This update features two new vehicles for Vikendi, the addition to the Flare Gun, and much more. We also have a number of bug fixes and performance improvements for this patch.
Remember to log into the game from the time maintenance ends to May 7 00:00 PDT to get your 2nd Anniversary Cap!
Read on for all the details of what Update #3 has to offer!
Maintenance Schedule
PDT: April 9 00:00 – April 9 04:00
CEST: April 9 09:00 – April 9 13:00
Survivor Pass: Vikendi
We understand that our messaging regarding the ending date of Survivor Pass: Vikendi was unclear, and that technical issues which caused mission progress tracking to be temporarily halted resulted in a great deal of confusion, and we apologize for this.
To ensure players are able to complete missions in the time they feel they had remaining we will be reopening the Survivor Pass for one week, with a start date of April 9th (after maintenance) and ending on April 16 02:00 PDT.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Survival Title System
Survival Title System Season 1 has been extended to May 14, 2019 PDT in order to give our players more time to hit milestones and receive season rewards.
New Vehicle: Snowbike
- Added a new Vikendi exclusive vehicle, Snowbike.
- The Snowbike replaces motorbikes on Vikendi.
- What the Snowbike lacks in durability, it makes up for with high speed and great maneuverability.
New Vehicle: Zima
- The Zima replaces UAZs on Vikendi.
- It won’t have perfect control on Vikendi’s snowy plains, however the 4×4 Zima is much easier to maneuver compared to other vehicles.
- While the Zima is relatively slow, it has high durability making it ideal for combat situations.
New Item: Flare Gun
- Added a new item, Flare Gun.
- Flare Guns can be rarely found on the map, with an average spawn rate of 3 Flare Guns per game for all maps
- When firing the Flare Gun inside the current safe zone, you’ll call in a special care package with valuable gear, or an armored UAZ when fired while outside the current safe zone.
- Flare Guns used in the early phase of the game often give a great advantage with little risk, therefore, the Flare Gun will only deliver a care package when used after the first blue zone phase.
- 2 special care packages and 2 armored UAZ can be called in per game total
- Care Package contents will include 1 set of item, regardless of the mode you’re playing (Solo/Duo/Squad)
Gameplay
- Improved reflective effects on the lens of scopes.
- Vehicle tires will now be destroyed immediately when a vehicle explodes.
- Modified conditions to prone, to prevent going prone on very rugged terrain.
- While prone and moving into a position where the character shouldn’t be able to prone, the character will automatically change to crouched position.
Performance
- Optimized character animations to improve performance.
- Completed AnimNode LOD optimization, which we previously introduced in Console Dev Report #3.
- When a character is very far away and takes up a small portion of the whole screen to the point where animations wouldn’t be visually noticeable, the animations are disabled, improving game performance.
- The more character models in an area which can have AnimNode LOD disabled, the higher performance gain compared to having AnimNode LOD enabled.
- For more insight, please take a look at our Console Dev Report #3.
- Improved FPS by optimizing the in-game tree and foliage rendering process.
- We improved the way similarly shaped trees and foliage render by further optimizing GPU Instance Culling, which we previously introduced in Console Dev Report #2.
- Trees with similar shapes are rendered using “instancing” and draw multiple trees at the cost of drawing a single tree, this heavily reduces GPU load.
- With GPU Instance Culling, only the objects that must be drawn on-screen are rendered, which dramatically decreases the GPU processing time and improves FPS.
- For more insight, please take a look at our Console Dev Report #2.
- Improved the game loading speed by optimizing the character loading process.
- Optimized the game server to improve performance.
- Optimized the hit criteria for Molotov when calculating character’s damage.
- Optimized certain elements of the HUD UI which were causing decreased performance.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the issue where the S686 could sometimes be fired 3 times in a row due when a player had poor network connectivity.
- Fixed the issue of the loading screen image occasionally remaining in the lobby.
- Fixed the issue with character travelling certain distance with falling motion after landing.
- Fixed the issue where swimming animation incorrectly displaying under certain circumstances.
- Fixed the issue of interaction highlight and button being shown for destroyed motorbikes and scooters.
- Fixed the issue of throwables becoming invisible after being thrown and switching to a different weapon.
- Fixed the issue of reticle brightness getting reset when switching scopes or picking up dropped weapons.
- Fixed the issue of raining effects being shown indoors.
- Fixed the issue of dead bodies making footstep sounds.
- Fixed the issue which could cause the remaining number of rounds in a magazine to be displayed incorrectly when reloading.
- Fixed the issue where you’d sometimes see a flickering afterimage when coming out of ADS mode with a scope attached in FPP
- Fixed the issue of an animation being displayed backwards when the character is armed with melee weapons and walking backwards.
- Fixed the issue of a character and its shadow not displaying some swimming animations in FPP mode.
- Fixed the issue which prevented switching helmets, vests and weapons when the inventory is full.
- Fixed the issue where a smoke grenade’s fuse starts to go off when touching the ground instead of when the pin is pulled out.
- Fixed the issue of being unable to switch weapons when pulling out the safety pin of a grenade.
- Fixed the issue with the name of two skins being identical.
- Fixed the issue where Molotov’s flame sound could be heard over a 1km radius.
- Fixed the issue of care package being stuck in an abnormal motion when obstructed from landing.
- Fixed the issue with characters attacking with fists instead of throwing throwables when a player had poor network connectivity.
- Fixed the issue where shadow intermittently appears to the door in Vikendi
- Fixed the issue which could cause grenades to deal damage through walls of certain buildings.