Fractal Space News

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! We’ve been working hard on this update, which includes many new improvements & changes; especially on the code / behind the scenes, and of course, hundreds of reported bugs are now fixed!

Some of the improvements, you might not even notice, but they were necessary to prepare the game for the next Chapters. We’ll present here an overview of the main changes that were made in this latest update!

Considering the major changes in the Save System of the game, we did our best to keep older saves compatible, but there is a chance you will need to RESTART the Current CHAPTER from Start after resuming from the new version, to avoid any level or save-related bugs!

[h2]HOTFIX | 0.588 -> 0.590[/h2]
Additional changes made in this latest additional update 0.590 that improves over original 0.588.

[h3]CHANGES | In 0.590[/h3]

• Module Management: Shouldn't display anymore in New Game+ if you don't have the Taser-Gun yet
• Taser Screen: Now displays the new button design when aiming at a button
• Taser Screen: Now displays the appropriate color of the aimed at button
• Flames: Now have sound, and damage sound is better (will be improved later)
• Blades: Will now have player collisions when disabled, and when Hyper-Speed in ON
• Bugs: Most major reported bugs are now fixed

• Relocation/Save Bug/Exploit: Even though the game does not allow Quick Saving while in Relocation, some players were able to sneakily save just while Dodging towards relocation and then Quickload past the relocation. From this update, it should be impossible (or much harder). If the save is successful, it should always load right before you exited the authorized area. To be tested, though, as this is a complex timing problem, please report if you still manage to do so ;) This issue was much more likely to happen at low FPS. Thank you!

• Dodge Save/Load Exploit: You could potentially Dodge more often than intended by repeatedly quick saving / quick loading. Dodge cooldown should now be saved / loaded more precisely to avoid this

• Chapter 1: Removed the Moving Platforms appearing just above the “Escapism tablet Quote” Room, with the “Impressive!” optional recording. Now that the “button cage” from the previous room remains (in earlier versions, it disappeared), you can use the ledges and that part to do this room and reach the Bonus Recording. The grounds will now disappear as you approach instead of having already disappeared. The second button to shoot has been moved to be harder to shoot until you reach the ledges.

• Chapter 1: Should no longer be possible to reach the roof of the first Power Core area in New Game (meant only possible in New Game+). You might be able to still find a way; if so, please report ;)

• Chapter 1: Changed checkpoints in the first Power Core Area (3600 code) to save inside this room, in case you enter through the breakable window without opening the door in NG+. There were various bugs if you skipped this way: lights were off, etc.

• Chapter 4: During the Great Fall, the blades won’t kill you if HS is enabled. You will also collide with them with HS enabled.

• Blades: Blades in general should no longer kill the player when HS is active. However, if it still rotates very fast with HS, then it’s intended to still be able to kill you in HS - but this is rare: The Train ride in Chapter 4, the second one is like this intentionally; it requires to remove the Power Core OR use perfect Dodge timing)

• Saving: Requesting to return to main menu will now force finish saving all data before returning to menu to avoid save data corruption and errors
• Saving: Requesting a Quick Load while the game is saving a Checkpoint/Quicksave will force current save to finish much faster to avoid to have to wait - This may cause small hiccups but it’s acceptable since you explicitly requested to load, so it’s best to have it performed ASAP.

• Speed Counter: Will now show same speed with HS on or OFF

[h3]BUG | Fixes in 0.590[/h3]

• Bug Reporting: Screenshots should be working again for Discord.
• Bug Reporting: Upload Progress was not being displayed (bug) should now be displayed correctly. The ‘Pause’ overlay shouldn’t remain after a failed bug report retry
• Chapter 1: Fixed a bug when entering the Camera Room, which could cause to respawn at wrong position with some key level objects disabled
• Chapter 2: Activating Hyper-Speed on the first frame of Chapter 2 could cause the first bridges platforms to be misaligned, and you would see them move
• Vertical Saws Lift: If you were to “climb without the lift” using Hover/Dodge etc without even activating it, some objects would disappear
• Moving Lasers: A remaining bug could cause (rarely) some lasers to be out-of-sync. Not due to saving/loading (previously, save/load could provoke this), but due to how they were being turned on
• Locking Devices: Locking devices next to vents could have floating texts
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many other in-game reported bugs

Below is the original post for major update 0.588.

Fractal Space has now officially switched to 64-bit support for Windows, allowing better performance in general. Along with the big save system optimization explained later below, this should greatly help with various stutters and mini-freezes.

Since this is a first 64-bit implementation of the game, there is a chance new bugs/crashes may occur. We’ll see how it goes!

Still on a 32-bit Windows machine? Don’t worry, all updates will also ship the 32-bit version, and only the appropriate version for your machine will be downloaded.


This will feel like a big change at first for our dearest fans, as you are accustomed to how the in-game 3D interactable buttons look like, since the Pocket Edition of Fractal Space.

However, it was important to improve them for various reasons:

• We want them to look better and have a bit more detail
• We need it to be more clear which state they were in, even from a distance
• They need to have a more visible state change
• Red VS (Green/Blue) state needs to have a slightly different shape to ensure colorblind players notice more the difference
  
• We want to make it more clear that a button is currently unusable:
• When unusable, the difference VS usable is more noticeable
• Even while being not completely off

For example, Elevators: They can’t be used while the elevator is active, but the button remains in a colored state (blue) instead of completely off (intended), but it is now more understandable “why” you cannot activate it.

It may take a while for you to get used to the new buttons (just like it was for some with the new Taser-Gun for PC) but in the long run, we feel they are better compared to the old ones 🙂

We’re intentionally not including screenshots for this, see it for yourself in the game!

We hope you’ll enjoy them!


One of the additions we wanted to work on for a while, was adding a dynamic weapon sway system for the Taser-Gun in Fractal Space. We took the time to add this, and even though this is a first version, it now:

• Adds a feeling of weight to the Taser-Gun
  
• Feels more natural as the player looks around while aiming
  
• Feels more natural as the player moves/uses the Jetpack/hovers while aiming
  
• Adds this rotation/movement momentum over regular Taser Animations, smoothly blending with them, making a more natural movement feel
  
• Small change in Taser-Gun position when crouched VS standing up
  

We made a few improvements to Taser Animations in this update:

• All Taser Animations have been improved to feel smoother
  
• Many cases of “instant interruption” of some animations (upon jump/reception/jetpack events) have now been fixed and general Taser Animation transitions feel much smoother than before.
  
• NEW: Taser Animation for Hover, with sound and vibration. Additional visual effects will be added in later updates
  
• Zero-G Boost: Slight Taser-Gun shake while using Zero-G Boost
  

There are countless of small visual improvements in this update, we’ll mention the most important ones here:

• Bloom: Now more intense in general (slightly). Might be too much now in some areas. We’ll see if this will be reverted, or if in general lights will need to be lowered to compensate.
  
