Unturned News

TL;DR Workshop items will need some time to update, but the game should be more stable.



For a while Unturned has been using version 5.5 of the Unity engine (from 2016), but it's come time to upgrade. In recent years Unity has made stability a higher priority, and have been updating a "long term support" LTS version. The game is now upgraded to this 2017.4 LTS version.

While not particularly glamorous, some of the primary motivations are:

• Taking advantage of newer optimizations in the engine.
  
• Removing workarounds for old unity bugs which will help improve performance.
  
• Supporting the Metal graphics API for Macs now that Apple has deprecated OpenGL.
  
• Fixing many longstanding issues and crashes, and continuing to get the LTS fixes going forward.
  

The downside is that workshop content will need to be upgraded to this new Unity version as well. I don't take this lightly, this engine transition has been in the works on and off since early 2018 and I don't want it to be painful for devs, so I've worked to make is as easy as possible detailed below.

If you want to continue playing some workshop mods that haven't been updated yet, you can opt-into the previous version (3.27.2.1) from Unturned > Properties > Betas > unity-5.5. This older version will remain available indefinitely similar to the antique and classic branches.



For mappers:

Maps with a /Bundles folder will be detected by the game as requiring an engine update, but other maps without custom content are unaffected.

For translators:

Translations and localization are not affected by the engine update.

For content creators:

Good news: there's a new tool to make bulk-exporting the .unity3d asset bundles much faster. I've updated all of the vanilla content to use this new system so I had to go through it as well, and Vilespring was kind enough to update all of the France bundles.

I've written up a guide which explains in-depth how to transition your content from 5.5 to 2017.4 LTS. Feel free to post questions and I'll update it accordingly!

Unity Upgrade Guide

For programmers:

The LTS version experimentally supports .NET 4.6 which seems to be working correctly in vanilla and rocketmod plugins, but this may be rolled back if unfixable issues related to it pop up.



Incredibly, the majority of issues in the initial update were caused by the use of decimal points vs commas. Due to a change in how .NET read fractional numbers, all of them were set to 0 for players in cultures that use commas! Reverting this should have fixed the water, icons, gun stats, etc.

Holiday cheer is in the air! Everyone aboard the Liberator has dressed up for the occasion and put up their decorations. Snow has built up in a few locations were you can now make snowballs.



Across PEI, Washington and Russia, someone (maybe the zombies?) has put up ornamental trees with presents underneath. They may have gifted you some high-tier weaponry! Holiday gift presents are now dropping as well, so you may find yourself with a few festive outfits in your inbox soon.



There may be subsequent passes based on your feedback to these changes, but the goals for this update were:

• Horde beacons were an incredibly effective source of endgame items for large groups, but now have diminishing returns. By requiring a detonator, detonators now have an economy sink.
  
• Machine guns that damaged bases with low caliber ammunition were too powerful, and in general damage against bases is lower.
  
• Metal elements are significantly more worthwhile to build, while charges still feel effective against wooden bases. Requiring multiple charges to destroy a single wooden wall felt frustrating, but that may be adjusted later.
  
• By reducing the availability of raiding equipment the default base armor multipliers hopefully can stay similar, but if needed the default values will be further tuned.
  

Additions:

• Accepted several new time-limited skins to the stockpile from the curated workshop.
  
• Added separate low and high-tier armor multipliers for buildables. Metal and bricks qualify as high-tier, and now have 2x effective health.
  
• Added freeform glass plates craftable from glass windows. [IDs 892-894]
  
• Added support for explanation message to server shutdown notice.
  
• Added compatibility warnings for future workshop items using 2017.4 LTS.
  
• Added weak grenade throw to secondary attack, and Strong_Throw_Force [1100], Weak_Throw_Force [600] and Boost_Throw_Force_Multiplier [1.4] to per-throwable configs. Previous throw force was 750 with a 2x boost multiplier.
  

Tweaks:

• Tweaked Nykorev, Hell's Fury and Dragonfang to only take highcal ammo, and their buildable damage slightly lower.
  
• Tweaked Ekho, Matamorez, Grizzly and Timberwolf buildable damage slightly lower.
  
• Tweaked horde beacon drops to scale by the square root of number of participants, rather than linearly. For example 2 players get ~1.41x, 3 players get ~1.73x.
  
• Tweaked horde beacon blueprint to require sacrificing a detonator.
  
• Tweaked to require text confirmation when salvaging items unless CTRL is held. Previously only Mythical items required confirmation.
  
• Tweaked rich text chat to not fade out.
  
• Disabled movement clamps in editor.
  
• Defaulted workshop server filter to on.
  

Fixes:

• Fixed checking buildables you were already overlapping when mounting ladder.
  
• Fixed climbing on explosive charges.
  
• Fixed one-sided cliffs in PEI pirate caves.
  
• Fixed snowdrift collision desync.
  
• Fixed placing multiple structures at the same location at the same time.
  

Edit: BattlEye released an update shortly after 3.27.2.0, so Unturned included it in an 8mb patch for 64-bit Windows. This patch is optional and did not increase the version number.

Paris is lovely this time of year.





Relax in a cozy private villa... after clearing it of infected.





Remember to bring warm clothes for the blizzarding weather.





This oughta warm you up again!



Now available in-game, France is a curated map that's been under development for over a year now by the talented team of long-term modders Vilespring, SluggedCascade, Renaxon and paper_walls84. This has been a labor of love for them, a passion project that they continued polishing until they felt it was perfect - originally slated for the end of August, they delayed it to continue adding that extra touch.

France is also the first map to take advantage of several features added for it during its early development. For example, having both snow and temperate climates in different regions across the map.

