UBOAT News

Dear skippers,

The update B129 Preview 15 is now complete and may be downloaded on the public testing branch.

Since there were quite many changes in this update, we prepared a short summary. We hope that you will enjoy the new additions!

[h2]Summary of the changes[/h2]
[h3]Optimization[/h3]
The main goal for this update was to perform certain technical maintenance tasks that we wanted to implement for quite a long time. We touched every file present in the game and restructured the game in a more optimal way.

Thanks to this, UBOAT occupies 6 GB less space on the disk, as well as uses up less RAM than before.

[h3]Campaign setup[/h3]
Since there are quite many realism settings to deal with during the campaign setup, we felt that we should make this experience easier to go through for the new players, which are not yet familiar with the meaning of everything present at this screen.

For this reason we added an animated selection of realism and crew management complexity.



[h3]Volumetric lighting[/h3]
There is now a volumetric lighting support in UBOAT. It's a fog-like effect that is most intense near the light sources as they light up particulate matter in the air. It's a quite mood building addition in our opinion.



[h3]Food management[/h3]
As UBOAT developed, it became capable of fitting more play-styles. For players, that are not enjoying complexities of the crew management, we added a new realism setting to disable food management in the game.

When this setting is disabled, everything food-related is removed from the game. Food may still appear inside the cargo holds of NPC ships, but it won't play any useful role aside from that.



[h3]Stable release[/h3]
We intend to release update B129 on the stable branch soon. We are still hunting for one crash issue and also want to ensure that everything is in place after technical changes in Preview 15. We ask for just a bit more patience.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Added volumetric lighting support for point lights. This effect is most noticeable inside the u-boat.
- Improvements to the water shader & calibration pass for the overall water look.
- Further improvements to the generic merchant ships models and textures.
- Small improvements to u-boat interior models and textures.
- New hair shader that is faster and works more consistently with post-processing effects like the ambient occlusion and contact shadows (known issue: due to this change, the NPC ship captain's beard is sometimes blurring during merchant ship inspections - we are investigating this issue).
- Added outlines for the crewmen after hovering them with a mouse.
- Improvements to the fog effect, especially near the horizon.
- Fix: Fixed a very old bug related to the texture streaming feature, that was making certain textures to appear very blurry and never be loaded in a better quality, even if the camera was very close.
- Fix: If contact shadows were enabled for all lights in the settings, there were various shadow artifacts present around light bulbs.
- Fix: Main menu lighting was different (subjetively: worse) after leaving an ongoing game to menu when compared to the state of it after visiting the menu for the first time.
- Fix: Water wasn't being lit by some components of the ambient lighting.
- Fix: Map skins weren't correctly loaded in some cases, if the skin was changed during a gameplay. It was loaded correctly after reseting the game.
- Fix: Improved lens flares occlusion by geometry in the scene.
- Fix: Generic merchant ships no longer appear completely white for a short time after spawning in the scene.
- Regression fix: Flashing lights in the weather station reconnaissance scene.

[h3]Optimizations:[/h3]
- Optimized game files structure for smaller disk space, less memory usage and faster loading times. Game is now smaller by 6 GB on the disk after installation. Memory usage and loading time decreases due to this change depend on the used quality settings.

- Main shader performance optimizations.

- Major memory usage optimizations. Some of the most substantial changes:

• Shadowmaps now occupy 2x less space in the graphics card memory.
  
• 24k world map texture is loaded only, if the texture quality setting is set to maximum - otherwise a 12k texture is used.
  
• Optimized quality of certain less important sound effects.

[h3]Campaign setup:[/h3]
- The campaign setup in the main menu was reworked with animated preset buttons for the realism and crew management. The old slider for selecting one dimensional complexity was removed and replaced with a static realism bar.
- Added a possibility to disable food management from the game during the campaign setup.

[h3]User interface:[/h3]
- Changed "Paper-like" map skin name to "Paper-like (Default)" and changed the old "Default" skin to "Colourful".
- Added explanation what happened after enabling a free camera mode with the instruction on how to disable it.
- Added an alternative sound effect that is played in the main menu after clicking various UI elements.
- Added a warning when player is trying to load a game state that was saved with a different mod setup than the current one.
- Added a dedicated icon for the third time compression button in the dynamic travel system. Tweaked the tooltips for all time compression buttons in the dynamic travel system.
- Fix: After researching T5 torpedoes the summary text in the HQ was missing.
- Fix: UI issues after opening HQ screen from the device manual use mode.
- Fix: Sea name in the upper left part of the UI was often not updating after entering a different sea.
- Fix: The scenario selection screen was empty for a short period of time after clicking the "New game" button in the main menu. There is now "Loading..." notification instead.
- Fix: Scene sound effects were played at their normal volume levels instead of being quiet after entering the "Management" view and switching to any tab aside from the "Crew".
- Fix: It's no longer possible to have "Any" fields in the schedule of sailor shifts. It's allowed only for the officers.
- Fix: After finishing a phase of multi-phase campaign objective (like "Battle of the Atlantic") the progress bar was disappearing under the campaign objective's photography on the map.
- Fix: Hardcore aiming mode wasn't counted into the final realism value.

