Build Update

Hey, everyone!

Today we’re releasing Patch V1034.6 with a few important fixes, and at the same time we’re also officially releasing the long-anticipated GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit: a Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows modders to create a whole new world of mods using a specially extended version of the Unreal Engine 4 editor.

Read on for more information on the Mod Kit and modding in general, or scroll further down for the patch notes.

(If some of the information in this post looks familiar, that is because it is partly drawn from our last Build Update. We felt that it would be useful to have it all in the same place now that the Mod Kit is out, so here it is again!)

GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit now available!

The GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit is finally released! We are very grateful to Epic for providing support to get the Mod Kit up and running on their Epic Games Launcher.

Ready to start modding GROUND BRANCH? First step is to fire up your Epic Games Launcher (https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/download) and search for GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit in the store. When you find something like this, add and install it:

This will take a bit of time to install, but the SDK is not as large as others that you may be familiar with, as we have created a super-lean installation containing only what you need to make your mods.

💡 In V1034.6, we are focusing on weapon mods only, including magazines and suppressors. These are the only types of mods you can make in the SDK — or at least the only types that we are officially supporting for now. This is because we want to make sure that we get everything right before expanding support to other mod types.

When you launch the Mod Kit, you will be presented by a default editor view much like this:

This is where the magic happens, mainly via these four new buttons:

Now, it should be said that the SDK is intended for experienced modders who are already familiar with the Unreal Engine 4 editor. There are a plethora of tutorials and courses available online and for free if you wish to get up to speed on Unreal Engine 4.

👾 A good place to get help while modding is our Discord — more specifically, the #gb-modding channel.

Your fellow modders may also be able to assist you, but please bear in mind that we are not able to provide official support for general use of the Unreal Engine editor — though we will do our best to help people grapple with interfacing with specific GROUND BRANCH systems.

To this end, we have now provided…

The GROUND BRANCH Modding Wiki

Either click the Open Wiki button in the Mod Kit, or navigate to https://wiki.groundbranch.com/en/modding to view the GROUND BRANCH Modding Wiki. Here we have attempted to document the information that you will need on the GROUND BRANCH side to be able to create your new weapon mods.

(However, as noted above, a working knowledge of the Unreal Engine 4 and editor is an essential prerequisite to using the Mod Kit.)

You will see that the Quick Create system, available since V1034.4, is documented in detail here.

The GROUND BRANCH Lua Library reference has now moved to the Wiki, at https://wiki.groundbranch.com/en/modding/lua-api. This is now the definitive version, and has already been updated for GROUND BRANCH V1034.5.

The GROUND BRANCH Mission Editor guide has also moved to the Wiki, at https://wiki.groundbranch.com/en/modding/mission-editor. Again, this is now the definitive version.

Stay tuned in future GROUND BRANCH updates for an expansion of the modding system to encompass all kinds of mods eventually, via the Mod Kit and Quick Create system

💘 We are extremely grateful to Bob/AT for his help in setting up and maintaining the Wiki (and thanks also to Callum for doing a lot of the setup).

The GROUND BRANCH Steam Workshop

Our Steam Workshop opened up a couple updates ago, mostly for new Quick Create patch mods, but have also included weapon mods since V1034.5, when some lingering issues with respect to modded game modes, missions, localization and AI loadouts were also ironed out.

We are very grateful to YourComrade, ModernLancer, mr munkee and others for their help kicking the tires on the new Mod Kit stuff while making some kickass new custom weapons in the process. We hope you enjoy trying out their creations as much as we have.

🔧 Get moddin’

If you’d like to jump into the brave new world of modded weapons, here is a selection of some of the great mods that our test crew have come up with while helping us test the Mod Kit:

• Scorpion EVO 3 by YourComrade
• URGI M4 by ModernLancer
• P226-XFIVE Legion by mr munkee
• DD MK18 by ModernLancer
• SPAS-12 by YourComrade

If you search for mods in the workshop using the Weapon tag, you will now find these and many more (including hopefully many more still to come). Have fun, y’all.

🥇 We are also very grateful to Bob/AT and tjl9987612 for their help with the game mode and mission side of things. Many modding bugs have been squished thanks to them.

Patch notes

And now for details of the V1034.6 patch, which fixes a few lingering issues:

• We have a fix for mods not syncing properly when joining a listen server (the Host Game option). If accepting a game invite from outside GROUND BRANCH, you should now get the normal Mod Sync window before proceeding to join the game. If anything goes wrong and you are stuck in limbo, try accepting another invite or else press Esc to return to the main menu. Do let us know if you continue to experience difficulty with joining hosted games.
• Updated NVIDIA DLSS plugin to version 3.7. This new version should reduce ghosting artifacts when using DLSS (Settings › Video › NVIDIA® DLSS Super Resolution) and possibly fix crashes in older GPUs.
• Fixed pistol holster not automatically being re-equipped when a pistol is equipped in the Customize Operator screen. This issue prevented pistols from being holstered.
• As mentioned, the official GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit is now available via Epic Games Launcher with appropriate integrations into the game.

And that’s a wrap on Build Update #053 and V1034!

