Survive the Nights News

We've released 1.7.39 on our experimental branch via steam. This build will be moved to the stable branch as v1.8 if no major issues are found by players. You can find our patch notes below. Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu.

If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and feel free to join our Discord.

How to get into experimental branch:

1. Open Steam and go to your games library.
   
2. Right click on STN and select "Properties"
   
3. Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
   
4. Close the properties window.
   

[h3]Experimental Patch Notes - Alpha 1.7.39[/h3]

Non Design Related

• Overhauled name tags so that level is displayed and always face the player. Other changes include the ability for non players to have name tags.
  
• Updated to Steamworks 1.5.1
  
• Added friend list in the host page for joining/inviting friends to server.
  
• Fixes to password field popup.
  
• Fixes for steam not thinking game is fully closed after application quit.
  
• Added steam friend inviting/joining support.
  
• Added steam rich presence support.
  
• Added session based whitelist which bypasses the need for password when joining from an invite.
  
• In game player list updated to include a friend list for inviting/joining.
  

Network

• Added UPnP support for automatic port forwarding.
  
• Added connection tester that should assist with server operation.
  
• Improved layout and simplification of the host tab to make starting a server easier.
  

General

• Swapped the animal trap requirement, now needs red instead of green berry bundles
  

Graphics

• Electrical lights optimized significantly with overall improved looks.
  
• Improved overall world reflections effects based on time of day.
  
• New screen space reflections on Ultra settings.
  
• General fog improvements.
  
• Improved interior ambient light to make interiors darker and more realistic.
  
• Higher quality fog effects added that ties into weather system.
  
• Replaced ambient occlusion effect which stops light reaching areas it shouldn't. This also improves performance.
  
• Eye adaption effect added.
  
• Improved anti aliasing system which looks better when moving. Weapons no longer leave trails and movement is no longer jarring.
  
• Reduced extreme vignetting and some basic tweaks to contrast/exposure and color.
  
• Removed stretching from cloud textures.
  

Particles

• All new environment particle systems.
  
• New rain particles and effects.
  
• New snow particles and effects.
  

Terrain

• Replaced all terrain textures with improved variants.
  
• Dirt effect added under all roads and intersections to blend roads into terrain
  
• Dirt splats painted under all roads to help roads blend into terrain
  

Vegetation

• Replaced nature renderer system for rendering terrain details.
  
• Improved vegetation and terrain detail design in all biome types.
  
• Increased density of all vegetation and terrain details in the wild.
  
• Increased density of trees in the wild.
  
• Added random tilt to all trees. Previously all trees were completely upright.
  
• Vegetation and terrain details now cast shadows.
  
• Vegetation now features normal maps, reflections and translucency.
  
• Vegetation wind effects quality increased significantly.
  
• Vegetation now has wind effects based on weather.
  
• Vegetation and terrain detail render distances increased. (Possible due to performance improvements in rendering system)
  

UI

• All new menu scene added.
  
• Updated and modernized main menus.
  
• Some improvements to usability of drop downs in quality settings
  
• Borderless and fullscreen options added
  

Performance

• Terrain vegetation and details now have LOD'ing to improve overall performance.
  
• Ambient occlusion effect replaced with system that has improved performance.
  

Environment

• All new water for rivers and ocean. Part or a greater change 1.9 will introduce improved design around water ways.
  
• New swamp and marsh biomes added.
  
• Power lines added throughout black island.
  
• Strip mall and shop windows now have closed shutters covering the windows.
  
• Improved trash piles around the wild.
  

Props

• Improved fireplaces in most houses.
  
• Added roller shutter for stores.
  
• Updated wall UV's of most houses/cabins to fit the height of a texture to improve look of textures on walls
  
• Fixed extreme stretching on strip mall model
  
• Bevels added to industrial door frame
  
• Updated picnic table using new assets.
  
• Updated fixed campfire using new assets.
  
• Updated the campfire drop.
  
