Voxel Eras News

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[h2]Update Discount![/h2][p]February 14th to February 23rd, grab Voxel Eras for 15% off![/p][p]I'll be continuing to keep Voxel Eras at its current price and discount price for the foreseeable future, and I'll announce in advance when and how that will change.[/p][p][/p][p]If you are waiting for the best deal, this is as good as it gets![/p][p]Thanks for supporting the game![/p][p][/p][p]Hey everyone :)[/p][p]It's been... 2 months since the last update. I keep aiming for 1 month but that never seems to quite turn out. Regardless of its tardiness, this update contains a bunch of fixes, improvements, and content additions![/p][p][/p][p]Starting out is the UI rework, which had the main goal of compacting the UI, making them wider instead of taller, improving readability, and of course, doubling the inventory size, which should make your inventory feel much less cramped. Below is a carousel of some them:[/p][carousel][/carousel][p][/p][p]Alongside the UI reworks, you'll also find 3 new machines! The Mixer and Sawmill help fill out the remainder of Clockwork crafters, while the Bellows adds a new twist to furnaces, allowing them to smelt twice as fast as well as converting them fully to Clockwork.[/p][p]Nothing is easy though, so you'll also find a new intermediate part, Machine Frames. Each tier has its own requirements for its given material. This simplifies building, while also allowing me to torture you preparation of materials via automation.[/p][p][/p][p]There are many more changes done, but I'll let the patch notes do the talking.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for the continued support, and I hope you enjoy the update! Let me know your thoughts here on the Steam Forums, the Discord, and, if you enjoyed it, maybe even a review? ;)[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Sawmill - A new machine to handle your wood cutting needs![/p]
• [p]Mixer - Mix it up with this blend of a good time![/p]
• [p]Bellows - The breaths of the Bellows barreling into blazing furnaces doubles their speed and converts them into Clockwork devices![/p]
• [p]Machine Frames - A new part used in machines, replacing some of their previous costs, with different tiers having different requirements in Pig Iron, Wrought Iron, Bronze, and Carbon Steel variants.[/p]
• [p]Priority Pipes - Pipes now have the ability to set a priority input and output.[/p]
• [p]Recipe Complexity - Recipes now have an associated "complexity" determining how quickly they craft. Recipe duration is now displayed in crafters as well.[/p]
• [p]3D Item Renders - Items which have an associated construct now render that construct, including within pipes. (SPINNY FURNACES, YIPPEEEE-)[/p]
• [p]Voxel Audio - A new audio system allowing much larger amounts of audio sources at much lower costs. These are now used for machine "running" sounds, with some added flair.[/p]
• [p]Mouse Invert setting for those who do that.[/p]
• [p]Experimental "Explosive"[/p]

• [p]Player Inventory size is now 80, up from 40.[/p]
• [p]Large UI Rework - The Build Menu is the center point, where like mentioned above, the inventory size has been doubled, and the UI format is now horizontal instead of vertical. This change has been applied to all machines and configuration UIs. Neutral, primary, secondary, tertiary, and accent slots now indicate some level of "relatedness / hierarchy".[/p]
• [p]Craftable Constructs - The Crate, Crude Furnace, Mortar and Pestle, Anvil, Pipes, Fast Pipes, Trash Can, Oak Door, and Torch now need to be crafted before placement instead of using raw resources.[/p]
• [p]Tooltips for Constructs, Recipes, and Items are improved / now available in various UI locations.[/p]
• [p]Pipe Filters and UI - Alongside their UI rework, pipes now have 5 filters, up from 3, as well as a togglable inventory pane and control changes.[/p]
• [p]Furnaces and Alloy Furnaces no longer "burnout" their remaining fuel when there is no recipe, it now stops burning immediately keeping its fuel costs consistent.[/p]
• [p]Shortened tutorial, removing the "head look" section as this was error prone and annoying.[/p]
• [p]Pipe and Fast Pipe now have their rate listed as 2 items / second, and 4 items / second respectively.[/p]
• [p]After clearing your pipette, flip mode is disabled (more natural and less error prone).[/p]
• [p]Mouse sensitivity has been lowered from a base of 0.2 to 0.125 degrees per pixel.[/p]
• [p]Clicking a "New" Era Menu entry that is currently selected will no longer close it, making it feel more "intuitive". Clicking it with no "New" is unchanged and will toggle it.[/p]
• [p]Era Menu completion now displays the icon alongside the existing name.[/p]
• [p]Reworked the Era menu entries to better fit the new additions and changes, as well as expanding the lore of the game to be a bit more of a thorn in your side.[/p]