• Hyper-Speed: Visual effects (Distortion + Chromatic Aberration) are now reworked for progressive transition instead of instant when enabling / disabling Hyper-Speed.
  
• Smashers now become RED while moving:
  
  
  
  
• Power Cores and Cubes now look better (RED lines highlights) when held in an invalid position (Cannot drop here). The rest of the Cube / Power Core does not become red anymore:
  
  
  
  
• Generators: Textures have been improved and better “metallic” feel. In addition, generators are now red when destroyed:
  
  
  
  
• Generator Explosions: Now look better, and more realistic. Looks also better when Hyper-Speed is active. Uses Particles, so will look better with Particles enabled (just like the Taser-Gun shooting)
  
• Camera Explosions: Now look better, and more realistic. Looks also better when Hyper-Speed is active. Broken Camera has a small blue fire for a few seconds after being destroyed. Uses Particles, so will look better with Particles enabled.
  
• Lasers ON/OFF states (color/lighting) is now better, and visual difference is more noticeable (there were texture bugs with them). Side grid of Lasers now also become RED when ON.
  
  
• Lasers: Some laser sets now have a STATIC rail support (different from moving laser rails). More will be added over time. Not all static lasers should/will have them (intended):
  
  
  
  
• Bridges: Improved Bridge textures:
  
  
  
  
• Water: Objects falling in Water, and Taser Shots, will now create various water splashes:
  
  
  
  
• Chapter 4‘s Solar Station now has proper cables for all Solar Panels
  
• Many optimizations of some some specific Areas in all Chapters
  
• Various animations improvements to the Taser-Gun
  
• New Buttons visuals
  

We’ve reworked a lot of the audio as well to fix a few issues:

• Some players could have “cracking” sounds at higher volume, especially if volume sliders were all at maximum.
  
• The default sound setting for the game have changed, to have most sliders to maximum value, and sound is more “normalized” to your current system sound volume.
  
• All bugs related to “cracking” sounds at higher volume should now be fixed. Please report if you still find some.
  

In addition, as general Audio changes:

• Water now has specific sounds when walking in it, and creates water splashes with sound, reacting to objects and player
  
• Footsteps: Better in sync with camera headbob. Reworked system to sound “smoother” from one step to the next, and for more variety in sounds. Lowered their general volume as they were too loud.
  
• Added many new sound effects and made sure some existing ones can be heard better: saw hit, pickup Healthpack / Battery Pack, objective accomplished, Taser Reload, Hover and more…
  
• All sounds have been re-mixed and volume-adjusted in order to create a more harmonious sound experience, so it should be more comfortable to play.
  

The Bridge Puzzle has changed in this update:

• It no longer activates automatically as you approach the Bridge
  
• It now requires interacting with a Terminal
  
• It is now fully skippable in New Game+ with Dodge and/or Hover. Should NOT be skippable in New Game.
  
• The game no longer saves checkpoints if you try to continue without picking up the Jetpack. It’s authorized to try, though, but to avoid encouraging you to do so (impossible to continue later), the game only saves next checkpoints after picking it up.
  

We’ve made a push on cutscenes issues for this update, finally solving some older bugs and adding missing functionalities:

• Chapter 3: InitializeRoom.cpp room cutscene can now be skipped like any other cutscene! To be tested, should not break anything (but could, as it’s a complicated one to make skippable)
  
• Auto-skipped cutscenes (Cutscenes disabled) should no longer create any gameplay/camera jitters!
  

A while back, we introduced the new save system, which allowed to add many more checkpoints, and allow instant Quick Save / Quick Load.

In this update, there was a tremendous change of how the Save System works: it is now more optimized and now takes advantage of Multithreading.

Even though it was functional, there was still a lot that could be done in order to make it safer, and optimize it to be more efficient.

Hopefully, this update addresses both of these concerns. However, as this is a first test version of the newly-optimized save system, you might encounter various new bugs about saving / loading, that will need to be fixed ASAP.

You might be wondering: “What changed exactly in the save system?” Here’s an overview if you’re interested (skip this if you’re not interested in technical):

1. Objects Gathering: In order to save, the first step is for the game to check every single object in the level (there are tens of thousands!), and gather each of their individual “states to save”. All this must be done as fast as possible to avoid mini-freezes. This is much now more optimized, and will use much less CPU.
   
2. Conversion: This step is also expensive. It now needs to convert all the data into “saveable” data before writing the save file. This is also much faster, and is now multithreaded in the background. It should not stall the game, and reduce/remove mini-freezes in this step as well.
   
3. Writing: The game will now write the save data using multithreading in the background. Should also greatly help with mini-freezes and slowdowns.
   

[h3]WHAT’S THE BENEFIT?[/h3]
The game should now:

1. Save Faster: Saving is generally faster and uses much less CPU
   
2. Optimized: When saving at a checkpoint, you should feel much less slowdown and mini-freezes. If you were having them before, they should be greatly reduced, or completely fixed from this update!
   
3. Safer Save/Load: There should no longer be “moving lasers out of sync” bugs after Quick Save / Quick Load, or some objects not being saved properly – they should all be fixed.
   

There were various improvements to the Options menu in Fractal Space:

• Many Graphics options have switched to a Checkbox system
  
• NEW: “Decals” setting, default to Medium. This controls how complex the shooting impacts are with Taser shots and others. Integrated graphics and low-end PCs might have severe performance issues when shooting at the same position multiple times. This setting on lower than “Maximum” should help with this.
  
• NEW: “Chromatic Aberration” option in Graphics options. Used for Damage effect, Hyper-Speed, Scope. Remains subtle to avoid it to be disturbing (especially visible on edges of the screen). Now fully disabled if this new option is disabled.
  
• Hard of Hearing: New Accessibility option. Doesn’t affect anything yet, except the musical hacking sequence in Chapter 3; it will fail at first mistakes with this option ON. However, it will now require you to complete the sequence before knowing if it’s correct or not, if you don’t have this enabled.
  
• Particles: More particle effects will now be disabled from visual effects, when Particles are disabled (Taser/Ammo Pack pickup points smoke, vent door smoke, Taser Shoot effect, Camera/Generator explosions,etc.). This will help improve performance if you disable Particles.
  

Here’s a list of various other changes & improvements that are worth noting here:

• Chapter 4: Achievement added for using only 2 portable mirrors!
  
• Flashlight: Will now adjust its size based on the selected Field of View (larger spot with higher FoV).
  
• Chapter 1: The Ramp and recording on top of the first Bridge room (orange ceiling) should ONLY be accessible with New Game+ using Dodge. Changed it to be so – please report if you can still get up there in New Game.
  
• Chapter 1: You can now keep cubes from the room just after the Math door, and use them to skip directly to the roof of the next area (Platforms button). This is intended. They will only be destroyed later on. You may test around with this, as you’ll have more cubes and might lead to unintended skips / exploits.
  
