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Contacts Update

[h2]Contact System[/h2]

We've added a new system for keeping track of the players you interact with.

You'll find a new tab on your inventory screen which will open the contacts panel. From there you'll be able to use the various controls to flag a player as either friendly or enemy. This will change how their name tag shows up when you encounter them in the world. Players are automatically added to the 'seen' category if you've been in close proximity for several seconds.

Any player who kills you will be added to your Enemy list.



You can select any contact from the list and filter by category (friendly/seen/enemy) as well as assign a contact to a category.

Binoculars have also received a buff, and will allow you to see a colored pip above players indicating if they are an enemy or a friend.



There is a rudimentary reputation system in the works which will very slightly shade your nametag either blue or red based on how likely you are to kill on sight. This system is a work in progress and will be expanded upon in the future.

Any server can disable the contacts system with the convar relationshipmanage.contacts false

The nametag system has also changed and you can now display your name plate at long distances to anyone you are looking at by using the 'wave' gesture. We hope this will allow players to avoid killing other 'friendly' players and grant the ability to signal your intentions.



As for the majority of hardcore rust players who kill everyone on sight anyway, you may as well pretend this system does not exist as it will not affect you. However for those less inclined to destroy and kill every living thing that passes infront of them. This system might help you find some like-minded players to team up with.


[h2]Wire Colour Coding[/h2]

This was suggested on Reddit and we all felt like it was a good idea so I added the ability to colour code your electrical wires and hoses this month.



Simply hold Reload while holding the Wire Tool/Hose Tool to select which colour you’d like to use.


[h2]Demo Shot System[/h2]

This month we’re adding the first iteration of a more advanced feature set for viewing and manipulating demos. This has primarily been built to improve our internal production tools, but considering the rich and diverse community of Rust content creators out there we’d love for this to be a tool that all of you can use.

Once you load a demo with “demo.hud” turned on, you’ll see a variety of new options including a shot manager and scrubbable timeline. Pressing the ALT key at any time will switch control between the demo UI and debug camera.

You can now create and manage 'shots' within demos, which are individual recordings of camera motion as well as properties such as FOV and DOF. These shots can then be played back in-sync with the demo scene.


To create a shot, simply press the “New Shot” button, give it a name and then hit record - your live camera movement will now be recorded. To end a shot recording, press the Escape key.

For added management, shots can be sorted into folders, moved between folders, renamed and deleted all from the in-game interface. Folders can also be renamed/deleted by right clicking on them in the shot list.

This current shot system is the first stage of a comprehensive cinematic toolset we’ve planned out. Our goal for the future is to expand on this system by adding features such as keyframe editing, redubbing elements of shots post-recording, UI for modifying world conditions (eg. weather, time of day) and export options so you can render your shots into actual video or image files.

Are you making videos in Rust? Let us know how this tool can help you!


[h2]AI[/h2]

The first phase of the AI rework is finished and it replaces multiple different AI systems across different game locations with a single new one.

Making changes to an established game as big and complex as Rust is scary, especially due to the multiplayer nature, so there's bound to be some initial bugs. Please report anything you find and I'll get it fixed.

The advantages of having everything running on one AI system are numerous, the main one being it should be easier to keep the AI updated going forwards. New features will be easier to add, and they will work across all of the AI, and not just for AI in certain areas or specific monuments.

So whilst there's still plenty more to come in this area, there are already some new features such as animal packs to look out for.


[h2]Rust+ IFTTT[/h2]

Rust+ now works with IFTTT! You'll be able to connect Rust to other apps, services, and devices through IFTTT to automate all kinds of tasks. For example, all of the deep sleepers who wanted Rust+ to have a louder alarm can now connect Rust's smart alarms to your actual smart home alarm, your bedroom lights, and other services which support IFTTT.

The IFTTT integration depends on having Rust+ set up on your phone so you can pair your Rust servers - so if you aren't using it already, install the Rust+ app on your phone! Once you're all set up with Rust+ you'll need to create or sign into your IFTTT account and head over to the Rust service page on IFTTT where you can link Rust+ to IFTTT and then build applets.