• [p]Break Speed Increased - Plants 10 -> 15, Fragile 2.4 -> 3.1, Component 2 -> 2.8, Soft 1.6 -> 2.1, Machine 1.1 -> 1.4, Hard 0.9 -> 1.2, Inventory 0.7 -> 0.8 and Ore 0.4 -> 0.5.[/p]
• [p]Assembler Output - Recipes no longer benefit from a 2x bonus, as things double too often.[/p]
• [p]Bender Output - The Bender now doubles it's output.[/p]
• [p]Machine Costs - Many costs have now changed to include Machine Frames and are roughly the same total cost, some slightly less. Listing them all here would take an entire extra page.[/p]
• [p]Oak Planks now burn for 200 ticks, up from 100.[/p]
• [p]Oak Logs now burn for 800 ticks, up from 400.[/p]
• [p]The Winder and Winder Extension now transfer 50 energy / transfer, up from 5 and 1 respectively.[/p]
• [p]Winder Extension now has a max energy of 200, up from 50.[/p]
• [p]Vacuum, Planter, and Chopper now have a max energy of 200, up from 25.[/p]
• [p]Assembler, Bender, Grinder, Hammer, and Lathe now have a max energy of 400, up from 25.[/p]
• [p]Alloy Furnaces now allow non burnables to be insert into the inputs from the bottom, alongside their existing fuel from the bottom.[/p]
• [p]Grass Blades now cost 1 instead of 2 trimmings, with both grass blade variants dropping 100% instead of 25% of their cost.[/p]
• [p]Fast Pipes can no longer be hand crafted, and must be crafted in an Assembler.[/p]
• [p]A Thorn In Your Side requires fewer resources to complete.[/p]

• [p]Fixed multiplayer, whoops... Last minute update changes are bad.[/p]
• [p]Swapchain Recreation lag should be resolved, some software configs like to spam doing this (Wayland fullscreen).[/p]
• [p]Recipe "Raw Costs" now actually are the raw costs. Gaslight, gate keep, girl boss 💅 [/p]
• [p]Graphics card names no longer make the settings menu WIIIIIIDDDDE, instead being truncat...[/p]
• [p]Assemblers now count towards craft statistics.[/p]
• [p]Intel Arc cards should no longer look "fuzzy" (terrible) for all pixel art.[/p]
• [p]Entering a Direct IP without a port will now "fix it for you" like adding a server listing.[/p]
• [p]Hot reloading now functions in more cases, including when messaged by another voxel.[/p]

• [p]Lazy Machines - The major crafting machines have all moved to be "Lazy Machines". These only update when they have an event to do so, like finishing smelting, needing fuel, or having their inventory changed.[/p]
• [p]Pipe Rewrite - This was actually rewritten twice for this update, but pipes now act more similarly to Lazy Machines with some performance improvements alongside their new features.[/p]
• [p]MetaDataContainer read write performance has been improved.[/p]
• [p]Due to the above, the simulation runs 2x faster, networking bandwidth is now 1/6th previous (up to 1/12th if you're above 1x sim rate), with 10%+ higher frame rates. Best of luck![/p]
• [p]Loading speed for some setups should increase, especially under VSync or poor frame rate by up to 10x, assuming you're not bottle necked on the actual loading.[/p]

