DISCORD

Join us on the official Discord server to talk about the game and the bugs you find!

UPDATE

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! New PC Pre-Alpha update 0.602 is available on Windows, Mac & Linux! [quote][h5]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER[/h5] If you were playing before this update and do not wish to start a new game / reset your save, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent invalid softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.[/quote] If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report in-game as MAJOR Bug with ALT+B. Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

CHAPTER | FIXES

• Chapter 0: Objectives accomplished / new objectives were silent in CH0 intentionally, to not be too disturbing to the atmosphere. An additional change is now to only have 1 objective: Investigate the Red Platform, instead of first Reach then Investigate. This is to avoid disturbance too. Please let me know if you think it should be reverted or if its better like this ;)
• Chapter 1: When coming from Chapter 0 to Chapter 1, some objects, like moving platforms, some doors, vents, and other objects, could be significantly darker than expected. A restart of Chapter 1 was required to fix it. It should now be fixed and be correct, even when coming from Chapter 0 to Chapter 1.
• Chapter 1: Cannot use cables to skip the dual laser cages with 2 cubes anymore
• Chapter 1: Added Reinitialize Cube button in the dual laser cages/cubes area, in order to prevent a potential softlock. This may be making this part too easy, so maybe it will be removed, if enough players suggest its removal. But maybe it will remain if we see it does indeed prevent the softlock, and doesnt add any confusion. I prefer this rather than an auto-respawn in this case, as the auto-respawn might respawn the cube by mistake / when not necessarily desired.
• Chapter 2: First room: Vertical moving platform above the space gap will now crush you if you stand in between the void and the ground. It will still not crush you if you have no ground below your feet (intended), but will do if you get squashed between the platform edge and the ground. There is still some tolerance, if you are far away enough from the gaps edge, you will still be pushed back instead of crushed (intended)
• Chapter 2: Fixed visual rendering bug with windows that caused a window to be rendered on top of another window.
• Chapter 2: Fixed a bug that caused Power Core to indefinitely respawn in a loop showing Power Core Respawned, after reaching the first Zero-Gravity room.
• Chapter 3: Fixed a bug that could cause infinite relocation just after the first Hyper-Speed blinking lasers.
• Chapter 3: Fixed a visual bug at the very end, that could cause some white lines due to the blinking lights in the corridor, when looked at from outside / above.
• Chapter 4: Fixed a rare bug that could cause the Secret Passage to be in an inverted state, blocking the player.
• Chapter 4: Fixed Hyper-Speed Suppressor sometimes not showing the red cross above Healthbar, meant to show that Hyper-Speed is currently unavailable.

BUG | FIXES

• Taser: Fixed an exploit that allowed you to control the direction of a pushed Cube by rotating the camera very fast just after a Hyper-Shot.
• Cameras: Destroying them right as they detect you, will ensure the shield is disabled (to avoid camera football)
• Moving Saws: Fixed a rare case in which Saws would rotate incorrectly sideways when not needed.
• Moving Saws: Moving saws, which need to rotate sideways, could sometimes not be perfectly aligned with their moving direction. They should now always be aligned in a straight line with their moving direction.
• Moving Lasers: Fixed remaining edge cases with Moving Lasers, which could become de-synced from their intended pattern. There should not be any remaining cases of Laser movement de-syncs anymore. To be tested, though, as this fix might have broken other specific cases of Moving Lasers.
• Flashlight: When triggering a cutscene with Flashlight currently ON, the flashlight will no longer move along with the cutscene camera during the transition (it will remain where it is, as intended). In addition, some cutscenes will now force Flashlight state OFF during the cutscene, and restore it after the cutscene (intended). Please report as a visual bug, if you see cutscenes in which the flashlight should be forced-off to avoid various visual bugs or strange-looking situations.
• Bug Reporting: Should no longer be possible to interact with objects or other actions while the Bug Reporting page is displayed.
• Bug Reporting: Video URL field could sometimes be resized to be taller than intended. Shouldnt happen anymore.
• Jetpack Notifications: Low Fuel sound and text notification system have changed. It now is as follows:
• - Low Fuel Sound: Played when going from "normal fuel" to "low fuel" state, with a minimum allowed interval of 3s. This prevents it being spammed when you are letting it recharge slightly, then using Jetpack again (avoids spamming the low fuel beep sound)
• - Low Fuel Text Notification: "Low Fuel" text notification when going from "normal fuel" to "low fuel" state, is now shown only once per game session. This allows new players to see it the first time they use the Jetpack and reach Low Fuel. Then, only the sound plays. Every time you restart the game, you'll see it once, just as a reminder of associating the notification to the sound. Then, only the sound is played. This change is to avoid having "Low Fuel" notification appearing too often on the screen.
• Encryption Keys: Approaching a Formatting Terminal, with a Power Core or Cube, would play the dialog and show Incompatible Device Notification, whereas this was meant to only happen when approaching them with an information Tablet. Also, it used to only appear once. It will now always appear if the player approaches a Formatting Terminal with an information Tablet instead of an Encryption Key.
• Custom Resolution: The -allowCustomResolution argument to allow custom resolution, to use with -screen-width and -screen-height was working correctly for most PC configurations. However, it should now also work for more specific setups and Windows versions. If you still experience resolution resets, please try also by adding the new -noForcedRefreshRate (but only as last resort, as it should not be needed, in theory)
• Leaderboards: Potential fix for Cycle leaderboard, which would always incorrectly round legitimate scores milliseconds to 0. It should now send the correct entire game duration value, with correct milliseconds. To be tested if properly fixed, though. To test this, make sure you never enable Debug Mode in your run.

[ 2023-06-06 21:58:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

DISCORD

Join us on the official Discord server to talk about the game and the bugs you find!

UPDATE

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! New PC Pre-Alpha update 0.601 is available on Windows, Mac & Linux! [quote][h5]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER[/h5] If you were playing before this update and do not wish to start a new game / reset your save, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent invalid softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.[/quote] If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report in-game as MAJOR Bug with ALT+B. Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

BUG | FIXES

• Audio: Hopefully, sometimes hearing electricity sounds in the background, should be solved. Maybe not yet fixed for 100% of cases and 100% of hardware combinations? To be tested.
• Audio: Hopefully, sometimes hearing electricity sounds for 0.1-0.5s upon respawning, should be solved. Maybe not yet fixed for 100% of cases and 100% of hardware combinations? To be tested.
• Taser: Could fire Hyper-Shot through walls, if a piece of broken glass or breakable window was the first object to be hit by the Hyper-Shot.
• Taser Ammo: Fixed a bug which could cause you to have the wrong amount of maximum Taser Clip ammo after Upgrading Capacity. Starting from Chapters page should always start the Chapter with a full clip (at current max ammo value). Transitioning from a Chapter to another should continue to keep the amount of ammo of the previous Chapter.
• Power Cores: Fixed a hard crash, if you were to quick load shortly after it entered Unauthorized Object state, and various other textures-related bugs along with it for this situation.
• Power Cores: Fixed a bug that could cause Power Core to be invisible / inexistant, after a Quick Load performed just after it was Unauthorized Object.
• Power Cores: Could remove Power Cores from Slots, from a specific angle that was undesired.
• Power Cores: Should now be possible to insert through broken pieces of glass (could prevent it previously).
• Cube / Tablet Surfing: Recent fixes to prevent Cube Surfing / Tablet Surfing was not working as intended for Tablets. Should now be harder to exploit Cube Surfing / Tablet Surfing, even with Hyper-Speed enabled. Its still somewhat feasible, the idea is just to make it harder to break the game by making it not easy and less efficient.
• Chapter 1: If you skip the door that closes in front of you using Hyper-Speed (red saws area just after the first lift), then enter with a Dodge from below to return back inside this room, the button to open the door will now be unavailable (intended). This makes it hard to come back out, but its also not intended that you re-do this from inside, once you have been past it already.
• Chapter 1: First Cube ever area: Could somehow skip the door closure, get back outside, and climb the wall and skip many parts. Shouldnt be possible anymore.
• Chapter 2: Fixed illegal skip from roof of very first room using Hover.
• Chapter 2: Fixed some visual bugs when backtracking just before meant to enter the Zero-G Room.
• Chapter 2: Fixed being able to remain in-air during the trapped lift with saws.
• Chapter 2: Fixed various gaps and visual bugs.
• Chapter 3: It should be possible to use previous Power Cores to open the Crypto-Locator door - it used to Destroy them as you approached the Power Core Slot.
• Chapter 3: Mysterious saws rotated the wrong way: Unsure if fixed, as I cannot reproduce it, but maybe it is fixed? To be tested.
• Chapter 3: Fixed case where backtracking inside the newly re-designed room, after Crows cutscene, would cause it to re-save the checkpoint inside.
• Chapter 3: Fixed incorrect default insertion position of Power Core protected by Camera (for the first Electrified Water area)
• Chapter 3: Bonus Room accessible around the Sequencer Room area, could sometimes have the Cube misplaced, not on the desired button to keep the vent open, resulting in a closed vent. Should now be fixed.
• Chapter 3: Various visual bug fixes, including some disappearing objects, etc.
• Chapter 3: Fixed seeing noticeable missing switches when going through the Bonus Rooms and looking through the window towards the platform/cube puzzle before the electrified water.
• Chapter 4: Train Ride: After passing the final saws, you **cannot backtrack anymore** *(Imminent Termination)*.
• Chapter 4: Train Ride: Prevented softlock if player goes on left, then right side of the laser fields
• Mines: Mines explosion should be louder and heard better (they used to be mostly silent)
• TAA: Enabled could cause some blurriness like motion blur through walls
• Custom Resolution: More small changes were made, hopefully should help avoiding reset resolutions. However, having multiple monitors connected, might be the source of the issues experienced. I think it should work fine with a single monitor, maybe having a second one and rendering on a different monitor will cause issues? To be tested.
• Error: Fixed a possible game error when very quickly requesting to restart the current Chapter, just as the game is currently auto-saving. To be tested.