The current IFTTT integration does not support controlling smart switches at the moment - this is something we're looking into supporting in the future.


[h2]Updated Animals[/h2]

The animals in Rust have sucked for far too long. They stand out more than ever now with the team dropping the amazing world revamp last month.

We've updated them with brand new models and materials, as well as a fuzzy fur shader for the longer bits of hair. This gets culled beyond LOD0 so we don't anticipate a big hit on performance - in fact, in the process of updating we discovered each model had a lot of redundant bones which we've stripped out!



Along with the new models came the arduous task of updating rigs, skinning & animation.

Some animals proved more challenging than others as the updated models correct issues in proportions of the previous models, which meant changing bone placements.

Creating new controller rigs for the whole suite of animals would of increased the workload by months & also meant every single existing animation would have needed to be replaced just to get things functional.

I decided to try and force the current rigs into submission for any animation updates, although as mentioned all redundant bones have been removed. The idles took quite a while to get something natural, but are a big improvement on what we have. I've also updated walks & some runs where possible, but this really is a baseline to build upon.

I'll be looking to update more anims like attacks/cycles, and once the ai becomes more advance we can hopefully increase their motives/goals/states and I can start to add more animations to support this. There are also current issues with some of the code-based turn movement as well which I'd really like to improve and have a greater degree of control over.

[h2]Improvements & Fixes Highlights[/h2]

Procgen Improvements & Fixes: Multiple Improvments & fixes To Procgen Generation

Tree Minigame: Improved tree X markers positioning

Solar Panel Update: Updated Solar Panel model


[h2]Twitch Drops[/h2]

No Twitch drops this month, they'll resume in July.


[h2]Hapis Island[/h2]

This has been a frequently asked question, as mentioned last month: Due to the huge world revamp Hapis Island is currently removed from the map pool while Petur works on bringing the map up to date with the new visuals.

No update on this as of yet but progress is being made.

[h2]Changelist[/h2]

  • New Demo shot system
  • Contact system
  • Rust+ IFTTT integration
  • Fixed certain monuments sometimes spawning partially underwater
  • Fixed terrain height artifacts that were causing extreme slopes on certain seeds
  • Fixed edge case where tunnel entrance would not connect to tunnel network
  • Fixed tunnel network gap when two stations were spawned right next to each other and a tunnel tried to cross them
  • Fixed harbors and fishing villages spawning at ridiculous slopes
  • Fixed edge case that could make rivers overlap each other
  • Fixed being able to break Injured animation by playing a gesture
  • Fixed demos over an hour not displaying time correctly in the demo list
  • Fixed being able to shoot over a ledge while in a beach chair at extreme height differences
  • Fixed some headgear blocking vision while injured (Lunar New Year masks, NVG goggles, etc)
  • Fixed M39 viewmodel sometimes ejecting two shells every shot
  • Sleeping players will no longer blink
  • Fixed some potential gib errors when destroying bases (likely resulting in a disconnect)
  • Fixed Storage Monitor bounds, often causing LOS to fail resulting in not sending the paring notification to app
  • Don't spawn harbors in tight places where they end up adjusting the coastline opposite to them (looks bad, leads to glitchy topologies)
  • Full rewrite of monument prefab prioritization when determining their spawn locations and which monuments not to spawn if there isn't enough space for all of them
  • Changed giant excavator monument to default priority
  • Changed mining_quarry_c monument to default priority
  • Can now press Reload to change the colour of placed electrical wires and hoses
  • Added a tooltip when first using a grenade to explain the controls
  • Prevented tree X markers from travelling too far down the tree
  • Ladder hatches that hit a vehicle while opening will now cancel their animation (like regular doors)
  • Allow gestures to be used while mounted on Secretlab chair
  • Reduced road vehicle wrecks to lessen the impact on roadside junkpiles
  • Improved small battery placement
  • Small battery can now be rotated before deployment
  • Small battery can now be deployed on tables / boxes
  • Censorplayerlist now enabled by default on servers
  • Rock colliders improved, still requires continued work
  • Icelakes not generating on procedural maps - this will be fixed in July's update.
  • Bone error in SkeletonProperties - this is a harmless server warning which can be ignored. We're investigating the cause.