Barring any big issues, we do not expect to release any further updates for GROUND BRANCH V1034. Turning to the next big update, V1035, we will continue our series of Intel Reports to keep you up to date on progress, and at some point (hopefully not too far into the future) the Community Test branch will open back up, with the main V1035 release in due course.

As always, thank you for your continued support and feedback. Enjoy modding and stay frosty!

Hey, everyone!

Thank you for your patience and support while we worked on the latest update for GROUND BRANCH V1034. Though this has been a tough testing and debugging season thanks to major system changes — particularly AI and animations — the official release is now among us!

🗒️ For a detailed list of changes, please see our patch notes for the V1034 Community Test releases over the last few months here.

For the non-masochists among us, keep reading as we have a more readable summary of the main changes to the game since our last main release (V1033). But first:

⛔ IMPORTANT: Clearing your old files is recommended!

If you are coming from V1033 or have not downloaded a Community Test build in a while, you need to delete all contents in the following locations (copy-paste these paths into your File Explorer address bar):

1️⃣ %LOCALAPPDATA%\GroundBranch\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
2️⃣ Documents\GroundBranch

Not doing so may cause various asset and input issues in your game.

Highlights

DX12 mode and DLSS 3 Frame Generation

Once you’ve updated to V1034 and launched GROUND BRANCH, you’ll be greeted with a new pop-up dialog that lets you choose between running the game in either DX11 (the default option we’ve always had) or DX12 mode (previously available only via the -dx12 launch parameter).

DX12 (DirectX 12) mode is required to use the new NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation video setting, which users of GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs will benefit from in terms of framerates. If you’re one such user, here’s how to enable it:

• Launch GROUND BRANCH in DX12 mode
• Go to Settings ► Video
• Under the “Video” section, look for NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation and select “On” from the dropdown menu
• Apply the new settings

💡 Users of different graphics cards may experience improved performance from running GROUND BRANCH in DX12 mode, regardless of the DLSS 3 Frame Generation setting. We recommend everyone to try it out and see how their system reacts.

UI, UX, settings and accessibility

The user interface and general user experience have received a number of updates in V1034, with multiple new options introduced. Here are some of the main changes to look out for:

• Pressing Esc during single player sessions will now pause the game
• Added a headcam-style camera to Spectator Mode, also accessible as a debug camera (Ctrl+↑)
• The portion of the Gameplay settings dedicated to on-screen elements has been split into the new HUD menu
• Colorblindness settings have been added to Settings ► Video (Advanced)
• The Server Browser now features an expanded info box (listing players per team, as well as active mods) when a server is clicked
• The Ops Board in the Ready Room now has a ↻ button to re-randomize objectives and insertion points
• Players can now volunteer for game mode-specific roles — such as the hostage (Hostage Rescue) or flag carrier (DTAS) — by clicking the Volunteer button next to their name in the Session Roster
• Servers can now allow friendly name tags in-game: these only appear when the player is pointing at a teammate from within a certain range; you can disable this feature for yourself in Settings ► HUD
• Callsign patches will now be displayed on the back of Headgear items
• The Mission Editor was updated, and validators now check for collision and navmesh issues
• Skin selection now features standardized swatch-like icons, especially useful for previewing camo patterns

Server administration

• More comprehensive server admin options/settings, including the option to restart a server in-game and to schedule server restarts for particular times of day
• Server admins can now lock (disable) the Ready Room test shooting range

General fixes and improvements

• A plethora of optimizations to various maps and game systems
• Cleaned up various UI elements to improve readability, formatting and consistency
• A load of bug fixes, including not being able to change the enemy count via Ops Board

AI

We have now made the switch to the Kythera AI middleware, replacing the stock Unreal Engine 4 AI system. We had paused AI development in a less-than-ideal state for a few updates in anticipation of this change, but luckily nobody noticed or brought it up ever.

Kythera is not a complete AI solution, but a tool that allows us to implement AI in more flexible and effective ways. We still had to do a whole ton of work behind the scenes to get everything working properly, and a lot of work remains as we’ll explain further.

💡 Thanks in particular to Chris, who has cemented his reputation as our official AI guy, and to Kythera for working closely with us and helping iron out the odd AI wrinkle.

You will notice a wide variety of changes in how the AI behaves. Overall, the AI should now be more “life-like” and more challenging in some aspects, but without having as much of an aimbot feel to them. AI senses (sight and hearing) have been continually tweaked, and benefit from improved pathing and more sophisticated actions: AI will return fire and take cover as before, but they may now crouch and go prone in certain contexts (e.g. lack of nearby cover), use suppressive fire to keep players pinned down, form spontaneous squads, hold close to guard points (as close as mission designers specify), react to dead bodies, and use a few more call-outs.

At lower difficulty levels, AI will now also fire tracers — with higher frequency at lower skill levels — and have more frequent muzzle flash effects to help less hardcore players figure out where they’re being shot from.

Stance and movement should also have a greater impact on detection, so be sure to move slowly and keep a low profile if you’re trying to be sneaky.

Missions have also been given a once-over to check specifically for collision and navmesh issues, so the AI should now flow around maps more easily in existing missions.