• [p]MetaData Debug - When enabled and looking at a voxel, it will show you its MetaData. Very useful.[/p]
• [p]Building Debug - When enabled, break speed is increased and constructs can be placed for free.[/p]
• [p]Vulkan Debug - Will reload the game when next possible with Vulkan debug messages enabled.[/p]
• [p]Many metadata names have been updated, removing the prefix of "State:". As these are used within the context of their usage this shouldn't break anything, but it can.[/p]
• [p]New APIs lazy_machine_on_event, lazy_machine_progress, and lazy_machine_fuel for the Lazy Machines.[/p]
• [p]New APIs with_complexity and recipe_complexity for setting complexity and retrieving it from RecipeBuilder and Arc respectively.[/p]
• [p]New APIs enter_sound, loop_sound, exit_sound, audio_group, sound_volume, sound_distance available on VoxelBuilder for Voxel Audio.[/p]
• [p]New RecipeBuilder API which more easily handles common cases.[/p]
• [p]New APIs horizontal_centered, label_centered, recipe_tooltip, construct_tooltip, and inventory_slot alternative for more UI options.[/p]
• [p]WIP PBRMaterial API, will be used in future versions for graphical improvements.[/p]
• [p]Lazy and LazyPipe are now called on inserting and pulling from inventories for the voxel itself and its neighboring pipes respectively.[/p]
• [p]Clockwork Drills are now Lazy Machines, with recipes being added for "crafting" ores.[/p]
• [p]Modding documentation (generated by running the game with --docs) has had styling removed to increase readability.[/p]
• [p]The engine now supports 8192 textures, up from 2048.[/p]
• [p]Unlock command change - Using "all" will now unlock everything. You cheater.[/p]
• [p]Deprecated RecipeBuilder's "simple" variant, as its too simple, requiring massive builder chains. The log now contains a deprecation notice and it will be removed in the future (eventually).[/p]
• [p]Added COUNT_UP, SCRAMBLE, and CENSOR text interpretations usable in the Era Menu via ${TYPE='VALUE'}. Currently unused.[/p]
• [p]New API message_nearby_delayed for mass sending messages to adjacent voxels to complete later.[/p]

• [p]Removed Copper Gear, Ring, and Screw, as these serve no real purpose and likely will never.[/p]
• [p]Removed Tin Gear and Tin Screw, as while these may have a purpose, they have no planned use.[/p]
• [p]Anisotropic Filtering has been removed for pixel art, as Intel Arc cards misbehave. This will be readded in a software implementation later.[/p]

• [p]When pipes are at full throughput, only 2/3rds of a pipe will be sent to the priority output due to pipe update order (won't always happen). This can be worked around with 2 priority pipes in a row merged back together or using a faster pipe at the junction.[/p]
• [p]When initially loading up an existing save, machines will run at the same time, causing occasional lag spikes until your world "balances out" the lazy machines.[/p]

[h2]Winter Sale / Update Discount![/h2][p]December 18th to January 5th, grab Voxel Eras for 15% off![/p][p]I'll be continuing to keep Voxel Eras at its current price and discount price for the foreseeable future, and I'll announce in advance when and how that will change.[/p][p][/p][p]If you are waiting for the best deal, this is as good as it gets![/p][p]Anyways, now that the bills are paid, onto the update.[/p][p][/p][p]I've got some new stuff for you in time for the holidays![/p][p][/p][p]I wanted this update to be the Steam Era update, but due to v1.3.2 taking longer than expected, and running out of time for v1.4 to have fluids (I wanted to have an update for the Steam Winter Sale), this update is instead part of a series of updates focused on evolving the Eras, an Era-lution if you will.[/p][p][/p][p]The centerpiece of this update is the reworked Era menu. I interchangeably call this a Tech Tree and Quest menu, as it's a guidebook that requires tasks to be completed with no resource cost, but it still locking recipes and constructs. It also serves as the way to unlock achievements! [/p][p]Lemme know what you think![/p][p](Yes, fragments of the Steam Era are in this update, no they do not function, mostly, but you can mess with the prototypes)[/p][p][/p][p]Anyways, I'm tired (it's 8am EST, I've been up all night finishing this before the Steam Winter sale), I'm probably going to take a bit of a break before the new year, and I hope you guys enjoy![/p][p][/p][h2]New[/h2]

• [p]New Era Menu, unlike the previous iterations this now requires effort to progress through, restricts crafting recipes, buildables, completes achievements, ect., with progression being shared between all players. Achievements are only provided if present when it's achieved.[/p]
• [p]Achievements! Get rewarded for your progress with a Steam achievement.[/p]
• [p]10 New Colored Concrete Blocks.[/p]
• [p]New Concrete crafting intermediate, made from Gravel and Sand in the Mortar and Pestle.[/p]
• [p]Clockwork Drill now displays energy level on the side.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Balance[/h2]