Rust may be getting more underwater environments, voice DLC

The world of Rust is going underwater, and there might be more to explore in the depths than previously thought. The survival game's submarines are still in development, and it's been suggested you could use them to find a lair of some sort.


In their latest video, Rust content creator Shadowfrax discusses the progress that developer Facepunch Studios has been making on the subs. Single and two-person variations are in the works, and aside from moving smoothly through water, they'll offer better visibility when you're in them. As exciting as exploring Rust's seas and oceans might seem already, Shadowfrax noted mention of a "compound underwater" among the dev logs, for the test server.


We've no other context, but don't be surprised if diving down leads you to a base or other someone wanted kept secret. Later in the video, upcoming DLC is talked about, and right now, all signs point to something audio, associated with the term "voiceprops". Rust's DLC has stretched the gamut of additional wares, though Shadowfrax suggests this might involve the telephone system is some form or other.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Rust's May update features its biggest visual upgrade ever

Dying Light gets a crossover with survival game Rust

Rust's April Update adds gestures, poker tables, and Twitch drops

World Revamp

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[h2]A Whole New World[/h2]

This month Rust has received a huge visual update, the biggest to date! From new terrain, trees, rocks, cliffs, decor, grass, monument reworks and so much more.

This is the culmination of work by several people that took place on and off over the last couple of years. It greatly improves how the game feels and gives it a fresh look.



Most of the new visuals were developed alongside the transition of the game to the High Definition Render Pipeline of Unity (HDRP) that we subsequently dropped after unsatisfactory performance results. We didn’t want to waste the efforts made to make the game look better during that time and ported them to the current version of the game instead.







We also took the opportunity in the last two months leading up to this update to fix a vast amount of long-standing issues revolving around monuments, world procedural generation, and exploits.

For example, you'll find cliffs, road, terrain, river generation much improved.

We re-worked some monuments completely such as the Junkyard, Satellite dish and integrated many of them inside the procedurally generated world more seamlessly than before. For example, you'll now see larger monuments and hubs now have bespoke subway tunnel entrances within their perimeter.







When it comes to performance, we did our best to keep the current status quo or improve upon it in some areas of the game. But since this update adds more content than it removes, we do not expect a major improvement in performance overall.



The Bandit Town is known for one if not the worst performance area, and this gave us the perfect opportunity to address this. We reduced the number of NPCs, reduced the forest density and completely remodelled the huts.

This is only touching the surface of changes, and you'll find many more changes and new additions while playing.


[h2]Junkyard Revamp & Crane[/h2]

The Junkyard monument has received a complete overhaul, our original vision just didn't work out as well as we hoped. Once we adding flight into Rust it only made things worse. The revamp should hopefully resolve all the commonly complained about issues and make it a hotspot for action.



Not only did the Junkyard receive a complete overhaul we've also added a driveable crane that can pick up vehicles and drop them in the shredder located at the centre of the yard. Dropping cars into the shredder will yield scrap.



- Moving the crane too far away from the Junkyard will destroy the crane


[h2]Bush Displacement[/h2]

Since the HDRP content backport comes with much nicer foliage, we noticed during playtesting that bushes got in the way when building a base a lot more than with the old foliage. To counteract this, bushes are now removed when building on top of them. Of course bushes won't be gone forever and will automatically respawn in suitable locations around the map.

This uses the same system as trees, which guarantees that a nice and even coverage across the map will be preserved and we don't end up with large areas that don't have any bushes at all.


[h2]Nvidia Reflex[/h2]

Nvidia Reflex is now available! Reflex can be enabled via the options menu for all Nvidia users using GeForce GTX 900 Series or newer. Enabling Reflex has shown up to 38% reduced input latency within Rust.




