Version 0.60 Beta testing

[sjoerd]

Hi all,

Thanks for your patience. Ahead of the Episode 4 update we have a beta patch up on the "releasecandidate" branch. We could use some testing from all of you to see if everything is still in order.

"releasecandidate" - Password "landingcrossroads"

Right click the game in Steam - Properties - Betas - enter password "landingcrossroads" and then opt in on the ReleaseCandidate branch you can now select.

This comes with support for the latest Oculus and Vive SDKs, but we have not had the time to properly test it yet. VR is an experimental feature as before.

No save game changes were made but you might want to back up just to be sure.


KEY CHANGES

Major behind the scene engine upgrade.
--Much faster loading times
--Various deep problems might have been fixed such as alt-tab bugs
--Overall performance gain of 5-10% is expected but requires additional testing and feedback
--Support for Oculus SDK 1.3 and Vive. Received little testing so far however due to time constrains so don't expect it to be rock solid yet. Further fixes coming
--Stereo renders VR. Scene is rendered once only for both eyes.
Can now select male or female player voice! Be Octavius Sken, or Octavia Sken! Subtitles here and there still lacking.
Upon the start of a new game can now select one single special item you took along from the ship for a game-long unchangeable bonus.
DirectX 10 is now supported (better).
Improved jumping
Most achievements can now be gotten. A few are still missing, and a rare few might be bugged..


LEVELS

FPC1 A doll now appears on returning with the key
All levels had various small issues and holes in geometry fixed
HP repeating audio fixed, which in turn possibly fixes the framedrops in the level. <- NEEDS FEEDBACK - we do not have any framedrops like many reported.
Harder to pass the acid lake in HPC
If you run HPC in the reverse order can no longer have objectives overwrite each other
Are now given an extra torch before entering Ice Path
Cable at the start of the game replaced by a cargo net to cut open


CORE GAMEPLAY AND BALANCING

There is now an alien water bottle, to fix people from encountering water puzzles and not having a bottle. Alien bottle looks cool but is rare. It holds more water than a normal bottle.
Campfires have a bigger heat range
Text flickers less when it is warm
New cheat solpush, teleports you 300 units forward through walls or doors
New cheat soldebug, shows debug text
Permanent food and water sources now give twice as much so you need to click less.
Bear and spike trap also triggered by items or teleporter disc now, so it makes a bit more sense.
Flamethrower warmer so you can better use it to warm up yourself
No longer checks for outdoor wind direction when underground leading to improved cave wind readings
Maximum number of stories you can find in the game now displays correct number (513).


UI

PDA text slightly smaller to make translations fit more easily
Multiple fixes to non translating words left and right.
Cinematic cutscene borders added
Credits updated
The under development message top of the screen fades in and out during the game now, to prevent showing it all the time.


OTHER

Particle effects of items more optimized on lower end
Common FX optimized, in particular on low end and in caves.
Can now set shadow range with config ini file value for players who want to tweak it
Can now set the heigth the PDA is displayed at via the config ini file. Primarily aimed at VR where the heigth tracking could be off, or for people with extreme field of views where the PDA might be placed incorrectly.
Intro, extro and main menu background render faster
UFO has been remade and looks a lot better/fitting.


STILL UPCOMING BEFORE FULL RELEASE
An explorer diary mode where you can re-read all previously found story elements, and get an overview on the number of things found per level.
Improved VR.

[Dendeze]

Will be testing this and let you what i found out.

Keep up the good work

[Simpanra]

Does the VR beta support the Vive's roomscale and motion controllers or just seating with mouse and keyboard / gamepad?

[sjoerd]

We have still not found the time to try with Vive. So no idea. It does what UE4 does out of the box, whatever that is. Likely that means it is seated.
Improving this is on our list.

[Simpanra]

Originally posted by sjoerd:

We have still not found the time to try with Vive. So no idea. It does what UE4 does out of the box, whatever that is. Likely that means it is seated.
Improving this is on our list.

Thanks for the quick reply :)

[Lycon]

Originally posted by sjoerd:

We have still not found the time to try with Vive. So no idea. It does what UE4 does out of the box, whatever that is. Likely that means it is seated.
Improving this is on our list.

