Sup guys,

I'm thrilled to announce that Broke Protocol will soon be available to everyone for free! This transition marks a new chapter in BP, and I'm excited to share it with you all.

• Broke Protocol is becoming 100% free
  
• The transition process with Valve is underway
  
• This announcement serves as a courtesy notice for potential buyers

For those who haven't visited lately, you've missed out! Here are some of the most recent additions:

• New deform and destruction effects
  
• Expanded modding capabilities: Custom HUDs and menu overhauls
  
• Support for trucks, trailers, and trains
  
• Level streaming for unlimited map sizes

I believe in Broke Protocol's immense potential as a modding platform. By removing the price barrier, we might be able to reach more creators and players, showcasing the game's powerful and comprehensive modding framework—arguably the most complete in current sandbox games.

Rest assured, my commitment to Broke Protocol remains strong:

• Continued updates, features, and content
  
• TheUnishark, a well-known BP modder, now helping develop
  
• Plans include rework of UI, controls, world builder, character customization, vehicle damage, and even weather effects

Whether you're a long-time player or new to Broke Protocol, I invite you to be part of this exciting new phase. Help me spread the word and grow the game and thank you for your continued support.

Join the Official Discord Server[discord.gg]

Spoiler: A standalone game.zip is already available on the BP Download[brokeprotocol.com] page.

See ya!
Benz

Apartment loading bugs fixed. Recommend both servers and clients update.

The Optimization update releases today and it’s more than just a code cleanup. There are very powerful new features for map and mod authors, server customization, new effects, and support for virtually unlimited map sizes. Let’s cover how these new features will affect the future of Broke Protocol and modding.

Client level streaming has finally been added to Broke Protocol. This is the feature in most open-world games that loads and unload parts of the level based on distance. This is all done automatically to save memory on lower end devices but as a bonus it means that map authors can create absolutely gargantuan maps without concern for memory or rendering limitations even on mobile.

HUD and full UI modding is now here. Previously missing UI assets are now in the BPResources modding package so modders can create, style, and customize any part of the UI and even the HUD now. You can even add your own elements for scripting with the server Interface API. There’s been API updates and fixes for Element lookups and Cursor handling too if you check the API changes below.

Some new Effects have been added that can be modded as well. Destructible objects can now spawn any kind of gameobject or particle system when they break. There are some built in effects for selection but these can be fully modded with custom assets and particle systems. Another step in making the world feel more reactive.

Tons of other fixes and improvements made it in for this release. You’ll find AI improvements, World Builder fixes, Thai Language rendering corrected, and a lot more.

Here’s the full Optimization Update changelog:

• Game Changes:
  
• Client-side level streaming added (based on Render Distance)
  
• New Destroy Effects added for modding
  
• Destroy effects added to light poles and fire hydrants
  
• Fully moddable HUD added to BPResources
  
• Thai language rendering fix
  
• Sync permissions to clients when groups file changes
  
• Optimized game memory usage
  
• Improved logging for failure to find UI Elements
  
• Fixed some Input limitations when Cursor is active, etc.
  
• Laser behavior changed (WIP)
  
• Attempt to fix a UI element loading error with Android AssetBundles
  
• Fix for broken Action Menus requiring Disconnect/Rejoin
  
• All NPCs can be knocked out and will recover after a while
  
• Fixed broken AI when chasing airborne targets
  
• Improved player ground detection and physics on some surfaces
  
• Catch a client error related to Deformable components
  
• Cloud positions now randomized
  
• Added static camera limits due to culling
  
• More unified Asset snapshot preview lighting for built-in and custom assets
  
• World Builder fix for events and other string data getting lost
  
• World Builder fix when adding prefabs with ‘Select Object’ active
  
• World Builder fixes for item selection and spawning
  
• Fix for strange item bounds in asset snapshots (thumbnails)
  
• Fix RegisterMenu sometimes showing stale data
  
• Fixed UI QuerySelector to work on paths with mixed types
  
• Voice Chat library updated and rebuilt with better settings
  
• Updated game engine and packages
  
• Fixed missing face on stair mesh
  
• More UI modding capabilities (see API changes)
  
• API Changes
  
• Default menus will try to clone Custom UIs with the same UXML name if available
  
• svPlayer.VisualElementCursorVisibility(string elementName)
  
• Binds cursor visibility to a VisualElement
  
• Disables Cursor automatically when element destroyed
  
• SvPlayer.randomSpawn moved to GameSourceEntity type
  
• EntityCollections.RandomNPC returns any NPC now, not just randomSpawns
  
• Added SvPlayer.ResetPath() to clear pathing data
  
• Added SvPlayer.LookTarget() for aiming/shooting at target separate from movement
  
• SvManager.Instance.AddNewEntityExisting(..)
  