[ 2023-04-30 19:06:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

[quote]

0.600 Hotfix

This post was originally written for 0.599 update. We have since then released a 0.600 hotfix, which adds the following important fixes over original 0.599 post below:

• Steam Integration Fixed: Leaderboards, Achievements should be working as intended again
• Chapter 2: A level bug was causing a wall to remain present, blocking the player

[/quote] Hello dear Fractal Space players! It's been a while - we've been focusing quite a bit on Pocket Edition updates recently, and there were many bugs reported in latest 0.598, so it was a lot of work to get this 0.599 update ready! The goal of this update is mainly to reach a stable point for Chapter 1 in order to update Steam Demo and Demo on other platforms, about a week after this update is live for the Pre-Alpha PC players. Let's talk about the major new changes in this post! If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report in-game with ALT+B ;) Thank you for testing and reporting bugs! [quote]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update and do not wish to start a new game / reset your save, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.[/quote]

NEW

The major new changes are discussed here.

CHAPTER 3 | Re-Design

The first room of Chapter 3 has been completely re-designed and re-worked with new rooms:

• You should no longer be able to skip past the first Crows cutscene.

• There is now also new optional/secret area here, but we will let you find it for yourself :)

• You can no longer simply Jetpack to the first platform when getting out of the first room, in NG with Jetpack Level 1 - youll need to deploy additional platforms.
  • These platforms are optional from Jetpack Level 2, or from Jetpack Level 1 + Sprint (intended).

CHAPTER 2 | Even More Freedom

Update 0.598 introduced more freedom for the player to explore the outside of the station, after going out from the first electrified water vent. It has now been improved even more, by giving that same freedom, from the moment the player acquires the Jetpack!
[quote]"With more freedom, comes a great chance of introducing game-breaking bugs. To be tested!"[/quote]

SAW | Sparks

Saws now have new particle effects to show sparks!
They also have physics collisions.

INTERACTION | Fixes

After the major interaction rework, that was then added to Pocket Edition as well, interactions were more precise and most bugs related to them were fixed. In addition, interaction with a specific object when multiple ones were present, was made much easier and more intuitive. However, a consequence was that interacting required the player to look more precisely at objects, even when there was only 1 interactive object available. Some precision is still required when there are multiple interactions available, but most cases will now be much more tolerant of where the player is looking at, than the previous update (more radial interaction):
In addition, the new interaction changes had broken a previous system: preventing picking up / dropping Cubes or Power Cores through Laser Fields and vent grids, etc. This made some previously-impossible softlocks possible again in 0.598. It should now be working as intended again, with some Laser Fields / Vent grids / small bars in vents, now preventing you from dropping/picking up through them again (as it was, prior to 0.598).

LEADERBOARDS | Improved

This update required a FULL RESET of all Leaderboards. This is because new features to leaderboards were added, which made them not retro-compatible. Further changes should not require Leaderboards reset anymore. Not only does leaderboards now fully support MILLISECONDS (even though they are not displayed in-game to avoid distraction of fast ms change), but you can now hover any Leaderboard entry to get more statistics about the players run! Stats are per-Chapter for this run, except for Cycle, in which its the accumulated for the entire Cycle:
Obviously, this is a new feature, and requires some testing to validate all stats are correct (we have tested, they seem OK :) ) Navigation has also been improved on Leaderboards page. In addition to being able to navigate the Leaderboards Page with keyboard / gamepad, you can now also browse through entries / scroll using keyboard arrows to see more info about other players scores. Mouse scroll wheel also works. If you are using a keyboard or gamepad, when changing Chapters, while looking at Top 50 / Top 100, it will automatically select ranks 10 and 50 respectively after loading the scores. This is to avoid scrolling down the first 10/50 scores when looking at Top 50 / Top 100, because these first 10/50 can already be seen in Top 10 / Top 50 respectively.

BUG REPORTING | Improvements

Various improvements were made to the bug reporting system. It's possible that the first bug reports you send will not appear on the Discord server just yet, because there were changes to the syntax and how they are sent, that will require some changes from the Discord server's side. However, we should be receiving all bug reports correctly even if they do not appear on Discord just yet.
We also made these changes in order to ensure that we would still receive all bug reports even if the Unity side of the system would fail, like it did during approximately 2 months when 0.598 was released. Here's an overview of the new changes to the bug reporting system:

• Categories: Many new categories were added. This will make it much easier for us to filter / prioritize bugs and ensure Nitpicks don't slow down the development's process by requiring to be fixed now as they were same priority as "Gameplay Bugs". Please make sure you select the appropriate category for each reported bug. Thank you!

• Video Link: A new field for Video link was added! Bug reports are always much better with video links if possible :) Whenever you have a video available, please copy/paste the link in the video field, it will make it much easier for us to access it instead of having it directly in the description. Thank you!

• More details: The bug reporting system will now provide more details to the Discord server. Once the Discord server code has been updated to receive the new bug report information, it will be possible to show a few more stats on the bug report entries on the server.

• Longer storage: We used to only have 2 months to fix a reported bug. This was really impractical, because many minor bugs or nitpicks could wait for a future update instead - but if we did wait, we would lose all the data from this bug. We will now be able to keep them for much longer in order to push back minor bugs to future updates.

• More stable: Various edge cases that caused bug reports to fail to upload were fixed. You will still have failures in some cases but the retry should be OK. If after 3 or 4 retries you still can't upload a bug, please temporarily disable your firewall and antivirus and try again.

[quote]Reporting a bug will still take time, and the Discord upload will look like it froze on 0% for a while. This is normal. We are planning to change the Discord screenshot upload server in a future update, to greatly increase the speed of this step in the near future.[/quote]

SAVE BACKUPS

The game now makes backups of the save game regularly, mostly every time the game is paused. If later on, the saved data file gets corrupted or deleted, the player will now be informed when starting the game. A popup will now allow to either start a fresh new save, or use the latest backup (if available):
This is different from save game compatibility after a major game update. There will be a separate system to warn players about their potential saved games incompatibility in the future, encouraging them to restart the current Chapter, if it was affected. [quote] This is only for data corruption of the main save file. If a level checkpoint auto-save or quick-save is corrupted, it should result in automatically restart the Chapter from start. But in case of main save file corruption, this backup popup window system should at least allow players to resume their last checkpoint (if last checkpoint file itself is not corrupted), or resume from the beginning of the Chapter they had reached (which is still better than starting from Chapter 0)[/quote]

CUSTOM | RESOLUTION

[quote]This is only for very specific edge-cases in which players need to use a specific, non-standard resolution, that is not listed in the resolution options list.[/quote] If you wish to use a different resolution than the one officially supported by your monitor, you now can make sure it works by using -allowCustomResolution launch parameter on Steam. If you use this, please make sure you add new add this new -allowCustomResolution as well, when using -screen-height and -screen-width to force a specific resolution. This new parameter will disable all resolution fallbacks and resetting of the game, to avoid overriding your custom resolution, even when requesting to change graphics options. [quote]This means the Resolution popup list will be completely ignored when using this argument![/quote]

CHANGES

Below are described the important changes from this version:

• Dodge: Upgrades were a bit overpowered. Slightly modified the Dodge upgrades. Level 3 is no longer 0.5 seconds, but now 0.8s recharge time.

• Respawn Spam Protection: Increased the respawn spam protection delay to 0.8s. This means that, if you die, with a Quick Save available, the game will ignore SPACE / LMB for 0.8s to prevent reloading the last checkpoint, in case you in fact wish to use F9 to load your Quick Save instead.

• Chests: The newly added chests in 0.598, will now unlock faster after shooting the associated generators. The bug in which they remained in locked state after destroying their generators, could not be reproduced, though. Please keep an eye on it, and report with a video for more specific steps on how to reproduce this bug. Thank you!

• Interaction: New interaction rework made it sometimes hard to pick up / interact with objects if a piece of broken glass was in the way. Broken glass pieces should no longer be a problem for interaction with objects, nor with picking up objects ;) This may have introduced new bugs, to be tested.

• Chapter 3 Double Cubes / Timed Boxes: At the beginning of Chapter 3, once you had placed both Cubes on the Pressure Plates to open the horizontally-placed door by taking Cubes from the Timer Boxes, it used to lock the Pressure Plates to Red state, and the door you come down from would close:

• This was originally designed to avoid various bugs in earlier versions of the game. It has now been changed to not do any of these things. You can then continue having fun opening the door / timed boxes as much as you want, before activating the platform with the far-away large button, and no bugs should occur. There will later on be an achievement planned here for some fun action to do, but its not implemented yet. This change should be tested for bugs :)

• Chapter 3 Large Button / Fast Platform: The big button to shoot for the fast Transport platform, just after the area mentioned above, has now been changed for you to be able to return to it after reaching the other side of the Transport. It will no longer relocate you. There is no purpose in backtracking here at this time, but this change was simply made to allow curious players to return there safely without encountering weird bugs ;) In addition, there is no longer a relocation if you fall from the transport platform - death is upon you in this case (intended). If you jetpack out of the level bounds, you will no longer relocate at the end of the Transport platform path (it was a skip). If you miss the Transport platform path (by jumping off it), you will need to reach the other side using the Jetpack (its possible by landing on the pipes on the wall in front). You cannot backtrack to that area again, once you have approached the Tower area (intended, like before)

• Chapter 3 Musical Hack - Hard of Hearing: In case some players might have missed that in an earlier changelog, or if I forgot to mention it: This puzzle was too hard for most players, and couldnt find the combination once it was changed to not fail on every mistake (it was only doing so with Hard of Hearing enabled). So, it was changed back to always fail on the first mistake. This was changed because of too many reports of players not finding the solution. It will maybe be re-introduced later, but only if the player selects a harder difficulty setting. Then, the Hard of Hearing option, will override this specific puzzle to keep current behavior even on Hard difficulty (and other potential / future audio puzzles will be adjusted too). So, it means that currently, Hard of Hearing option no longer has any effect (intended).