• Chapter 1: Double saws after interacting with the Bridge button (dancing platforms before Taser) will no longer disappear. They will turn off and move slightly away from each other to let enough space for you to walk in between them. If you Dodge to skip from below, the area will be initialized correctly.
  
• Chapter 1: After “Escapism” room, less objects are destroyed, to avoid too visible inconsistent shadows. This means in the optional area above, you can now jump onto Cage 1, which is now intended 😉
  
• Cubes: Collisions are still present with collectable objects (intended), but can no longer remain “standing” on Taser or Ammo Packs or Color Packs.
  
• Saving: If character dies while saving the first very checkpoint of the current level, the game will now wait a few seconds until the new save game is written, instead of instantly restarting the Chapter from start. Ex: rush fast into first lasers of Chapter 4. The game won’t restart the entire level anymore.
  
• Zero-G: Dangerous changes: It was necessary for technical reasons to disable Zero-G instantly upon death. It has now been changed to not do this anymore. This is a dangerous change, please test zero-g ON / OFF saves and last checkpoint saves, as this may have broken this!
  
• Taser Shots: Light effect when shooting (impact) now only produces shadows if Dynamic Lighting is set to Maximum
  
• Chapter 2: Bridge Puzzle will now have black buttons before performing it. Once solved, the buttons will be unavailable, but reflect colors of their respective states instead of remaining black.
  
• Chapter 2: Bridge Puzzle doesn’t start automatically anymore; you’ll need to activate the newly added Computer. This also means you can entirely skip it in New Game+, using Dodge (from standing on buttons to reach upper platforms), or Hover + Dodge.
  
• Chapter 2: Some Laser Fields could be walked on or prevent you from standing up. This was intentional. Changed them intentionally now to not allow this – we will see how things go!
  
• Chapter 3: Musical hacking Terminal will now only fail when finishing a whole sequence. Added Reset button. If you enable Hard of Hearing in Options, it will be as it was before (to ensure you can find it by memory + trial and error, at least, and without Reset button as it is not useful in this case).
  
• Chapter 4: Small changes to the Structure Control room (added pillars, fixed various visual bugs and such).
  
• Chapter 4: First mines area (with the Light Beam Receptor for Secret Passage): Reworked mines to ensure you cannot get through without shooting at least 1 mine. The ceiling for the upper mines now remains when retracting the wall, which allows the mines to remain present.
  
• Chapter 4: Flames corridor in the room before Processing Center: it is not mandatory to disable the flames; only if you want to not be damaged at all. However, added more flames to provoke more damage in most cases and keep it more discouraging (even though possible).
  
• Chapter 4: When the suns is turned OFF (approaching secret stairs), there are now much less reflections, and it’s now much darker outside. This is intended and desired.
  

We’ve made quite a few changes as to how bug reports are uploaded. Most importantly:

• Progress of bug report upload is now displayed. You cannot report another bug until the previous bug is fully uploaded. This avoids various errors that could cause some bug reports to fail.
  
• If a bug fails to upload to Haze Games servers, it will show the bug reporting window again, and keep the title/description/category/screenshots in order for your to try again. If you cancel it instead of retry, it will discard your bug report and not bother you again.
  
• If the bug only fails to send to Discord server (separate system), it will not try again. However, this is not a problem; if you don’t see an error, it means we have received the bug report – no need to report again if you do not see it on Discord 😉
  

These changes should help with reporting bugs, but might add new bugs to the bug reporting system. To be tested!


You might have encountered this bug before:

• Some grounds becoming non-solid for the Player, making you fall through the floor
  
• The concerned ground is random; it can be any of them in the entire game
  
• It’s rare, so you may encounter it only once in a game, or never
  
• The bug persists until you exit the game and resume your save (or use SHIFT + F9 or SHIFT + F10)
  
• We’ve been investigating this a lot the past couple of months, and we can confirm this is NOT a Fractal Space bug. It’s a Unity Engine bug. It’s been present in the engine games for a few years now.
  

It was very hard to point out the issue precisely, and understand how to fix it. We’ve been working with Unity the past few months to help reproducing the issue in a separate reproduction project:

• They were then able to focus on it.
  
• Great news! They have indeed fixed the bug!
  
• Bad news: the fix is not ready yet.
  

This means this bug is still active in this latest update. However, we think they will have published the fix in about 2-4 weeks, so we’ll have it soon finally fixed in Fractal Space as soon as they are ready 🙂


There were many bugfixes in this update. Here are just a few of the most important ones:

• Coming Soon: The black-magic-random weird bug when you could sometimes “fall through” some grounds, and this would persist for the entire session for these concerned grounds until you restarted the game, was a long-time-running Unity Engine mystic bug. We have worked with them to finally reproduce and isolate the bug; they were able to fix it! Thanks to all your reports, as it also helped with identifying it and escalating the issue on their side. However, the fix is not ready yet, so it is still active in this update – but it will finally land in the near future 😉
  
• Chapter 1: Invisible wall on ceiling of the first Bridge room, next to the ramp (bug introduced by recent changes of this area).
  
• Crouch: Crouch jump could sometimes result in crouching upon respawn instead of standing up. Should be fixed.
  
• Crouch: Saved Crouch state could sometimes fail to be applied correctly upon last checkpoint or quicksave loading – resulting in sometimes being spawned too high, and other issues. Tested many combinations, but this is quite a dangerous change – to be tested in combination with Zero-G checkpoints / Quicksave if something got broken by this.
  
• Dodge: Dodge would sometimes be not allowed when starting a level from the beginning (no Checkpoint saved data). Dodge cooldown gauge could be displayed on Computer Interfaces
  
• Cutscenes Off: Finally, the camera jitter and other visual bugs upon auto-skip of cutscenes with Cutscenes disabled, is now fixed! Should no longer happen. Please let me know if you still encounter it on some specific cutscenes. Now, this is a dangerous change; maybe auto-skip of cutscenes or the normal “cutscenes enabled” system now have new bugs with this change. To be tested!
  
• Interaction: Since recent changes, it was possible to mistakenly activate a button multiple times just before a cutscene, if you were to spam the interaction button. This was a new bug with the changes with the hand interaction system. Should not happen anymore.
  
• Pause: Clicking “Resume” button would fire the Taser-Gun if it was toggled ON
  
• Fragile Windows: Floating pieces of glass not being broken should now happen much less often / completely fixed. Please report if you still encounter it (should be more rare).
  
• Saws: Remaining “inside” a saw would allow you to not be damaged again after the short saw damage cooldown.
  
• Taser Toggle: Fixed a case in which Taser would be forced Toggled Off when it was set to Toggled On (after a skipped cutscene with cutscenes OFF). Fixed states in which center dot Crosshair would be visible while aiming Taser because toggled ON (should not)
  
• Taser FoV: Laser offset while Dodging with Taser aiming is now fixed, and a “jitter” of the Taser Gun when starting to Dodge is now also fixed (smoother for Taser)
  
• Depth of Field: Ensured first Depth of Field setting is set correctly when you start aiming the Taser. Avoids waiting 0.2s to focus on desired, already-aimed at object. Depth of field change speed is now more consistent and more reactive.
  