I could do some quick ad-hoc testing on Vive, for You for free and provide feedback, You can revoke my access to the title later.

[Shark]

Simpanra, generally speaking as long as it supports full rotational and directional tracking (which I believe UE4 VR implementation does at the basic level), you should be able to walk around.

Good example I use would be Elite Dangerous. Not meant to be a true "room scale" game but I get out of my seat with the Vive on, walk 15ft behind my chair and am at the back of the cockpit/bridge in my type 7. That being said, I'm not sure how that translates to a first person game like this where you are in the shoes of a human. Will provide feedback when able.

Sjoerd, not sure how you guys have managed to fly so low under the radar. Game looks just fantastic. Really need to pump some PR out, at least once you all get close to full official release. Looking at the reviews most people seem to "stumble" across the title and are very pleasantly surprised and amazed by the experience.

Buying now, will install tonight and provide any feedback I can with regards to the Vive experience.

[sjoerd]

I haven't found the time yet to set up the sensors for my Vive, the main thing holding me back, but if you guys can try it and let me know that would be a cool first step!

The menu does not work well in VR, you might need to start it in non VR mode and then set all the options you need to, and then switch it to VR while in game (F11 or 12).

Yeah we had quite a lot of PR in the start but after that it has been very difficult to keep it going. We did 2 big content updates adding hours of content, and almost no one cared at all about that. Any help anyone can give, or recommendation to your friends or so would be most appreciated.

[lenne]

Read about it on /r/vive, jumping in right now ! Btw, get the power drill out and mount the basestations, uve got 50k possible customers starving for content at ur hands...

[Shark]

That's the biggest selling point for any early access title, a developer working their♥♥♥♥♥off to complete the game and deliver the experience they set out to deliver. We're over on /r/vive talking a little bit about it now, that's how I even found out about the game. Looking forward to jumping in this evening!

[LiquidBronze]

I am not even sure how to bring the game up into the vive, it launches but in a small box on my monitor and only the steam menu is seen in vive, any suggestions?

EDIT: ok got it open now at least but only for a split second, then instantly crashes out and I am back to the virtual desktop.

EDIT 2: OK didnt realize I need to get past the menu,started up the game then toggled F11/F12, it worked!

Some inital things: There are two white dots right in the center of my vision on each eye. There is no head tracking and when using the mouse I cannot look up or down, only left or right. More to come after some testing. Menus in game (when hitting esc) are way out of the FOV, so you cannot select them.

Edit 3: Now for whatever reason, I get "fatal error!" everytime I try to continue or start a new game. it gives me that error when loading

[sjoerd]

F11 or F12 resets/toggles VR mode while playing (does not work in a menu). Does that help?

[sjoerd]

Your edit message: oh hm, it is standard UE4 so shouldn't be die like that. Anyone else also has that with Vive?

[[GER]Typ012]

The game works fine so far (can't tell anything about VR).
The lag spikes I had on the windmill island are much better now. It happened when I moved there from another region. Restarting the game and loading a savegame on the island always solved it. There's still some micro stuttering every third second but I can't tell if it's just caused by texture/mesh uploads while moving.

What I didn't have before is sound crackling when going to the main menu the second time. It also causes lag spikes as soon as I move the mouse over any button, most likely because of the sounds. This doesn't happen while in game.

[lenne]

Doesnt work for me at all with the vive, after starting a new game it crashes with "fatal Error"

[Costregar]

Same here as for lenne.

First starting from steam in desktop mode and set the 'enable VR' in the options. Quit and restart.

I'm getting a nice looking space I'm floating in (world below me, moons passing by slowly) and the main menu floats in front of me.

Vive controllers don't do anything, but head tracking works fluently for looking around. Selecting new game from the menu via xbox controller or keyboard works.

After the loading screen with the sun-passing-over-video, I always get the 'fatal error'. From check in desktop mode I think that'S when screen changes to the text output of the introductory story.

Edit, just noticed trying again: trying moving around in roomscale I can't tell if it's doing anything simply by scale of the surroundings while in that space scenario. But PLEASE: add a visual base so the player's not floating freely in mid-air. Issue with heights are kicking in immediately on those ones...