• Jetpack Balancing: Jetpack regular cooldown before recharging fuel has increased from 0.3s to 0.5s. If Jetpack fuel becomes empty, penalty Jetpack cooldown before recharging has increased from 1s to 1.2s. This is to compensate for the fact that from recent updates, Jetpack is now much faster to provide the first 3s rise - so it became much easier to exploit it and remain for a very long time in-air, without having to worry about Fuel. Zero-G boost remains unaffected by these changes and is faster to recharge, and has no empty penalty cooldown (intended). If this change breaks too many speedrun strats, please report a suggestion with a video of the strat, well see if we can fine tune it to still keep it.

• Relocation: It is fully intended that you cannot drop your current object, or pickup any other item, while the Relocation is active. This is to make the game safer, and avoid the player dropping important objects inside a non-reachable area. It also prevents the player from picking up items that should not be obtainable at this moment in the game. However, trying to pickup an object during relocation would display Cannot Drop Here. It now shows the appropriate message.

• Dropping Objects: Changed to have higher velocity from the player, when dropping objects while moving. This reduces the chances to bump into the Tablet / Power Core dropped while moving forward. However, when you are moving slowly, or stopped actively requesting movement, velocity transferred is now reduced, to avoid throwing the dropped object forward while you are currently stopping (could be irritating). You can still do so if you request to drop while still requesting movement, and stop requesting movement just after the drop request. But this is acceptable, as you are, in fact, moving, so it is natural that the object is thrown forward. It simply happens less frequently by mistake.

• Power Cores: Now held a bit further away from the player. This is to avoid bumping too much into it when dropping it while moving. You may still bump it while high-velocity sprints, but thats acceptable.

• Power Core Slots: Power Cores are now inserted further away inside Power Core Slots. This is intended to ensure they dont stick out too much from the front. They are now less problematic to the player, as they will no longer push the player backwards when inserting them while being very close to the Power Core Slot. Or when it still happens, its only slightly (while in Zero-G) and acceptable. In addition, this now makes it harder to climb on them while inserted (intended):

• Thresholds: Chapter 2 leaderboard threshold is now 3:00

• Destructible Walls: Broken pieces of Destructible Walls had very fully-black edges & borders. They should now look more normal and react more normally to lighting changes.

LEVEL FIXES

Below are mentioned the important level bug fixes:

• Chapter 1: Fixed pure black borders on obstacle crates in the Camera room at the end of the Chapter.

• Chapter 1: Fixed OOB when being pushed towards the wall using the moving platform in the room with the very first Camera ever. It should now be harder to get pushed through the wall, and if it happens, the player will die (intended, appropriately squashed).

• Chapter 1: Fixed some purely black moving platforms, and some platforms that were being rendered incorrectly and too dark.

• Chapter 2: Fixed a few pipe collisions with the new Cozy Den area of the first electrified water room.

• Chapter 2: Fixed various bugs related to the more freedom approach of Chapter 2, which included missing objects and not-yet active traps.

• Chapter 2: Fixed a possible trigger skip in the first Shooting Cameras room, when entering, that could cause multiple other bugs. Should not be skippable anymore by hugging the wall.

• Chapter 2: Roof slow inoffensive smasher will now close down much faster, to prevent you from squeezing through while its closing. It will also now only close behind you a bit later, as you get past the second laser field.

• Chapter 2: Fixed OOB by backtracking and seeing the door still open if you skipped a trigger, where you press the initializeRoom.cpp button (thanks Latte).

• Chapter 4: Fixed some cases in which the Set all Solar Panels in Sunlight would not accomplish correctly even if the puzzle was completed.

• Chapter 4: Fixed some misplaced buttons in some vents

• Chapter 4: Fixed some missing mines towards the end, that seemed to have been triggered by a ghost :)

• Chapter 4: Fixed a bug when you were standing on a retractable, you could get pushed through the ceiling of the vent. Player character should now be killed, as intended.

• Chapter 4: Some optimizations were made to texts in all Chapters in 0.598. This broke some Timers screens in Chapter 4 that were now displayed too big.

• Chapter 4: Train area: fixed a bug that caused a Power Core to be respawned when removed or re-inserted in the Power Core Slot.

• Chapter 4: Fixed various visual glitches (blinking walls, blinking vent entrances, etc.)

• Chapter 4: Fixed various softlocks in the very last room. Laser Fields in the last room now respawns Power Cores to prevent softlocks.

• Chapter 4: The Processing Center could have strange, deadly respawn points for some checkpoints in specific cases. Should now be fixed.

• Chapter 4: Processing Center giant crushers should now kill the player more often, when squashed against vents, like the one towards generators / maintenance, etc. In addition, lower FPS now has much less chances to push the player to clip into the Bonus area / outside (will die more often instead)

BUG FIXES

Below are described the important general bug fixes (many more in the full changelog below):

• Buttons: Fixed a rare bug that could cause button states to become invalid and break some areas, thanks to Lattes discovery

• Pressure Plates: Fixed a Game Error when dropping Power Cores / Tablets on Pressure Plates

• Pressure Plates (Player Activated): Will now correctly push up / down the objects dropped on them, as they move up and down (objects used to clip through them).

• Cameras: A new bug allowed Cameras to revive after being destroyed. This was fun, honestly, should probably have remained - but should be fixed :D

• Vibration: Many fixes were done to gamepad vibration: sudden vibrations stop while using jetpack should now be fixed, and Sprint vibration should now resume correctly after jetpacking. In addition, sprint vibration should be paused while jumping and resume when on the ground again (intended)

• Heal / Damage Effects: Fixed a bug that caused them not to be displayed correctly during Chapter 1, after coming from Chapter 0.

• Hover: Fixed a new bug with latest changes, that caused to fall down rapidly for 1s, if you were to engage Hover instantly after requesting a vertically-upwards Dodge (without prior Jump / Jetpack in the sequence). Hover engagement should feel smooth and working as expected in all combinations.

• Sprint: Fixed bugs that allowed Sprinting in mid-air, if the key was sprint was pending before falling while in crouched stance, or if key was held while jumping in place from a crouched stance.

• Bug Reporting: Fixed a bug that caused the bug reporting window to not react to user input, when reporting a bug in Chapter 1, after coming from Chapter 0.

• Propellers: Fans could be bugged after quick load / quick save and could be incorrectly stopped / turned on when they shouldnt be after loading. Audio could sometimes continue when they were off.

• Encryption Keys: Changing language should now properly update the Encryption Keys language instantly.

• Dodge: Fixed exploit which allowed to have infinite Dodge when trigger cutscenes after Dodging (while still in-air). To be tested for potential new bugs related to this fix.

• Mines: A new bug from 0.598 was causing Mines to react as if you had detonated them by direct contact, when you pushed a Power Core to the Mine Beam. This bug could cause you to be damaged from very far away when pushing Power Cores into the beam from a distance. Should now work as intended again.

• Power Cores / Cubes: A new bug allowed the player to drop and pick up Cubes / Power Cores behind areas that shouldnt allow it (through Laser Fields, vent grids, small gaps, etc). It should now work as intended.

• Power Core Slots: New interaction rework changes introduced a new bug that allowed the insertion of Power Cores / Tablets through walls** and windows. Should now be fixed.

• Power Cores: Inserting in Zero-G could provoke Power Cores to flip 180 degrees visually before inserting. This should now be fixed in 99% of cases. It could still happen, but if you manage to, please report the repro steps as visual bug, as it should now be rare and considered minor or nitpick, and would need precise reproduction steps to be fixed. Thanks!

• Saws: Most of the time, Cubes and Power Cores are pushed away correctly by Saws. Only very fast moving saws, while Hyper-Speed is disabled, can cause strange bugs when pushing them. From now on, some very-fast moving saws will selectively respawn Cubes and Power Cores, when Hyper-Speed is disabled.

• Damage: Lasers and Saws will now have the same delay between hits, when Hyper-Speed is ON or OFF. It used to allow longer invincibility time between hits in Hyper-Speed.

• Terminals: Will now react and glitch when shot at with the Taser :)

• Timers: Fixed an exploit that could reset speedrun timers to 0 when quick loading during the final end of chapter fade-out.

• Power Cores: They should no longer go through windows when thrown fast vertically from above (using Hyper-Speed + Dodge downwards, kinda Lattes trick :) )

• Screenshot Mode: Enabling Screenshot Mode with either the Options menu or F4 Shortcut, will now hide the FPS counter, and display it again it was meant to be ON originally

• Screenshot Mode: Its state is now saved when using the Shortcut, to be kept in sync with the checkbox in the Options

• Audio: A new bug could cause undesired sound effects to be played upon respawning (electrified water sound, for example).

• Audio: Colored Pressure Plate wont make the pressed down sound if you walk on it multiple times while its already being pressed down with Hyper-Speed enabled (thanks Latte & ChrisLP!)

• Audio: Fixed a bug that could cause music to play, when music volume was set to 0. This might still occur in some remaining rare cases. Please report as Audio bug, if it occurs again, with as much info as possible on what happened previously, as these are generally very specific.

• Screens: Fixed various bugs with signs / screens, which could cause some screens to not show their associated texts after quickload sometimes, or vice-versa, showing them when they should be OFF. Keep an eye out for new bugs with them, though ;)

• Taser: Fixed a bug that showed Switch on the Taser screen, while in fact, aiming at a regular non-interactive Laser.