• Main Menu: Fixed a bug that could cause Main Menu buttons to not react to mouse input at all. This was only if you pressed ESC to show Pause, just after leaving a Computer Interface (within 0.2s)
  
• Laser-Equipped Cameras: Shots would sometimes ignore the player. Should happen much less often, thus you will be damaged more often (especially fast-shooting camera in Chapter 4)
  
• Hover: Fixed various exploits with Hover toggle ON/OFF and Quick Save / Quick Load. Last Checkpoint load should always restore Hover/Jetpack to full energy (intended), but Quick Save / Quick Load will now restore the same gauge state at time of Quick Save.
  
• Chapter 3: Fixed issue where cubes outside the Tunnel could sometimes be much higher than they should be
  
• Chapter 3: Crows could be seen for a very short duration if Cutscenes were disabled.
  
• Chapters Mode: Could start Chapters with 0 Taser Ammo, whereas Chapters Mode should always start with at least 6 Taser Ammo.
  
• Safe Lander: Fixed various display bugs some cases where it should not be displayed (cutscenes, interfaces, etc).
  
• Power Cores: Could have (undesired) collisions with the object currently held in your hands. This should never happen. Should now be solved and back to normal (currently held object does not collider/push other objects).
  
• Power Core Slots: If you performed a Quick Load while a Power Core was at insertion position (but NOT inserted) of a Power Core Slot, the Power Core Slot would be activated without any Power Core inserted, and would be in a “broken” state.
  
• Interface: Various interface elements should no longer be visible between Chapter loads (Scope, Jetpack gauge, etc.)
  
• Hyper-Speed: Restarting the Chapter from start with HS enabled could result in reducing the game’s speed.
  
• Chinese: Some in-game characters were not displaying correctly. Now fixed
  
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs
  

Thank you for testing! We’ll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for any major bugs 😉

Have an awesome week, and happy gaming!

Charles & Amélie from Haze Games

Hello, dear players of Fractal Space!

We thank you again for the many bug reports, suggestions and more that we have received lately.

We've been delaying the hundreds of Steam key requests to access the Pre-Alpha, in order to solve these first before having new players report new bugs :)

The latest update 0.587 is now live on Steam! It solves many more bugs, and adds new improvements, various levels changes and more. We'll discuss the important ones here.

IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.

[h2]DIALOGUES | REPETITION[/h2]
Some players were complaining about hearing the same dialogues again after dying and respawning. We have changed the system to:

• Do not play already played level dialogues again within the same session
• There might be exceptions for some dialogues because some should be repeated in the same session
• If you exit the game and resume, these dialogues will be played again (intended)

We hope this change will make dying feel less repetitive, and avoid hearing the same level dialogues over and over.

Respawn dialogues have not changed, and will still be different at each death, until there are no more available, in which case it will then be "sighs" instead of sentences.

[h2]CUTSCENES | HANDS[/h2]
In this update, you can now see the player character's hands during the very first introduction of the game, and during Respawn cutscenes!

They should work correctly with any FoV setting - even though high FoV will always result in slight distortion of objects, which is normal. Ensuring animations work well with all FoV values isn't as easy as it sounds, so it has to be tested ;)



On some specific respawn points, you might see the hands go through objects or the ground; please report in-game when this happens, so it can be fixed in the next updates.

[h2]FRAGILE | WINDOWS[/h2]
Fragile Windows have been reworked in order to solve multiple issues:

• They had holes, which required you to aim more precisely to avoid shooting through he holes instead. This was intended, but it seems like more players are annoyed by this than anything - so they no longer have holes, but they do have visible cracks.
• Holes were partly also present to make the fragile windows stand out more from regular windows and make them more visible. This new version now has a much more visible crack to help making them more noticeable, as some players had a hard time differentiating them.
• After shooting a first time on a fragile window, shards will then break with player weight and / or dropped cube on them. It now makes more sense that they do not do so until a first shot has been fired.

You can see the crack is much more noticeable than previously, and holes have been removed:



[h2]CHAPTER 1 | NEW AREA[/h2]
Just after the first 2 pressure plates, in front of the Math door, you can now freely access the “white light hole” to your right.

There will be a recording here in the future:



It is meant to be accessible and completable in New Game. You can do this before or after getting the Taser. The roof above the math door will still relocate you for now, but in the future there will be a recording accessible only in New Game+ up there as well.

[h2]CHAPTER 1 | OPTIONAL RECORDING[/h2]
The optional Recording to get around the first Smashers area (requiring Cube/Dodge to reach the Roof) is now protected to be inaccessible or by simply Dodging from below, or by using various other techniques to reach the ceiling:



[h2]CHAPTER 2 | LAST ROOM[/h2]
The Power Core Storage button will no longer disable the lasers above the Power Core, and will only open the door. You will need to open the door, then enable Zero-G to get the Power Core that will be pushed out:



In addition, the optional Upgrade in this room will now require Zero-G to be accessed:



[h2]OTHER[/h2]
Other new additions worth noting here:

• Chapter 1: New checkpoint added above the “Go Left, Go Right” area to save outside as well. In addition, checkpoints here will save multiple times after various key interactions are done.
• Cameras: Disabled Cameras can now be destroyed
• Physics Debris: You can now shoot “through the cylinder” of floating pipes debris in Chapter 3 (The Cube area)
• Tablets / Power Cores / Encryption Keys: Will now react to Taser shots (be pushed) in Zero-G.

[h2]CHANGES[/h2]
Below is a list of various important changes in this update:

• Lasers: Various insta-kill lasers now have more tightly-packed lasers to make it more clear you won’t survive if you try to get through. Many of these areas will have similar additions over the next updates to make it more predictable.
• Saws: Some saws (especially moving saws, or static that should be jumped over) are always more tolerant than others (intentionally) to avoid you getting damaged when a “fairly acceptable jump” was performed instead of a “perfect jump”. This will remain for the upper part to avoid frustration. Though the sides shouldn’t behave like this for this saw. They will now damage the player more accurately from the sides. Please report any unintended damage by saws that may now occur with this change (in some specific areas, this change might be an issue)
• Saws: Now have additional red lines coming from the center when activated
• Bloom: Bloom is now a bit more intense
• Taser Shot: Impact light now more intense and more visible
• Doors / Vent Doors: Closing a vent door with a Cube in the middle would now push it better “out of the way” since the previous update already. With Power Cores, it’s more complicated due to their shape. Now, if a Power Core gets “caught” inside a closing door or vent door, it will be automatically forced out of the way. This solves the issue. To be tested in case it creates new bugs!
• Dodge Cooldown: The Dodge cooldown gauge could sometimes remain indefinitely visible when used with the Taser Toggle system. In addition, it could sometimes not be visible with Taser Toggled on, preventing you from knowing when it has finished recharging.
• Dodge Cooldown: Will now always be displayed, and move downwards while aiming in order to avoid being disturbed when trying to aim with the Taser.
• Speedrun Mode: Some lasers have player collisions in speedrun mode only. Previously, changing Speedrun Mode during a level would not update laser collisions (restart of Chapter required). It will now change appropriately instantly.
• Chapters Replay: Selecting Chapter 1 from the “Chapters” page would not play the first introduction (it was only played on New Game without Speedrun Mode).
• Chapter 1: Pipes to reach the skip (Fragile Wall) next to the Smasher button are kept, but not the “lowest” one, as it creates more confusion than anything (was intended to be here to help and provide a hint that roof is accessible).
• Chapter 1: Small vent in Taser Room cannot be closed after being opened to prevent potential softlock
• Chapter 1: Saw in “This is bad” room has a new path, which doesn’t clip through the Door pillars. Other various small changes and improvements were made in this room.
• Chapter 3: Vertical row of Lasers next to the Camera (for which you must disable Shield to get through, that is looking at the vent), could let you go through with somedamaged - they are meant to kill if you go though. Now changed to reflect this.
• Chapter 3: Horizontal lasers in the area after the 2 breakable glass to access the Power Core to disable the camera shield mentioned above, will now instantly kill you if you go through it to prevent you from skipping this room.
• Chapter 3: Solved potential softlock with locking the cube on the wrong side in the Initialization Room
• Chapter 4: When reaching the last room, the retractable walls will now deploy to prevent you from backtracking to a potential softlock (room with flames)
• Upgrades: Tutorial about upgrades (and associated dialogues) will not play when interacting with a mandatory Upgrade Terminal if it’s your very first terminal ever (ex: first terminal ever interacted with is Hyper-Speed terminal in Chapter 3). This is because the player has no choice for this terminal.

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]
Below is a list of the most important bugfixes included this update:

• Taser Toggle: When toggled always on, the Taser could be shown after a Cutscene, even with an object currently in hands.
• Saws: “Cannot Stand Here” could happen when crouched really close to a Saw
• Room Control: Sometimes, a button would require clicking it twice to perform the turn ON/OFF of a specific action. Should be fully solved. To be tested - as this change may have caused unwanted new bugs in various other Room Control interfaces.
• Moving Platforms: Vertical Dodge from a moving platform could sometimes result in “bouncy reception” upon the next moving platform landing. This should now be fixed (to be tested).
• Power Cores: You could potentially encounter bugs if you inserted a Power Core inside a Power Core Slot at the same time as Relocation would be happening. You can no longer drop / insert a Power Core Core while a relocation is in progress (to prevent this bug, and to prevent unintended situations / softlocks due to leaving a Power Core in an unreachable area).
• Lasers: Laser beams could go through the edges of vent doors (leak). Now fixed.
• Taser: In some specific cases / angles, you could sometimes shoot through walls. Shouldn’t be possible anymore.
• Sprint: When a sprint is pending, and getting out of a vent could result in sprinting while remaining crouched.
• Chapter 1: Ensured the Ext door of the very first Camera room will not sometimes re-open once you went past the door (could happen in some cases).
• Chapter 1: Relocation could sometimes briefly be displayed upon entry of the very first Cube room.
• Chapter 1: Math Door: Entering slightly then returning back, could result in relocation bug that allowed to skip the “Laser Cage” room if you were to go outside on attempted to reach the roof.
• Chapter 2: Solved possible unintended backtracking after disabling lasers in the first “Electrified Room” if you returned outside using the vent below, after going past these (now disabled) lasers.
• Chapter 3: You could skip the 2 “cages” with cubes by flying further on the sides
• Chapter 3 You could activate “The Cube” button remotely with the Taser, earlier than you should be able to. Now fixed (not usable until going actually through)
• Chapter 3: Generator to break for glass-cubes area (just after the Tunnel): There were multiple bugs with the vents / lasers in this room, could cause laser issues, and softlocks. All should be fixed. Added an Ammo Pack in this room as well to prevent soflocks.
• Chapter 3: “The Cube” Area Encryption Key Formatter: The game should now only save in front of the formatter Terminal, after leaving it, but only if the Lasers have already been disabled by breaking the generator. This avoids potential softlock if went through using cover, then removed it, or passed through and survived during Dodge.
• Chapter 3: In the last hallway, sometimes laser fields would not be properly activated for the Bridge power puzzles (where you must deploy only necessary Bridges). Should now always be the correct way (all laser fields enabled correctly)
• Chapter 4: The Map of the Room Control Terminal in the Hyper-Speed suppressor area would not be displayed correctly upon very first interaction
• Chapter 4: Portable mirrors were “falling like leaves” when Zero-G was disabled. Should now behave correctly.
• Saving: A change was made on saving data, hopefully will help reduce chances of having an in-game error about “a value being negative”. However, if your game crashes while saving, or you exit the game with ALT+F4 while saving, data will still be corrupted (like with any other game). Later on, there will be a backup system in case this happens, but this is not here yet.
• Texts: Texts that appear “gradually” (tutorials, etc.) could display the full text for a very short period of time, before starting the smooth apparition. Should now be fixed.
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for next bugs ;)

Hi all, dear Fractal Space players! We wish you all a Happy New Year 2021! A new update 0.586 is now live for Windows, Mac & Linux!

Please restart Steam to ensure you get this update now

This update focuses on fixing the various major issues in levels, that could prevent you from completing the Pre-Alpha.

Some of these issues were added with 0.584 and 0.585 changes, and should now be solved.

In addition, there are various level changes to solve some gameplay issues, most important ones are listed below. There is a chance these new changes provoked new bugs - to be tested!

If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report as usual, and also send an email to [email protected] ;)

IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.

[h2]NEW[/h2]
List of additions / new elements in this update:

• Chapter 1: Optional Area with “Impressive” Recording: Checkpoint to save progress if you reach this area. To be tested.
  
• Ammo Packs: Now slightly smaller visual - same pickup range. Now it has more polygons to look better on “circular” parts. Texture will be improved later on:
  
  
  
• Screens: They no longer have player collisions. Only a few will keep them (the very large ones that should have some). Please report if you find large ones that should be walkable and that currently aren’t (should be very rare).
  
• Controls Remapping: Skip cutscenes control will now use the Show Objectives input to skip cutscenes if remapped. Only with the Keyboard, as with a Gamepad it should always remain on the Y button (intended).
  
• Taser Power Upgrade Previous updates added more powerful wall breaking with Taser Power Level 3. Now, from Taser Power Level 2 upgrade, fragile windows will also break much more in 1 single hit.
  
• Lasers: Some individual lasers (selectively) will now destroy broken glass shards upon contact (intended), to avoid blocking the beam. Please report any areas where specific lasers should use this new system to destroy glass shards in order to avoid game-breaking situations (like going through lasers you shouldn’t be able to, etc.). These situations will usually be isolated to vertical lasers, placed low on the ground, next to fragile windows.
  

[h2]CHANGES[/h2]
List of changes to be aware of from this update:

• Taser Toggle ON/OFF: As some players pressed “T” by mistake, and thought it was a bug that the Taser Gun would remain toggled ON, releasing the AIM (HOLD) key will now cancel the Aim (Toggle) in order to hide the Taser to “unblock aiming”.
  
  
  
• Chapter 1: Room with first 2 pressure plates: reworked to prevent being able to get up onto the pipes and upper vent (upon return) without a Cube in New Game. You can either get past the lasers (with the 2 lower ones now disabled) and use the Cube to get up unharmed, or go through lasers without a cube (on the side of pipes), but you will be damaged (intended to allow it, but not optimal choice). From the “start of the pipes” (higher than the rest), you may stack 2 cubes to directly reach the upper vent from here (intended). You can step on the pipes directly on the right as you enter but won’t be able to get onto the vent:
  
  
  
• Chapter 1: New Game + shortcut with Dodge through fragile window, upon returning with Taser to get Ammo Pack: Has been changed to ensure that: You cannot go outside through that window without Dodge anymore; recently added Cube Respawn here has now been removed (you can stack cubes and won’t be able to go out in New Game). It’s now higher, to discourage new players from trying to get there. With Dodge, you can still go outside or inside through that fragile window:
  
  
  
• Chapter 1: “New Orange thingy” dialogue actually refers to the structure on your right as you return to this room (which wasn’t here first time you crossed the Bridge). Moved the Color Pack to be less visible upon return here to avoid confusion with the Color Pack, until this dialogue is changed.
  
• Chapter 1: You cannot simply jump over the laser field in the “This is bad” room after the fall in New Game anymore. You’ll need Dodge as intended:
  
  
  
• Chapter 1: Alternate route: You cannot use only 1 cube anymore on New Game and will require 2 cubes (except if there is still an issue with jump height in some cases or another collision bug here)
  
• Chapter 4: Second propeller (super-fast one) in the Train area (which requires to remove Power Core) was too easy to get through without removing it, because it was pushing you instead of killing you (this “pushing” is kept and appropriate for other areas). It is now still possible without removing the Power Core, but much harder, using a perfect Dodge, or quick jetpack below before relocation. There will be an achievement here in the future. You could also just crouch below them - no longer possible.
  
• Chapter 4: Sun & Solar Panels: The only possible combination should be A-B-E green. Solved multiple cases of other combinations that could work (not intended, and objectives would not accomplish). If you find other combinations that work, please report them ;)
  
• Speedrun Timers: Will now correctly be hidden on all Computer Interfaces / Upgrade Terminals, but remain on Keypad and other interfaces (intended).
  
• Screens: Small screens (rectangular ones - most of them) will now have borders that don’t look as “stretched” as they used to.
  

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]
List of major bug fixes in this update:

• Chapter 3: Hyper-Speed could not be acquired
  
• Dodge: Dodging upwards from Crouched stance could allow you to enter “small height” areas that you are not meant to.
  
• Jump Save Spam: Spamming Quick Save / Quick Load with Jumps could allow multiple jumps. Now solved.
  
• Save System: 0.584 introduced a “safer save system” to ensure there were no level bugfixes after saving when many changes are being done simultaneously in the level. Fixed some additional cases of these issues (with buttons triggering Timers and such).
  
• Interaction: Could interact with some objects through some types of walls. Should be fixed. In order to solve this, a few changes had to be done to interaction in general - please check interaction for all object types to see if this change didn’t break interaction with some object types. In addition, it was possible to pick up cubes through “vent grids”.
  
• Show Objectives: Various bugfixes with the system which sometimes would not show objectives when requested. Fixed cases where health / fuel bar could remain displayed on interfaces if quickly interacted with it after unpausing the game.
  
• Objectives: Objective entries could sometimes remain displayed as a line for a few seconds before being shown. Should now be fixed.
  
• Objectives: Objective cancelled red square could be displayed at a wrong position in the notification system, overlapping text, etc. Should be fixed.
  
• Music: More cases of “Detected” music remaining indefinitely now fixed. Shouldn’t happen anymore, or at least, much less often. If it happens, please report again with steps to reproduce (if you know them).
  
• Chapter 1: “This is bad” room Relocation will now be performed before dying from falling into the void
  
• Dodge: Fixed exploit that allowed you to Dodge through lasers or others if Dodge was performed immediately after a Quick Load. Dodge is no longer available until the Quick Load is fully completed (around 0.5s).
  
• Upgrades: Could sometimes fail to provide non-acquired upgrades when reaching last terminals in the game (and End Game not yet reached)
  
  
  
• Controls Remapping: Fixed a bug with Aim Toggle being displayed and empty on Gamepad input, which was creating a conflict - should not be here with Gamepad (at least for now, intended not to be).
  
• Controls Remapping: A bug caused deleted secondary mappings to cause conflicts on “empty” keys.
  
• Localization: Various localization fixes
  
• Taser Ammo: The “Energy” text on the Taser screen was not using the correct color and would keep orange / red even when fully charged.
  
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next found major bugs ;)

We wish you all have a great year 2021!

Charles & Amy from Haze Games

Hello, dear Fractal Space PC Pre-Alpha players! Latest update 0.584 of the PC Pre-Alpha is now live on Steam!

The update is also coming within a few hours for the Xbox One Demo.

There has been a massive amount of bugfixes from the recently reported bugs, and many changes and some new features!

IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.

After updating, if at any time you are encounter a missing object in the level (Power Core Slot or other), please restart the current chapter from the beginning (not last checkpoint, full Chapter restart) and check if the issue is still happening. If it still missing, please report with ALT+B.

IMPORTANT: DEBUG MODE AND TERMINALS: Acquiring upgrades via Debug Mode will always likely result in bugs with Terminals upgrade list, Terminal usable states and such; if you are testing the Upgrades distribution and End Game, you should play the game normally and never acquire upgrades via Debug Mode. Any bug about Upgrades / Upgrades PC / End Game mode (all Terminals found once) are invalid if any upgrades are acquired with Debug Mode as it results in impossible situations.

If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report as usual, and also send an email to [email protected] ;)

Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

[h2]TASER | TOGGLE AIM[/h2]
Fractal Space is meant to be played with the Taser-Gun hidden, and shown only when the player requests to aim. This will not change for regular and new players as a first experience with the game.

However, if you are an expert at the game and/or a speedrunner, you will enjoy having the ability to toggle the Taser-Gun to be always displayed - and we want this to work.



This will require you to change the default keys for Dodge, and use the new Modules Management system to enable / disable the Aim Stabilizer and Hover modules at your convenience.

