Available now! 1.0.3 Public Beta
This beta (1.0.3 beta10a) is now available in our beta branch (for Windows only). See bottom of this post for instructions on how to get it.
[h2]NEW: Winter season in Amethyst [/h2]
* Winter season begins on or soon after December 1st in game calendar. If you load a saved game that's after that date, it will be in Winter. The game world is blanketed in snow, about a meter deep in the highlands and half that in the valley. Creeks and waterfalls are frozen, but the Lamar River remains open.
* Elk migrate down into the Lamar Valley in November and early December. You may notice them slowly wander that way as they graze. If you load a previously-saved game that is past December 1st, they will begin their migration then.
* Grizzly bears have gone into hibernation, so they won't challenge you over carcasses.
* Bull moose will lose their antlers in early January. (Bull elk and buck mule deer don't lose their antlers until later in the winter.)
* Many birds have migrated south, so the forests are quieter.
[h2]IMPROVED: Optimizations[/h2]
* Improvements to game logic (uses CPU) when many animals are spawned (usually after playing for quite awhile).
* Improvements to graphics performance (uses GPU), including:
- Better performance on Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, especially if both Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing are disabled.
- Faster versions of cliff rocks on lower quality levels (with new "Other Object Quality" pulldown in Game Settings: Graphics panel)
- Note: Scent View still has substantial slowdown on low-end hardware, still investigating that. May have a few more optimizations coming in the next week or two.
[h2]REVISED: Territory marking[/h2]
* We have revised aspects of the territory and marking system, but these are mostly disabled in Amethyst, since players cannot claim territory there. They should not affect gameplay significantly.
* Territory hexes show strength of territory claim on mouseover.
[h2]OTHER CHANGES:[/h2]
* Reduced maximum number of grizzlies at a carcass.
* Adjust elk health levels so some are more likely to have mid-level health.
[h2]BUGS FIXED[/h2]
* Visible crack between terrain tiles in valley floor.
* Some issues with shadows (e.g. some shadows were not continuous, but broken lines)
* In Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, rivers are fully visible through fog.
* Splash effects are broken on lower Chalcedony waterfall.
* Snowshoe hares do not change to white coat in winter.
* Rain can occur in winter months.
[h2]KNOWN ISSUES[/h2]
* On certain computers (Mac using Intel integrated graphics, certain old Windows dedicated GPUs) in Basic Sky & Veg mode, distant trees are sometimes multicolored, and sky may have similar discoloration. This seems to be a Unity game tool bug but we are still investigating.
* On very old (2012-2014) AMD GPUs, terrain may have white patches. Try upgrading your graphics drivers and submit a bug report if that helps. If it doesn't, please test different Terrain Quality settings and submit detailed bug reports about the results of your tests.
[h3]To get the beta build:[/h3]
1) In the Steam app, go to your Library, then right-click on the WolfQuest: AE name in the left column and choose Properties.
2) Then go to the Betas tab and select the WQ current Beta option in the pulldown. No password is necessary. Steam should then start downloading it. Later you can switch back to the public version in that Betas tab, by selecting NONE in that pulldown.
[h2]NEW: Winter season in Amethyst [/h2]
* Winter season begins on or soon after December 1st in game calendar. If you load a saved game that's after that date, it will be in Winter. The game world is blanketed in snow, about a meter deep in the highlands and half that in the valley. Creeks and waterfalls are frozen, but the Lamar River remains open.
* Elk migrate down into the Lamar Valley in November and early December. You may notice them slowly wander that way as they graze. If you load a previously-saved game that is past December 1st, they will begin their migration then.
* Grizzly bears have gone into hibernation, so they won't challenge you over carcasses.
* Bull moose will lose their antlers in early January. (Bull elk and buck mule deer don't lose their antlers until later in the winter.)
* Many birds have migrated south, so the forests are quieter.
[h2]IMPROVED: Optimizations[/h2]
* Improvements to game logic (uses CPU) when many animals are spawned (usually after playing for quite awhile).
* Improvements to graphics performance (uses GPU), including:
- Better performance on Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, especially if both Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing are disabled.
- Faster versions of cliff rocks on lower quality levels (with new "Other Object Quality" pulldown in Game Settings: Graphics panel)
- Note: Scent View still has substantial slowdown on low-end hardware, still investigating that. May have a few more optimizations coming in the next week or two.
[h2]REVISED: Territory marking[/h2]
* We have revised aspects of the territory and marking system, but these are mostly disabled in Amethyst, since players cannot claim territory there. They should not affect gameplay significantly.
* Territory hexes show strength of territory claim on mouseover.
[h2]OTHER CHANGES:[/h2]
* Reduced maximum number of grizzlies at a carcass.
* Adjust elk health levels so some are more likely to have mid-level health.
[h2]BUGS FIXED[/h2]
* Visible crack between terrain tiles in valley floor.
* Some issues with shadows (e.g. some shadows were not continuous, but broken lines)
* In Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, rivers are fully visible through fog.
* Splash effects are broken on lower Chalcedony waterfall.
* Snowshoe hares do not change to white coat in winter.
* Rain can occur in winter months.
[h2]KNOWN ISSUES[/h2]
* On certain computers (Mac using Intel integrated graphics, certain old Windows dedicated GPUs) in Basic Sky & Veg mode, distant trees are sometimes multicolored, and sky may have similar discoloration. This seems to be a Unity game tool bug but we are still investigating.
* On very old (2012-2014) AMD GPUs, terrain may have white patches. Try upgrading your graphics drivers and submit a bug report if that helps. If it doesn't, please test different Terrain Quality settings and submit detailed bug reports about the results of your tests.
[h3]To get the beta build:[/h3]
1) In the Steam app, go to your Library, then right-click on the WolfQuest: AE name in the left column and choose Properties.
2) Then go to the Betas tab and select the WQ current Beta option in the pulldown. No password is necessary. Steam should then start downloading it. Later you can switch back to the public version in that Betas tab, by selecting NONE in that pulldown.