Update 43 for cyubeVR is live! Near real-world view distance system, and more!

Hey everyone, Update 43 for cyubeVR is live!

This update introduces a complete rewrite of the internal chunk visibility system, which means the game now supports crazy high view distances! Plus the usual smaller improvements, bugfixes, and performance optimizations.

Let's take a look at the list of changes first, and after that, let's get into more detail for some of the changes!

• New chunk visibility system, allowing for crazy high view distances (for more info, and screenshots, read below)
  
• The view distance settings in the INI file now work differently than before
  
• Adding or removing custom blocks from the workshop no longer requires the instant loading files to be reset
  
• Sand in further away LOD chunks now looks better
  
• Further improved the look of grass blocks on LOD chunks in some edge-cases
  
• Increased resolution of tree textures, and adjusted the color variation
  
• Added two new stats, one showing you the global rank of your "Blocks Mined in 10 Minutes" score, and another one displaying the name of the current world record holder
  
• Adjusted "can't modify the world here" warning message
  
• Added new "Ultra" setting for "Distance Shadows"
  
• When starting a new world, the first "block" quick slot now automatically already has "Torch" selected
  
• Updated compression library to latest version
  
• Enabled LTCG (Compiler Optimization)
  
• Fixed that you were able to put a block of any type into the crystal slot in the bucket
  
• Fixed "Local Record" for the "Blocks Mined in 10 Minutes" not always showing the correct value
  
• Fixed custom mod blocks sometimes changing their color in weird ways when far away or looking at them in a steep angle
  
• Fixed controllers of an Oculus Quest or Quest 2 being incorrectly detected as Index Controllers
  
• Fixed "reset to default" button for "Light Shaft Quality" graphics setting not working
  
• Fixed crash related to chest block items
  
• Fixed a small bug in navigation code
  
• Optimizations
  
  

TLDR: cyubeVR now supports crazy high view distances!

Here are some screenshots beta testers took with this new system:





The bridge you see in the distance here is around 2.5 km (1.6 miles) away:



cyubeVR is a voxel game with an amazing looking terrain generation, and an infinite world for you to explore and build in. People have always enjoyed playing around with high view distances in cyubeVR, as a very high view distance just makes the world feel even more immersive and real. So with this Update, there comes a big change in how the game internally manages what's visible and what isn't. The old system for that was too complex, fragile, and had some rare hard to fix bugs, and it was not designed for very high view distances.
The new system is way simpler, way easier to maintain and improve, and way more performant in what it's doing, and it allows for very high view distances with significantly less RAM usage and CPU usage.

This is basically a complete rewrite of many thousands of lines of code, but the results are really worth it :)

Same as previously, this is the file where you can adjust settings like the view distance:

 %localappdata%/cyubeVR/Saved/Config/WindowsNoEditor/Game.ini 

With this new system, the settings in there now work differently than before:

Previously, there was the one setting ViewDistance=X. This setting has been removed now, and replaced with two new settings, ChunkLoadDistance=X and ChunkViewDistance=X. ChunkLoadDistance defines until how far away chunks are fully loaded (meaning, you could place a block there immediately), while ChunkViewDistance defines until how far away chunks are visible.

Having these two settings separately allows you to use a very high view distance, while keeping a moderate load distance, which will need way less RAM and improve CPU performance compared to fully loading every visible chunk. In most cases, keeping the load distance at the default (20) will be good, while increasing only the view distance to values your CPU and GPU can handle.

What's important to understand is that only a chunk that was at least once loaded (with this new Update) can ever be visible. So if you start a new world with a load distance of 20 and a view distance of 40, while not walking around at all, your view distance will still appear to just be 20, because chunks further away were never loaded yet. Only once you've walked around a bit, to load more chunks, you will benefit from a view distance higher than your load distance.

For fun, here is some interesting math I did, because I wanted to know how close to "real" the possible view distances in cyubeVR now can be, considering that real-world view distance is limited by the curvature of the earth:

On earth, for an observer at a height of 2 meters (human), the horizon is away ~5 km. In cyubeVR view distance, that would be 315. The game can definitely handle that now, 315 is totally possible while still having good CPU and GPU performance! So if you're standing at "sea level", you can have a fully real-world-like view distance in cyubeVR! Isn't that quite amazing?

For an observer at a height of 250 meters, which is roughly the max height in cyubeVR on top of a mountain, the horizon would be away ~50 km. In cyubeVR view distance, that would be 3150. I think that's not quite possible with perfectly good performance in cyubeVR (yet), but it's really getting impressively close!

If you want to see some of the great view distance "in motion", here is a stream ChibiArcher did a few days ago where he explored the world around him, and at the end you can see all the great view distance around him (timestamped link):

https://youtu.be/OWwgeLpIfME?t=12419

ChibiArcher has actually been doing a lot of cool cyubeVR videos on YouTube, here is one of the recent Let's Play episodes from him where he also showed some great view distance at the beginning:

https://youtu.be/78AZ8VTSraQ?t=153

And the end:

https://youtu.be/78AZ8VTSraQ?t=2777



cyubeVR has 4 different control schemes, and 4 different tutorials, to make sure that the game feels perfect to play on all major 4 controller designs (Vive Controller, Index Controller, Oculus Touch Controller, WMR Controller). Oculus Quest and Quest 2 controllers were previously not detected as Oculus Touch controllers though, the game thought they would be Index Controllers, and so the game also showed you the tutorial for Index Controllers, which was not ideal. This has been fixed now, and both Quest 1 and Quest 2 controllers should be correctly detected as what they are.



WIth Update 41, the "Blocks Mined in 10 Minutes" stat counter was added to cyubeVR, allowing all cyubeVR players to compete against each other regarding who can manage to mine the most blocks in 10 minutes! There have been some great and fun to watch world record attempts. Currently, the world record for that is held by Doughber, at 38766 blocks mined in 10 minutes.

Previously, you could see your own record, and the world record in the "Stats" tab of the briefcase. Now, it also displays you the name of the current world record holder, and it tells you what your global rank is:



The above is a screenshot from this recent stream from KroyVR, where he tried to beat Doughbers Record, but didn't quite manage to do it:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/865718925?t=0h4m54s





A big thanks to everyone supporting the development of cyubeVR on Patreon! I'm working fulltime on cyubeVR, and it's quite hard to make a living purely off of the Steam sales of the game, so any Patreon Supporter is really worth a lot for the continued development of the game. Thanks so much to all the Patreon Supporters (list sorted by total lifetime donation):

Al Raw, Shanya / Sabrina, ChibiArcher, @B4nH4mm3r on Discord, ErrorNull, David O, texhnobees, Adrian Sawn, Algiz, KroyVR, Lucas van Leiden, Netshaman, DiamondHunter_, HeyMika, SingingFluffyUK, SkgBlaze, gunair

Patreon rewards are being mentioned in the list of patreon supporters in the main menu, getting a special colored name in the official cyubeVR Discord, and physical items like a sticker, mug, or t-shirt with cyubeVR designs.



As usual, thanks very much to our great beta testers in the official cyubeVR discord who tested this update as part of 32 separate beta builds! If you want to test new features earlier when they come out in the beta branch, make sure to join the discord and take a look at the #beta-build-patch-notes and #beta-build-discussion channel!

That's all for today! If you like the game, don't forget to tell other people about it and write a review on Steam if you haven't done that already, even if its just a few words. Writing a positive review and spreading the word is the easiest way you can support the game!
Thanks for caring about the game and as usual, make sure to report all issues you see and give me as much feedback as possible in the official forums or the official discord server, join it before its full ;) We're over 1400 people there already, come and join us! If you don't like something about the game, tell me there and I'll try to improve it! I'm available to chat with anyone in discord :)

There's also a cyubeVR subreddit available on Reddit, if you're active on Reddit, make sure to subscribe to it and maybe post some great screenshots there!

You can also follow the Stonebrick Studios account on Twitter.

And lastly, don't forget there's an official roadmap with voting features.

Looking forward to hearing what you think about the new update :)

Cheers!