Squad News

[h2]Listen up, Squaddies![/h2]

Unreal Engine 5 Public Playtest #4 is coming this Friday, May 30, 2025 11:00 AM PDT!
Here’s what to expect:

You will need to download a special Playtesting Branch of Squad, that will be released ASAP, with access to Servers on Friday around 11am PDT.

There will be multiple servers being hosted by Community names that you will know and recognize! Feel free to play wherever you like, but servers will open and close to accommodate the population needs! The general public will not be given access to the Server hosting branch for testing.

There is a special Squad Testing Discord that has now been opened to the public. Please be aware that all the normal Squad Community server rules apply in this server as well. Please refer to the onboarding channels for help if you need it!

We want to also mention that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS build of Unreal Engine 5, and is still in active development. That means you are likely to come up against bugs, or features that don’t work/feel the same way as the current 8.2 version of Squad. We have included some known issues in this post, but anything that you come up against can be reported in the previously mentioned Discord Server for testing.

Testing will run over the weekend from May 30th to June 2nd, and then the UE5 Servers will be taken down.

We are also hoping you can take the time to fill out a survey for us, answering some questions about your experience during testing. This will be available IN GAME, in the News Box on the main menu. We will send out a reminder of this later on as well.

[h3]The Important Stuff[/h3]

In place of a change log this week, I would simply like to let you know what exactly we are looking for in our test results!

• There is currently an issue where a massive freeze happens during a match, that can seem to affect just one person, or multiple people at the same time. We are calling it the 1FPS issue. We have created a build that has better tracking specifically for this issue, so that we can try to pin down the problem and resolve it.
  
• We have added more Server performance optimizations that we would like to test, including an interesting tool for Server Hosters that should allow them to Multi-Thread Vehicle animations, significantly reducing the impact that vehicles have on server side performance.
  
• We have implemented an introductory option for replacing Picture in Picture (PiP) scopes for players with lower end computers, or anyone that feels the significant drop in FPS when using a PiP scope. This setting will be available for anyone to enable in the settings menu.
  

We did add a bunch of fixes that came in since the last playtest, but the above information is what we would love to focus on for this weekend. So if you have time, please come join us and submit your feedback! We will have a working Feedback Form (confirmed working this time, sorry about last week), and the Testing Discord is still active for those of you wanting to join the discussion over there!

[h2]OFFWORLD OUT[/h2]

[h2]Listen up, Squaddies![/h2]

Unreal Engine 5 Public Playtest 3 is coming this Friday, May 23, 2025 11:00 AM!
Here’s what to expect:

The build for this playtest is AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD NOW!

There will be multiple servers being hosted by Community names that you will know and recognize! Feel free to play wherever you like, but servers will open and close to accommodate the population needs! The general public will not be given access to the Server hosting branch for testing.

We want to also mention that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS build of Unreal Engine 5, and is still in active development. That means you are likely to come up against bugs, or features that don’t work/feel the same way as the current 8.2 version of Squad. We have included some known issues in this post, but anything that you come up against can be reported in the previously mentioned Discord Server for testing.

Testing will run over the weekend from May 23rd to May 26th, and then the UE5 Servers will be taken down.

We are also hoping you can take the time to fill out a survey for us, answering some questions about your experience during testing. This will be available IN GAME, in the News Box on the main menu. We will send out a reminder of this later on as well.

[h3]CHANGELOG[/h3]

• New southern Basrah mainbase level artbox pass (will benefit from this test).
  
• Various maps landscapes reworked to resolve nanite landscape visibility issues.
  

Scalability

• Added DLSS Preset K for all quality levels except UltraPerformance.
  
• This should improve the visual clarity for everyone using DLSS.
  
• Separated Frame Generation options so that you can run your preferred Upscaling solution without needing to use the same provider for frame generation.
  

Factions

• Bolt action rifles do damage again (as long as you hit your shots).
  
• Ironsights and optics on RPK and PKM work correctly again when bipodded.
  
• Deploying bipods should work correctly again.
  
• Smoke grenades no longer send vehicles flying.
  
• BMP2 no longer invisible when tracks are destroyed.
  
• PLA ATGM's are guided again.
  

Known issues:

• Loach still randomly loses its tail rotor sometimes, still being investigated.
  
• Some USMC desert vehicles have bugged textures. (Or state-of-the-art dynamic camouflage, depending on how you look at it),
  

[h2]OFFWORLD OUT[/h2]

[h2]Listen up, Squaddies![/h2]

Unreal Engine 5 Public Playtest 2 is coming this Friday, May 02, 2025 11:00 AM PDT! Here’s what to expect:

You will need to download a special Playtesting Branch of Squad, that will be released later this week, with access on Friday.

There will be multiple servers being hosted by Community names that you will know and recognize! Feel free to play wherever you like, but servers will open and close to accommodate the population needs! The general public will not be given access to the Server hosting branch for testing.

There is a special Squad Testing Discord that has now been opened to the public. Please be aware that all the normal Squad Community server rules apply in this server as well. Please refer to the onboarding channels for help if you need it! Join the Discord HERE!

We want to also mention that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS build of Unreal Engine 5, and is still in active development. That means you are likely to come up against bugs, or features that don’t work/feel the same way as the current 8.2 version of Squad. We have included some known issues in this post, but anything that you come up against can be reported in the previously mentioned Discord Server for testing.

Testing will run over the weekend from May 2nd to May 5th, and then the UE5 Servers will be taken down.