If you would like to support this team's work consider checking out the France bundles on the Stockpile here: View NEW France Items



They've also put together a quick teaser overview of the map here: View France Map Trailer



Additions:

• Added MasterBundleTool.cs to Sources/Tools/ and converted Hawaii + Greece to use it.
  
• Added Only_Critical_Stuns mode config option which only stuns zombies when back-stabbing or power-attacking.
  
• Added per-magazine Ballistic_Damage_Multiplier option.
  
• Added Infinite_Ammo: true/false option for turrets.
  
• Added Tire_ID option for cars to require specific tire item.
  

Tweaks:

• Tweaked zombie stun overrides to work for guns.
  
• Tweaked crafting button placement and disabled label.
  
• Tweaked vanilla maps to enforce object hash.
  
• Tweaked umbrellas to only take effect after fully equipping.
  

Fixes:

• Fixed out-of-bounds check in rounded level corners.
  
• Fixed kill volumes when player armor multiplier is < 1, and for vehicle passengers.
  
• Fixed out-of-level zombies.
  
• Fixed stuck getting back into menu when featured workshop description was misformatted.
  
• Fixed logging into server at the same time as dying.
  

Sometime before the end of January 2019 I will need to update Unturned to Unity 2017.4 LTS. When that happens, the new version will be available on a beta branch for a couple weeks before transition to the default release branch.

Unfortunately this will have the side effect of requiring workshop content to be re-bundled using the new version of Unity, so to make that a less painful process as well as for performance improvements I've introduced a new feature: Master Bundles

Master Bundles allow content (textures, meshes, audio, etc) for multiple game assets to be bundled at the same time, rather than into individual .unity3d files. (This is probably how it should have been in the first place, but anyway...) While slower to build, they have the benefit of updating many bundles at once, and are more RAM-efficient because any common files between the bundles are shared rather than duplicated.

When Unturned finds a MasterBundle.dat file it will assume all child folders are using this bundle with paths relative to the .dat file, unless Exclude_From_Master_Bundle is specified in the individual asset .dat file. For an example of this, check out the Greece/Bundles and Hawaii/Bundles folders.

Another effect of this change is that it will be easier to separate some maps from the game to free up space for more future maps. Specifically, I'm planning to move Hawaii + Germany and then Greece + Cyprus, to the workshop rather than in the main download in a future update. All Germany assets will continue to be bundled with the game, only the map itself will be moved. Hawaii and Greece assets will be available as a separate download on the workshop for maps which would like to add them as a dependency.

Trying out this feature at least for the performance benefits is definitely encouraged. Simply copy MasterBundleTool.cs and MasterBundleHelper.cs to your Assets/Editor folder. Let me know if you run into any issues! Note that per-platform bundles (multiplatform checkbox) are supported in-case of special shaders, but generally shouldn't be needed.

Halloween gift presents are dropping, decorations are up and costumes are on - the annual Halloween event is back from the grave! This year also sees the addition of several holiday-related tools for creators. For example you can add Halloween decorations to the main version of your map and they'll be automatically updated, setup timed costumes for NPCs and use holiday conditions for quests/items/etc currently added for items like the Festive Barbed Wire.



Additions:

• Added Instakill_Headshots True option to Timberwolf, Grizzly and Ekho which will pass through helmet armor when Allow_Instakill_Headshots is enabled on servers.
  
• Added Drops_Table_ID, Drops_Min and Drops_Max options for vehicle asset scrap/explosion rewards.
  
• Added Holiday condition type with Halloween value used for main menu decorations, NPC costumes and some craftable items.
  
• Added Holiday_Restriction for objects and Halloween versions of some, now used for annual Liberator festivities.
  
• Added SpotLight_Range, SpotLight_Angle, SpotLight_Intensity and SpotLight_Color options for all light items.
  
• Added Allow_Flesh_Fx to disable blood effects per melee weapon.
  
• Added Allow_Crafting option to level's Config.json.
  

Tweaks:

• Tweaked arena mode to pick random players in-case map has less spawns than clients.
  

Fixes:

• Fixed guns to verify item asset hash when attaching them. [Thanks MoNTiN]
  
• Fixed some mistakes in the foundation placement overlap test. [Thanks Kylie]
  
• Fixed taking fall damage after accidentally dequiping parachute slightly above ground.
  
• Fixed hits against falling players sometimes getting rejected.
  
• Fixed sanity check that player isn't already seated in vehicle. [Thanks Leitt]
  
• Fixed replicating newly respawned items. [Thanks lvlbgn]
  

Additions:

• Added Weapons_Use_Player_Damage config options which causes weapons to cause the same damage to zombies and animals as they would to players. This raises the difficulty a bit on hard mode.
  
• Added onServerSpawningItemDrop and onDropItemRequested events for plugins to prevent certain items from being dropped.
  
• Added zombie backstab damage multiplier config option.
  

Tweaks:

• Tweaked space requirements when logging in.
  
• Tweaked to log which item caused a useable exception.
  
• Tweaked workshop item allowed IPs list to treat IPs after '-' as blacklist.
  

Fixes:

• Fixed a rare disconnect when exiting or dying in a vehicle partway through input tick.
  
• Fixed unplayable roof intersection in House #01.
  
• Fixed replanting dead trees between arena rounds.
  
• Fixed claim flags on vehicles not doing anything.
  
• Fixed misconfigured serverside version of jail door.
  

If you have any Razer Chroma enabled devices, try adding -RazerChroma to the command line options to test out game integration! A few days ago they asked if I'd be interested in adding support, and sent over a couple test devices. It was quick and fun to do, and features stuff like the reload key fading from green to red or everything flashing white when you're flashbanged. I'm curious to hear if you have any suggestions/ideas on this.