Hi everyone,

A new stable build 0.19.00 has just been released!

This build transitions our latest work on the experimental branch to the stable branch. If you haven’t been following the progress of our experimental branch, here’s some of the new features included:

New Procedural Island Loading, new Discovery Fog, new Trees and Bushes, better Island generation, new Furniture including Tables, Chairs and Shelves, new Fire Torches, new Hooks, new Main Menu design …and more!

One of the large new features is the new Progressive Loading system! This is a huge feature. Loading an island is now spread out across multiple frames to minimize the performance hit. This drastically reduces the loading hitch when approaching an island. You will see a small decrease in fps as some CPU power is used to load in all the new objects progressively, but this is still much better than the single large hitch. This had been getting worse as time went on as more objects were added and particularly as island sizes got larger - something that we hadn’t really planned for or ever intended. We’ll still be keeping islands on the smaller size as that was our plan, but the overall experience of traversing between islands is much smoother now.

When playing this build hopefully you will be able to see why we’ve been working on the things we have been – The new terrain billboarding system, the new discovery fog and the new progressive loading all work together for a much nicer and more polished experience overall.
We know work on these core systems is admittedly not as exciting as general content, but the end result is that loading hitches are minimal and islands don’t pop in anymore - That’s a huge improvement and we’re pretty happy about it :)

We don’t want to repeat ourselves too much from previous patch notes so check out the patch notes for the latest experimental builds which go into more detail about the new features:
Progresive Loading, Discovery Fog and New Trees
New Main Menus
Custom Map Fixes
New Furniture, Fire Torches and Hooks

If you have been following the experimental branch, this build features more work on the new main menu UI including a new notification system. We’ve also included a new rudimentary tutorial to go over some basics when you first start the game. The tutorial is optional and can be turned off in the gameplay settings. This is a temporary tutorial until the new intro/tutorial is completed. We’ve included the patch notes between the last experimental branch for consistency.

Also, if you’re having any problems with the game please check out our new troubleshooting guide.
Have fun!

Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
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0.16.H2 - 0.19.00 STABLE CHANGE LOG

BUG FIXES

- Fixed multiple items missing shadows.
- Fixed Custom Map objects not loading correctly.
- Fixed Custom Maps loading physics objects incorrectly.
- Fixed dialogue buttons going off screen from map loading error messages overflowing.
- Fixed chance of getting stuck in menus when a dialogue window would obscure another dialogue.
- Fixed dialogue input fields accepting a seed value larger than supported.
- Fixed dynamic Terrain Billboards not unsubscribing from zone owner when pooled, causing some distant billboards to turn off incorrectly.
- Fixed Raft crafting ghost knock objects around.
- Fixed objects ‘moving’ incorrectly when picking off Spears.
- Fixed Sun appearing as a ‘cone’ at certain times of day.
- Fixed Sun reflections not aligning with Sun when moving away from starting zone.
- Fixed Grass generating on Sea Forts.
- Fixed player walking and floating on fish while swimming.
- Fixed Dragging and flying on Rafts, Logs, etc (not including Sharks).
- Fixed unable to drag capsized Rafts on rare occurrence.
- Fixed door spawning inside wall on Sea Fort.
- Fixed Loot spawning percentages. Loot containers will 100% spawn an item now.
- Fixed no feedback animation when drinking from a Coconut.
- Fixed Intro end sequence explosion audio.
- Fixed Stingray hitboxes when spearing or shooting.