We are also hoping you can take the time to fill out a survey for us, answering some questions about your experience during testing. This will be available IN GAME, in the News Box on the main menu. We will send out a reminder of this later on as well.

Here is the changelog from last playtest!

[h3]Changelog:[/h3]

• Significant changes were included that should increase Server Performance overall. We identified a couple of things that were causing issues, including excess animations, that have been adjusted!
  
• Smoke grenades no longer continuously exploding when walked over
  
• Hands no longer disappear when vaulting
  
• Scout drones are no longer infinite in quantity
  
• Vehicles no longer instantly reload when near Repair Stations
  
• Buildings no longer have bullet-proof glass
  
• Technicals are no longer aggressively loud
  
• Weapons (general) several LOD issues have been fixed with infantry weapons
  

Some more changes:

Scalability:

• Updated to latest version of DLSS, offering greatly improved clarity in most scenes using the new Preset
  
• Tweaks to volumetric clouds settings, giving better performance for low presets
  

Worlds:

• Fixed landscape materials being broken on Tallil and Mestia
  
• Further attempts at optimization across our worst performing maps, still more to come
  
• Work is being done to the southeast corner of Al Basrah to address feedback from the first playtest, still WIP
  

These are just some of the changes made, that were the most popular bugs and feedback from the last playtest. We have resolved many more smaller issues.

Known Issues:

• We have yet to add the final pass on many of the Vehicles across the Factions. Paired with the new Vehicle physics, many of the vehicles may feel foreign or behave differently than you expect. Some Vehicles can get stuck on objects easier than in UE4 as well. Please leave us feedback on this in Discord. There has been an initial pass on the vehicles since the first playtest.
  
• There are some issues with PiP scopes that we are still working on.
  
• Some areas of the map may be too dark or too light when looking into or out of buildings.
  
• There are some known client crashes. Using the Unreal Engine crash report tool that pops up once Squad crashes, is a good way for us to receive a client crash. If you crash WITHOUT seeing the crash reporter, please let us know through the Testing Discord Server.
  
• There are some texture streaming related issues, which can cause microstutters especially when a VFX is starting to play.
  
• There are some visual artifacts relating to lighting and upscalers. There may be reduced sharpness, smearing, shadows or water surface shimmering or flickering may occur. This is something we are working to adjust for the next public playtest.
  
• For other issues, please report bugs in a bug report channel with as much information as possible.
  

[h2]OFFWORLD OUT[/h2]

[h2]“We've intercepted new transmissions. Ready to receive!”[/h2]

Listen up Squaddies. We're taking part in the Wargames Festfrom April 28 - May 5, and you can get your friends and soon-to-be fellow squaddies in for 70% off. You heard right. The game's on sale from now until the Wargames Fest ends in our largest discount yet.

Check out our upcoming UE5 update Devblog HERE, and join the Squad Discord to discuss all things Squad.

[h3]Offworld Out.[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/393380/Squad/

[h3]Hello Squaddies![/h3]

The time has come! Open playtesting for Unreal Engine 5 is arriving this Friday!

Here’s what to expect:

• You will need to download a special Playtesting Branch of Squad, that will be released later this week, with access on Friday Apr 11, 2025, around 11am PDT.
  
  
• There will be multiple servers being hosted by Community names that you will know and recognize! Feel free to play wherever you like, but servers will open and close to accommodate the population needs! The general public will not be given access to the Server hosting branch for testing.
  
  
• There is a special Squad Testing Discord that has now been opened to the public. Please be aware that all the normal Squad Community server rules apply in this server as well. Please refer to the onboarding channels for help if you need it! https://discord.gg/testsquad

We want to also mention that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS build of Unreal Engine 5, and is still in active development. That means you are likely to come up against bugs, or features that don’t work/feel the same way as the current 8.2 version of Squad. We have included some known issues in this post, but anything that you come up against can be reported in the previously mentioned Discord Server for testing.

Testing will run over the weekend from April 11th to April 14th, and then the UE5 builds will be taken down. Our goal is to run these tests every 2 weeks, with iterations to try each weekend of Public playtesting!

We are also hoping you can take the time to fill out a survey for us, answering some questions about your experience during testing. This will be available IN GAME, in the News Box on the main menu. We will send out a reminder of this later on as well.


[h3]Known Issues:[/h3]

• We are aware of an issue that causes the player's FPS to drop to 1 for an amount of time. We are tracking this issue and would appreciate any and all reports of this.
  
• We have yet to add the final pass on many of the Vehicles across the Factions. Paired with the new Vehicle physics, many of the vehicles may feel foreign or behave differently than you expect. Some Vehicles can get stuck on objects easier than in UE4 as well. Please leave us feedback on this in Discord.
  
• There are some issues with PiP scopes that we are still working on.
  
• Some areas of the map may be too dark or too light when looking into or out of buildings.
  
• There are some known client crashes. Using the Unreal Engine crash report tool that pops up once Squad crashes, is a good way for us to receive a client crash.If you crash WITHOUT seeing the crash reporter, please let us know through the Testing Discord Server.
  
• There are some texture streaming related issues, which can cause microstutters especially when a VFX is starting to play.
  
• There are some visual artifacts relating to lighting and upscalers. There may be reduced sharpness, smearing, shadows or water surface shimmering or flickering may occur. This is something we are working to adjust for the next public playtest.
  
• For other issues, please report bugs in a bug report channel with as much information as possible.
  

Stay tuned for more information in the coming days!

[h3]OFFWORLD OUT![/h3]