Build Update

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!

Build ID: 8622958 (Client) / 8622968 MB (Dedicated Server)
Download size: 82 MB (Client) / 46 MB (Dedicated Server)

⛔ IMPORTANT: CLEAR YOUR OLD FILES

We generally recommend players to delete all contents in the following locations (copy-paste the path into your File Explorer address bar and hit Enter):

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

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

Patch V1032.2 is now available!

This is expected to be the last patch for V1032, after which — if nothing game-breaking comes up — we will be fully shifting to work on the V1033 release.

Here’s the full change list with all of the fixes and tweaks:

DevTest changes

If you have played the latest DevTest build (shared about a week ago with our Discord community), these changes will not be new for you:

• Updated stride length calculation to fix “dip” when moving
• Big restructuring of inventory item system (in particular replication) with the aim of fixing a wide range of online kit bugs
• Lots of changes behind the scenes as a consequence of the above
• Miscellaneous bug fixes identified during the course of the restructuring
• Dragging-and-dropping attachments will now copy the skin for the attaching item from whatever you are dragging it onto, if possible
• Updated inventory bar to equip a rifle on single press if hands are empty and there is a rifle on left/right shoulder, but not slung from chest
• Updated platform system to make sure a single dump pouch is added to the players inventory (attaches to belt or platform, whichever is found first)
• Made sure newly spawned mag/round for AI is added to their inventory
• Fixed right elbow while sprinting with tablet/grenade
• Fixed skin not being applied when selecting item without customizing it
• Fixed magnifier having no sight picture when swapping from offset sight back to it
• Fixed zoom in/out input staying active even when not looking down sightline with magnifier
• Restructured night vision handling (local and spectator)
• Tablet (map) now fills screen fully when equipped — the camera automatically adjusts and zooms in on it
• Small update to ladder handling code so ladders should work a bit better
• Server Browser now obscures passwords in the text input dialog
• Fixed item not being brought up upon entering play unless it was already equipped in the Ready Room prior to leaving it
• Tweaked position of display mag info notifier in mag check widget
• Fixed iron sights validity check
• Fixed issues related to the input sensitivity value not being set back to zero
• Fixed cheap wooden doors on Compound having no collision

Post-DevTest changes

This is the list of changes made after DevTest was released, based on reports and feedback:

• • G33 Magnifier collision fixed to allow flipping up/down when in use or when not ADS
  • The magnifier is now also flipped up in the weapon customization screen to make it more intuitive to interface with other attachments
  • Updated weapon attachment placement to allow shape components to be used as well as static or skeletal meshes
  • Updated tan G33 to use the correct skin
  • Hopefully fixed issue with server details going out of scope
  • Fixed (new) issue with trigger not firing correctly and not being able to shoot when crouched
  • Updated platform to add/remove/reattach dump pouch as required

• Changed iron sights handling to deactivate all front sight posts by default and do some general fixes
• Corrected box collision used on some dropped mags
• Fixed PIP scopes not having screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) and screen space reflections (SSR)
• Set all exterior lights in City to only be on at night (was causing slowdown at dawn/dusk due to to many lights being active)
• Tweaked Tablet to not fully fill screen when zoomed, for a bit of peripheral vision
• Fixed ammo check and fire selector HUD elements showing up for listen server host as well as client

📢 This has been BUILD UPDATE #036!
Thanks to all of the public DevTesters for helping us get this patch squared away!

Provided this patch holds up, development will soon fully shift to V1033, and we'll soon start gathering some very exciting previews to showcase. Stay tuned!

Build ID: 8378834 (Client) / 8378845 (Dedicated Server)
Download size: 118 MB (Client) / 72 MB (Dedicated Server)

⛔ IMPORTANT: CLEAR YOUR OLD FILES

If you are coming from V1031 or have not updated your game since CTE, you need to delete all contents in the following locations (copy-paste the path into your File Explorer address bar and hit Enter):

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

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

Patch V1032.1 has been released!

This patch focuses on fixing issues with the original V1032 release that came out earlier this year. But in typical BlackFoot Studio fashion, in some cases we couldn’t help ourselves and added some new content.

Some quick notes

Please note that we didn’t manage to squish every bug — and likely created some new ones — so we anticipate that there will be a much smaller and hopefully quicker V1032.2 patch in the near future.

