Madoc
Project Lead
GRADUAL ASYNCHRONOUS TEXTURE LOADING
In an effort to fix some issues with loading heavier zones we've been making some fairly big changes to how our engine handles loading content. Textures are now loaded gradually in the background after a new zone has loaded. Peak RAM and video RAM usage are greatly reduced, and loading times are improved.
While doing this we took a thorough look at loading performance, and found various ways in which loading times can be further reduced, by a lot. We will likely implement and roll out these changes over the next few updates, and hope to eventually see some very fast load times. This should help make the late game feel more like one big area rather than a set of distant locations.
CHECKPOINT AND SAVING ZONE CHANGES
The way saving works when changing zones has been improved. The game would previously save and load on the transition zone, forcing you to immediately enter the next zone when reloading, and effectively producing a double loading screen.
Now when loading you will appear just before the entrance, and can choose whether to enter the next zone or not. In the case of checkpoints, you'll be able to continue playing on the current zone, then create a new updated checkpoint when entering the next zone again.
COMBAT MOTION UPDATES
The muscle changes in 0.7.2 have affected many motions in unpredictable ways. We're gradually looking what's changed and hearing feedback, reviewing the motions and updating them. Two handed and one handed weapons have been updated to correct unwanted vectors and things have been smoothed out and refined.
This, as with all animation and combat related things, is an ongoing process, so keep giving us feedback.
List of changes in version 0.7.2.1:
- Asynchronous texture loads reduce resource usage and loading times
- Improved zone change saving mechanics
- Adjusted many combat motions to new muscle systems
- Improved and optimised numerous assets
- All things skeletal got some visual upgrades
- Scales finally have physics!
- Player placement of articulated bodies now works correctly
- Improved subsurface scattering shaders
- Updated some creature materials and textures
- Fixed many headers preventing texture detail setting from working correctly
- Fixed some double doors being difficult to open
- Fixed some shadowing issues with night vision
- Fixed some weapons sometimes not rendering correctly
- Fixed tokens sometimes spawning later than when they're useful
- Fixed becoming stuck when climbing the collapsed entrance on level one
- Numerous content and small bug fixes