[h2]Improvements & Fixes Highlights[/h2]

Mounted Gestures
Gesture while on horses, boats, seats, etc

Alt Look
Restored 3rd person feedback when a player is alt looking

Poker Table
Multiple poker table fixes and improvements

Bandit Camp Recycler
Due to popular demand the Bandit camp now has an extra recycler

Hitch & Trough Improvments
Doubled health recovered by horses and decay time reset after eating food

Junkyard Carlift
Public carlift can now be used at the revamped Junkyard

Check out the changelog for more changes.


[h2]Server Changes[/h2]

As of this update, the servers that were moved temporarily due to the fire at the OVH datacenter in Strasbourg have now been moved to a permanent home, we'll be moving all the player blueprints etc. over so the affected servers may be delayed by a few minutes starting back up.

The following EU servers have moved to new IP:

  • Facepunch EU3 - 51.210.222.140:28015
  • Facepunch EU4 - 51.210.222.140:28020
  • Facepunch EU Small 1 - 51.210.222.140:28025
  • Facepunch EU Large 1 - 51.210.222.141:28015
  • Facepunch EU5 - 51.210.222.141:28020
  • Facepunch EU Softcore 1 - 51.210.222.142:28015
  • Facepunch EU Softcore 2 - 51.210.222.142:28020
  • Facepunch EU11 - 51.210.222.218:28015
  • Facepunch EU12 - 51.210.222.218:28020
  • Facepunch EU Small 2 - 51.210.222.219:28015
  • Facepunch EU Small 3 - 51.210.222.219:28020
  • Facepunch EU Small 4 - 51.210.222.219:28025
  • Facepunch EU13 - 51.210.222.220:28015
  • Facepunch EU14 - 51.210.222.220:28020
  • Facepunch EU Small 9 - 51.210.222.220:28025
  • Facepunch EU17 - 51.210.222.221:28015
  • Facepunch EU18 - 51.210.222.221:28020
  • Facepunch EUS10 - 51.210.222.221:28025
  • Facepunch EU Softcore 3 - 51.210.222.222:28020
  • Facepunch EU Softcore 4 - 51.210.222.222:28025
  • Facepunch EU Softcore 5 - 51.210.222.222:28015


Please note due to these servers moving they'll no longer display within your history or favourites list.


[h2]Hapis Island Temporary Removed[/h2]

Due to the huge world revamp Hapis Island is currently removed from the map pool while Petur works on bringing the map up to date with the new visuals. We expect these changes will be completed within a few weeks, we'll keep you updated on Hapis Island progress.

Facepunch Hapis Islands servers will stay online but will now run a procedural map for the time being.

[h2]Twitch Drops[/h2]

Starting from today till May 13th 18:00UTC Twitch drops are enabled for Rust Twitch streamers. You can earn special and unique skins simply by watching your favourite Rust Twitch streamers.

We've teamed up with Abe, Tacularr, Spoon kid, Shiphtur, PeterParkTV, Masayoshi,imPheetus, Enardo, Brit, Big Chase, Berne and Fuslie to bring you special unique drops which can only be earned by watching their channels.


Learn more at twitch.facepunch.com

[h2]Community Map Making Contest[/h2]

Later this month in the community update post we'll be announcing details for the first community map-making contest. If you're interested keep an eye out!

