Hey, folks!
As you’re aware, we’re deep into developing V1.1.0, so this is just a quick report to fill you in on a couple of things. Firstly:
Version 1.1.0 (including Chapter 1) releases November 12
That’s two weeks from today!
We’re all working hard to wrap up the new V1.1.0 update nicely, but the bulk is in there: a new Operations hotspot (Persian Gulf) with 3 new missions, our first campaign-specific Ready Rooms, several updates for the AI (including idle animations, hostage and HVT behaviors etc.), shoulder-tapping, miscellaneous animation improvements, audio tweaks, new weapons and attachments, face paint and more.
🔗 See Intel Report #033 for details and previews if you haven't already.
So there you have it — November 12 is when you’ll be getting your hands on all of that.
Now, for possibly even bigger news…
GROUND BRANCH is making the move to UE5
That’s right: GROUND BRANCH is finally being migrated to Unreal Engine 5.8, the latest version of Epic’s UE5.
💡 GROUND BRANCH in UE5 is a near-future endeavor. Version 1.1.0 will still be released in UE4 on November 12.
UE4 has been visually showing its age for a while, and plugins have been dropping support for it. Newer versions are UE5-only, and UE5 natively supports many of the features we’ve been using plugins for — in some cases, we’ve even been backporting them to UE4. With all of that in mind, we decided it was time to finally make the jump. In addition to allowing us to work a little more efficiently, it should make the game more future-proof and do the art team’s work a little more justice.
We’ll get into more details in the future. For now, rest assured that we have a dedicated team working in parallel on the migration process, which does not conflict with our regular development in UE4.27.
Anyway, here are a few teasers for how things are shaping up inside UE5. Most of these previews are fairly low-resolution and low-FPS, but they should give you an idea of the upgrade in lighting and atmosphere, as well as the prospect of weather effects:
And that’s all we have time for today! We’ll see you on November 12.