💡 One important aspect of AI presentation still missing is more varied animations, as the lack of specific motions to convey all the different AI behaviors makes bots retain a lot of their "roboticness". The lack of natural "idle" animations also contributes to this.

We'll of course continue to iterate on that an other aspects of AI as things progress, including providing friendly AI support (that is, AI teammates) as well as more sophisticated and natural-looking enemy AI.

New voice lines are also recorded and waiting to be implemented in a future update cycle.

Prone and animation overhaul

Prone (a.k.a. lying on the ground) has been on our to-do list for a while, but we didn’t want to do it until we could do it right™. After another extensive and necessary under-the-hood overhaul to support the new stance, it is now in and working thanks to the combined efforts of Kris and Mike.

There are still some kinks to work out, but even so, we think we have created a solid base to build upon. Here’s how it currently works:

• To toggle between your current stance and prone, hit the Prone key (default Z)
• Going prone while sprinting will perform a dive
• Pressing Jump while prone will immediately switch to standing, regardless of your stance before going prone
• Once prone, you will not be able to aim beyond a limited horizontal arc, while vertical aiming will be limited by the ground at the bottom and a fairly modest upwards angle
• Pressing any movement key while looking/aiming off to either side will rotate your character in place to align their lower body with their upper body
• You can crawl in all directions by using your movement keys. You can crawl faster by holding the Run key (default Shift)

By assigning keys to the new Stance Up and Stance Down keybinds, you may also use an alternative control scheme that sequences between Standing ↔ Crouched ↔ Prone instead of transitioning directly to/from prone.

Keep in mind!

❌ Going prone will interrupt certain actions, such as reloading — if you hit the dirt while reloading, make sure you have a magazine in the well and a round in the chamber!

❌ Most actions (shooting, reloading, changing items etc.) will interrupt movement while prone, and you cannot start crawling while these actions are being performed.

❌ While prone, you're also unable to perform most world interactions, such as opening doors, deploying breaching charges or interacting with mission objectives.

❌ You will not be able to go prone if there's not enough room for your character's full body length.

Other changes in animations

• Characters now react to weapon recoil against their upper body when firing
• Death animations have been created for crouched and prone stances
• Death animations from the standing position received some polish as well
• Leaning now uses actual poses that look more natural
• The Breaching Charge now has an animation for setting up the charge on doors, as well as for triggering the detonator
• Switching weapons got a polish pass
• Improved animations and hand poses for AK-type rifles
• Hand poses in general — such as how your character holds grenades — were also slightly updated
• Lastly, animations and poses were created for the new and updated weapons (we’ll get to those!)

🐞 Your character's support (left) arm will bend in unnatural ways when moving while holding various primary weapons with no foregrip equipped. This is due to the animation rework and will be fixed in a point release.

Focus Zoom

Another notable addition to gameplay is the Focus Zoom ability. As the name suggests, it allows you to zoom in on your sight picture, giving reticles and targets more pixels to work with on your screen and making ranged shots a better experience.

Focus Zoom is bound to Hold Ctrl by default (same key as Steady Aim) but can be changed in Settings ► Controls.

💡 Keep in mind that the Focus Zoom function will disengage if you move, or if you move your weapon too fast.

Customization and inventory updates

We are very pleased to welcome playable female characters to the Ready Room, in the spirit of the classic Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games that inspired GROUND BRANCH.

The addition also encouraged us to finally get some hairstyles implemented, and so we did. Here’s what’s new:

• 7 new characters (Females 01–06 and Male 06), selectable under the APPEARANCE tab
• 4 male hairstyles (Crew Cut A, Crew Cut B, Caesar Cut and Long Cut) under the new HAIR tab
• 4 female hairstyles (Straight Bun, Textured Bun and Buzzcut) under the new HAIR tab
• 1 new beard style (Short Beard) under the FACIAL HAIR tab

💡 Additional hairstyles and customization options (such as hair color) will follow in future updates.

New and updated skins

In addition to a big revision of gear and outfit skins to look more authentic and consistent, a handful of new skins were also created for the following items:

• Tactical Pants
  Coyote Brown
• Ball Cap / Ball Cap (Reverse)
  DCP    AOR-1    M81
• Boonie Hat / Boonie Hat (Folded)
   UCP
• Helmet (HC)
  OCP    AOR-1    AOR-2
• Headset
  Foliage Green

A new version of the Flannel Shirt with the popular “Buffalo plaid” pattern was also added in 8 different colors.

💡 The old pattern shirt is still available — we renamed it Light Flannel Shirt.

🏳️ In case you missed the Intel Report and discussion: most country flag patches have been removed. More details in this post.

New weapons

As is tradition in our main releases, V1034 introduces a few new blasters to the armory:

• SA58 OSW battle rifle (Battle Rifle / DMR / Sniper Rifle category)
  This modernized, highly compact version of the FAL battle rifle features multiple accessory rails. Magazine capacity is 20 rounds of 7.62 mm NATO ammunition. Can be fitted with a suppressor.
• Galil ARM automatic rifle (Machine Gun category)
  A 5.56 mm NATO rifle created for the squad automatic weapon role, the Galil ARM can fit either 35- or 50-round magazines.
• FAL battle rifle (Battle Rifle / DMR / Sniper Rifle category)
  The FAL with wooden furniture (based on the very rare FAL G-series) last seen in V1033 as the FAL (Vintage) is now replaced with a more appropriate and far more common variant fitted with a polymer stock and handguard. It still fires 7.62 mm NATO ammunition from a 20-round magazine.