• Updated exterior trash bins using new assets.
  
• Updated paper decal using new assets.
  
• Replaced floor lamp with improved version.
  
• Replaced desk lamp with improved version.
  
• Replaced dryer with improved version.
  
• Replaced washer with improved version.
  
• Replaced radiator with improved version.
  
• Replaced bath tub variants with improved version.
  
• Replaced dresser with improved version.
  
• Replaced wardrobe with improved version.
  
• Replaced nightstand with improved version.
  
• Replaced bookshelf tall/wide/double with improved version.
  
• Replaced bathroom bin with improved version.
  
• Replaced recliner with improved version.
  
• Replaced toilet brush with improved version.
  
• Replaced toiler paper holder with improved version.
  
• Replaced gas stove with improved version.
  
• Replaced queens bed variants with improved version.
  
• Replaced twin bed variants with improved version.
  
• Replaced book case with improved version.
  
• Replaced toilet variants with improved version.
  
• Replaced end table with improved version.
  
• Replaced trash bag, bin and dumpster props with improved variants.
  
• All terrain detail and vegetation either updated or replaced with improved variants.
  
• Added new ivy props that will grow on buildings.
  
• Improved materials to plaster house 9 and old house.
  
• Improved dining table and chair models and textures.
  
• Replaced rug textures.
  
• New Coffee table textures and model improved.
  
• Retextured wood stove.
  
• Replaced sofa/couch props.
  
• Replaced kitchen models.
  
• Household fridge textures and model improved.
  
• Stone wall texture and models improved.
  

Textures

• Added new textures and used in various materials:
  
  
  
  
  • Cabin bark
    
  • Ceramic tiles
    
  • Checkered tiles
    
  • Checkered tiles 2
    
  • Damaged ceiling
    
  • Brown roof tiles
    
  • Small bathroom tiles
    
  • Bathroom tiles 2
    
  • Wood floor 2
    
  • Wood planks no gap
    
  • Wood planks 90 degrees rotated
    
  • Blue/red/green/yellow plaster
    
  • Colored metal textures added (blue/green/orange)
    
  • Gray metal
    
  • Concrete
    
  • Concrete floor
    
  • Parquet
    
  • Textures/materials replaced/updated
    
  • Wallpaper
    
  • Dirty wallpaper
    
  • Carpet texture
    
  • Desk texture higher resolution
    
  • Plaster cracked texture
    
  • Brick materials
    
  • Blue wallpaper
    
  • black carpet
    
  • worn brick
    
  • Sidewalk
    
  • Stone wall
    
  • Dirt added to single bed
    
  • Removed tiling from worn bricks
    
  • Bricks clean tiling improved
    
  • Office ceiling updated
    
  • Wall shelf updated
    
  • Fortification atlas texture darkened
    
  • Sidewalk snow and rain tweaked
    

Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting :). Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord. We're here, we're listening!

[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

Survive the Nights is now 40% off for Steam's open world sale. If you have any questions before purchasing, please consider joining our discord to speak with the developers or other players within our friendly community.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/541300/Survive_the_Nights/

[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

Hello everyone,

We’ve had a rather busy week although most of what we’re currently doing is tying up loose ends. 1.8 has been a beast and it’s a challenge to pull it together in the end. We’re aiming for an experimental build this coming week.

[h3]Steam Rich Presence[/h3]
When we first envisioned Survive the Nights it was as a co-op experience, a zombie survival game you could pick up with a couple of friends, hunker down and have a good time killing things. The ability to invite a friend to a game/server has been missing since launch. It didn’t seem reasonable to dedicate development time pre-hosting. Now that players have the ability to host from in-game or via a linux stand alone server/provider, it seems the perfect time to do so. We have now added a good deal of Steam integration.

You will first notice the ability to invite friends directly to the server you’re playing on. You’ll be able to do so whether you’re hosting the server or you’re on a public server. This is made even easier if you’re using the Steam Overlay (shift-tab).