Things we didn’t manage to get enough testing or flashes of inspiration to pin down include floating pistols and floating smoke grenades, among other things. So please continue to file bug reports (using the in-game bug reporter, if possible) and make sure to provide all relevant details, including any interesting things you did before the bug happened, as well as the game mode played, server type (self-hosted vs. dedicated server), player count, map and so on. Your reports are greatly appreciated!

Some issues we’re just leaving for now (e.g. a few AI problems) as the relevant systems are being overhauled in the next update, and it’s not a very good use of our time to fix up difficult-to-find bugs in code we’re about to throw out.

So thank you for your patience, please bear with us on the stuff we didn’t fix, and we hope you enjoy this little update!

Change list

Animations

A great deal of small and large tweaks and fixes were made to the animation work that had been put into the game in V1032.

When you fix a lot of things, you tend to break a few things in the process, and these fixes are no exception. There is going to be a further overhaul on the animations in V1033, so we’ll probably live with the small number of animation issues that remain and focus on the V1033 work now. In more detail, here’s what was done:

• Back-ported the UE5 animation warping code to improve walk/run/sprint transitions and handling
• Reworked much of the blending layer, removing superfluous logic while trying to maintain as much of the original underlying animation as possible
• Improved checks against switching items/reloading while sprinting
• Changed the default mesh space movement additive to use smoother “first person” torso additives to create smoother movement, sightline, and so on
• Improved the IK elbow pole targets to fix the “chicken wing” elbows
• Varied the magnitude of the finger pull animation when dry-firing
• Toned down the dry-fire animations on a range of weapons
• Refined fire selector animations
• Tweaked fire selector animations to have better blend and dampen when in ADS
• Improved the handling of held items while sprinting
• Fixed the head transform clamp offsetting the head when pitching up/down; or, in plain English: fixed wonky neck when aiming or looking up and down
• Removed the head transform change when aiming with a handgun
• Reduced head movement when using an offset or elevated (“piggybacked”) secondary sight
• Improved the blending of upper body montages to fix/remove jitters
• Reduced weapon shifting when crouching
• Added a tweak to prevent the “pants hiking up” issue with some recoil animations
• Tweaked sections and blend-out times of the handgun reload animation to stop the first section playing part of the second
• Fixed the flicker that happens at end of reload animations
• Fixed weapon position transitions being cut off when switched quickly
• Updated the aim and head IK code to ensure the correct item transform when using dynamic IK targets
• Rearranged the sightline bone handling in the character blending layer to detach sightline from item bone movement/rotation while moving
• Fixed the left elbow when using right-hand overlay and crouching
• Tweaked animations at low and high speeds to match up better without leg splits when going from idle to moving
• Updated idle rifle animations on the Main Menu backdrop

Character assets and customization

• New default builds have been provided for all weapons, with an emphasis on practical builds with a variety of attachments and grip placements — special thanks to Prowlaz and Trav for taking the time to make these! (In some cases, you will have to lower the weapon and use freelook (default Tab) to see the Wristwatch face)
• Fixed Chest Rig (JCR) placement in the Customize Operator screen
• M9A3 now has recoil
• SDASS sights should now line up correctly
• The NVG Head Mount is updated to asynchronously load Night Vision Goggles when the headset is attached to character and not to encode it
• Reloading will now eventually cycle through different compatible magazine types (e.g. from Primary Ammo to a 20-round STANAG or 35-round PMAG) once you run out of ammo for the current magazine type
• Fixed bug where going into locker with NVG enabled would leave lasers in NV mode after you unequipped NVG and left locker
• MK4 3.5–10x scope now has the magnification adjustment ring set up to move according to current magnification level
• Entering the Customize Operator screen (e.g. interacting with locker or workbench) will now hide the HUD, including the stance indicator

Gameplay and mechanics

• The Rangefinder now uses a different trace channel so it will not hit blockplayer actors any more (such as the invisible walls on The Farm’s outdoor shooting range)
• Fixed the Rangefinder’s night vision mode
• Night vision spectate mode generally fixed up, but some issues remain (for example with Rangefinder NV mode)
• Physics collision handling updated