CHANGES

- Reduced the game’s Memory footprint by almost half.
- Improved creation and loading times of Worlds and Maps significantly.
- Reduced overhead for detection of a Custom Map when loading a zone’s objects.
- Reduced overhead when creating items when loading back a zone.
- Reduced overhead when loading back interactive objects.
- Reduced overhead when connecting raft pieces.
- Revised mechanics for Fruit to pickup to remove from trees instead of interact.
- Revised mechanics for Spit to pickup to remove attached object instead of interact.
- Revised mechanics for Water Collector to pickup to remove attached object instead of interact.
- Improved Dragging responsiveness.
- Improved Ladder climbing mechanics.
- Adjusted Cliff Rock texture to blend better with other rocks.
- Added large Cliff Rocks generating on larger islands.
- Added Ladder rotation support. You can now climb tilted palm trees.
- Added a dialogue to select existing or random world on New Game.
- Changed collision layers for building to allow placing on terrain details like rocks (use with caution).
- Changed collision layers so animals now avoid large cliff rocks.
- Disabled toggling Fullscreen mode in game.
- Reduced Bat and Seagull audio by 50%.
- Reduced player footstep audio by 20%.

NEW FEATURES

- Added new Progressive Loading functionality!
Loading in a new area is spread across multiple frames to lower the performance hit. At this stage, travelling via a raft with a boat motor may still cause some hitches. This is because they are the fastest means of travel and we need to tweak the system based on that. Every other method of travel – swimming, life raft and sail raft should all be much nicer.

- Added new Discovery Fog system!
Undiscovered areas of the world will remain shrouded in the atmosphere until you discover them, lifting the fog and revealing the area. Any areas that you have discovered will remain visible and help you navigate. You will still need to keep track of your travels as undiscovered areas can obscure discovered areas.

- Added new Soilmap system!
Foliage should generate in a more natural form with vegetation layers. Pines will surround cliff faces to create a forest while palms surround the outer layers of the forest. Younger plants will spawn on the outside of forest borders.


- New Main Menu UI
At this stage it’s very much a work in progress and not complete. One change you will notice is that there is no more ‘My Game’ option. We realised that this screen could be too overwhelming for new players who just wanted to get into the game. The world editing functionality from the previous ‘My Game’ menu and map editing from the previous ‘Map Editor’ menu have now been combined into the new ‘Cartographer’ menu. From the Cartographer you can customize your world, create a new world and create and edit maps like you used to. The new menu layout is hopefully clearer and more concise.

- New Notification System.
- New temporary Tutorial.

- Added new Columnar Pine tree!
- Added new Young Columnar Pine tree!
- Added new Coca bush!

- Added new craftable Wood Shelf item!
- Added new craftable Plank Shelf item!
- Added new craftable Corrugated Shelf item!
- Added new craftable Wood Chair item!
- Added new craftable Wood Table item!
- Added new craftable Plank Chair item!
- Added new craftable Plank Table item!
- Added new craftable Corrugated Table item!
- Added new craftable Fire Torch item.

- Added new craftable Wood Hook item.
Allows any attachable item to be attached. Useful for attaching lanterns and fire torches.

DEV NOTES

- Added game version validation to maps.
- Patched to Unity 5.4.1p4
—

0.18.03 - 0.19.00 EXPERIMENTAL CHANGE LOG

CHANGES

- Restored Deep Sea biome.
- Restored Sea Forts in Deep Sea biomes.
- Restored Whales in Deep Sea biomes.
- Removed Snakes from Small Island Biomes.
- Removed Boars from small Island Biomes.
- Increased Young Palm and Yucca generation for Small Island Biomes.
- Reduced Bat and Seagull audio by 50%.
- Reduced player footstep audio by 20%.

BUG FIXES

- Fixed possibility of loading a physical object with no rigidbody causing errors.
- Fixed Grass generating on Sea Forts.
- Fixed player walking and floating on fish while swimming.
- Fixed Dragging and flying on Rafts, Logs, etc (not including Sharks).
- Fixed unable to drag capsized Rafts on rare occurrence.
- Fixed door spawning inside wall on Sea Fort.
- Fixed Loot spawning percentages. Loot containers will 100% spawn an item now.
- Fixed no feedback animation when drinking from a Coconut.
- Fixed Intro end sequence explosion audio.
- Fixed Stingray waypoints causing them to leave a Biome.
- Fixed Stingray hitboxes when spearing or shooting.

NEW FEATURES

- More Main Menu UI
Continued work and revisions to new main menu layout and design.

- New Notification System.

- New temporary Tutorial.