James has also added the ability to invite friends directly from the game. Holding tab will bring up what was previously the in-game player list. Pressing tab now brings up the player/friends list and you’ll be able to invite any of your Steam friends from this menu. We have tried to make this process as easy and seamless as possible. As an example, If you’re hosting a password protected server your friends will be added to a dynamic whitelist this will bypass the requirement for them to enter a password. You will also be able to join friends in this same manner via the Steam friends list or our in game player/friend list.

In-game player/friend list

[h3]Improved Weather Effects[/h3]
1.8 will feature many environmental changes including new vegetation, new biomes and new weather effects. Ahead of weather affecting the player, (something we’ll be working on shortly) we’ve taken some time to improve our current weather effects. The system as it is now does the job but it’s rather drab. Our current rain and snow system only allows for particles to move directly downward due to performance and collision concerns. The new system allows us a bit more freedom and you’ll notice that instantly in both rain and snow. The particles now blow around and move with the storm. This dramatically changes the entire vibe of a storm. We’ll save the rain effects for you to see in game as the gifs don’t really showcase these effects well.

Blowing Snow

[h3]Particle Update[/h3]
Last week we showcased some of our new environmental particles and asked for some feedback. Jos has spent some time this week adding a few more alongside working on weather effects. Additional garbage on the streets along with interior dust particles help to bring both interiors and exteriors to life either further. Jos is also currently putting some finishing touches on environmental effects like small insects and animals. This is something we’d like to greatly expand on in the future. We need a good source for rat meat after all.

Interior dust particles

Interior particles in flash light beam

Spooky nighttime garbage particles

[h3]In Summary[/h3]
It has been a very busy week for the team although we’ve not had all that much to showcase. The last 90% of a build is never very exciting. It’s a lot of breaking and fixing and that’s before we even hit our experimental servers. There’s going to be a vlog along with a rather massive blog covering everything that has gone into 1.8 as it’s a monster. Thanks once again for the continued support. Hope you all have a great weekend. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please reach out on our Discord.

[h3]If you're enjoying the game, please consider writing a review or updating your current one. Thank you! :)[/h3]

[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

We’ve had another quick and productive week at a2z. The boys have been cracking along on 1.8 features. James spent most of the week working on rich presences and integration along with assisting Jos with the particle update.

1.8 is proving to be what is likely our biggest update yet. It seems every time we feel we’re ready, we find another area for improvement. This week Andre has spent a good deal of time optimizing our lighting system. The result is very impressive with lighting looking fantastic and more importantly being optimized better than we’ve ever had it before.

[h3]Lighting Optimization [/h3]
While our current lighting system is pretty nice looking, it’s not perfect and it’s not at all optimized. Structure lighting was always heavy on performance mostly due to the need of multiple light sources for a single light fixture. We have found ourselves often using one spot and one point light to simulate light bounce. This improvement removes the need for bounce lights by adding a cube map mask. This will improve the general look of lighting along with making shadows and gradients easier on the eyes. And generally just improving the performance overhead of lighting.

Vehicle headlights have been turned into a single light source instead of a spotlight and point light saving tons of batches. Exterior lighting has seen its share of improvements. We've reduced batching and implemented a 3d cookie system for a nicer overall look.

Interior lighting before and after

Hearth lighting, smooth and well optimized

Before and after - new lighting features fixture cookie and gradient

Before and after, new lighting looks far less like the mask of Sauron

[h3]Particle Updates[/h3]
Jos has spent some time this week updating our particle system. For some time now we’ve wanted to introduce world particles. This week, with the help of James, Jos was able to program and implement the initial system. This system will allow us to expand and introduce all kinds of good looking goodies. Trash particles will now blow around the world creating a very creepy vibe. Leaves and vegetation will also flow with the air. This seemingly small effect really does a lot to improve the world. It’s something the team would love to expand on so if you have any particle ideas feel free to share them.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Summary[/h3]
We’re hoping to have experimental builds out shortly. 1.8 has turned into another passion project for us. This isn’t a bad thing. We’ve got hosting out and you guys have quite a put together game to explore so the more time spent here the better. We’ll have experimental builds out as soon as possible and we’ll keep you updated with these weekly devblogs. As always, thank you for the continued support and if you have any questions feel free to join us on our Discord. Have a great weekend!