💡 The MPX 9 mm submachine gun has also been updated with a new model.

Radio (cosmetic)

A radio pouch and PTT (push-to-talk) module are now a fixed part of most Platform items in the game, with the exception of the Ballistic Vest. While mostly a cosmetic addition that helps build up the characters visually and get players more immersed, the radio pouch has taken the place of a customizable pouch slot in some platforms — so keep that in mind when re-creating your builds. The presence of the radio system on your character has otherwise no gameplay effect.

Modding

Official GROUND BRANCH modding is… coming. Callum has put in a lot of work to create an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the game, and a lot of the internals of the game have been rejigged to facilitate the use of third-party mods via Steam Workshop.

We still have some hoops to jump through before we can officially release the SDK, but that should be sorted soon and allow the release in a V1034 point release (patch).

💡 Initial SDK release will include the ability to add new weapons, with further modding coming later.

Map and mission updates

• The classic Small Town map has been extensively overhauled by Will, who returns to the team after a brief hiatus
• The Farm has had cosmetic updates to bring it into consistency with (and indeed proximity to) Small Town — canonically establishing both maps as part of the same training complex in Camp Peary
• City was extended with a fun new bank area and a few other new enterable buildings
• Lots of other maps have had touch-ups and plenty of bug fixes here and there

We are also laying the groundwork for more interactive and interesting maps and missions. For example, Compound now has a call to prayer at (approximately) correct astronomically-based times of day. City is now overseen by a nosey news helicopter that can be scared away with sprays of gunfire. And now that players can crawl underwater in prone, Creek and various other maps have been outfitted with brand new underwater effects.

🐞 The animation for City's helicopter bailing out may not be playing correct. We're looking into it.

Missions have also been tweaked, bug-fixed, and in some cases new missions have been added. Rig now sports a new Hostage Rescue mission set in the accommodation block, for example, and new mission variants for Hostage Rescue and Terrorist Hunt have been created for City.

💡 With the new AI and prone capability, even existing missions may play quite differently from V1033 — give them a try!

New game mode: Defuse (Lone Wolf / Online Co-Op)

V1034 launches with the return of the Defuse game mode, now also available in co-op.

In Defuse, you’ll race against the clock to defuse a number of explosives around the mission area, guarded of course by AI enemies.

• The default amount of explosives to defuse is 2, with the default timer at 15 minutes and a default defuse time of 10 seconds per bomb. These can all be customized via Ops Board before deploying.
• To defuse a bomb, look at the LED display and hold Use/Interact (default F) when the prompt appears. You should see a progress bar filling up in LED display.
• Throw a careless grenade or shoot wildly at the bombs and you may find yourself making a lot of new friends.

💡 The Extraction game mode — essentially a PvE version of Hostage Rescue — is slated for a V1034 point release (a small update or patch), building on the new AI and animation work. Stay tuned for updates on this as well.

A small change to Intel Retrieval

While we’re talking game modes, the laptop in Intel Retrieval is now automatically grabbed and put away after finishing the search — just a little streamlining to make things less redundant and frustrating.

🐞 Due to changes in underlying systems, Hostage Rescue is in a work-in-progress (WIP) state, with some bugs remaining in relation to leading and restrained behaviors. However, the core gameplay should still work (including the new Volunteer function).

Audio updates

In addition to all of the sound work done to support prone movement, the new weapons and female voice lines (via Comms Menu), audio was also updated in these areas:

Soundtrack

As announced in Intel Report #017, we have partnered up with composer and sound designer Venus Theory, who is authoring the soundtrack for GROUND BRANCH. This release already features a few of his tracks in the main menu, transition screens, and the Ready Room. We’re excited to hear your thoughts on them!

Environmental audio

• Optimized audio occlusion and diffraction when inside buildings
• Indoor audio now reacts to whether a door is open or closed (this can now be expanded to account for the material of the room/building)
• Fixed missing ambient sounds for all maps
• Updated attenuation for various distances to provide more spatial awareness and distance for varying sounds

🐞 When playing online, The Farm does not play audio for various actions. We have been unable to fix this so far, but are working on it.

Event SFX

• Power boxes now have a distinctive electric “hum” when active, and will also play a sound when switching the lever on/off

🐞 In some cases, the hum will not play at the start of an online round.