• respawnable parameter no longer optional
  
• SvPlayer.PlayerData removed
  
• Use SvPlayer.CustomData directly
  
• Sector -> NetSector
  
• sectorRange -> netSectorRange
  
• visibleRange -> netVisibleRange
  
• visibleRangeSqr -> netVisibleRangeSqr
  
• manhattanRange -> netPerpendicularRange
  
• Some Sector methods removed
  
• Reimplemented in GameSource where needed

API Changes[broke-protocol.github.io]
See you!

-Benz

Official Discord[discord.gg]

Small update pushed to Steam for modders with a fixed BPResources.unitypackage.

• Fixed selective builds In AssetBundleBrowser
  
• Fixed display error when 0 defined AssetBundles

BP has been in development for almost a decade (imagine). Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and see where the game could be elevated to modern standards. And immersion is one aspect I want to pay attention to over the next few updates. First steps are better damage and camera animations. So, let’s get into the nitty gritty of The Immersion Update 1.41.
Vertex damage is now a part of all vehicle damage models. It’s a simple and effective trick all the way from GTA4 (or Mafia if you remember). This allows full deformation of vehicles including boats and aircraft depending on damage levels. It’s fully compatible with published mods too. The first implementation is a rather simple effect but will likely be updated and improved over time, so feedback is welcome.
Until now, players seemed to glide over surfaces as if skating on ice. Camera animations now add an extra bit of dimension to player movement. Bobbing and rolling in reaction to movement adds some immersion. And camera offsets during reloading does make it feel more gripping. More camera effects to come so keep an eye on this.
The first-person perspective always had issues with effects and animations due to the layered camera implementation in BP. This has been improved with effects now better synced even when aiming down sights. Just want to give a heads up for future work in this area including better camera shake, recoil, and realistic holo sight/scope shaders.
Hit effects are no longer obnoxious and repetitive. There’s a few different audio and particle effects that now have better volume leveling. The hit effects finally take the hit surface into account. More surface tags are planned for custom effects on wood, glass, etc. Laters Ricochet.wav, you won’t be missed.
1.41 finally fixes the broken post-processing effects from the last update. This means mods like BP Graphics Client are fully functional again (link on Discord). Other parameters for lighting and shadows have been improved with community feedback. More to come on visuals as well so look out for upcoming updates.

Finally, Modders please check the API additions below for some useful functionality especially relating to custom UIs.

Here’s the full UI Update changelog:

• New vehicle vertex damage / deformation
  
• Added head bobbing and other camera animations
  
• Fixed broken Post-Processing effects
  
• Improved some light/shadow settings (Thanks TheUnishark)
  
• New Indonesian Language support (Thanks SARA)
  
• Fixed World Builder snapping increment broken in some cultures
  
• World Builder Inventory selection improved
  
• Fixed bullet spam exploits (Thanks unitazer)
  
• Added ramp colliders on some stairs
  
• Reduced server load on player connection
  
• Some Standard Assets moved to BPResources Export
  
• More safety checks on BPA asset building and loading
  
• Can now selectively build BPA’s with right click
  
• Fixed vehicles respawning in strange positions when they shouldn’t
  
• Replaced Unity package with official Newtonsoft Json.Net plugin
  
• Fixed some bad environment tiling at odd render distances
  
• Disabled random spawns for most Default interiors
  
• Fixed some bad light/flare rendering in First-person
  
• Fixed hit reg being delayed by a frame
  
• Added velocity requirement before deploying parachutes
  
• Fixed and simplified some incremental reload logic
  
• New bp.camera permission for camera switching controls
  
• Input menu minor layout change
  
• Fix errors when setting Animator parameters without SyncAnimator
  
• New hit effects/audio depending on surface hit
  
• Fixed action menu sometimes breaking/disappearing
  
• Unity Engine upgrade to latest

• VisualElement API functions accept complex paths for element lookups now
  
• “parent/descendant..” for descendants
  
• “parent>child..” for immediate children
  
• “.class” selectors supported now
  
• Can combine descendant/child/name/class lookups in a path
  
• Remove any previous Newtonsoft Json Unity Package (new BPResources has one)
  
• Remove old AssetBundleBrowser directory (new BPResources has V3)
  
• Moved some DamageSource / DamageSourceMap types to GameSource
  
• ShGun.reloading now public
  
• Added ShPlayer.OnFoot property (true for InWater too
  

API Changes[broke-protocol.github.io]

See you!
-Benz

Official Discord[discord.gg]

This one took a while, but the UI Update finally releases today. It’s more than just UI changes though, 1.40 marks a milestone engine upgrade to Unity 6 and the end of Early Access. This update tidies up many loose ends with fixes and improvements and paves the way for improved workflows for both developer and modders.

