BlastZone 2 News

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2. (v1.36.3.0) This update adds high frequency update support! This means, even if the game is running at 60fps, the game input and simulation could be running at up to 200hz. This allows for the responsiveness of a high refresh rate display without the need for one. This is similar to other low latency technologies, such as Reflex or Anti-Lag, but this is a single solution effective across all graphics vendors. Other game engines require synchronizing input and simulation updates with the render frame rate, but the BlastZone 2 game engine has been architected in a unique way. It allows for the rendering and input/simulation systems to run completely asynchronously from each other, making high frequency updates possible.

This is an exciting new technology, and I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s experience with it!

This update also includes a few bug fixes. Here are the full release notes for v1.36.3.0:

• Added support for independent update rates from the frame rate
  -Allows for running the game/simulation update at a much higher frequency than the frame rate
  -Allows for snappier, more precise controls, even for low frame rates
  -If the frame rate exceeds the target update rate, the update rate will dynamically increase as well to prevent duplicate frames
  --The target update rate acts as an update floor, only taking effect for frame rates below it
  -Defaults to a 60hz update rate, but can be adjusted in the range of 30-200hz
  -In previous versions, enabling game update multithreading had a small latency penalty in exchange for higher performance
  --Running a higher update rate allows for having the performance benefits of multithreading, with lower latency at the same time
  
• Doubled bullet firing density for the Boss 4 first bullet firing pattern
  -Addresses a safe area exploit that made this area too easy in previous versions
  
• Added an "MSAA" suffix to all applicable antialiasing settings
  
• Fixed bugs that would occasionally make the player ship too large or too bright during level intro/flyin animations
  
• Fixed broken enemy bullet rendering when disabling the VBO render code path
  
• Slightly optimized enemy bullet rendering
  
• Updated the external configuration program to support the new UpdateRate setting
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest update, launch the game and check the lower left corner for “v1.36.3.0” or higher. Enjoy!

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.36.2.0) This update focuses on multithreading improvements, and a few performance improvements. This includes reduced frame hitches, up to 10-25% particle system performance gains from improved memory bandwidth efficiency, and a general 10% performance gain from adding support for SIMD FMA cpu instructions.

Here are the full release notes for v.1.36.2.0:

• Most of the advanced multithreading options can now be applied without restarting the game
  -This includes the following options:
  --Game Update Multithreading
  --Particle Multithreading
  --Auxiliary Particle Threads
  -Core elements of multithreading management were updated to make this possible
  -The "Sound Multithreading" option still requires a game restart at this time
  
• Improved thread management of the particle system
  -More of the startup loading process is done asynchronously, slightly improving the game startup time
  -Reduced frame hitching when many particles are on screen
  
• Optimized memory bandwidth performance for the particle system
  -Results in up to a 10-25% particle update performance gain
  -Greatly cut down on memory fragmentation
  
• Added support for SIMD FMA CPU instructions
  -Improves general performance by up to 10% for CPU's that support these instructions
  -Matrix multiply operations on the CPU side benefit the most from this, being over 100x faster
  -Uses an SSE2 fallback for older CPUs that don't support these instructions
  
• Enabled anisotropic filtering for several HUD elements and sprites to improve sharpness of them
  
• A few small optimizations to render matrix calculations
  
• Small optimizations to localization text data management
  
• Fixed a few potential bugs
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest update, launch the game and check the lower left corner for “v1.36.2.0” or higher. Enjoy!

This is a small update that makes the following changes:

-Cleaned up a few unused data files
-Added particle aux thread runtime readouts for the ingame debug display

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.36.1.1) This update makes several improvements to the 2nd person shooter sequence in Mission Mode Area 5, including fixing enemy bullet bugs, and fixed effect alignment and timing. This gives an overall more polished sequence as you dodge from enemy fire, while you’re in their sights!

Here are the full release notes for v.1.36.1.1:

Improved enemy bullet firing behavior for the 2nd person enemy in Mission Mode Area 5
-Fixed alignment issue between the "charge up" animations and fired bullets from the enemy
-Slightly reduced the enemy bullet speed in this sequence
-Improved timing for charging/firing bullet events, improving animation smoothness
Improved enemy tracking bullet behavior for varying framerates
Fixed incorrect Z tracking behavior for tracking enemy bullets
-This is most noticeable for the 2nd person sequence in Mission Area 5
-This makes each tracking bullet enter the gameplay plane multiple times
Fixed some stationary enemy bullets disappearing too quickly
-Also fixed these bullets quickly shrinking after being fired, even when they are supposed to increase in size
-Many of these bullets are used in the 2nd person shooter scene
Fixed a 'divide by zero' bug when spacer sections are used for enemy firing scripts
-These are generally used when there is a long waiting period between enemy bullet firing
-Generally applies to bosses and mini-bosses

As usual, to make sure you have the latest update, launch the game and check the lower left corner for “v1.36.1.1” or higher. Enjoy!

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.36.1.0) This update adds several technical improvements to the engine. This includes improved, more accurate and consistent physics across any frame rate. There are also a few improvements to frame time consistency, reducing frame hitching that existed in specific situations for some systems, and an improved frame limiter, for a smoother overall experience. This update also includes particle system optimizations, using an additional CPU thread for spawning particles, and reducing frame hitches when many particles are on screen.

Here are the full release notes for v1.36.1.0:

• Improved physics in a few areas of the game
  -More accurate movement calculations when accelerating objects
  -Fixes slightly different movement behavior for different frame rates
  -Affects these areas of the game:
  --Player throwbacks when firing big weapons or getting hit
  --EnemyC Behavior 4 (bouncing movement)
  --Many particle effects, including explosions, bullet trails, bullet impact buffs, etc.
  
• Improved particle spawning performance
  -Uses an additional thread to run particle spawning in parallel to other particle operations
  -Reduces particle update hitches when numerous explosions occur at once
  
• Reduced render frame hitches when many particles are on screen
  -Dynamically allows more time to buffer particle data into vram when many particles are on screen
  
• Improved CPU thread management to improve frame time consistency and reduce hitching
  -Better matches the number of active threads with the number of available CPU cores/threads
  -Ensures the graphics driver has enough CPU resources to maintain consistent rendering performance
  
• Improved precision and accuracy of the frame rate limiter
  -Uses 64 bit operations for the whole frame limiter process to improve precision
  -Reduced computational overhead for calculating the timing of each new frame
  
• [Hotfix]-Fixed Mission+ mode erroneously being unlocked by completing Survival mode
  
• [Hotfix]-Fixed some mode/ship unlocks occurring after Wave 6, now consistently requires Wave/Area 8 completion in all modes
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest update, launch the game and check the lower left corner for “v1.36.1.0” or higher. Enjoy!