• Added localized beeping and explosion SFX for Defuse’s bombs, as well as sound effects for closing and putting away Intel Retrieval’s laptop
• Implemented and fine-tuned news helicopter audio and attenuation (City)

Mixing

Updated overall mix for gunshots, reloads, character foley and environment:

• Character movement (e.g. footsteps) now sounds quieter and more balanced in the mix
• Reloads are less sharp and overpowering compared to other sounds
• Gunshots are slightly less loud in general, with suppressed gunshots now also being slightly quieter than their unsuppressed counterparts
• Weapon sounds now have more room reverb compared to the environmental audio and character movement

VFX

Visual effects have been generally reworked in V1034:

• Blood splatter on surfaces has been re-introduced, with new decals created
• Grenade effects and bullet impacts
  • New particles for smokescreen and frag explosions were created
  • New material-based bullet impacts were added
  • Various props and materials not displaying correct bullet impacts were fixed
• Muzzle and weapon effects
  • Muzzle flash and smoke have all been updated, and a shockwave effect was added
  • Ejection ports now also generate smoke when shooting
• Light fixture effects
  • Outdoor light fixtures now attract bugs at night
  • Shooting out lights now generates sparkle particles
  • Most light fixtures now have a proper “destroyed” version when shot out

This has been Build Update #047!

By the time you’re done reading this, we’re already fixing pending issues and on the lookout for reports like a pack of airport security dogs.

We’ll most likely push the first patch (V1034.1) in about a week, so give this build a good kick in the tires and let us know if you find any bugs we haven’t mentioned.

As always, thank you for reading and continuing to play, follow and support GROUND BRANCH. See you on the next one!

After a longer-than-usual public testing period to iron out major issues, GROUND BRANCH V1033 is finally hitting the main branch of the game!

Once up-to-date, players on any public branch of the game (whether stable or “beta”) will be on the same exact build of GROUND BRANCH and can play together.

For a fully comprehensive list of changes and additions since V1032, please refer to our Community Test branch patch notes:

Patch #01 • Patch #01 (Hotfix) • Patch #02 • Patch #03 • Patch #04 • Patch #05 • Patch #06 • Patch #06 (Hotfix) • Patch #07 • Patch #08 • Patch #08 (Hotfix) • Patch #09 • Patch #09 (Hotfix) • Patch #10 • Patch #11 • Patch #12 • Patch #13 • Patch #14 • Patch #15 • Patch #16 • Patch #17 • Patch #18 • Patch #19 • Patch #20 • Patch #20 (Hotfix) • Patch #21 • Patch #22

V1033 highlights

Performance, graphics and settings

The complexity of GROUND BRANCH’s systems presents challenges that demand a continuous focus on improvement and optimization.

As detailed in the series of Intel Reports done between June and November (particularly Intel Report #011), the entire audio system was reworked to drastically reduce CPU usage.

Throughout the course of public testing, areas like maps, lighting and assets have also received massive optimization passes, greatly improving performance in maps like Compound.

On top of that, V1033 is not only unleashing new graphics features to make the game look better, but also a lot of video settings to make things adjustable to your specs and preferences. Let’s go over them:

NVIDIA DLSS and Reflex

GROUND BRANCH V1033 is also officially bringing NVIDIA’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), DLAA (Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing) and Reflex technologies to the game, which offer GeForce GPU users an additional performance/fidelity bonus.

These options can be accessed in Settings › Video. Under the “Video” header, you will find:

• NVIDIA® DLSS Super Resolution (requires GeForce RTX 2000-series or newer GPU)
  • Off — Disables DLSS.
  • Auto — Enables optimal image quality for a particular resolution. For resolutions at or under 1440p, sets it to “Quality”; 4K and above sets it to “Performance”.
  • Quality — Renders the game internally at the closest resolution possible to the target resolution, prioritizing visual quality and pixel count over framerates.
  • Performance — Prioritizes framerate over resolution, sometimes resulting in pixelated or blurred visuals but offering the best performance.
  • Balanced — A middle-ground between “Quality” and “Performance”, this mode attempts to find a sweet spot between resolution and framerate.
    Note that enabling DLSS will disable Anti-Aliasing (AA), as DLSS is in itself an AA method.
• NVIDIA® Reflex (requires GeForce 900-series or newer GPU)
  • Off — Disables Reflex.
  • On — Reduces system latency (aka input lag) and may provide a small FPS increase.
  • On + Boost — Increases the GPU’s clock speeds, useful for CPU-intensive games (which GB tends to be).

At the very bottom of the “Advanced” column, you will also find an additional DLSS setting called NVIDIA® DLSS Sharpness. This slider will increase or reduce the visual sharpness of DLSS, and is generally a personal preference with no performance impact.

❓ As mentioned in the past, AMD's FSR (FidelityFX™ Super Resolution) technology is also slated to be added to GROUND BRANCH in a future release.

NVIDIA DLAA

A new anti-aliasing (AA) method has also been added to the “Anti-Aliasing (AA)” drop-down menu in the Graphics section in Settings › Video: DLAA.

As with DLSS, this AA mode is available only for users of the NVIDIA RTX series of GPUs (2000-series or newer).

DLAA provides a sharper, generally higher-quality anti-aliasing than TAA, although players who can use it will likely benefit more from the performance boost provided by DLSS.

TAA settings

Players using Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) can now easily access some of its settings directly in the Video menu: “TAA Current Frame Weight”, “TAA Algorithm” (Gen 4 or the experimental Gen 5), “TAA Samples”, “TAA Sharpness” and “Tonemapper Sharpening”.

These advanced TAA settings are located in the Advanced video options column, in the Anti-Aliasing section.

Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI)

GROUND BRANCH V1033 is introducing Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI), which aims to create natural-looking lighting by adding dynamic indirect lighting to objects within the screen view (click here to learn more).