The Toggle Taser is set by default on the T key. It has now been greatly improved to:

• Save the desired Taser Toggled on / off state to avoid you from having to request it again at every game load / checkpoint
• Keep the desired Taser Toggled on / off state after cutscenes, interfaces, and dropping objects. It used to sometimes be forced off.

If you find cases where the Taser-Gun gets hidden and doesn't come back automatically when you indeed had toggled it ON, please report a bug.

The end goal is that if you Toggle the Taser-Gun ON in the first room of the game, you can complete the game without ever having to request it again. Except, of course, if you intentionally toggle it off yourself ;)

[h2]TASER | RELOADING[/h2]
Added a first version of a new Taser Reload animation! No longer instant reloading. Still, it’s very fast to make sure you don’t wait too long.



It is intentional that reloading now takes around 1s - and is not meant to be instant in Speedrun Mode either. You’ll need to take that time into account during speedruns and reload at the right moment (intended).

The following cases INTENTIONALLY result in an instant-reload to avoid waiting / frustration:

• Reload animation will not be played if you are currently healing (intended)
• Reload will interrupt Scope and return to previous Scope zoom after reload is completed, if aiming is still requested (intended).
• Reload will NOT interrupt Hover if you keep requesting to aim the Taser (intended). If you stop requesting to aim the Taser during the reloading process, Hover will stop as intended.
• Requesting to shoot while reloading will shoot as soon as the Taser is ready (intended).

[h2]IMPACTS | IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
Many improvements to impacts were made:

• Less chances of floating on sides of objects (Power Cores, etc.)
• Impacts are now visible on glass!
• “Lasting impact” doesn’t last as long as before, but looks better than the circle that was here in previous versions (and PE), and now disappears smoothly over time
• The impact will still look strange on edges / corners, but much less than before
• Cardboard Boxes: Added visual effect when destroyed by lasers.

[h2]MODULE | MANAGEMENT[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We've added a new Module Management system to allow you to:

• Toggle Hover ON / OFF anytime using "1" key
  • When disabled/enabled, Hover gauge will be hidden / shown accordingly
• Toggle Aim Stabilizer ON / OFF anytime using "2" key

However, in addition to this, you can now see which modules are currently active by holding the Show Stats key (TAB by default):



While playing on PC with keyboard / mouse, this Module Management will mostly be cosmetic and to help you to learn the shortcuts by heart.

After a while, you won't need to use it, as you can use those shortcuts anytime without showing Module Management.

If you toggle any module ON / OFF while aiming, the Module Management will display for 3 seconds as feedback, without disturbing you current aiming state:



While playing with gamepad, the shortcuts to toggle Modules are set to A and B buttons, and are only active while Module Management is displayed. This way, you can still jump and crouch using the alternative LB and RB buttons while this interface is displayed:



Please note that since gamepads have less input buttons, you will need to hold Show Stats button (Dpad Down by default) in order to toggle Modules ON/OFF if you are playing with a gamepad. This is to prevent disabling modules by mistake.

[h2]OPTIONS[/h2]
Many improvements and bugfixes were made to the Options menu:

• Reworked the Fullscreen / Windowed / Borderless system to work more consistently, and more stable:
  • Now starts by default in Borderless mode, switching to other modes should now work better
  • ALT+ENTER now disabled to prevent engine bugs
  
  
  
• Language now uses a Drop-Down list:

• Resolution now uses a Drop-Down list:

• Some sliders now have values text displayed
• Changed some options to use Checkboxes (Speedrun Mode, Cutscenes, etc)
• New Aim Sensitivity Multiplier slider (set it to 1 for same sensitivity as when not aiming):

• New customization shortcuts for Aim Stabilizer and Hover Modules Toggle ON/OFF

[h2]CHANGES[/h2]
Summary of the major changes of this update.

[h3]AIM | STABILIZER[/h3]
Improvements were made to the Aim Stabilizer:

1. Can now be disabled anytime with 2 key (default)
2. Toggle Aim Stabilizer key can now be changed in Remapping
3. Disable Aim Stabilizer now has an animation and can be seen inactive on the Taser-Gun

[h3]GENERAL[/h3]

• Button Interaction: Improved interaction hand animation - smoother
• Power Cores: Now have reworked, more precise collisions.
• Chapter 1: Added relocation for the first area outside, to prevent climbing around for huge skip
• Chapter 1: Smasher Room will no longer close behind you as you approach the “lift protected by lasers” section. This allows you to return to the Bonus Room behind you, in case you missed it. It also allows you to come back from here in case you backtracked after opening the retractable wall to “Find an Alternate Route”
• Chapter 1: First Cube Room: The Healthpack in front of the first vent door (Vent 1), has now been moved on the pipes as an optional Healthpack
• Chapter 1: Changed Vent 1 in the room with very first Cube to now be locked at start, requiring to be unlocked with a small button. It will now be locked when opening the Door as before. This keeps the upper vent mandatory for return to the main room, but still allows going back inside to get the recording using the new Vent 1 button to reopen it, after dropping out of the upper vent.
• Chapter 1: “Use Protection” room row of lasers now changed to not have collisions when ON (like most others in the game), as on PC you can simply Dodge over them for speedruns. They have collisions when turned OFF (intended).
• Windows: Windows variant with holes to let pipes / cables through will now allow you to shoot through them (collision bug fixed on them). Good idea to check if this doesn’t break the game by allowing to shoot some gameplay objects in advance through them.
• Hyper-Speed: Will now auto-consume Healthpack from your Backpack (if available) when requesting to activate Hyper-Speed while you currently not have enough Health to do so.
• Chapter 2: Reworked the vent in the optional area above the first room control room with Cameras - it was using an old layout. Changed slightly how to the get the NG+ only Color Pack here.
• Chapter 2: Big Room: Healthpack can now only be obtained through the crusher. We will see if it has become too hard to get healed in this area - in which case I will change it back to how it was before.
• Chapter 3: Bonus Room: You could glitch / crouch on the glass vent, probably to protect yourself with a cube placed on top of it, instead of destroying the generator to access the second Cube. Now blocked to avoid this possibility. Might revert it back if you suggest it, to conserve both possible solutions, but as this would require a higher ceiling in this area (not enough time to do this yet), it wasn’t done yet.