• Taser: Shooting at buttons would make the shots shadows show some incorrect shadowing (lighting was going through the button). It is now more accurate. It can still happen in some angles, but its now much more rare.

• Menu: Fixed a tiny crack in the Main Menu area

• Cables: Collision bugs with the new hanging cables prevented you from shooting through them. Now fixed and working as intended ;)

• Return to Menu: Quick loading while the game is returning to the main menu (after completing Chapter 4) is no longer possible.

• Performance Guide: Button now correctly localized

• Reported Bugs: Many more in-game reported bugs and suggestions implemented.

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next bugs ;)

[ 2023-04-19 16:37:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear players! The new update 0.598 is now LIVE on Steam for Pre-Alpha testers! It includes over 100 reported bug fixes, many gameplay and Quality of Life improvements, and a full Lighting & Static Reflections rework! Once it has been tested for major issues in Chapter 1 New Game, we will update the Steam Demo. If there are only minor bugs, or major bugs exclusive to New Game+, or later Chapters than Chapter 1, a hotfix update will be made in 1 or 2 weeks, but the Demo will still be updated before that (if these issues do not impact Chapter 1 New Game). In this post, we'll talk about the major changes that were done for this 0.598 update! [quote]The reason why players awaiting for Steam keys have still not yet received them, is because we have run out of Steam keys and have reached the authorized limit. We will be migrating the game to the Steam Playtest system to override this limit. This will likely change the way you access the Pre-Alpha, even for existing Pre-Alpha testers. We will keep you updated on when and how this migration will take place.[/quote] [quote]Once this update is stabilized for the first major bugs in Chapter 1 New Game, and the Demo is safely updated on Steam to 0.598, we will take some time to work on a maintenance update for the Pocket Edition. It will include many bug fixes and some first visual improvements. We'll keep you posted on that, but you can expect a BETA very soon![/quote]

NEW

First, we'll highlight below the most important new elements from this update.

LIGHTING | Rework

One of the major changes for this update, that took a long time to implement, is a full rework of the lighting system. The impact may not be noticeable to all players, but the decision to rework this came from the following reasons:

• G.Round Playtest was very positive, but the most frequent complaint was that the "Flashlight was too bright and hurt the eyes"
• Some areas had lights with too strong intensities, which could be a strain on the eyes as well

As a result, in general, the following changes can be noticed:

• All shaders and textures of the game have been modified, in order to less exaggerate the "lighting highlights" from objects, and have a more neutral rendering. This was the main source of the issue, as having a light source next to an object or flashlight would result in very strong metallic highlights, that could be a strain on the eyes
• Every single light in the game has been manually re-balanced to avoid being too bright
• All textures and shaders are now slightly darker, which means that in general, the game feels darker in many areas (lighting highlights are no longer / much less exaggerated). Many more lights were added to counter-act this in some areas.
• Extremely bright/white metallic highlights are greatly reduced to avoid strain on the eyes (door frames, cube frames, vent walls, etc.). They still remain, to give a metallic feel, but are less exaggerated.
• Grounds and ceiling tiles are now slightly darker, which adds contrast, and reduces the over-bright lighting in many areas.
• White pipes (ones attached to various fans) are now much less reflecting white/bright colors, meaning they will have less situations in which their lighting is "too bright because of a nearby light. They also now feel more metallic with a real-time light source nearby.

[quote]Below are a few screenshots to illustrate these differences mentioned above[/quote] Door / Vent Frames | OLD:
0.597: Door and Vent frames were often very white when lit by any lights, especially the flashlight Door / Vent Frames | NEW:
0.598: Door frame is now still metallic, but is no longer purely white even with flashlight. Bloom is less intense. Cube Borders | OLD:
0.597: Cube borders / edges were reflecting extremely bright white light Cube Borders | NEW:
0.598: Cube borders are still highlighted, but more realistically, less exaggeratedly white even with flashlight active Inside Vents | OLD:
0.597: Vent walls were reflecting a lot of white lighting - could be blinding Inside Vents | NEW:
0.598: Vent walls are reacting more realistically to reflected light, and less blinding. You can actually see the light source. In addition to the lighting system rework, here are a few new changes worth noting related to it:

• Shooting a dynamic light (not static lights) with Hyper-Shot will now completely turn it off forever. Later on, a light destruction effect will be added (not yet implemented). In addition, regular shots and Hyper-Shot will now also reduce the associated reflections to make the area significantly darker (as it should, because less light present means less visible reflections).
• Bloom has been reworked to be less intense than before, to avoid overbright areas with some lights. In addition, many lights in all Chapters were changed to be less intense, in order to avoid overbright areas next to them.

[quote]Now that the game is less blinding, and more realistic, we will likely add a few more highlights in the future, but they will remain less intense and not on large surfaces.[/quote]

WHITE REFLECTION CIRCLES

Another major improvement which the Lighting Rework allowed to achieve, is to significantly reduce the presence of the white reflection circles, that you may have noticed on the grounds and ceilings. In reality, these need to be somewhat present, to be accurate and provide a metallic feel to surfaces. However, before this update, they were extremely strong, very large, and present in every single area of the game, and on every object. This could be too disturbing and a strain on the eyes as well. From this update, the white reflection circles are now:

• No longer present on all surfaces:
• Some grounds/ceilings do not have them, when they are too distracting
• When present, they are significantly smaller than before and less distracting
• They are less intense, which avoids the strain on the eyes
• They have a grain/stained effect, instead of a perfectly white circle
• They are no longer present on many other object types
• The flashlights light reflection (or any other light source), will no longer result in a big white circle when reflected in the windows and other objects. It is now a more diffused, larger reflection highlight from the light source across the window, avoiding to be a too bright white reflection circle.

[quote]Below are a few example comparisons from 0.597 / 0.598 to see the differences with these light circles[/quote] OLD:
0.597: Large white reflection circle on the ground NEW:
0.598: White reflection circle not visible in this area (fully disabled) OLD:
0.597: Windows reflected light as a concentrated white circle, very strongly NEW:
0.598: Window reflects light in a more subtle, diffuse manner, and the ground circle is no longer distracting OLD:
0.597: White reflection circles for 2 lights on the ground in this room, ceiling light reflection is very strong NEW:
0.598: White reflection circles are not visible anymore, and the ceiling light reflection is less intense OLD:
0.597: There were 2 strong white reflection circles on the grounds NEW:
0.598: Here, the 2 reflection circles are intentionally kept, but you can notice they are much less distracting, and have a dirtiness effect instead of a perfect circle, which looks more realistic

STATIC REFLECTIONS | Rework

You may have noticed that in various Chapters, quite often, Static Reflections could be greatly distorted:
0.597: Example of some inaccurate reflections This was the result of many optimizations. For this update, all static reflections of all Chapters have been significantly improved, in order to reduce the noticeable inaccuracies, and reduce distortion. They will now, most of the time, have less visible inaccuracies:
0.598: More subtle, and significantly more accurate reflections on the ground. White reflection circles are also much less distracting (but intentionally still present). Here's another example of an area with distorted / inaccurate reflections:
0.597: The ground has distorted, inaccurate reflections, and the walls as well NEW:
0.598: More accurate reflections on the ground, no distortion on the walls It's important to note that some distortion and inaccuracies are still present, as is the limitation of those static reflections, which are very optimized and can run smoothly even on integrated GPUs. If you search and analyze, you'll always find inaccuracies / distortions - and that's okay, because they are now considered "good enough" for most areas. Some areas cannot have good Static Reflections, and cannot be solved - these areas now have less visible Static Reflections, or no static reflections at all. The only way to have better reflections from this point in these problematic areas, is to use Dynamic Reflections mode. Please report areas in which even these new Static Reflections are way too distracting, and they will either be improved or made less visible.

LENS FLARES | Rework

Another major visual improvement in 0.598 is the lights' lens flares rework. Many of the existing lights were using a simple "star shape" lens flare effect, which didn't always look good. All light lens flares have been reworked, then adjusted individually. These new lens flares now add a visual effect on most lights, of "horizontal line lens flare". The further you are from the light, the more visible the effect is:
They all have been adjusted to avoid being too strong / blinding, but you might still find some that are too intense. Up close, they might still look like small stars, which isnt great, but they still look significantly better than the previous light flares, which were simple circular spherical points.
In addition, its now more consistent, as all lights have the same effect (previously, many lights were missing them) - even though it's now more or less visible based on light intensity and light importance.

