UAT #3 – Patch Notes & Information

Hey squaddies,

We’ve got another large update to the v.1.0 Public Testing today with optimizations, features, fixes and changes from your feedback so far. Thank you for taking the time to help test these builds and check out all the new changes and features. As testing continues, we’d like to continue looking at all MEA map layers, as well as explore the different graphics settings options now available, to dial in the settings that are right for your system.

Firstly, it is of the utmost importance that once you have this update to CLEAR YOUR CACHE. So crucial that here it is again. CLEAR. YOUR. CACHE. There have been significant changes made to our settings menu, specifically the Graphics menu, which will likely cause many problems if you do not CLEAR YOUR CACHE (3rd time’s the charm). We are looking at ways for this to be auto-performed in future updates and for the release, but unfortunately, it did not make the UAT #3 build.

Be aware this will also reset your keybindings, so any custom keybinds you will need to reconfigure once you update.

*As an alternative solution, you can reset to default and this should clear the graphics without alternating keybindings – there may still be issues.

One of the most significant changes for the Graphics menu is the reworked shadows options, which now has “Low” as the lowest shadows option. We have had reports of this DF Shadows (even on Low) causing hitches when a player ADS’ and want to verify how prevalent this is with a larger number of players.

Secondly, the team needs more information about 100 player matches, especially those containing helicopters. Since Fallujah does not feature any map layers with helicopters, this will mean the rotations you encounter will feature it to a limited degree. Fallujah is not restricted, but it won’t be the highlight of your time in UAT #3. This will benefit the team in the long run for testing purposes and make sure we can iron things out for most maps before release.

Remember to keep your feedback and bug reports coming to our Discord server (channels: #v1-beta-feedback and #v1-beta-bug-reports) so we can get it in the finest shape it can be.

These are the changes from v1.0 UAT #2 to UAT #3:

Game Modes

• Updated AAS and RAAS Ticket Gain and Loss for Flag Capture to -20 and +50. This change is intended to slightly increase game length for rounds that have a lot of back and forth around the capture zone lattice.
• Increased Invasion tickets for attackers to 200.
• Increased TC tickets to 450/450.

Optimization / Stabilization

Graphics Settings Menu Rework

An entirely new graphics menu has been added to the game, designed from the ground up to standardize image quality between different quality levels. It includes more granular options, new rendering features, and higher overall fidelity while opening up some key new features for low-end players, such as a supersampling slider that smoothly scales below 100%, temporal upsampling to improve image quality at low resolutions, and an overall reshuffle of behind the scenes graphics configuration options, which should result in better performance for some users. 

One major benefit of this new setting rework is that visual parity between all settings levels should be (for gameplay purposes) identical. This includes turning shadows on for all players, as mentioned in the roadmap and Trello. 

These settings will still need bug fixing, adjusting, and may have additions or removals in the future. While we test with as large a variety of systems as we can, it’s difficult to fully adapt the game for every hardware configuration in the wild. We hope to gather hardware and performance data from a wide range of players in the public test and adjust accordingly.

While the entire menu has been more or less reworked, a brief list of the major changes is included below:

• • Changed shadow settings. Distance field shadows are now enabled for all players. The new quality levels for shadows are:

• Low: No Cascade Shadow Maps (CSMs), DF shadows enabled.

• Med: 1 CSM cascade, DF shadows enabled

• High: 2 CSM cascades, DF shadows enabled, Increased Distance Field Ambient Occlusion (DFAO) quality.

• Epic: Same as high, with improved filtering quality.

• Shadows also have a resolution slider, which only affects CSM shadows, but helps to scale their resolution and performance significantly.
• Contact Shadows have been added as a high-end option. They greatly improve the quality of small detail shadows in the environment when enabled.
• An anisotropic filtering slider has been added.
• Changed Antialiasing Settings. AA quality variables are now tweakable with multiple sliders, allowing players to balance the filtering to their preferences. 
  • For players who prefer playing without AA, there is an option to disable the AA kernel and set the filters to values that keep the image perfectly sharp. 
• Motion blur is now scalable via a slider.
• A Screen Percentage slider has been added, allowing players to scale their resolution from 50% to 200% smoothly.
  • There is also the option of using Unreal’s temporal upscaling to upscale the image. This slightly decreases performance on low-resolution percentages (but greatly improves image quality) and seems to potentially increase performance when using percentages over 120%.
• A new PostFX submenu has been added. It includes the motion blur slider, screen sharpening slider, and 3 new settings: Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation. These settings should allow players to customize their image’s look to their preferences, and they should (hopefully!) be ineffective at creating x-ray effects through fog that the gamma slider (now depreciated) allowed for.