While SSGI can drastically improve the quality of a scene, it can also have a considerable performance impact on some systems.

You can enable/disable it in “Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI)” — the last setting in the Graphics section — as well as tweak it further (when enabled) via the “SSGI Quality” and “SSGI Resolution” settings in the Advanced column, in the Post-Processing section.

⚠️ If you are playing on a lower-end PC, you may want to try disabling SSGI, using it at half-resolution and/or reducing its quality setting to maintain a usable framerate.

PiP Scope Resolution Scale

Located in the Textures section (Advanced), the PiP Scope Resolution Scale setting determines the scale of the picture-in-picture rendering when ADS with a scope (i.e. a magnified optic sight).

Setting it to 1.00 will make the scope picture preserve the same resolution as the original scene, and will have the biggest FPS hit. Lowering this value will reduce the performance impact of aiming down scopes, while also reducing the resolution of your sight picture.

Other video options

It is likely that one of these settings may give you a performance boost, depending on whether your computer is CPU-bound or GPU-bound when playing GROUND BRANCH. The downside of is that you may experience a little more latency (mostly noticeable as input lag).

• Finish Current Frame — When set to “Off”, this option essentially tells the GPU not to wait for the CPU to finish what it’s doing before starting to render the next frame.
• One Frame Thread Lag — When set to “On”, this option essentially tells the CPU not to wait for the GPU to finish what it’s doing before starting to generate data for the next frame.

Try different combinations to see how your performance is affected.

Additional settings under the Advanced video options have also been exposed to players, who may benefit from disabling or toning them down to gain performance at the expense of visuals. These include Distance Field Shadows, Reflection Capture Resolution and Volumetric Fog.

Night ops, night vision, lights and infrared (IR)

A definite highlight of V1033 is night ops, which were made more satisfying and viable with a series of improvements.

First and foremost, night vision goggles have received a major overhaul consisting of more realistic visuals (which include authentic auto-gating, noise, contrasts, a new white-phosphor filter option and movement/wobble effects), an optional overlay scale feature (which can fill out your screen while retaining a realistic FOV), flip up/down animations and sound effects, and more.

💡 The NVG overlay scale can be tweaked in Settings › Gameplay › Look › Night Vision. Setting NVG Vertical Screen Extent to 1.00 makes the NVG overlay fill out your screen by the default amount. Lowering the number will make it take up a progressive smaller portion of the screen.

Due to the new sky system — which includes moon phases — nights can also have varied visibility conditions, from the complete darkness of a new moon to decent visibility with a full moon.

These make the IR Illuminator functionality of the AN/PEQ-15 more relevant, as (like in real life) NVG require some degree of lighting to work well. To demonstrate:

✨ The AN/PEQ-15 has also received an update in its lasers and illuminator effects, from the beams themselves to the newly added lens flare when looking at the emitters. It now also has a green LED to indicate when either a laser or illuminator is active.

Also very importantly, enemy AI has been upgraded to be affected by the lighting conditions, meaning they no longer have perfect vision in the dark. They will also zero in on you very fast if you flash a light at them!

Granted, AI can (and will) be improved in various ways still, but this was an important step in making night ops an enjoyable experience.

Lastly, we have added the GPNVG-18 “quad-NODs” to the inventory, which greatly amplify the player’s field of view when compared to binocular NVG. The GPNVG-18 comes in black or FDE skin, and in both filter colors (green and the new white phosphor — also available for the AN/PVS-15).

🔅 As part of the lighting optimization pass, weapon-mounted lights had their illumination range reduced to mitigate the performance impact.

Time of day (TOD) and sky system

As mentioned above, GROUND BRANCH V1033 features a new sky system with moon phases and stars, as well as latitude and season settings. This means you can now not only set the time of day but also the date of deployment, which will determine the moon phase and sun position for each mission location at the set time/date based on real life data.

Because lighting conditions will vary depending on the date and location, TOD is now selected via labels such as “Early Hours”, “Pre-Sunset” and so on. You can still manually select a TOD, however.

To access the advanced TOD/date settings, simply click the gear icon next to the “Insertion time” setting.

☁️ Unfortunately, clouds and weather had to be removed from the new sky system due to performance issues. We'll be revisiting these features down the road.

Gear, weapons and more customization

A generous amount of items and customization options has been added to the game, from weapons and a new character all the way to headgear and arm patches.

🔴 A much-requested feature — the ability to put micro red dot sights on pistols — has also been implemented for the MK25, G19 Urban and M17 which can now fit the RMR and the new Docter II sights.

Let’s take a look at the new weapons first:

• MK17 CQC and MK17 DMR battle rifles + Suppressor (black and FDE)
• AK-105 carbine
• AK-105 Alpha carbine (replaced AK-74 MI)
• AKS-74U Alpha carbine/PDW (replaced AK-74 MI CQB) + Suppressor
• Wz.88 carbine
• M24 sniper rifle + Suppressor
• PKM* machine gun
• PMM pistol

* The PKM machine gun is a partial implementation, still missing complex recoil and a proper pose.