• [p]The Alloy Furnace's cost has been changed from 8 Stone, 4 Wrought Iron Plates, to 3 Concrete and 4 Carbon Steel Plates.[/p]
• [p]The Lamp's cost has been changed from 5 Wrought Iron Ingots to 2 Wrought Iron Plates[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Changes[/h2]

• [p]The v1.3 style "HUD text" tutorial has been dramatically shortened, now only doing basic input and then directing you to the Era menu,[/p]
• [p]Recipes and Constructs now need to be unlocked, which is done in the Era menu, this will likely cause your world to "not work" until you've completed them.[/p]
• [p]Save version v7 has been added, this adds statistics support.[/p]
• [p]Changes to chunks are now sent in subregions, dramatically improving bandwidth usage.[/p]
• [p]All networking traffic is now compressed with ZSTD, dramatically improving bandwidth usage.[/p]
• [p]The above networking improvements reduce bandwidth to ~10-15% of what it was previously, which isn't quite enough to get Steam P2P working, but gets my tests below 2-3mbps.[/p]

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• [p]Vulkan "Depth_Bounds" feature is no longer marked as needed, and VE should now run without it.[/p]
• [p]Free to build constructs can now be put in place, like they should be.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Removals[/h2]

• [p]Save version v5 has been removed, this was sunset in v1.3 for v6. You can use an older Steam beta branch to upgrade older saves to newer versions.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Modding[/h2]

• [p]New Bandwidth Estimation debug menu showing bytes sent / received for the client on a graph.[/p]
• [p]New Region Change debug menu which outlines the regions of space the client has received.[/p]
• [p]New Tech Tree debug menu, shows hidden tech entries.[/p]
• [p]New Reset Achievement debug setting, when saved checked will reset achievements.[/p]
• [p]Added VSCode code snippets to make writing modding easier (there are many still needed)[/p]
• [p]Added unlock APIs for creating new unlocks as well as unlocking them via GameState[/p]
• [p]Added statistics API for incrementing and retrieving a global counter. The Collect, Craft, and Place groups are used for the Era menu.[/p]
• [p]Many recipe and construct listing APIs have been modified, primarily to filter for unlocks[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• [p]Pipes are not able to be placed as you never unlock them This has been fixed if you run into it, please verify your games files (tiny, tiny update required)[/p]

[h2]Update Discount![/h2][p]November 28th to December 5th, grab Voxel Eras for 15% off![/p][p]I'll be continuing to keep Voxel Eras at its current price and discount price for the foreseeable future, and I'll announce in advance when and how that will change. [/p][p][/p][p]If you are waiting for the best deal, this is as good as it gets![/p][p]Anyways, onto the update.[/p][p][/p][p]It's been busy, busy, busy![/p][p]I've been spending a lot of time working on improving modding support, filling out machines, and generally just trying to make the game feel better to play.[/p][p][/p][p]I intended for this update to be v1.4 (the Steam Era update, sometime December), but instead I broke it into 2 updates, v1.3.2 and v1.4, since I had a lot of things I wanted to address while also having a slipping timeline.[/p][p][/p][p]Since development took longer than an engineer estimated (who could have guessed?), I'm falling behind and will need to cut my scopes a bit shorter for v1.4. I do want to still introduce the Steam Era with a holiday update before the end of 2025, so we'll see what I manage to put together between now and then.[/p][p][/p][p]I've got a bunch of things left on my growing todo list, so I'm hoping to eventually chop that down in early 2026 while I finish fixing up the biggest issues in the game engine left (multiplayer sync bandwidth, adding dedicated servers, lighting performance / quality).[/p][p][/p][p]So, thanks for your patience while I continue to work away on Voxel Eras! I'm looking forward to all the mods people will make - let me know on Discord or Steam Discussions if you run into any issues or have any questions![/p][p][/p][p]Anyways, onto the patch notes![/p][p][/p][h2]New[/h2]