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
  • New generation cliff placement and cliff visuals
  • New terrain visuals
  • New terrain clutter visuals
  • New terrain foliage visuals
  • New cliffs and rocks visuals
  • New roadside junkpiles
  • New forest populations
  • New Satellite Dish Monument
  • New Junkyard monument
  • New workshop scene
  • New ice sheets visuals and spawn rules
  • New young and dead pine tree variants
  • Updated Sewer Branch monument
  • Updated Dome monument visuals and puzzle
  • Updated Trainyard monument middle and north sections for improved cover/flow, better visuals
  • Updated all monuments road connections to procedural roads to be more seamless
  • Larger monuments and hubs now have bespoke subway tunnel entrances within their perimeter
  • Biome dependant foliage, foliage at monuments will display the right type for the biome they are in
  • Updated colliders of large hero trees in the swamps to be more accurate, easier to build around
  • Fixed areas of the Military Tunnels not inflicting any radiation
  • Fixed several monuments sometimes being flooded
  • Fixed a large amount of stairs colliders that were stee-through but not shoot-through
  • Fixed puzzle bypasses at Trainyard
  • Fixed a large amount of 'low object quality settings' visual exploits around monuments
  • Fixed the 'red pipe of death' at Launch Site, where velocity could kill you
  • Fixed Launch Site south puzzle door exploit
  • Fixed exploit where you could jump inside vents at various monuments to gain peak advantage
  • Fixed some props that allowed exploitable one way shooting (oilrig in particular)
  • Fixed getting stuck inside Outpost/Compound decor by the way of roofs
  • Fixed an issue whereby dropping items on the floor in Water Treatment Plant would not let you pick them up
  • Fixed an exploit at Water Treatment Plant allowing to skip green card puzzle steps
  • Fixed Out of Bounds/fly hack violations issues around Water Treatment Plant sewer tunnels
  • Fixed Out of Bounds/fly hack violations issues inside Launch Site tunnels happenning on certain seeds
  • Fixed exploits at both oilrigs whereby players would swim up pipes to gain advantage
  • Fixed being unable to harvest trees around some monuments
  • Fixed Giant Excavator mining the wrong resource when mining Metal Fragments
  • Fixed dropped items falling into Bandit Camp shop keepers cabins
  • Roadside props LOD distances now cull later, preventing revealing players hiding behind them
  • Extended cover props LOD distances at Airfield to ensure players remain hidden behind them
  • Various fixes for poker gameplay
  • Electrical counter font size now scales smaller when the number doesn't fit
  • When dismounting the Work Cart train seat, sometimes the player's view angle would be incorrect. This is now fixed
  • Fixed horse trough sometimes not affecting decay time when a horse eats from it
  • Fixed belt items sometimes being visible in a players hand even if the item wasn't equipped
  • Fixed tree billboards sometimes getting stuck and sticking around forever
  • Fixed first person lights/particle effects still being visible when gesturing
  • Improved procedural terrain generation, ring road generation also improved as a result
  • Improved terrain grass displacement
  • Improved dynamic foliage to reduce floating over terrain
  • Improved lighting volumes inside Military Tunnels, no more shadow clip in the distance
  • Improved distant LODs for Oilrigs
  • Improved lighthouse visuals at night
  • Improved monuments 'fading' into procedural map, better looking player paper map visuals
  • Improved a large amount of colliders around which gun fight occurs whereby bullets were blocked before
  • Improved visuals at Bandit Camp
  • Optimized decor at Bandit Camp
  • Most of static art now uses shadow proxies for improved performance
  • Harbors only spawn on mainland
  • Bushes hide when building on top of them
  • Poker players are no longer obliged to show their hand at the end of the round unless they're the winner in a showdown. Anyone can optionally show their hand by pressing R
  • It's not possible to still see what cards you had after you've folded
  • Can now use gestures while mounted (with some exceptions)
  • Restored 3rd person feedback when a player is alt looking
  • Improved tree and bush billboards
  • Improved visuals for fallen logs and wood stump pickups
  • Improved contact shadows settings, enabling will no longer create black outlines around grass

Rust's May update features its biggest visual upgrade ever

A new month is bringing us a new Rust update, and this one looks to be especially pretty. The Rust May update features the game's biggest graphical upgrade ever, and a few other notable changes, including a big Junkyard overhaul, more convenient landscaping, and - as ever - a swath of bug fixes.


Rust's visual update is its "biggest to date," developer Facepunch says in a press release. "This is the culmination of work by the team over the last couple of years. It greatly improves how the game feels and we think gives it a fresh look." This update also revamps how monuments generate inside the procedural world for more seamless transitions between areas. Further details will be available on the official blog on May 6.


In addition to the broader reworks for monuments, the Junkyard has gotten a complete overhaul. Among other things, it's gotten a drivable crane, which you can use to drop vehicles in a shredder for scrap. (And, presumably, there will be more violent purposes for it, too.)


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Dying Light gets a crossover with survival game Rust

Rust's April Update adds gestures, poker tables, and Twitch drops

Rust fan remakes its original 'First Day' trailer, and it's spot-on