Relative Net Update Frequency Optimisation

Updated our Net Update Frequency to have a greater impact on server performance optimization. The intention here is to save time on the GetRelativeUpdateFrequency call in the replication process on the server. When this is enabled, less time should be spent in “Get Relative Update Frequency Time” on the CPU.

What to test/lookout for in this update with this enabled:

• Check for update rates affected by relative update frequency (soldiers, vehicles, weapons, etc). These items should act the same as before. Especially important to check when in the distance.
• There will be a very slight delay in the update frequency changing when crossing the distance boundaries (25m, 50m, 100m etc). This should not be noticeable but it would be worth driving fast vehicles towards the player and making sure this doesn’t cause anything strange.

Infantry

• Updated MEA HAT with HK51 + Z-Point and updated MEA Combat Engineer with G3KA4 + Z-Point.
• Updated 1P78 to have Increased zoom by 8%. Affects AK74M, PKP, and RPK variants.
• Updated 1P78 to now be mapped to input sensitivity scaling for 4x scopes. Affects AK74M, PKP, and RPK variants.
• Updated G3A3 Drum Mag LMG reloading to have a reduced reload speed: -25% un-bipoded, -15% bi-poded.
• Fixed MEA Lead Pilot/Pilot kit minimum players in squad (should only need 1 player in Squad to get pilot kit).
• Fixed MEA AR’s G3A3 Drum Mag cost (was at 2, now at 8 ammo points).
• Fixed RPG26 Ammo rearm cost (was at 40, now at 30 ammo points).
• Fixed some incorrect settings on the M72 LAW and M203 smoke.
• Fixed GB Soldier’s left arm breaking when reloading a pistol.

Vehicles

• Updated name of MEA T-72AV MBT to T-72S.
• Updated S5 rockets to have a 20 meter minimum arming distance.
• Updated S5 rockets to fix missing impact SFX and VFX when below minimum arming distance.
• Fixed MEA T72S hull becoming invisible at certain LODs when tracked.

Deployables

• Updated the radio chatter VO’s to be more appropriate for the faction on the MEA FOB Radio.
• Updated MEA sandbag crescent and indirect fire shelter to have a unique variant.
• Updated initial HAB mesh to now include construction planks to indicate the build location of HAB.

User Interface

• Updated Training Main Menu Selection to have an MEA flag for Jensen’s Range v3.

Maps

Al Basrah

• Fixed material assignment on a merged city block.
• Smoothed the terrain at the INS/MEA main base to prevent flipping vehicles.
• Fixed a floating road.
• Fixed terrain to hide a gap under a wall.
• Al Basrah AAS v1 – Fixed MEA Ural Logi from flipping by repositioning (hopefully). Need to fix env rocks with collision at that Main base location.
• Al Basrah AAS v1 – Fixed MEA Ural Logi from flipping.

Fallujah

• Updated collision on urban building to prevent fall damage on the stairs.
• Updated Crossroads burning building rooftop.
• Updated minimap to increase brightness and show more accurate map boundaries.
• Removed bullet collision from Fallujah railing material since it’s a transparent plane and players need to shoot through it.
• Updated Commercial District capture zones so they can’t be captured from tunnels.
• Fixed Bazaar market stalls having shifted positions.
• Fixed other misc bugs.
• Fallujah AAS v2 – New layer added. USA vs MEA.
• Fallujah Invasion v2 – New layer added. MEA vs INS.
• Fallujah Invasion v3 – New layer added. USA vs INS.
• Fallujah TC v2 – Updated to a new hex grid layout.
• Fallujah Skirmish v2 – Fixed INS vehicle & repair station spawns.

Jensen’s Range

• Jensen’s Range v3 – replaced Mi8 with MEA Mi17.

Lashkar Valley

• Updated credits on main base signs.

Offworld out.