The entire game UI has been rewritten using a data-driven approach. Although most of the interface will structurally look similar to before, there’s a better separation of presentation and logic as well as stylesheets to provide unified theme management. To put it bluntly, future UI work won’t be painstaking as the old component-based workflow and should perform better as an added bonus.

The World Builder had major rework and optimizations done. I still need to do another styling pass to resize things a little better but there’s generally more safety and sanity checks than before. You shouldn’t be able to set item counts or chance percentages outside valid ranges and there’s better error handling so modders should have a more stable mapping experience in 1.40 overall. There’s new enum support built in too so the State property on vehicles should be updated on old maps or else all existing vehicles default to Unlocked.

1.40 makes some small gains in modding capabilities, both in scripting and asset modding. Some more code was moved into GameSource for modding like the Consume event which handling everything from healing to reviving players. Each player character can have a custom carry capacity (which can be modified by clothing like backpacks). Also guided projectiles have a FlareEffectiveness property that lets modders set how easily they can be spoofed by countermeasures. There’s also an updated AssetBundleBrowser/Builder in BPResources though this is an optional upgrade for modders.

The last version was plagued by physics issues for a long time now. Everything from cars bottoming out to spastic motorcycles should be fixed in this update (fingers crossed). Player fixes such as some rotation weirdness and corrupted ragdolls should also be fixed. There are still some lingering engine bugs that may or may not cause issues, so I’ll be listening to the community for feedback on this.

Hit registration (i.e. confirming valid hits on the server) has been cursed since the very beginning. The problem was relying on the engine physics system to handle bullets and collisions. But since the physics timestep runs on different intervals to the main game loop, this causes all kind of timing issues and irregularities. The calculations have been rewritten on the main game loop for accuracy and it should be more performant as well without the extra physics components.

Thanks to everyone who stuck around for this long trek out of Early Access 🙂

Here’s the full UI Update changelog:

• UI rewritten using new UIElements system
  
• Better asset transfer throttling
  
• Added country codes to server list
  
• Fixed often broken vehicle physics
  
• Original music restored
  
• Parse color codes for Text Displays
  
• Added range check when updating Text Signs (Thanks unitaz)
  
• Allow blank text for Text Signs
  
• Fixed small bomb collider and mass
  
• Safer implementation of ignoring colliders
  
• BPA’s can now cross reference each other and load order doesn’t matter
  
• Minimap camera now always remains upright
  
• Some AI aim calculation tweaks
  
• Hit registration rewritten and optimized to be more accurate
  
• Fixed broken Player/Ban Records menus (Thanks TheUnishark)
  
• Fixed broken material on Train waypoints with low settings
  
• Fixed for occasional laggy player physics
  
• Color space set to Linear for accuracy (some mods/lighting may look different)
  
• Updated to latest Unity 6 (No more splash screen)
  
• Slight changes to ForSale states on Default map
  
• General project cleanup for Unity 6
  
• Updated networking library with latest fixes
  
• Rewritten AssetBundleBrowser/Exporter
  
• Delete old directory if importing BPResources into existing project
  
• Better custom UI stretching depending on parent mode (Thanks TheUnishark)
  
• Player weight limits are now moddable per character
  
• FlareEffectiveness is a moddable property of SvThrown entities
  
• Replaced language display from flags to language codes
  
• Moved all Consume code into GameSource event
  
• Fixed Thai language text rendering
  
• Steam Workshop and Uploader general fixes and error handling
  
• World Builder general rewrite and optimizations
  
• Fixed some memory leaks with item snapshots
  
• Cache lookups for item previews
  
• Player icons randomly colored based on username if left at default
  
• Fixed ragdoll recovery animation corruption
  
• API Changes:
  
• UI ShowText API: Removed some screen anchoring and sizing parameters from old UI system
  
• Removed custom Callback delegates, now using System.Action/Func

API Changes[broke-protocol.github.io]
See you!

-Benz

Official Discord[discord.gg]

Mainly a fix for some custom maps not loading.

• * Fix some map loading issues related to Triggers
  
• * Reduce recoil kickback a bit