such as "Hold Aim for notepad" will be used. Currently only includes hold labels for swapping weapons, switching notepad & crafting as the majority of actions in the game are performed through minimalistic U.I.
79. Input rebinding for controller now lets players know to press "A" when on an action button to rebind the action.
80. Fixed an issue that caused player control bindings being bound to the playerprefs settings, causing player bindings to be reset every time a major update is made. This also includes a system to migrate previous bindings to the new system to that this update does not lose current bindings.
81. Changed audio-based controller vibration to not be triggered by radio transmissions.
82. Mini arcade game "Piet Of The Jungle" found inside shebeen can now be exited with back/select, or B instead of only being able to exit with the controller menu button.
83. Text in crafting menu and other modal windows now adjusts its content when a controller is connected for more context specific instructions.
84. Fixed issue that could cause the mouse cursor to never appear in the shop menu when a controller is connected.
85. All options menus can now be exited with the "B" button instead of having to navigate all the way down to the back button.

[h3]V0.8.7 Free Demo Version Update Notes[/h3]
86. Demo now updated to the latest 0.8.7 version of the game with all latest features.
87. Demo version now no longer contains the bonus Hippo Mission & secret "Noise Complaint" mission, as "Noise Complaint" now is only accessible at the end of the game and the hippo bonus is now only part of the main game to make the demo ever so slightly smaller as it already has a lot of free content.

V0.8.8 Future updates to look forward to!

• A new music radio station featuring top S.A. bands.
  
• A new bakkie garage for customizing your vehicle as well as upgrading its performance.
  
• More achievements to discover.
  
• New bonus missions to complete for XP, points, money as well as further achievements.
  
• Bakkie racing as well as new racing tracks for Ostrich racing.
  
• Race courses such as bakkie or ostrich racing will soon all have their own separate leaderboards, allowing users across the globe to compete for the best times on each individual race.
  
• Further improvements to enemy A.I. and cover finding.
  
• A new improved game introduction.
  
• New improvements to the game tutorial.
  
• New randomized contract missions for endless gameplay.
  
• A new main menu and character selection screen.
  
• Game fixes, optimizations and much more!
  

Please report all bugs to the Discord or the Discussions forum on Steam.

It's been a long time I've done a substantial update to the public branch since November last year, but I've still been working as hard as always. Since the core game framework within the engine, [the game ecosystem engine within the Unity game engine] needed a migration to the new Unity Input System to allow true support for all gamepads and future Console releases within a single code base and new optimized event subscription based input vs Update based if(statement) polling.

The next update after this shall focus on content added to the game, while this update finally brings controller support to the main branch at the same time as major features including disk streaming based open world exploration and new wildlife entities.

[h3][/h3]

• 1. New full controller support, including haptic feedback and optional "Aim-Assist" mode as well as customizable controls for all gamepad buttons. (Still not tested on every single controller in the world, but stable enough to release out of Beta into Early Access public branch)
  
• 2. New weapon wheel for quickly selecting any of your available weapons without needing to remember the exact number. Also useful for controllers. Currently not bindable but can be open by pressing the mouse wheel when using mouse/keyboard or by using the d-pad when using a controller.
  
• 3. New asynchronous loading for terrain zones outside of the main reserve center to improve memory consumption by streaming in detail from the disk instead of loading everything into memory at once. Also allows much larger amounts of entities such as other animals to be a part of the game.
  
• 4. New animals friendly animal - Gazelles. These are semi endangered in the reserve, and not to be killed. Killing more than 5 will cause the mission to fail.
  
• 5. New dangerous animal: Crocodile, currently only one can be found near Waterfall #2, but is very dangerous and can be killed without consequence if it attacks you.
  
• 6. New improved glass shatter effect for vehicle windows when shot.
  
• 7. Optimized keyboard/mouse control scheme performance.
  
• 8. Improved NPC character texture quality inside shebeen.
  
• 9. Improved quality of dragging items when unarmed. (such as meat!)
  
• 10. Fixed issues with default settings on each option type not resetting.
  
• 11. Made options menus slightly less confusing with a few more concise labels.
  
• 12. Increased legibility of in-game graphics options menu.
  
• 13. Improved animation procedure for "Noise Complaint" side quest.
  
• 14. New safeguard to prevent player from being able to use a health kit when they are already at max health to prevent accidental wastage.
  
• 15. Fixed issue with meat stopping cooking too soon if extended cooking tactics are employed such as dropping the meat on the floor first or trying to burn both sides as evenly as possible. (For realism)
  
• 16. Improved lighting in final tunnel.
  
• 17. Fixed missing notepad info in 'Tutorial Part #2 / Hornet Mission' and other side-missions.
  
• 18. Optimized rhino & zebra rendering from large distances.
  
• 19. Improved loading screens, loading screens now only use actual screenshots of the game instead of concept art for a thorough consistency.
  
• 20. Added new DRM to prevent the game being played outside of Steam.
  
• 21. Added new infinite sprint mod to the mod menu. [Accessible via cheats, apply on Discord]
  
• 22. Large amounts of code refactoring through every single game module.
  