NEW OPTION | Lens Flares

Since the addition and rework of the new Lens Flares - which are now present on all lights - you can now also select adjust how many of them you want:

• None: Will disable all lens flare effects (select this if you don't like them!)
• Partial: Only Dynamic Lights and important objects will have them (Color Packs, Ammo Packs, Lasers, blinking lights, lights which change colors, and some other important lights)
• Full: Every light has the new reworked Lens Flare effect

NEW OPTION | Monitor

You can now click on the new Monitor option to change on which monitor the game should be rendered. Doing so will apply any pending graphics options changes, and instantly change display and update the available resolutions accordingly. It will always default to maximum resolution after switching. This option is unavailable if you have a single monitor attached:
0.598: New Monitor option [quote]The game will now show less options in resolutions. This is normal, as previously it could list resolutions that your monitor couldnt handle at the regular refresh rate. This helps reduce the chances of selecting a resolution that would result in lower framerate. Now, only the resolutions that your screen supports at maximum refresh rate are displayed. [/quote]

INTERACTION | Rework

This update includes major changes to the object pickup / interaction system. This will very likely provoke new bugs with certain objects, so it is to be tested! This rework was done to finally solve some old problems that were considered minor, but are welcome additions. Most importantly, it solves the following issues:

• Pickup transition of objects is now smoother than before
• Picking up a Cube or Power Core would make the object rotate a lot during pickup, and often rotate the wrong direction (not taking shortest path for rotation). If you drop a cube, then pick it up from the opposite side, it would rotate 180-360 during the pickup transition. This wont happen anymore. Well, to be precise, it can still happen in some specific cases of Power Cores, but it's much more rare, and will be finalized later.
• Cubes can now be picked up from any of the 4 sides! This helps a lot with the issue above. It will now only significantly rotate if its placed on its sides or is upside down, as it should still always require to be standing upright while in your hands (intended)
• Power Cores can now be picked up from any of the 2 sides - they wont rotate 180 to be picked up anymore!
• Cube Stacking: Does not take longer anymore to decide to stack while Hyper-Speed is enabled
• Cube Stacking: Requesting to crouch while holding a Cube above another one (stacking), no longer creates a Cube vertical jitter glitch
• Crouched Drop: The Cube is now held a bit higher than before while crouched, to allow to still drop the Cubes on Pressure Plates while crouched (would previously clip through the Pressure Plate and would not allow to drop). Maybe some Pressure Plates will need to be adjusted for this to work everywhere as expected - to be tested.
• Crouch: Tablets are now also held slightly lower when crouched and in Zero-G

You can see examples of this new interaction rework in this video: [previewyoutube=kxpbGzVluRM;full][/previewyoutube]0.598: New Interaction System Rework Examples

DODGE | Improvements

A few important improvements were made to Dodge and some bug fixes as well. Requesting to Dodge downwards vertically while standing on a breakable window, or while in mid-air, was functional. However, doing the same when trying to get down a horizontally-placed vent, or Dodging down from a Ledge, would always result in a horizontal Dodge if you were on the gound. This has now changed, in order to allow you to more easily Dodge down vents or from ledges, without the need to jump beforehand. Dodging while looking downwards, while standing close to a ledge or next to a horizontally-placed vent, will now Dodge vertically downwards - This should make Dodging down through vents below you much easier during Speedruns. [quote]Please note that you must request either no movement, or forward-only movement, otherwise you will Dodge horizontally in the requested lateral directions as usual (intended). Please also note that this new behavior only works when close to a ledge/gap, and while looking downwards (intended), to avoid unintended downwards dodges in all other situations.[/quote] You can see an illustration of these new Dodge changes in this video: [previewyoutube=effZRGD26K8;full][/previewyoutube]0.598: Dodge improvements examples This new change now also works with Destructible Windows and Destructible Walls ;) In addition:

• Initiating a horizontal-only Dodge while standing on a horizontally-placed Fragile Window will no longer break it - you need to Dodge downwards towards it (intended)
• Dodging over a horizontally-placed Fragile Window will no longer break it - you need to Dodge downwards towards it (intended)
• Dodge can now be upgraded up to Level 3!

CHAPTER 2 | More Freedom

Chapter 2: From this moment, the player has more freedom and less relocations Significant changes were made to Chapter 2, in order to add much more freedom once the Jetpack is acquired:

• As you get out of the vertical vent just after the very first electrified water room, you will now be allowed to drop down to get the Upgrade Terminal if you missed it and noticed it from here.
• You will now also be able to go further back to grab other Health / Ammo Packs. Before this update, Relocations would prevent you from doing so (it was intended). These changes should not create new bugs if you go there (to be tested!).
• The first Electrified Water Room has a few small changes: electricity pylons coming down from the pipes, and cables are powering up the water electricity.
• In addition, a new Tablet has been added in Chapter 2. Well let you find it :)

[quote]NEW: Some tablets are now "enclosed". Youll see ;) There will be various ways to unlock them in the future.[/quote]

CUBE SURFING | Reduced

The previous update already introduced a first version of the Cube-Surfing / Tablet-Surfing prevention system - but it was not working as intended. It now should. This system should make it much harder to perform Tablet / Cube jumps while the object is in freefall. It should now push the objects downwards instead of allowing you to jump from them (this push is only done if the Cube is not too close to the ground already). In addition, it should be harder to pick them up while in the air to chain drop-walk on top of them. You should be able to do this once, then, you probably wont have the object anymore. This change might create various new bugs, so it is to be tested. [quote]IMPORTANT: Cube-Surfing prevention system is automatically disabled when Hyper-Speed is enabled. This is considered acceptable, as no Cube-Surfing tricks should allow you to reach/skip anything that you wouldnt be able to do with Dodge/Hover/Jetpack in NG+ anyways. Please report any cube-surfing which seems illegal, i.e. areas that couldnt be reached with Dodge/Hover/Jetpack in NG+, and that is reachable thanks to Cube-Surfing only. If that situation creates a major issue, then Cube-Surfing might be prevented at all times. But the idea is that Cube-Surfing is only an issue in NG in early Chapters (before Jetpack), so I would like to still allow you to have fun with Cube / Tablet-Surfing in NG+ using Hyper-Speed, if it does not break the game ;)[/quote]

FLASHLIGHT | Improvements

Flashlight intensity has been reduced. Its radius is now smaller (less spread out across the screen):
0.598: Smaller radius of Flashlight, and more realistic intensity This is primarily because if it was turned on in not-so-dark areas, it would overly brighten up the scene to a point where reflections of lighting would be painful to the eyes. This is based on various G.Round players reporting flashlight is way too bright. It is meant to be used in dark areas, in which case it lights up enough - but obviously, its now much harder to notice in bright areas (now intended). In addition to that, the Flashlight system was reworked to:

• Have small sideways movements as you walk, instead of always being perfectly centered
• Now animated for a small, slow flashlight movement when standing still
• Slightly more noticeable latency as player looks around / moves arounds / crouches for a less robotic feel of the flashlight movements

TOOLTIPS | Added

A first version of Tooltips for all the options that are not self-explanatory have been added!
[quote]They should also work with a keyboard or gamepad, with a slightly longer delay. Translators might want to take a look at the sheet to localize them - Thank you! ;)[/quote]

FRAMERATE OPTION | Removed

After a lot of additional work that was made on supporting more refresh rates and framerates, it was decided to remove the Framerate option. The reason behind this, is that now that the screen has a proper support for changing the active display, there are various combinations which could result in problematic settings, and many of them could cause screen tearing or other unwanted bugs. Some other edge cases could cause inaccurate physics / framerate calculations if you were to define specific frame rates. The best way to handle this, is to allow the game to select the appropriate framerate (always the maximum possible framerate based on your systems connected monitors). With these changes, you should now be able to safely play on any monitor, with any resolution, in borderless/fullscreen/window - without any screen tearing, even if you are duplicating your screen or playing on screen set to be a secondary monitor.

CHAPTERS | Cycle Button

You can now start a New Game+ Cycle directly from the Chapters Page. This also allows to quickly view the Cycle Leaderboard directly from the Chapters Page, and stats for the Entire Game:
0.598: New Cycle Button in the Chapters page

OTHER | NEW FEATURES

A few additional new features worth noting here:

• Screens: Screens will now react to Taser shot and jitter a few moments. Maybe later Hyper-Shot will fully destroy them, just like lights? Well see!
• Generators: They will now damage the player if they explode while the player is close to them.
• Cables: Some parts of Chapter 1 have new small hanging cables here and there.
• Screenshot Mode: The F4 key (only while Debug Mode is DISABLED) is now a new default hotkey to toggle Interface ON/OFF to allow easy screenshots without any user interface. This hotkey and Interface option will only be available if the game was completed at least once, in the final release.

[quote]Currently, the F4 hotkey for Screenshot Mode is always available in the Pre-Alpha (but not in the public Demo). Just like Performance Mode, its customizable ;) Changing via F4 hotkey should not be saved when the game is closed (in contrast to going to enable / disable Interface in the Options). Its possible later on the Screenshot Mode will pause the game and allow custom camera placement (but this is for later).[/quote]

CHANGES

Below are listed the major changes in the game, which are worth noting:

• Switches: Slightly improved required precision to shoot Switches. You could previously shoot slightly next to them, and it would be registered as a successful shot. Collision detection for Switches is now more precise. Please report a Suggestion if you now think its too hard to shoot at them, or if this change is annoying / problematic.
• Cubes Pushing Player: It was intended (not a bug) that moving Cubes in mid-air push the character when they collide with him. This was to prevent various bugs, and add a feel of weight to the Cubes. This has now changed, and the player will no longer be pushed around by Cubes that are in mid-air. The player will either block the Cubes movement, or push them slightly depending on current player velocity. This may create new bugs, but should remove the strange feeling of being bullied by Cubes :)
• Cubes Forced Physics Clipping: Pushing Cubes through walls should now be near impossible / very hard to achieve.
• Chapter 1: Restarting Chapter 1, only skipped the Shortest Distance text and wake-up cutscene if Speedrun Mode was enabled, or if Cutscenes were disabled. It will now always skip it when Restarting the Chapter. This might be reverted later on, to be still played when restarting Chapter 1, but only when this cutscene is made skippable. The issue with it is that its not skippable currently, so that why it may be annoying for testers.
• Chapter 1: The rooms just after the 6984 Code are now taller, which allows for jumping without touching the ceiling, to make it more comfortable while playing. Various changes were made on the way to the Taser Room vent / Bridge button path with big saws (removed the first slope next to the window, new edge that requires a jump on the roof, etc.)
• Chapter 1: The Lasers Cage Room for Cubes after 6984 Code, has changed to make the laser cages look more dangerous (more lasers, crossed lasers, and lasers pillar added), to discourage trying to squeeze through individual lasers without activating the switch. You will no longer survive trying to do so. Added screens, and wires as hints to find the vent, as quite a few new G.Round players were unable to find the vent below to invert the laser's state. The lower-part of the left-side cage (when entering) allows to go through if you block the lasers with a Cube (like previously), but the upper part doesnt allow to go through (intended).
• Chapter 1: The Orange Structure, that appears only on your way back after acquiring the Taser, will disappear as you will go outside after the Cracker Room. This is intended, for both performance and consistency with the fact that this structure strangely appeared out of nowhere and disappeared as well (intended).
• Chapter 1: Chapter 1 3D text title is now placed next to the first door in front of the player, when Speedrun Mode is enabled or Cutscenes are disabled. In normal situations, its still on the right-side wall. This is to ensure its visible in all configurations.
• Chapter 1: The optional area for Recording pickup, behind the breakable window next to 3600 code, is no longer requiring you to complete the deployable platforms puzzle to get back up in New Game+, in case you dodge up trying to skip it (authorized in NG+). In New Game, however, solving this puzzle manually to get back up remains mandatory.
• Chapter 2: First Room with platforms / lasers / crushers: A gap was added between the vertical moving platform (activated by Pressure Plate surrounded by 2 saws) and the top ground towards the Bridge. This gap does not require you to jump (you can simply walk over it). However, if you do so, you will be damaged because of the new laser. In addition, the entire room was made slightly taller, to allow jumping without being stopped by the ceiling, to make it more comfortable (this room was designed a long time ago, when jump was not as high as it is today). There is now a glass window to allow picking up the Taser Ammo from only one direction (intended).