In the gear and attachments department, we have these new items:

• AN/PVS-15 (WP) — the old dual-tube NVG, but with white phosphor filter
• GPNVG-18 night vision goggles (black and tan skins + green or white phosphor filters)
• Ghillie Hood headgear (bare version)
• Ballistic Vest
• Carry Handle Rear Sight
• ATACR 1–8x LPVO
• MK8 CQBSS 1.1–8x LPVO
• Razor HD 1–6x LPVO
• Docter II micro red dot sight (Flat, Low and High mounts)
• MK46 Suppressor (AAC® MG-SD)
• G3A3 Suppressor (AAC® 762-SD)
• Handstop Grip
• Reverse Grip
• Stubby Grip B
• Stubby Grip C
• Tan/FDE variants for most foregrips
• “Bakelite” AK-74 magazine
• FDE PMAG magazine

But not all new weapons and attachments are new items per se — a lot of them are new models, remade from scratch. Here’s the list:

Updated weapon models

• AK-74M
• AKS-74U
• M16A4
• SVD
• M1911A1¹ + Suppressor

¹ The new M1911A1 is also fitted with an accessory rail for lights and can use either 8- or 10-round custom magazines.

Updated attachment models

• PMII 5–25x
• AccuPower 1–8x
• Vudu 1–6x
• ACOG 4x
• ACOG 6x
• M68 CCO
• PRO
• Micro T-2
• RMR (all variants)
• PSO-1M2 4x²
• AN/PEQ-15
• Bipod Grip
• Angled Grip
• Scope mount

² The PSO-1M2 4x has also been updated with reticle illumination.

Character customization has also been expanded, with the addition of a new character appearance (Male 05) and 3 new customization slots under the Profile section:

• CALLSIGN — A three-letter/number callsign that will be automatically set when a name is entered, but can also be manually set by the player. If the “Use Standard” box is checked, it will assign a Team Element-based callsign (e.g. A-01 for Alpha etc.). Callsigns display as patches on the left and right arm.
  If you don’t want a callsign patch to be displayed, simply set it to --- (three hyphens) in the text box.
• FACIAL HAIR — Temporarily disabled in V1032, facial hair is back in V1033. At this time, we have a single beard style (Full Beard) available, but more styles are planned.
• PATCHES — This slot will open a more complex menu once clicked, which allows players to set up to 6 patches: 3 on the headgear (left, right and center) and 3 on the body (left arm, right arm and chest). Patches can additionally be configured to display in full color, or a tint (grayscale, green or tan). Please note that patches will only display if the gear/outfit items have slots for them.

💡 We're providing a standard set of country flag, morale, unit/role/team and blood type patches. Though modding is not officially supported yet, patches were implemented with modding in mind: you can place your own files in …\steamapps\common\Ground Branch\GroundBranch\Content\GroundBranch\Patches and any folder created in the directory will show up as its own category in the game.

In the gear and outfit department, we’ve also added tucked-in variants of most shirts, unzipped variants of the Combat Shirt, and a lot of new and updated skins for most items. You should have better looking and much more varied loadouts now.

New and revamped maps

For V1033, maps Depot and Storage Facility have both received major overhauls, with a focus on linking them thematically (as Soviet-era facilities) for future missions. The process was covered in more detail in Intel Reports #011 through #014, but it’s worth noting that the overall layouts were maintained for both maps.

💡 A version of Depot restricted to the central compound area is of course still available, and it's still a great PvP map.

In addition to the overhauls of existing maps, a new map called Docks is also available for most game modes:

Will has also given Tanker an optimization and detailing pass, remaking most textures and materials on the deck to add a more weathered look to surfaces, as well as rounding off edges, remodeling props, adding a detailed vista/backdrop (including an updated Rig visible at the distance) and some minor interior improvements.

City is another map that has received a considerable visual upgrade, more specifically when played at night:

The Farm has also been updated with a new Target App look, as well as the ability to choose different shoothouse layouts, which adds a lot of variety to training drills.

💡 All maps have received optimization passes and various smaller tweaks for visual and gameplay reasons, with Compound being a highlight in terms of performance increase.

VFX and particles

As detailed in the last few Intel Reports, VFX particles were migrated to the new Niagara system and entirely remade.

In addition to the new particles for nearly all visual effects in GROUND BRANCH, several new features were implemented, including bird flocks, muzzle blast shockwave on surfaces, bullet impact angles, secondary impact debris and more. Check out this playlist with all of our showcased VFX demos:

UI/UX and quality-of-life

V1033 is bringing a much-needed QOL pass to several areas, including item build management and kit restrictions, as well as UI changes and additions to support these new features. Some highlights:

• The new loadout saving system automatically suggests build names based on attached items (the amount of detail can be changed), while reducing the amount of prompts needed for saving/overriding kits.
• The item selection menu now allows builds to be “stacked” (i.e. group all builds of a similar base item) to reduce clutter, and can also be set to only display custom (player-created) builds.
• Kit restrictions can now be more easily set by server admins (when in-server, press Esc › Admin › Show Admin Panel › Kit Restrictions) to restrict skins³ in either Co-Op or per PvP team. Please note that these restrictions aren’t extremely reliable at this time, especially when combined with game modes that have auto-balance (DTAS and Hostage Rescue).
• Added a match system that can set win condition to best-of-X-rounds, first-to-X-rounds, a certain time limit etc. This includes a new board in the Ready Room where players can also vote for the next map at any time. Match information is also accessible via Esc menu.

³ Item restrictions such as “pistols only”, “no frags” etc. can done via the Mutators system, but it is still a work-in-progress and currently prone to issues. We hope to address it in a point release (V1033.1 or later).

Another addition sure to help newcomers are the Ready Room hints, which display short explanations near key areas of the Ready Room (such as lockers and the Ops Board) to guide players in their first deployments.

💡 Various areas of UI have also received varying degrees of style/consistency updates, part of an ongoing process.

Game modes and multiplayer

This release introduces the PvP Hostage Rescue mode to the game (more on it in a minute), and also brings a few updates to existing game modes.

Intel Retrieval

• Enemy AI will now search for players once the intel (laptop) is retrieved.
• Enemies will also attempt to intercept players at the extraction point.

Terrorist Hunt

• Players can now enable “Enemy hot spots” — an area of the map (indicated in red on the Ops Board) where enemy concentration will be highest. These can be enabled/disabled via the Ops Board.
• Enemies will now rush players once down to their last few men.

Hostage Rescue (PvP)

The new Hostage Rescue adversarial mode is now setup for all maps, with the exception of the small arena-like maps. Here are the rules:

• A random player of the attacking team has been taken hostage in one of the map’s buildings. The hostage player is hooded and cuffed, limiting their vision and movement — they are unable to interact with map objects such as doors or items, and are restricted to walking (no running/sprinting).
• The target building is selected at random by the game mode, and defenders are restricted to within that building unless the hostage escapes it.
• Defenders can lead the hostage around the building or simply hold them in place by holding the Interact key (default F). They can also intimidate the hostage into silence by pointing a gun at them, but 2 defenders are required to both lead/hold and intimidate the hostage at the same time — one for each action.
• Attackers can select any insertion point (including multiple if they decide to split the team) and will have to find the building where the hostage is being held — possibly with the assistance of the hostage making some noise with the Talk (VOIP) key (default V). Attackers must then successfully breach the building and rescue the hostage. If the hostage has their cuffs released by the attackers, they will regain a full range of movement and team communication (i.e. radio and text chat).
• If a hostage picks up a weapon once released, they become a valid target for defenders, who can then win the round by killing the armed hostage.

Win conditions are as follows:

• ATTACKERS — To win the round, at least one attacker must escort the hostage to any of the available extraction points. Alternatively, attackers will win if the defending team is eliminated.
• DEFENDERS — To win the round, the defending team must eliminate all attackers, survive the assault until the time runs out, or kill a hostage that has picked up a weapon.

💡 With the rare exception of a released and armed hostage (mentioned above), any team that kills the hostage will instantly lose the match. Careful with those frags!

Hostage Rescue sub-mode: Building Assault

If there are not enough players to start a Hostage Rescue round, then the stripped-down Building Assault mode will start, in which the defenders are still restricted to a building, but there is no hostage and the teams must simply eliminate each other. The gloves are off in this mode!

• Admins can force the Building Assault mode, similarly to how Fox Hunt can be forced in DTAS.
• An AI opponent will now be spawned as a defender if only one player is on the server and playing on the attacking team.

Hostage Rescue: players and balancing

• We recommend 5–7 players minimum for a more satisfying Hostage Rescue experience.
• Hostage Rescue uses quite aggressive auto-balancing to maintain fair teams, so make sure both your Red and Blue team kits are up to date.
• Auto-balancing can be customized to be less aggressive if you don’t mind uneven teams.

Animations

On top of the animation work required for V1033’s new weapons and in addition to the NVG flip up/down showcased earlier in this post, a few preliminary animations have been created for sight interactions:

🚧 Due to GROUND BRANCH's true first person system and unique weapon positions, these animations will need some extra programming work to make them "fit" all weapons and situations. They currently look best on M16-/M4-pattern weapons.

Another cool addition is the new stun animation to indicate that AI enemies have been hit by a flashbang detonation.

Temporary downgrades

A couple of features have suffered temporary downgrades in V1033 — emphasis on temporary!

One such feature is the blood splatter on surfaces (VFX), which have not yet been hooked up to the new particles system (Niagara) but will be coming back in a “point release” (e.g. V1033.1) or V1034 at the latest. Due to the cosmetic nature of this feature, it was deemed not worthy of holding back the release.

While we’re talking blood, dead bodies are also temporarily missing collision to address doors being blocked by them. This results in body parts clipping and no response to post-death impacts.

Lastly, the vaulting animation is also absent from this release, as it seriously impaired functionality, though vaulting/climbing has been made more responsive. Rest assured that a more visually pleasing implementation of climbing and vaulting will make its way into the game in due time.

This has been Build Update #040!

It’s been a long road to V1033, but it’s now here and we couldn’t be more thankful for all of you in the GROUND BRANCH community — especially our Discord — that joined us in testing and reporting bugs and issues of all types in order to get us to release.

We hope you enjoy this release, and be sure to keep the feedback and reports coming.

Have a great weekend!