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]
This update includes hundreds of bugfixes; only important ones are mentioned here:

• Corrupted Save: Might still happen - will be investigated more in a future update. Not sure what causes it yet. However, when save corruption happens while reading the save file (resume or last checkpoint), the game will now restart the Chapter from start to unblock the game (no other solution yet).
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs
• Upgrade Terminals: If you had all upgrades acquired for a Terminal, or in End Game mode, Hyper-Speed could show up as an upgrade. It shouldn’t.
• Color Packs: After requesting a New Game (not NG+), picking up Color Packs would not correctly update the count of found Color Packs in the Pause menu. This fix requires you to request a New Game to test if it’s now correctly solved.
• Lifts & Moving Platforms: After a Quick Save / Quick Load, in some cases, some Lifts or Moving Platforms would refuse to move after being activated.
• Chapter 4: Many gameplay and visual bugfixes in Processing Center.
• Save System: More cases of saving are now safer (lasers positioning and more)
• Interaction: When not in Speedrun Mode (rarely if enabled), interaction with buttons could fail if you looked rapidly the other way while interaction animation was playing.
• Lasers: After a Quick Load, moving lasers could be out of sync / moving towards incorrect direction. There might still be cases of this, but most should now be fixed.
• Screens: A bug was provoking second run texts to not be used in New Game+. Should be fixed.
• Moving Platforms: Many bugfixes coming from PE with platform pushing/crushing player fixes. Quick loading while standing on a moving platform could cause wrong moving platform movement after quick load.
• Show Stats: Tab key would not always work to request to hide/show stats & objectives. Should now be more reactive.
• Hover: Hovering just after a fully-vertical-upwards Dodge could result in sliding vertically up for a few seconds.
• Sparks: Particles for lasers could sometimes go through objects.
• Crouched Jump: If you chained jump just after a crouch request, you’d have a jump height boost. Fixed.
• Moving Platforms: Spamming Jump when Quick Loading with a Quick Save on a moving platform could result in your being able to fly
• Recordings: If Steam failed to initialize correctly, errors could happen when picking up Recordings. Should not happen anymore.
• Other: Countless other bugs in all Chapters :)

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next found major bugs ;)

Enjoy your wonderful holidays, and we wish you a Happy New Year in advance!

Charles & Amy from Haze Games

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! Update 0.583 is now LIVE on Steam for Windows, Mac & Linux!

This update focuses on fixing many reported bugs in 0.582. The game should now be more stable 🙂

Originally posted by Haze Games

IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER after updating to avoid bugs, softlocks and ensure new bugfixes are correctly applied!

After updating, if at any time you are encounter a missing object in the level (Power Core Slot or other), please restart the current chapter from the beginning (not last checkpoint, full Chapter restart) and check if the issue is still happening. If it still missing, please report with ALT+B.

As there were a huge amount of bug fixes and important changes, please expect new bugs to occur. If major blocking bugs occur, please report and there will be a quick patch within a few days to fix those first. Other bugs will wait for the next update.

If you have specific bug reports that require videos, please send them to [email protected] 😉

Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

• Interaction: A bug made all interactions possible from further away than intended. Fixed, which might create new bugs or unsolvable situations. Picking cubes that are on platforms below you may now require you to crouch (intended and acceptable). Please report if you find blocking issues with performing interactions after this change. I’m aware speedrunners might dislike this change; I’m expecting complaints 🙂 You’ll need to get used to the smaller interaction range. If after a few runs you still can’t adapt to it and it is too annoying, I’ll increase it slightly again (but will remain smaller than it was before), and maybe only for Speedrun Mode. Please report as Suggestions what you think about the smaller interaction range (please not the first time you try – only after doing a few runs and being used to it).
  
• Button Interaction: First version of button interaction animation; will be using the left-hand glove with an electrified short-range visual effect towards the button activated in the future. It’s meant to be very short and quick to avoid adding delays for interaction. Current delay is only 0.1s. Speedrun Mode completely removes this delay and keeps instant-interaction (the animation will be slightly out of sync, but it’s intended for Speedrun Mode). You can safely request interaction and move / look away and it will work (intended to avoid annoyance, and remain cosmetic). If you press it multiple times, it will correctly perform the interaction multiple times (might sometimes be out of sync visually with the animation, but that will be fixed later). Won’t be played if currently healing, but instant interaction will be performed (intended)
  
• Achievements: Many existing Achievements now have new icons, 2 small ones were added. Many more to come, when I have time to add Achievements 🙂
  
• Hyper-Speed: Auto-heal if the player has a health kit in his backpack when reaching the low health threshold for Hyper-Speed.
  
• Chapter 1: Added softlock release in the first vertical corridor if no more Taser Ammo. You need to aim really badly to have it 🙂 It’s a silent dialogue for now.

• Damage: Invincibility period after being hit by Lasers / Saws has been reduced
  
• Dodge: Crosshair disabled will now still show Dodge cooldown gauge (washidden as well with the crosshair)
  
• Chapter 1: Taser pickup dialogues and objects are now better tied to picking up the Taser, avoiding them to be triggered if you don’t pick it up directly.
  
• Chapter 1: First button to shoot in the game, can no longer be accessed manually
  
• Chapter 1: Skip through the breakable window in the room with the first Cube will no longer destroy the first cube – you can continue to Taser Room door with it. Previous vents won’t be automatically locked.
  
• Chapter 1: Cannot go back into the lift “Maintenance” hatch of “Alternate Route” anymore after using the lift to go up to the first Power Core
  
• Chapter 1: After dropping in the room below the vertical corridor with a button to shoot, the blinking laser will turn off after interacting with the first switch.
  
• Chapter 2: Upon entering the last room in the Zero-Gravity part, the ground will be blocked to prevent you from returning down.

There were many more bugfixes than the list below; only noting here the most important ones:

• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs
  
• Saving: In some cases, resuming the game from Main Menu could provoke some triggers to re-activate and checkpoints to re-save. This has been fixed.
  
• Cutscenes: Disabling Cutscenes while a cutscenes was already playing could result in a black screen.
  
• Cutscenes: Auto-Skipping a Cutscene with Hyper-Speed activated could freeze the player for around 1s if the player was static – or impede controls if already moving
  
• Music: Could play “detected” soundtrack at the same time as level soundtrack, especially when there were multiple cameras involved in the room. Most cases should be fixed, please report steps to reproduce if you find additional cases of this happening. Thank you!
  
• Music: Entering loading transition will now stop playing current chapter music until next chapter is loaded (intended).
  
• Cameras: Will now switch to normal level music and show “Cleared” when no more cameras are searching for the player. The game would sometimes do this when there was still another different camera detecting / searching for the player.
  
• Sequence Switches: Bugs were fixed with them sometimes remaining pressed down without actually moving to the next sequence step. Other bugs related to saving at specific moments of sequences have been fixed too – they should be more stable.
  
• Room Control: Improved buttons to avoid them not always being activated when clicking outside of the center
  
• Sound Volume / Music Volume: Various bugfixes were made to music / sound volumes: a bug was provoking music to return during level loading (should be silent for now between levels), and music volume could be changed to higher than desired. Should now be better, might provoke new sound-related issues.
  
• Chapter 4: Power Beam switch was not playing its “Activation” animation.
  
• Chapter 4: Secret stairs to secret passage could sometimes open / close instantly instead of playing the intended animation. This is quite a dangerous change, please test and report any bugs regarding stairs animation or other animations like this.

Thank you for testing! We’ll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for next bugs 😉