[quote]This post is too long and exceeds Steam's character limit. Please check the full list of Changes and Bugfixes on the update changelog on our Official Website.[/quote]

[ 2022-11-28 15:49:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! The latest update 0.597 is now ready for testing, and fixes many of the in-game reported bugs. However, there were many reported bugs, so only around 40% of them are fixed. We will gradually work through them all and fix over the next few updates. We focused mostly on the important major bugs for this update.

CHANGES

Here are a couple of changes in this update:

• Power Cores: Interaction ranges to remove / insert Power Cores has been slightly reduced, as you could remove them from very far away.

• Cutscenes: Black top/bottom cutscene bands now remain visible when the game is paused (but behind the menu)

BUG FIXES

Here's a short list of most important fixes in this update (many more in-game reported bug are will be mentioned on the Discord server):

• Chapter 1: Fixed Tablet Destroyed in Chapter 1 after the Im not your shrink lasers room.

• Infinite Jump: Fixed a bug that could sometimes cause the Player to be able to indefinitely continue jumping from the air, after repeatedly jumping from Moving Platforms / Lift buttons surface. Thanks Latte, Chris & Aidan for the videos ;) The infinite flying / jetpack bug is separate than this though, so fixing this bug doesnt mean the other cases are solved as well yet.

• Power Cores: Latest update that improved Power Core physics collisions, also made it much harder to insert them into Power Core Slots while in Zero-Gravity. This has now been fixed, and its easier, as it was before 0.596

• Object Respawns: Latest 0.596 update made many/all respawn systems areas for Power Cores / Cubes to be non-functional. This has been fixed, so respawn areas should be functional correctly again.

• Pressure Plates: When multiple Cubes are placed on a pressed down Pressure Plate, removing 1 of them would deactivate and reactivate the Pressure Plate within 1s. Should now no longer react this way and remain pressed down, when another Cube is already actively pressing the Pressure Plate down, and the other second one is removed.

• Pressure Plates: Fixed a new bug with Pressure Plates, introduced in 0.596, that could cause Cubes to be ejected / catapulted fast from Pressure Plates upon deactivation (return to unpressed red state). Should now behave normally, pushing them gently upwards instead of sending them off flying in the air.

• Zero-G Boost: Fixed a bug that could cause being able to Zero-G boost indefinitely, after a Last Checkpoint load with Speedrun Mode disabled.

• Crouching: Fixed a rare bug that could cause crouch/standing up transition to provoke the Player to die on some moving platforms / lifts.

• Saving: Dying while reloading Taser, and while a save is happening, wouldnt always save the Taser as full upon loading the save later on. Should now work as expected.

• Reported Bugs: Hundreds more in-game reported bugs and suggestions implemented.

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next bugs ;)

[ 2022-05-11 19:16:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! We have worked on a new 0.596 update for Fractal Space on Steam, in order to fix most of the remaining bugs reported by players in 0.595! Now that this update is live, the Demos will be updated on both Steam & Xbox within the next 7 days, except if players find new major bugs in Chapter 0 or Chapter 1 in New Game. We'll also finally be sending more keys to players that were still waiting for them! Various balancing changes and dangerous changes were made, so it's a good idea to re-test a few core mechanics that we'll discuss here. If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report in-game with ALT+B ;) Thank you for testing and reporting bugs! [quote]Since the Demos will be updated soon to 0.596, if you don't have much time to test, you may focus on New Game only, in Chapter 0 & Chapter 1, as the Demo content is limited to this.[/quote]

NEW

Let's talk about a few new additions in this update.

ACHIEVEMENTS

This update now adds a few new Achievements for:

• Death by electrified water
• Destroy first Camera
• Destroy 10 different Cameras
• Stun first Camera
• Stun 10 different Cameras
• Enable Zero-Gravity the first time

Some of these new achievements are currently missing icons, but thats OK for now ;)

CHAPTER 0

First, the Red Platform now uses an animated red volumetric light beam, and is now taller than before. It also now gradually disappears (intended) when the box is placed. [spoiler]Here's an image of the new red volumetric light beam in Chapter 0:
[/spoiler] Then, a few additional improvements:

• The word "presents" is now more readable in the introduction sequence

• Fixed some potential softlocks in which the player could get stuck in corners. Some might still remain.

PRESSURE | Plates

Pressure Plates have been reworked in order to make them more accurate:

• The slightly higher edges are now taken into account in the Cubes collisions, and they now need to be placed more to the center to be considered valid:

• They remain tolerant, as to not be frustrating, but a small part on the corner, or too much on the outside, will no longer activate it:

This change, behind the scenes, is a big change: as a precaution, all pressure plates should be tested after this change.

JUMP | Improvements

The game already has many systems to ensure jumps are reactive and never ignored (height tolerances, jumps from ledges have tolerance, higher jumps when moving upwards on slopes, etc). However, a new security system has been added that could be the root cause of some ignored jumps: When the player requests a jump up to 0.15s too early (while in air, just before touching the ground), the game will now still jump as soon as the character touches the ground.
This should fix all the remaining why didnt I jump when I asked for it? situations - except, obviously, if you miscalculate your timing and request to jump too early (0.15s timing precision required from the player, instead of previously frame-perfect).

CUBE SURFING | Props Flying

Prop Flying & Cube Surfing: Still possible, but made much harder to achieve with Power Cores and Cubes.
Youll be allowed to jump from an airborne Cube / Power Core only once in most cases, as it will be pushed downwards properly (this was added 0.594 but wasnt always working as expected). They can act as a single-use temporary platform instead of a chain-cube-surfing exploit. In addition, simply walking on Cubes in-air by repeatedly dropping and grabbing it should be much harder to exploit, as it should now try to prevent you from doing so.

CHANGES

This update includes quite a few notable changes that should be tested too:

• Chapter 0: Show HUD no longer plays any sound (whether the first Objective will be shown or not). This is now intended.

• Chapter 0: Current upgrades display on Pause Menu is now fully hidden in Chapter 0, even if you have started from Chapters page - they should remain hidden in that sequence. They will be restored when you reach Chapter 1.

• Chapter 1: Added a new Checkpoint, when the first Taser Battery is retrieved in the Lockdown room. If you die before retrieving it, it is intended and normal that you see the wall explosion moment again. This new Checkpoint is to be tested!

• Chapter 3: Musical hacking minigame is now too hard for some players, as new players are unable to get past it and report bugs. This puzzle is now reverted back to the previous logic, that fails upon any mistakes in the code. Later on, when the difficulty system will be implemented, the 0.595 logic for this puzzle (fail only on first mistake), will be used when Puzzles Difficulty is set to Hard.

• Chapter 4: Flames corridor before Processing Center: Now damages significantly more, as it should not be survived in most cases of NG. Youll now need at least 1 Healthpack in your Backpack + Sprint + Dodge + Speed Level 3 + Health Level 3 to survive it consistently. Missing any of the last 2 mentioned upgrades is still theoretically possible (especially at low framerate), but harder to do consistently (not recommended), and will still require you to Sprint + Dodge.

• Power Cores: Fixed inaccurate collisions between Power Cores and pillars in the game. They should now be greatly improved, and collide properly with walls and pillars. This is a dangerous change, though - Power Cores functionality should be tested:

• Switches: Reduced manual interaction range slightly, for all switches in the game. To be tested if any issues occur in specific cases.

• Mines: It was possible to stand on Mines. Its no longer possible - they will now explode.

• Recordings: Listening to a Recording from the Recordings page will now pause the Menu or Chapter music, and resume it correctly when finished.

LEVEL FIXES

• Chapter 2: Fixed visual black shadow bug on an Exit vent.

• Chapter 4: Fixed Solar Panels distorted texture. These Solar Panels will be reworked in the future to look better. This is just a temporary fix.

• Chapter 4: Fixed various Power Core related softlocks and issues with being able to pick them up from too far away

BUG FIXES

Most of the in-game reported bugs have been fixed, and some suggestions have been implemented:

• Taser: Fixed a case that would result in reloading an invisible Taser, if you were to reload after / while using Scope.

• Taser: Pausing the game while holding the Aim button, would remove the Taser, and quickly show it again upon resume.

• Taser: Pausing the game while Hyper-Shot is currently charging, would continue the charging animation while paused.