[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

Hello everyone,

Another week seems to have flown by. We’ve been busy working on 1.8 and beyond. Water reworks will be discussed below along with the introduction to Steam's Rich Presence. We’re also working on the start of numerous quality of life issues. After our 1.8 update, the team will hunker down and focus on early game issues and polish. We’ll get all of your feedback and found issues taken care of before the addition of any more major features

[h3]Water and Its Challenges[/h3]
1.8 will feature many new graphical features and improvements with one of them being improved water. The water in game now is the second of a couple of placeholders we’ve used. We’ve had quite a few challenges with water in the past. A major one is water transparency and how out of place it would look in our world. Most of that issue was caused by fog rendering incorrectly.

There are also topographical challenges on the island. Black island has rivers that flow into oceans along with lakes and smaller bodies of water. 1.8 also introduces swamps which is another added level of complexity. It has been a challenge to make these intersecting and flowing bodies of water look good.

We've also had issues in the past with over complex solutions that were too heavy on performance. Sacrificing a good chunk of performance for slightly better looking water just wasn’t an option.

[h3]Swimming[/h3]
I realize writing this that the first question to likely be asked will be something along the lines of “Can we swim yet?!”..No, no you can’t. That being said, water assets, shaders and the drag of knowing they’ll need sorting was a major stopping force behind swimming. Post 1.8 we will be working on a major chunk of our issues and your feedback/suggestions. Swimming will be sorted shortly, we promise.

[h3]The Outcome[/h3]
We've managed to find a compromise with our fog that makes it possible to use transparent water without it looking out of place. This, in combination with the new reflection system, allowed us to finally find a different solution that looks better and isn't too heavy on performance. The transparency really brings bodies of water to life and edge blending makes the waters edge feel far more realistic.


Old system lacks transparency

New system with transparency

Old River

New River and Edge Blending

Old system waterfall and lake

New system with reflections and edge blending

Lake Baron old system

Lake Baron new system

[h3]Steam Rich Presence[/h3]
Something that has been missing for quite awhile is Steam's Rich Presence integration. The player now has access to Linux server files, additional hosts and the ability to host your own server from in-game.

James has spent some time this week working on integration and things are going great. Players will have the ability to join friends directly from Steam's friend list. Along with the ability to invite and join, you’ll notice status updates. Players will be able to see what friends and others players are doing. Whether it be fortifying, healing, fighting zombies, driving or even riding passenger your player status should update nicely.

Game invite

Status updates (format likely to change, feedback welcome)

[h3]GPORTAL[/h3]
With the release of server files we were contacted by the guys over a GPORTAL. They will be handling some of our new official servers alongside Allgamer. We’ve had quite a few requests for locations in South America so we’ll be adding a couple of servers there in Brazil along with Germany, Japan and Russia. You’ll see servers labeled “Official RU1 By G-Portal”.



[h3]In Summary[/h3]
Things are really cracking along nicely now, we’ll be introducing our Patreon page in May. We should see 1.8 on default early in May and we’re excited for 1.9 and the future of Survive the Nights.

We’re doing our best to get 1.8 ready and into your hands. It has been a massive update so far and likely one of our biggest, if not the biggest since alpha release. A lot of the game world has changed and a lot of new features are going in. We’ll do our best to get an experimental version into your hands in the next week or two.

As always, thank you for the continued support of the game and the team. If you’d like to discuss anything in this blog or anything else at all please feel free to join our Discord Server.

[h3]Links[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive