Hello Riftbreakers!
First of all, apologies for being so quiet lately. Unfortunately, the flu season has sidelined some of our developers for quite some time. However, we are back in full force now, and we have something special coming your way!
This update introduces hot new tech in the form of Intel Xe Super Sampling - Intel XeSS for short. This technique allows you to get a massive performance boost while maintaining high visual fidelity. Thanks to XeSS, the game can run at a lower internal resolution and then reconstruct the image in full with the use of an AI-based upscaling algorithm. What does this mean in human-readable form? Well, the game can run and look better, especially if your GPU couldn't quite get to those sweet 60FPS beforehand.
Intel XeSS technique is very similar to the AMD FSR that has been available in the game for quite some time. It’s based on the same premise - render a cheaper, lower resolution image and use a bunch of clever tricks to achieve a high-quality upscaled image. Now you can compare the results of the two and choose the one that looks better for you or gives you more performance. Please note that XeSS and FSR are mutually exclusive - you can’t run both at once! The world would implode if you did.
Additionally, we have introduced a bunch of fixes and changes to existing features based on your suggestions and recommendations. We highly encourage you to leave suggestions at https://riftbreaker.featureupvote.com - we check all suggestions daily and monitor their progress all the time. We’re also going to publish an article with our first insights very soon!
Have fun with the update. If you need any help, we’re available at www.discord.gg/exorstudios
[h2]The Riftbreaker XeSS Implementation Update, October 5th, 2022. Package #220, Binaries #598. Changelog:[/h2]
[h3]FEATURES[/h3]
- Added support for Intel XeSS. XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) enables you to enjoy gaming with great visuals thanks to AI-enhanced upscaling, enabling more performance with high image fidelity. Powered by hardware acceleration and an AI-based algorithm, Intel XeSS delivers high image quality and more FPS even in the most demanding conditions. XeSS is optimized for Intel graphics hardware, but it is designed with all gamers in mind, unlocked to work on widely available hardware from all GPU vendors.
[h3]CHANGES[/h3]
- We have implemented a new, intuitive navigation system for the building menu. You can now use keyboard shortcuts to turn pages within building categories - Q and E by default. When there is no page to turn, the system switches to the next category.
- Added a new cheat command: cheat_unlimited_ammo. Use it instead of cheat_unlimited_money if you want to keep your economy intact, but have the urge to shoot stuff. Infinitely.
- Speaking of cheats - cheat_unlimited_money now works in the Crafting Screen.
- Bioanomaly drop names are now color-coded to reflect the rarity of the item that you found.
- Regular walls can now be replaced with Energy Walls and vice versa. Thanks to this, you no longer need to sell your old walls to upgrade.
- Buildings that do not consume resources (Solid Material Storage, for example) can no longer be switched off.
- Support for AMD FidelityFX Variable Rate Shading and Contrast-Adaptive Sharpening has been dropped. With the introduction of new rendering technologies, such as AMD FSR and Intel XeSS, the performance gain provided by these two options was marginal. Moreover, enabling those options could cause potential problems with FSR and XeSS.
[h3]FIXES[/h3]
- Fixed an error that caused the mod list in the inventory to appear empty.
- The minimap will no longer break after changing the graphics settings.
- All buildings should now properly display the 'disabled' icon after manually turning them off.
- Minor fixes for rendering the terrain around liquid pools.
- Fixed a visual glitch that caused pipelines to connect to buildings on all sides instead of just the input/output port.
- All resource icons should now be displayed properly on the Rift Station building.
- A lot of small optimizations and additional fixes for obscure crashes.