• Taser: Pausing the game while charging Hyper-Shot would reset the Hyper-Shot charging to zero.

• Taser: Fixed a case that would cause Module Management to not work properly after using Scope.

• Laser-Equipped Cameras: Depending on your framerate, many hits from the shooting cameras would not properly register. This has been significantly improved, and you should now be more accurately damaged when hit by the Cameras shots.

• Breakable Walls: Aiming exactly between small bricks of the wall, would not register the shot to destroy it. In addition, the screen will no longer show its a breakable wall, once it has been damaged at least once. In addition, remaining flying wall pieces should now happen much less frequently than before.

• Zero-Gravity: Fixed a bug that could cause indefinitely keeping upwards gravity, if a Quick Load occurred to load a Zero-G state save, while the game was already transitioning from Normal Gravity to Zero-Gravity. To be tested if this doesnt provoke new bugs with checkpoints in Zero-G, etc.

• Quick Load: Fixed an exploit that could allow to spam Jump during Quick Load, and resulting in an additional (illegal) jump even while in the air. To be tested, and to verify if this doesnt introduce new bugs with Quick Load in normal conditions.

• Game Saves: Switching from a Chapter to another would sometimes keep previous runs quick save and checkpoint autosaves. All these cases should be fixed, and saved data should be cleared properly, thus preventing various exploits.

• Taser Batteries: Saving the game after picking up a Taser Battery, then exiting to main menu, and resuming again, would result in the Taser Battery being respawned and present instantly. It will now correctly not be present, and will only respawn after the intended delay.

• Reported Bugs: Hundreds more in-game reported bugs and suggestions implemented.

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next bugs ;)

[ 2022-05-05 16:11:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello dear Fractal Space players! The new 0.595 update is now ready to be tested, and focuses on stabilizing the new changes introduced by 0.594. In the next few days, we will be sending Steam keys to the players waiting to access the Pre-Alpha up to Chapter 4. We are still not showing / detailing much the newly added Chapter 0 introduction scene, as it was only limited to Pre-Alpha testers. This 0.595 update will also be set live for the Steam Demo and Xbox One Demo, provided we do not receive major bug reports in fresh New Game runs in Chapter 1 (bugs in next Chapters, or in New Game+ only, do not impact the Demos). All players will be able to see the new introduction in the Demo by the end of next week. Let's take a look at the new changes & improvements of this update!

NEW

What's new in this latest update?

CHAPTER 0 | Improvements

A few improvements were made to Chapter 0. If you haven't seen it yet in 0.584, do not read this yet.

• [spoiler]First of all, some players were confused about the childs voice in the introduction, and thought it was only IG speaking. It is not only IG. Its a conversation between IG and a different voice (a child). It is now a bit clearer in both audio and subtitles.[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]Animated volumetric fog has now been added to Chapter 0! Having fog was always planned in Chapter 0, but considering both performance and complexity, it wasn't ready yet. It should be well optimized already, but is still a heavy addition for some older machines with integrated GPUs.[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]Performance Mode keeps the fog enabled, but since Performance Mode is now more effective in Chapter 0 from this update, it should allow older machines to run smoother in this scene. Later on, an option for Fog Quality will be added to reduce its performance impact.[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]The volume of the waves is now increased. You should now hear them more on other shores.[/spoiler]

CHAPTER 1 | Dialogs

The update 0.594 introduced all-new re-written and re-recorded dialogs for Chapter 1. One major change is that we wanted to try a more feminine voice for IG, and make it feel like her voice was coming through speakers. However, we understand IG's voice may have been a bit too high-pitched and could feel irritating. We have adjusted them all in order to try and reduce this effect, but still keep a mild "coming from speaker" sensation. Hopefully, the irritating aspect of her voice should be now reduced. We'll continue working on that to improve it. In addition, some of the new dialogs are planned to be re-recorded, because even though, we feel most of them are better than their older versions, some still aren't good enough - so you can expect them to be improved across the next few updates (In this update, already a few of them were re-recorded, but not as much as we hoped).

SHOOTING | Lights

The previous update added the ability to shoot at blinking lights to temporarily disable them (small visual enhancement). From this update, shooting at dynamic lights that do not blink (most of the time, the ones that can change color, for example lights for buttons, Power Core Slots, etc.), would not react. They now will, just like other blinking lights. Static lights do not (and never will) react, as those need to remain on at all times, for optimization purposes.

SPEED | Upgrade

Speed upgrade was already affecting crouched movement speed. However, this update now allows the player to crawl faster than it used to, after upgrading Speed.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Achievements were added for acquiring Hyper-Speed, and breaking walls with Hyper-Shot. [quote]Youll need to reset your save for Breakable Walls related achievements to work![/quote]

CHANGES

What was changed in this update?

CHAPTER 0 | Changes

A few changes were made to Chapter 0. If you haven't seen it yet in 0.584, do not read this yet.

• [spoiler]White light next to the Red Platform has been removed to make it darker and more mysterious. If its too dark and hard to get there, it will be restored. Let us know if you want it back ;)[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]Water visual edges are now less noticeable than before - they can still be noticed, but should be significantly better.[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]Interface option, is now ignored during Chapter 0, and will be applied when reaching Chapter 1 (intended)[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]Changes to reduce CPU usage after dropping the box on the red platform. This could help older machines with low-end CPUs during this cutscene, but might also result in longer transition time to Chapter 1. Most players wont feel any difference.[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]Performance Mode should now much further increase performance in Chapter 0, as the lighthouse light will now be disabled as well.[/spoiler]

OTHER | Changes

• Health Packs: Standing on a Health Pack, will now pick it up properly even if you don't move out from it, if you get injured while still standing on it - or if you now have available space in your Health Backpack (use one from Backpack while currently standing still on it).

[quote]If you are full health, standing on a Health Pack, and then enable Hyper-Speed, it will NOT pick it up instantly (intended, to avoid wasting it to heal just 1 HP). It will instead wait for you to disable Hyper-Speed, or be injured externally, to pick it up. These improvements are not applied to Taser Batteries. It will be done for them in the future (less urgent). [/quote]

• Chapter 3: Shorter relocation to make less visible a visual bug when trying to go around / above the bigger on the inside door, just after the Leaf sequence.

• Chapter 3: Optimizations for the area with the musical Hacking minigame have been done (still an expensive area to render, optimizations not finished).

• Chapter 4: The first jetpack path with retractable pillars, will no longer kill the player if he falls slightly lower than the building. It will now relocate instead. In addition, if you try to enter from below, when the laser field isnt present yet (if you didnt go through the vent to the bonus area below), it will activate to prevent you from reaching it from outside (as you are meant to use the ground vent from inside).

• Power Core Slots: Slightly improved the self-shadows for those.

• All Chapters: Various optimizations for first-time use of most shaders - should prevent some mini-freezes while playing on older GPUs. If you still have mini-freezes on first usage of game features, it is most likely linked to first audio loadings, on older CPUs.

LEVEL FIXES

• [spoiler]Chapter 0: A bug was causing water to be very bright and white, when Chapter 0 was started with Water quality set to Low. Should now be fixed with proper Low quality water.[/spoiler]

• [spoiler]Chapter 0: The Beach music would not properly loop and have small skips in some cases. Should now be solved and play perfectly.[/spoiler]

• Chapter 1: If the box from Chapter 0 was placed too far away from the center of the red platform, it will now fallback closer to the center to avoid having it too close to the player as he wakes up in Chapter 1.

• Chapter 1: Power Core was not always respawned properly when dropped in the Laser Field in front of the time-related keypad for the vent.

• Chapter 2: Recent changes to the Bridge area introduced a new Last Checkpoint softlock when dying on the Bridge (locked in between the double doors). Now fixed.

• Chapter 2: Various static reflections improvements / bugfixes after the Heads Up lift, and Bridge areas.

• Chapter 4: Added security system for ending the Sun Control sequence: it should make sure you cannot move the sun at the very last frame when its in the correct angle. You could potentially end up with the Power Beam enabled and not all Solar Panels in the sun without this security. To be tested.

BUG FIXES

• Mouse / Gamepad Rotation: Looking around with mouse or gamepad had a bug that caused it to be framerate dependent. The speed of looking around with gamepad and mouse, should now be fully independent from framerate. Having a mini-freeze can still cause some jittering, but this is hard to fully solve (should be reduced now).

• Camera Smoothing: The smoothing of looking around (enabled by default) is now slightly smoother.

• Mouse / Gamepad Rotation: In addition, when Camera Smoothing is disabled, the camera rotation movement should now feel more reactive and more instantaneous (less input lag), especially at 144+ FPS.

• Moving Platforms: There was still a case in which jump reception on a moving platform could push you a bit too far for 1 frame, offsetting you from the platform at every jump landing on said platform. Should now be fully solved (to be tested with different machines and framerates, though)

• Aim Stabilizer: The automatic movement to aim at the stabilized object, was also framerate dependent, due to a bug. Now fully framerate independent.

• Leaderboards: Exiting Leaderboards page while the active tab was Cycle, and coming back, would result in an in-game critical error. Now fixed.

• Tablets: Current tablet held in hand would become invisible when a cutscene started, but the text would remain in the air, flying. They are meant to be fully hidden during cutscenes, and should now be fully invisible as intended.

• Tablets: A bug would allow picking up the same tablets in NG+ in order to incorrectly increase the completion of the Chapter (Tablets found).

• Crosshair: After or during a cutscene, the crosshair could sometimes be visible again, even if the player currently had an object in his hands (should be hidden in this case)

• Graphics: Changing Graphics Options during a cutscene would provoke unintended flying lights above the players hands, and for other various lights in the game during that specific cutscene.

• Chapter 1: Fixed various small lighting and reflections bugs that were reported.