[h3]Simulation:[/h3]
- Fix: Improvements to FAT and LUT torpedo programs.

[h3]AI:[/h3]
- Fix: NPC ships were remaining in the alarmed state, if they were having any enemy wreck site in the sight range.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Collision damage is now disabled during tutorial missions.
- There is now a dedicated notification for events that make the current mission impossible to complete, for example if a friendly u-boat that called for help was sunk by the enemy.
- Fix: There was a missing arrow during tutorial mission #2 that should point the map button.
- Fix: Errors appearing in the log in large numbers after loading a game state saved during certain tutorial missions.
- Fix: Gold recovery campaign assignment wasn't available for taking at La Spezia, but at quite distant ports like Bergen and Wilhelmshaven.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Major Chinese localization update by SparrowSHEN.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Spanish localization update by Tordo.
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- Turkish localization update by tokyo.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.
- Fix: Improvements to the Chinese font.

[h3]Crew management:[/h3]
- Fix: After preparing an extensive crew schedule that had most sailors assigned by name to shifts or to the officers, the shift changes were sometimes not working.
- Fix: Officers could become duplicated in some cases involving story sequences. One reproduction was to send them on an inspection, leave the area without closing the story view and select an option to go back to the u-boat.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Added integration with the rich presence feature in Steam.
- Fix: The port officers were not returning to their old spots after a port was attacked by the planes, if they hidden inside the warehouse.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to send a diver to a ship that is still sinking.
- Fix: Music was becoming quieter by 50% after each load of a game state saved on a map.
- Fix: Errors appearing in the log and slightly affecting performance, after leaving the game to the main menu, when there was an active story sequence (for example a merchant ship inspection).
- Fix: Undetected units weren't receiving damage from most damage sources.
- Fix: It's no longer possible for the auto-save to be made during the mission summary sequence or when a free camera is enabled.

Yours,
DWS

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Best regards,
Uboat team

Dear skippers,

We just released a small update to fix an important regression in Preview 13. Aside from it, there are also other improvements. Please take a look at the changelog below for details.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Fix: After loading a game state, map was usually becoming slightly darker than intended on the maximum view distance.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- There is now a mission objective to get back to the port at the end of the third tutorial.
- Fix: Officer which is supposed to create a target solution is now selected automatically during the third tutorial mission, if he was deselected by a mistake.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Spanish localization update by Tordo.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Time compression blockade is no longer being set after pausing the game.
- Fix: After sending the crew to certain generic merchant ship variants, sent sailors could appear in the air near the u-boat's bow.
- Fix: After starting certain story sequences with more than 3 characters, saving the game, loading the game and leaving the nearby area completely, sailors would stop to work on their automated schedules and there would be performance issues.
- Fix: Infinite vacation issue.
- Fix: Ammunition transports were usually empty.
- Regression fix: Deck gun could become duplicated after loading a game state.
- Regression fix: Food management was being disabled in the existing game states.

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

We just finished the next update - B129 Preview 13. It's ready to download on the public testing branch. Please take a look at the changelog below, if you would like to find out more. We hope that you will find the changes useful.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Torpedo pistols:[/h3]
- Added "torpedo flaws" realism setting to the campaign setup. It has three presets:

• Realistic: Torpedo pistols have flaws that match the historic records.
  
• Semi-realistic: Optimal impact angle is rewarded with an almost guaranteed detonation of a torpedo, although sub-optimal hits usually end up in a detonation too - especially if a torpedo is properly maintained by an engineer.
  
• Basic: Torpedo impact angle is ignored and torpedo duds are determined using a flat chance. This chance is very close to zero, if torpedo is properly maintained by a trained officer.

- When playing with the Realistic or Semi-realistic torpedo pistol realism setting, there is now a small chance of torpedo being faulty, even if the impact angle is in a sweet spot.
- If playing with the Basic torpedo pistol realism setting, the duds are no longer predetermined as in the earlier versions, to allow for reloading the game state for another result.