• [p]Assembler - Long requested, and finally delivered, the Assembler allows you to automate many more of the "higher tier" secondaries with the power of Clockwork.[/p]
• [p]Vacuum - Similarly long requested, and finally delivered, the Vacuum completes the trio of machines needed for full tree farm automation by allowing you to collect dropped items.[/p]
• [p]Workshop Mods - New in-game Steam Workshop support for modding, allowing you to easily manage and share your mods! This includes improving server cached mods as well as ZIP support.[/p]
• [p]Raw Item Cost - Hovering a crafting recipe while pressing Shift will now show the base cost to craft an item in the current crafter. So Assemblers show Assembler cost, and the Anvil shows the Anvil cost.[/p]
• [p]Pipe Filtering - You can now allow or deny up to 3 item types for each insert side of a pipe.[/p]
• [p]Added a skin preview in the main menu and skin upload menu.[/p]
• [p]Added Emergency Mod Menu to recover from invalid mod configs.[/p]
• [p]Added Lathe sound.[/p]
• [p]Added a new "Crafter" category and moved some machines into it.[/p]
• [p]Added minor sound variation to drive you less insane with a bunch of hammers next to your head.[/p]
• [p]Added "WINIT_UNIX_BACKEND" environment variable that can be set to "x11" or "wayland". This may resolve the Steam Overlay not appearing on Linux for some systems.[/p]
• [p]Exiting a world now has confirmation so you don't lose your save.[/p]
• [p]Overwriting an existing save now requires confirmation so you don't accidentally override a save (please, I don't want to hear sad stories of saves disappearing, it breaks my heart :( ).[/p]

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• [p]Crafting Small Bronze Gears in the Anvil will now produce 3 instead of 6 gears (use the Assembler).[/p]
• [p]Joining a server will no longer automatically download the mods, and instead prompt the user for what choices they'd like to make regarding the issue(s) listed.[/p]
• [p]Replaced fire icons to be pixel art instead of... madness.[/p]
• [p]Updated machine input, output, and fuel icons to bring them up to speed with other textures.[/p]
• [p]The Bender and Lathe are now rotatable, and no longer have all faces as "front".[/p]
• [p]Dropping half a stack in another slot now deselects the slot.[/p]
• [p]Changed startup background track to be Progress instead of Windswept.[/p]
• [p]Many minor UI changes, I ended up reworking a lot of the system menu systems and some extras.[/p]

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• [p]Linux no longer will stare back from the abyss when you go fullscreen on some configurations (v2).[/p]
• [p]Outdated or temporarily invalid swapchains will no longer crash the game.[/p]
• [p]Tutorial hotkeys are now based on the actual bindings instead of the game's defaults.[/p]
• [p]Joining a server with mods should no longer timeout or overflow your connection.[/p]
• [p]Auto saves will no longer pause clients to wait for the server to resume to reduce clock issues.[/p]
• [p]Tweaked game clock to be more responsive.[/p]
• [p]The server list no longer gaslights you, as it now actually saves instead of doing nothing, ever.[/p]
• [p]Linux should no longer have a "pop" on startup.[/p]
• [p]Overwriting a save when using Proton no longer crashes, as well as now displaying any errors.[/p]
• [p]Swapping graphics cards on Linux no longer crashes on Wayland. Wayland, please, let me control the window and cursor like a normal desktop environment.....[/p]

[h2]Modding[/h2]

• [p]Breaking Path Change - All file paths in scripts have been replaced, no longer requiring your mod folder name, as well as allowing you to reference other mod assets regardless of where your mod is located.[/p]
• [p]Breaking Mod Definition Change - Mods have a different TOML config now, and will need to be fixed for your mod to load.[/p]
• [p]Breaking Setup Change - Added new "load_info" parameter to setup. It provides things like basic date time, as well as the game mod version (v1.2, v1.3...) to support seasonal events and multi version support.[/p]
• [p]Added proper auto mod load order sorting, before it somehow did it through.. randomness...?[/p]
• [p]Added ZIP support for mods, servers providing "Folder" mods will automatically create a ZIP to send to players instead.[/p]
• [p]Sounds can now be .ogg, which is the new recommended format due to sound quality and load times being better for lower file sizes, it's just better.[/p]
• [p]Added In-Game debug log, please check your mod errors :P[/p]
• [p]Added VSCode code snippets to help with common events and types.[/p]
• [p]Sounds can now be hot reloaded (cooler than I expected).[/p]
• [p]The Array MetaData type now works.[/p]
• [p]Many APIs have changed, I tried to break all the things I wanted to at once for Workshop support, so I hope you'll forgive me >_>, it's really not that bad though.[/p]