• 23. Fixed issue causing scope U.I. to remain on screen if you swap weapons with a pickup item while the scope is engaged as well as reloading at the same time. Extremely rare, but infuriating if it does happen. Resolved.
  
• 24. Fixed issues caused by exiting the vehicle while in third person driving mode, sometimes causing the next level to either load you inside the car even though you were not in it.
  
• 25. Fixed issue causing secret stashes to be infinitely respawnable when save/loading the game per mission.
  
• 26. Improved giraffe tail fur texture material.
  
• 27. Improved quality of save game thumbnail screenshots, in terms of when the screenshot is taken to prevent thumbnails being shots of the scoreboard more often than not.
  
• 28. Slight adjustments to final tunnel area lighting and collision geometry.
  
• 29. Fixed issue with flashlight causing foliage to "pop" in and out of lit/unlit states when playing on higher FOV settings.
  
• 30. Fixed issue causing master volume setting to be reset every time upon loading a new level or reloading the current scene.
  
• 31. Improved wandering algorithm for animals to prevent them from just standing still during mid gallop or trot.
  
• 32. Cursor now hidden during splash screen.
  
• 33. Fixed an issue with some assets including a shed popping in and out of view in specific areas when loading in near the delta zone of the reserve caused by a deadzone in the delta zone trigger.
  
• 34. Fixed issue with mouse cursor being able to escape into a second monitor during inventory screen, craft menu and other assorted pause menu-type scenarios if a second monitor is connected.
  
• 35. Cursor is now invisible in the beginning splash menu.
  
• 36. Fixed issue causing player position to not save/load inside Mission 9 tunnel.
  
• 37. Fixed some weird glass material issues found on certain Bulldozer type construction vehicles in Chapter 2.
  
• 38. Improved overlay for key binding for easier feedback as to when you are in fact re-binding a key or button.
  
• 39. Improved quality of door model inside warehouse during Mission 6 interior.
  
• 40. VSync is now enabled by default, to prevent screen tearing and also to prevent GPU overheating in interior scenes. Disable it if you find the game too slow, but should naturally cap the game at roughly 60FPS depending on your monitor.
  
• 41. Removed all deprecated internal functions for procedural generation, as the game will now be relying on hand crafted outskirts detail streamed in from disk for more reliable outer reserve foliage population and density.
  
• 42. Fixed an issue with loading the radio time when parsing float with invariant culture using System.Globalization on certain systems. Sometimes causing issues when loading older save games.
  
• 43. Added a 1-second buffer on tent pickup after placement to prevent the immediate appearance of the sleep menu.
  
• 44. Removed some redundant functions from shop keeper codebase for optimization purposes and clean workflow as well as preventing an extremely rare null reference exception case.
  
• 45. Fixed some beer bottles as well as a lantern that appeared to be floating slightly above the crates at the poacher camp zone in Mission 3.
  
• 46. Adjusted the armor amount to better match the color palette when it changes to green while wearing camouflage armor.
  
• 47. Fixed a number of floating inventory weapon items found in Mission 9 underground tunnel.
  
• 48. Fixed issue allowing inventory screen to be brought up while driving which allowed all sorts of other issues to become possible.
  
• 49. Fixed an issue where loading your game while in the vehicle would cause the game to load in the vehicle even if you didn't save while in the vehicle.
  
• 50. Refactored save game manager code to read the "Last Modified" DateTime directly from the save game files, instead of storing the save game times in the registry to prevent times from being reset when the PlayerPrefs are reset.
  
• 51. Added ability to interrupt sleeping during any time by pressing "Escape" during a sleep cycle initiated by bed or tent.
  
• 52. Added menu options for windowed mode or full screen mode.
  
• 53. Fixed an issue with jerky weapon movement when playing with VSync on higher-end PC's where the monitor refresh rate is much lower than the GPU's uncapped FPS.
  
• 54. As always, many other small fixes, improvements and polishes too numerous/minor to mention.
  

As always, a huge thank you to all my early access players as well as my pre-public early access Beta testers on Discord for your continued support and non-stop help in testing and bug-reporting the end to end polishing of the game and all it's systems. I appreciate you all endlessly.

Hi all! Due to numerous requests from Mac users, I have finally created a version of 'Poached' that can run on MacOS devices.

It is worth noting, that as of the time of writing Mac users only make up 1.43%-2.00% of all Steam users. Nonetheless, since I have been asked I am more than happy to provide.

The updates for MacOS might not be as frequent, and most likely I will push a major update to this branch for every 4-5 updates made to the PC version. Also baring in mind, that I am currently preparing for a console release possibly at the end of the year.

Before releasing it to the public as usual, I will conduct private beta tests with a small group of roughly 20-30 users, if you are a Mac user and would like to get involved please get in touch with me via discord via https://discord.gg/HZh8kXt8QNor simply email me at [email protected]


In other news, as the controller support is finally wrapping up - I am happy to announce that the next phase of development is going to be the translation of the game into various localized languages, including store page, U.I. as well as all subtitles for in-game spoken radio communication and mission briefings. More info on this to follow soon.

Happy hunting!

- Twelv