 Graphics, UI and settings

• Added icon for Shemagh (Head)
• Shemagh (Head) skins “Mint Green” and “Mint Tan” changed to “Foliage Green” and “Tan” respectively
• Added advanced effects setting to turn volumetric fog on/off
• Turned off volumetric fog in all but Epic setting
• Adjusted default TAA settings for more stable image (less flickering) and to be a little sharper
• New advanced settings added to help tune TAA and overall color/contrast of the game
• Added controller/gamepad sensitivity settings (Settings › Controls)
  • Left and right analog stick sensitivity now customizable via “Left Gamepad Sensitivity” and “Right Gamepad Sensitivity” settings
  • Changed a few setting names/tags to avoid confusion between mouse and controller inputs
• Fixed eyelashes showing through eyewear lenses
• Lighting tweaked and old fog removed from Arena and Arena II (should fix Ready Room fog issue on those maps)
• Redundant entries cleaned up in DefaultScalability.ini and DefaultEngine.ini
• The After Action Report (AAR) screen can now be closed by tapping Esc or Spacebar

Audio

• More complex audio stuff hooked up again in the Rig map, though acoustics on Rig are still overall simplified a bit to prevent excessive performance loss
• Reverb send levels of footsteps modified to improve directionality
• Distance at which gunshot tails transition to mono was lowered to improve directionality
• Increased interior ambience level on Rig
• Modified mix presets:
  • Increased gear movement sounds level when walking/running
  • Low Dynamic Range: slightly increased difference between loud and quiet sounds, reduced sprinting level, reduced difference between different weapon types
  • Medium Dynamic Range: increased difference between loud and quiet sounds
• Big pass on VOIP and Commo Rose to fix bug where everyone hears Commo Rose audio and sees it in their own name
• PhysMats added to stair actors to improve footstep sounds on metal stairs
• Max footstep sounds distance clamped to 80 meters — footsteps further from local player than that will not be posted
• Metal deck surface assigned to concrete footsteps for diversity (e.g. on Rig)
• Missing spatial volume tags added to Rig
• Addded G3A3 and MK14 charging handle sounds
• Hooked up glass shatter sounds to Wwise and temporarily removed glass impact sounds until we can set them up to work with Wwise (for performance gain)
• Miscellaneous VOIP fixes
• AI bark manager created to prevent excessive reuse of AI barks in a short space of time

Missions, maps and mission editor

Team insertion points for the Team Elimination game mode have had a bit of an overhaul, and we’ve provided some new missions to thank you for your patience as we worked on this patch and the next main release. In more detail:

• The Team Elimination game mode and validator were changed to add mutual exclusion spawn groups, and tweaked to improve the randomization of spawn points each round
• A pass was done on all current Team Elimination missions to adapt to the new system, setting up mutual exclusion spawn groups as needed
• Tentative fix for players being auto-balanced in DTAS (Dynamic Take and Secure) after spawning in with the (now) enemy team; one consequence is that late joining during PreRoundWait is disabled if auto-balance is on
• The confusingly named “747 (Plane Only)” Terrorist Hunt mission was renamed to “747 (Plane and Nearby)” and supplemented by a new “747 (Plane Interior)” TH mission which really does do what it says on the tin
• Added new “747 (Plane Interior)” Deathmatch mission for (much) lower player counts
• Added new Rig (Decks 1 and 2) DTAS mission to complement existing Decks 3 and 4 DTAS mission
• Added new “Storage Facility (Storage Cavern)” DM map
• Added new “Storage Facility (Underground)” DM map
• Added new “Storage Facility (Underground)” TH map
• Fixed an off-screen insertion point for Storage Facility TH map
• Bad laptop fixed in Depot‘s Intel Retrieval mission
• Wobbly tree on Compound fixed
• New NavmeshBlocker actor added in the mission editor as a temporary fix (until we get the new AI in the next big update) to keep AI within specific parts of the map
• 747 (Plane Interior) TH, 747 (Plane and Nearby) TH, Compound (Compound Only) TH, Small Town TH, Run Down TH and possibly 1 or 2 other missions were updated to include the new NavmeshBlocker feature to partition the map and keep AI within the mission area

Admin

• Updated Server Browser to ensure it stops refreshing the server list if you try to connect
• Added -RandomMapStart=N server command line option to start from first map (if N=0) rather than random pick (if N≠0), as was previously always done
• A basic anti-cheat function was added to stop players playing when it is detected that specific files are missing (e.g. flashbang FX) — we can’t completely prevent players from cheating, but we reserve the right to prevent the easiest/laziest methods!