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• [p]Staying on the Personalization Select, Personalization Upload, or Mod Upload for too long will result in your game crashing. (UGC texture refreshing is under cooked)[/p]
• [p]Pipes drop items when filters are updated, regardless of if it was required or not.[/p]

[h3]
Subject: Welcome to the SimCore Family![/h3][p]We thank you for your continued participation in the - Voxel Eras - simulation environment program. Your feedback is greatly appreciated! We take pride in our ability to deliver quality experiences with the help of our users as we take on new frontiers - together.[/p][p][/p][p]As a reminder: For your own safety, and the safety of those around you, make sure to report digital hallucinations to your assigned SimCore Agent within 12 hours of an incident. Thank you for your cooperation.[/p][p][/p][p]SimCore, The Better Way to Live[/p]

[h3]Hey everyone![/h3][p]It seems people are enjoying the update, and I wanted to clean up some rough edges before moving onto the bigger changes that will likely be v1.4.[/p][p]
Mostly focused on making working with everything feel a bit better, as well as giving some extra modding capability, so if you had some issues before I hope I've at least addressed some of them![/p][p][/p][h2]New[/h2]

• [p]Mod Clearly Ore, this is a demo mod for texture packs and asset overrides, it makes it clear which ore is which.[/p]
• [p]Inventory shift clicking! You can now shift click items to move them between inventories.[/p]
• [p]Crafting shift clicking! You can now shift click while crafting to mass craft.[/p]
• [p]Pickup Log, when grabbing items they're now listed on the left side of the screen.[/p]

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• [p]Pipes now display a guide when configuring, showing which side is which with a respective shape and color.[/p]
• [p]The slot selection and interactable icons have been replaced to be less obtuse.[/p]
• [p]The "Flip" indicator now only appears when building, similar to the interactable indicator when not building.[/p]
• [p]Reduced render distance max from 24 to 16, as people love to crank this setting before putting it back down, bloating saves and destroying FPS.[/p]
• [p]Similarly the "Omega" and "Galactic" lighting distances have been disabled (but still available), as these currently just chew GPUs.[/p]
• [p]Grass and plants now sway slightly.[/p]
• [p]Pressing Q in the inventory will now clear the selected slot.[/p]
• [p]Machine input slots now ensure the items inserted are valid input items.[/p]
• [p]Pipe colliders have been changed to the inner 0.5m^3 cube until I fix the collision properly.[/p]

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• [p]Pipes now show the correct directions in the configuration menu. Gaslight, gate keep, girl boss.[/p]
• [p]Item and player models should now have reduced or remove "hair" / visual artifacts.[/p]
• [p]Saw blade now has the expected texture with Carbon Steel markings, I saved to the wrong folder.[/p]
• [p]Removed some unused assets.[/p]
• [p]Flore now provides 2x stone with the Clockwork Drill, in line with breaking by hand.[/p]
• [p]Pipes now support machines that push more than 1 item stacks, they output 1 at a time.[/p]
• [p]The game should no longer fail to launch if the "ext_extended_dynamic_state3" Vulkan extension (used for MSAA via rasterization samples), however 1x MSAA will always be applied.[/p]
• [p]On Linux, borderless fullscreen should no longer result in a black image on some configurations.[/p]

[h2]Modding[/h2]

• [p]Inventory transfers have been broken, again, this is a small change to make shift click work.[/p]
• [p]Adding an asset via "override" will replace an existing asset, allowing texture packs or overriding of existing content.[/p]
• [p]Basic dependency resolution / ordering, ensuring the above override has needed assets loaded.[/p]
• [p]New API "get_item_recipes", which provides the recipes an item is used in.[/p]
• [p]New API "get_container_keys", which provides all key names for the provided MetaDataContainer.[/p]
• [p]New API "get_crafter_processable", which provides all items a crafter can process.[/p]
• [p]New API "is_crafter_processable", which indicates if the provided item can be used by the crafter.[/p]
• [p]New API "click_held", which indicates if left click is held on a UI element.[/p]