[h3]User interface:[/h3]
- Distance measurements are now displayed with 1 decimal place when kilometers are used up to a distance of 10 km.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to open a character customization screen for guests on board.
- Fix: There was a wrong officer role displayed on the character screen, if it was an unsaved role. In some cases, the role would revert to "Unassigned" after opening the character screen.
- Fix: Auto-save settings were applied correctly only from the in-game menu, but not from the main menu.
- Fix: After launching a torpedo, it was appearing for one instant in a wrong spot on the map and was displayed as neutral.
- Fix: After opening the promotion view, the initial description was missing in some cases or could refer to a not pickable option.
- Fix: Pressing an escape twice on a screen where a progress towards a decoration is presented was resulting in a white square being displayed on the screen.
- Fix: Ship selection panel was appearing over the periscope UI, if a periscope view was started when torpedo launchers UI was also open.

[h3]Crew management:[/h3]
- Regression fix: Navigator was never leaving his station to do other work, even after the position was fixed in 100%.
- Fix: "Navigator" skill was considerably increasing a performance of fixing the position at the navigator's station (it was not intended).

[h3]Animation:[/h3]
- Fix: Officers could freeze in an animation of pointing something with a finger.
- Fix: Map zooming animations weren't smooth and were sometimes ending at a slightly incorrect position.
- Fix: Crew that was manning guns on NPC ships was sometimes not rotating with the gun.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- Improved shadow settings during the decoration cutscene.
- Improved texture quality of certain F-class destroyer variants.
- Regression fix: Some of the oil tanks in Aruba were missing.
- Regression fix: Corrected wrong textures on the trucks that are sometimes carried by the merchant ships.
- Regression fix: Ports weren't affecting the nearby sea state since the graphics engine update and the waves were sometimes appearing above the port.
- Regression fix: There was a large blob of smoke visible, if player paused the game, enabled the free camera mode and moved the camera to a direct vicinity of a ship that was at a distance of at least few kilometers from the initial camera position.
- Regression fix: There was a lighting artifact visible on the main menu u-boat since B129 Preview 12.
- Regression fix: An intense specular was visible at the bottom of the u-boat's hull in the section view. It was introduced by mistake in B129 Preview 12.
- Regression fix: Missing textures on the merchant ship figurines that appear during Battle of the Atlantic map cutscene.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Fix: If player uninstalled the deck gun before departing in the third tutorial mission, it wasn't possible to continue at a certain stage of the mission.
- Fix: Changed the first merchant ship's course in the third tutorial for a more convenient attack.
- Fix: Ship that needs to be attacked with the torpedoes during the third tutorial is now selected back automatically, in case of unselecting it by mistake.
- Fix: Mission wasn't counted towards a medal progress in some cases, if a game state was loaded with this mission already started.
- Regression fix: Crew was having a very hard time to spot the lost u-boat in the side-mission with a lost ship.

[h3]AI:[/h3]
- Fix: Ships in a convoy were sometimes stopping to move forward.

[h3]Optimizations:[/h3]
- Provided compatibility of all major shaders in the game with an engine feature called SRP Batcher. We noticed that it stopped to work after one of the recent updates of the engine. It should give a substantial boost to the performance.
- Removed a few redundant memory allocations in the code.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Removed all references to "pre-heating" and "warming" torpedoes and changed them to "performing a maintenance".
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- Improvements to the capture course computations.
- Improved the way in which names are picked for the NPC ships to better avoid repetitions during long playthroughs, if all historic names from the pool run out.
- Fix: It's no longer possible to meet another u-boat with the same name as the player's u-boat.
- Fix: Periscope's field of view was sometimes inconsistent with the stadimeter measurements after reloading a game state and opening the periscope view, until the right mouse button was clicked at least once.
- Fix: It was possible to encounter a situation when there wasn't enough water in the compartment to remove it by using a bucket, but it was still enough to cause the splashing sound, while moving inside that compartment.
- Fix: Added a notification that explains the situation when saving a game state couldn't be completed, because there was no free disk space.
- Fix: If player attempted to save a game state, when there wasn't enough space on the disk, in some cases the "Saving..." label would remain on the screen.
- Fix: Ships were starting their engines from zero after spawning in the scene, which was enough for the hydrophone operator to loose contact for a moment.
- Fix: Wreck sites could still appear as a far visual contact in one remaining case, that involved spotting the sinking ship upclose and quickly moving away from it to a distance of a few kilometers.

Yours,
DWS

Dear skippers,

Update B129 Preview 12 is now complete and ready to download on the public testing branch. Please take a look at the changelog below, if you would like to find out more. We hope that you will find the changes useful.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Crew management:[/h3]
- It's no longer possible to leave the port with more officers than the allowed limit. It was possible to go above this limit, after receiving a new officer during Enigma recovery mission.
- Fix: Sailors were working at the radio, even if it was damaged or there was no electricity in the compartment.
- Fix: In some cases, only a captain and the first engineer were on a lifeboat from a sunk ship, the rest of the crew was missing.

[h3]User interface:[/h3]
- Added a notification that informs about a milk cow being sunk by the enemy.
- Clicking on a new radio transmission notification now opens the radio view instead of selecting a radioman.
- Fix: Campaign photographs were missing on the map after the mission summary animation until player opened the assignment selection view.
- Fix: Reward icons were missing near the buttons for freeing the survivors in a port.
- Fix: Torpedo UI and unit selection panel are now closed when an interaction is triggered.
- Fix: Campaign photographs were permanently disappearing from the map after closing them, without leaving an icon behind, if that was done on a loaded game state.

[h3]Missions:[/h3]
- Decreased a number of AA guns needed to find in the espionage assignments from 5 to 4.
- Fix: Friendly u-boats no longer call for supplies when they are in very dangerous areas, for example near the British coast.
- Fix: There was no milk cow being assigned as a reward for completing the bronze stage of multi-stage campaign objectives.
- Fix: The wreck in the gold recovery campaign mission wasn't appearing at the marked spot until terrain generation was triggered.
- Fix: Wind speed stated in the weather station message wasn't correct.

[h3]Graphics:[/h3]
- New, more detailed UZO model and textures.
- Reworked deck textures, increased variety and fixed minor model issues of the generic merchant ships (ones that are being referred to as "Similar to..."). This work will be continued in the next update.
- Flag rendering improvements. There was an issue with incorrectly rendered lighting on one side of the flag. Added subsurface scattering effect to all flags.
- Improvements to the quality of sun light shadows. Technically, the shadow cascades are now usually being fit better to the specific camera demands.
- Fix: Flat areas were appearing on the sea, if the seabed below was at around 400 - 600 meters.
- Fix: Crew on NPC ships is better aligned to the deck during walking.
- Fix: Fixed issues with a wrong specular being rendered by shaders used to render some of the large objects, like certain ports and merchant ships.
- Fix: After a game state saved near a generic merchant ship was re-loaded, some of the textures on that merchant ship could change after each re-load.
- Fix: Dynamically spawned waves at the ship bows and after torpedo explosions were noticeably lacking vertices, if they were observed from a large distance.
- Fix: Shadow-like lines were appearing on objects when they were viewed from a very close distance in exterior areas and ambient occlusion was enabled in the settings.
- Fix: Lifeboats were disappearing too fast when camera was moved away from them.
- Fix: If camera moved close to a warship, some of the crews of the other ships viewed later would stand in an unusual position.

[h3]Interactions:[/h3]
- Regression fix: Interaction was stopping right after the welcome, if the merchant ship was carrying tea in the cargo hold.

[h3]Damage system:[/h3]
- Fix: One of the possible leaks in the engine room was adding water to the control room instead of the engine room.

[h3]Physics:[/h3]
- Regression fix: Implemented frequency-dependent wave fading in coastal areas for the physics engine. This feature was implemented only on the side of graphics in the initial B129 releases, which was causing the physics to be sometimes out of sync in the coastal areas.

[h3]Localization:[/h3]
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- German localization update by Ruby.
- Turkish localization update by tokyo.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- French localization update by FvJ and Placebo.

[h3]Optimizations:[/h3]
- Improved physics performance of Dale-class, Ol-class War-class and Wave-class tankers.
- Memory usage optimizations related to the merchant ships and tankers.

[h3]General:[/h3]
- It's no longer possible to permanently move under the terrain, for example by diving deeply using a high time compression before the terrain is generated and appears in the scene.
- Fatigue penalty starts to count after undocking from the port rather than right after the vacation ends. It prevents the crew from becoming fatigued by waiting for the ongoing resupply operations after the vacation.
- Having pressed left CTRL in the free camera mode, makes the camera move more slowly than usual.
- Ship groups are split into smaller ones more aggressively to avoid various practical issues from having too spread out groups.
- Regression fix: It wasn't possible to leave the port after taking the survivors on board in certain cases.
- Regression fix: It was possible for the u-boat to permanently stop detecting any ships, even if they were very close. This issue should be corrected also in the existing game states.
- Regression fix: Some ship classes were docking at a wrong elevation since Preview 11.
- Regression fix: Sound of rotating periscope could be heard for a while after the rotation stopped.
- Fix: Sunk ships were detectable from afar as masts over the horizon.
- Fix: Various fixes to errors that we spotted in the log files from the user reports.

Yours,
DWS