Exp. Update 0.05.E1

Exp. Update 0.05.E1 is an update for Stranded Deep released on September 8, 2015.

We would recommend checking your quality settings again. There are new options for some effects that will affect performance on lower end systems. Speaking of performance, it's worth reiterating that this is an experimental build and has no optimizations, no LOD work, etc. We wouldn't recommend running this build if you have a lower end system for the time being, until we get time to optimize. At the moment, we're focusing more on getting the features in and working.

We've hit the character limit for Steam announcements with this post so we'll post a full changelog shortly on the website. There will also be a blog update coming soon with more details, but for now - enjoy!

Bug Fixes

 * Culling – Fixed a small error with too many layers being excluded from lights culling masks that may have contributed to graphical errors on AMD/ATI cards.
 * UI – Added tooltip functionality for settings selection.
 * UI – Fixed scrollbar in graphics options menu displaying incorrectly.
 * UI – The position for the World seed dialogues input caret and highlighting was incorrect. This has been fixed internally with the upgrade to Unity 5.2.
 * Ocean – Fixed ambient occlusion writing over ocean surface underwater.
 * Crafting Triggers – Fixed errors with objects not leaving collections. This was also causing crafted items to not ‘appear’ where they should have.
 * Crafting Triggers – Optimised triggering algorithm and trigger collider types.

Changes

 * See the change log on website (coming soon) ...

New Content

 * Terrain – New terrain system! The new terrain system has large Islands, handcrafted zones, procedural content, and more! The terrain system has been rewritten to support biome zones with much more detail. Zones now allow for large island either hand crafted or procedurally generated. The world is currently limited to a size of 5x3 biomes but will expand as the system progresses.
 * Ceto – New ocean system! This will be in the “work in progress” stage for a while as it continues being worked on by the developer and incorporated by us.
 * Caustics – Improved caustics. The switch to Ceto allowed us to rework the caustic system and incorporate our original caustics again which are more fluid and dynamic.
 * Tides – A simple semi-diurnal tide system has been implemented. This will have more impact when buoyancy and currents have been fully implemented.
 * Building – New building system! This system is in very early days. Only the lowest building material tier is available to build with for now. All building pieces are placeholders.
 * Building pieces also have a basic structural support mechanic implemented:
 * Roofs and floors need a foundation with two walls to support the next level.
 * Foundations, floors and roofs can support one ‘tile’ out from themselves.
 * Be careful not to place something where it won’t be supported as you will lose all of your materials! The building combos are all basically a stick.. and if it needs another piece (eg: to build steps you need a foundation and a stick). Hopefully this will help everyone test things quickly.
 * Building – New destruction gibs! A basic system for gibs has been implemented. This will evolve as the building system progresses.
 * DirectX 11 – Added DirectX 11 support. This will allow users with capable video cards to run the game under DirectX 11. This will also open the way for DX11 specific optimizations like running the ocean simulation solely on the GPU.
 * DirectX 9 – Users with DirectX 9 can select the “DirectX 9.0” option on start-up or add “-force-d3d9” to the game’s launch options for a more permanent solution.
 * Reflection Probes – Users running the game under DirectX 11 will have the new reflection probes. Currently there’s an internal bug stopping probes from rendering correctly under DirectX 9 and OpenGL. The reflection probes only contain the sky at the moment.
 * Unity – Upgraded to latest version of Unity 5.2. According to the release notes there’s been “CPU side rendering performance optimizations across the board. We've seen between 5% and 30% lower CPU cost for rendering, depending on the setup.”
 * Foliage – New foliage! The new foliage makes better use of our new shaders with translucency, etc.
 * Foliage – New ceriman plant
 * Foliage – New banana frond plant
 * Foliage – New ficus trees, can be harvested for sticks
 * Foliage – New palm trees
 * Foliage – New heart-leaf philodendron plant
 * Rocks – New temporary rocks, cliff models
 * Drift Wood – Drift wood, harvest driftwood logs from driftwood piles scattered around island shores.
 * Effects – New HDR tone mapper and eye adaptation. The new tone mapper is much better quality than the previous built-in tone mapping we were using.
 * Effects – New ‘Motion Blur’ effect. This is only recommended for higher end systems.
 * Effects – New ‘Depth of Field’ effect. This is only recommended for higher end systems.

Known Issues

 * OSX – There is a bug at the moment where wave overlays aren’t applying properly under OpenGL. This affects foam, shore fading, etc.
 * Ambient Occlusion – We’ve started seeing some weird haloing related to the terrain. We’re looking in to the cause.
 * Shadows – There are a few visual artefacts related to shadow cascades. We’re looking in to the cause.

Dev Notes

 * Intro – The intro scene has been removed temporarily.
 * Atmosphere – Weather has been disabled temporarily.
 * Fish – Fish have been disabled temporarily (will be back very soon).
 * Crafting Triggers – This system is in the middle of an overhaul. There is a bug where picking up an item in a crafting pile won’t remove itself from the ‘collection’. Drag them away from the pile first before picking it up.
 * Crafting – Crafted position. The crafting system is also in the middle of an overhaul. Be careful where you choose to craft an item. Craft items in an open space, don’t craft panels on top of stories, etc or they could go flying or get stuck.
 * Building – There is no collision checking for the building ghosts at the moment. Be careful of placing foundations too close to other foundations (unless they’re snapping together) as it will cause bugs with snapping connectors interfering.
 * Sea Creatures – Sea creatures haven't been fully integrated with the ocean yet. They might pop through the waves.