• Catwalk Achievement: Could sometimes be unlocked even if the player walked in water in the first room. Now fixed.

• Reset Save: Improved this system to clearly explain in case the game is not allowed to delete its own save files (antiviruses usually do this). In addition, ensuring that requesting this while the game was already saving, would still successfully reset the save.

• Forced Pause: Fixed a case in which out-of-focus forced PAUSE overlay would remain visible when returning to the Main Menu.

• Film Grain: Could sometimes remain enabled even if it was requested to be disabled. Should now be fixed, but to be tested as there may be edge cases.

• Reported Bugs & Suggestions: Many additional in-game reported bugs have been fixed, and various suggestions have been implemented or planned for future update.

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next bugs ;)

[ 2022-04-21 18:08:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! After a large amount of work and time, the latest major update 0.594 for Fractal Space is now live on Steam! This update brings a crazy amount of bugfixes, improvements and new changes, and a completely new introduction sequence to the game! Currently, this update is only for Pre-Alpha players. The Public Demo on Steam and Xbox will only be updated in a couple of weeks - after the major issues have been fixed in the new changes and the new intro. Players awaiting for a Steam Key: You will receive within 1 or 2 weeks, most likely after the next update is live, once major issues with this update are fixed. [quote]Please click the !Reset Save! button in the Main Menu to reset your save and avoid various bugs with the new changes - At least, starting a New Game is strongly recommended.[/quote]

CHAPTER 0 | Introduction

The new introduction for Fractal Space on PC is now finally ready! Even though it feels like a short introduction, it was a significant amount of work to have this first functional version.

IMPORTANT | Notes

• Please start a fresh New Game without Speedrun Mode and Cutscenes enabled, to see the new intro!
• None of your Abilities are available during the introduction (intended)
• Debug Mode is not allowed in Introduction (intended)
• Custom FoV is ignored and NOT applied throughout the introduction sequence. This is intended, and will not change. It is only then correctly applied to desired value after the intro is finished.
• There are no checkpoints in the introduction scene (intended, its very short)
• There is a point in the introduction sequence, from which the Restart chapter button is temporarily unavailable (greyed out). This is intended, and it is restored again after the intro is finished.
• It is intended that its not played when starting a New Game+, and start directly in Chapter 1.
• Chapter 0 is entirely skipped in Speedrun Mode (because it does not impact Leaderboards, and contains 1 unskippable cutscene)

CHAPTER 1 | New Dialogs

This update contains many changes to Chapter 1's dialogs:

• Most of the dialogs of Chapter 1 have been re-recorded from scratch, many were entirely re-written too. They are now of much higher audio quality, with better audio equipment.
• IGs voice now feels more like it is coming out of a speaker in the room, or a communication device (intended).
• In general, the acting is also improved for most lines - some are still not good though, and well improve them over time.
• Many more dialogs are now different in New Game+. Since most of them are not played in Speedrun Mode, its recommended to play at least once NG and NG+ with Speedrun Mode disabled in CH1 (no changes in later Chapters yet) to hear them / check for bugs / subtitles issues.
• Note of a story change: the character (you) is meant to remember more in NG+ compared to previous versions and Pocket Edition, this is also intended.
• The last rooms of Chapter 1 (after the second lift) still have older dialogs, and some that are silent, please ignore those, because we didnt have time to work on them yet - and there are planned changes at the end, that arent done yet.

Next Chapters dialogs will come later, as they will all also be re-written and re-recorded.

NEW

Let's talk about the new features and options that were added in this update.

LEADERBOARDS | In-Game Page

Finally! The game now has full support for in-game Leaderboards page! You can now check your Rank, Top 10, Top 50 and Top 100 of each Chapter, and the entire Cycle!
In addition, gamepad navigation is fully supported on this new page. When this new page has been tested and all potential bugs on this new system are fixed, there will be a Leaderboard reset for all Chapters, and anti-cheat systems to avoid uploading scores from older versions of the game, and more - but this isn't the priority for this update.

CHAPTER 1 | Recordings & Tablets

Picked-up Recordings for the first Chapter have been re-recorded for better quality and acting as well. There are now also 3 new Recordings to pick up in Chapter 1! New Tablets were added in the first Chapter as well. We'll let you find them :) [quote]Some Tablets now have a different text in New Game+, so it might be worth to revisit them![/quote]

CHAPTER 1 | Accessible Rooftop

The rooftop above the Taser Room is now meant to be fully accessible (only in New Game+), when going to pick up the Taser, and when returning back from it. No buggy / forced skips should be possible:
Future updates will add more challenge to reach the item up there.

CHAPTER 1 | Lockdown Area

After getting the Taser, the room where you get the first Taser Ammo Pack ever has changed slightly, when you return to it on your way back (the lockdown moment). Youll see ;)
[quote]In addition, IG will now react to activating the button manually instead of shooting at it (it's intended to be possible, but not the main path)[/quote]

WATER | Option & Optimization

A new Water Quality option has been added. Default is Maximum, which enables dynamic reflections on Water. Setting it to Low disables the water reflections and other effects:
This allows you to disable environment dynamic reflections by setting Reflections to Medium (Static reflections only) or Disabled, but keeping dynamic reflections on Water by keeping Water option to Maximum separately. Maximum setting is quite expensive, but much less expensive than general Dynamic environment Reflections settings (as there are less water areas regular reflective areas). In addition, dynamic water reflections (Water setting at Maximum) have been significantly optimized compared to previous versions of the game. Various rendering artifacts causing objects to blink / disappear in water reflections were fixed as well.

240 FPS SUPPORT | Framerate Options

This update adds official support for 60+ Hz monitors, and a Framerate Option, which can allow to disable V-Sync.

240 Hz Screens

The game now supports all monitor refresh rates! If you have a 75, 144, 240 Hz monitor, and a gaming GPU that can run the game above 60 FPS, you should feel the difference:
Monitor maximum refresh rate is automatically detected and the monitors refresh rate is used when starting the game. [quote]Note: It is recommended to keep Reflections to Medium, Decals at Low / Medium to reach higher framerates (Dynamic reflections is the most expensive setting)[/quote]

Framerate Option & V-Sync

You can now cap your framerate to a lower value than your monitor refresh rate: In which case would you do that? If you have an older PC, and rarely hit 60 FPS on a 60 Hz monitor, it might be a good idea to limit it to 50 FPS, for example.
This will avoid substantial changes in framerate, and will automatically disable Vsync, which will slightly increase performance - so it might help to try and keep this framerate. Since the framerate is capped to that selected value, you will not experience screen tearing even without Vsync. Vsync is always enabled if you select your monitors refresh rate as a framerate cap (max value). Otherwise, you are bound to experience screen tearing if you ever reach 61 FPS, which is bad for everyone's experience. Unlimited framerate is not an option, as it will not have any advantages to go higher than your monitors refresh rate for this game, and will only introduce screen tearing and various other issues, and could result in potential exploits. [quote]If you wish to simply disable V-Sync while still targeting max framerate, simply select the second-to-last maximum framerate option - it will disable V-Sync and sure no screen tearing will happen (best of both worlds), as the game will remain 1 FPS below than your monitor's refresh rate.[/quote]

DYNAMIC REFLECTIONS | Rework

The Dynamic option for environment Reflections has been completely reworked in order to improve their overall visual quality, reduce the blur and associated jittering:
They also are now greatly optimized compared to the previous versions. Even with these optimizations, its still the most expensive option in the game, and is built for dedicated gaming GPUs, so do not expect to play smoothly on an old PC, or non-gaming laptop with integrated graphics. They still cannot be perfect in all situations and have some artifacts in some angles; but its much better than previous implementations ;) [quote]Note: They are now meant not to be present on all surfaces. It is normal that youll find various areas where you cannot see any Dynamic Reflections (intended for either performance reasons, or because they have not been implemented in this room yet, and sometimes because they would simply be too distracting).[/quote]

VENT FANS & DYNAMIC LIGHTS

• Shooting a dynamic light (blinking / color changing ones) will provoke it to flicker a bit temporarily (not the fully static ones, and this is intended. Its acceptable as this is only a small cosmetic detail)

• Vent Fans: Shooting vent fans will provoke them to stop spinning / jitter temporarily

ACHIEVEMENTS

A few new Achievements were added in this update:

• New Achievement added for the very first room, only possible in New Game+. Wont be detailed here to avoid spoilers, but you can see it after playing the new introduction, on the games page on Steam / Achievements.

• New Achievement added for completing Chapter 1 while shooting only 1 Switch (the mandatory one during the Tutorial). Only possible in NG+ with upgrades (to my knowledge!).

• New Achievements added for finding Tablets. They cannot be all completed yet, because not all Tablets are in the game yet (intended).

• Stats: Current Chapter stats in New Game+, and Chapters page, now display Tablets found, and are taken into account for Chapter Completion %.

LIGHTING | Improvements

Most light band highlights on walls and grounds (blue, red, etc), now emit a faint (non-dynamic) light to surrounding objects:

It remains mostly visible in dark areas and corners, and adds a bit to the atmosphere and feels more realistic:

CHANGES

This update contains various changes - we'll list the most important ones here.

LOCALIZATION | Update Shortcut

• Localization: Dynamic update of Localization has now been changed to Left Shift + L key combination

LEVEL | Changes

A non-exhaustive of various Chapters changes:

• Chapter 2: Dont look down laser fall: Last blinking lasers are no longer instant-kill, meaning you can now survive them if you have enough health. This might be reverted in the future, but if so, it will have many more lasers to make it understandable that you cannot survive them.

• Chapter 3: Terminal Override (musical hacking): Since the latest change (that made it harder by only failing when all 5 notes have been pressed), too many first-time players are stuck here. Piano notes sound quality and accuracy has been greatly improved to help with this. In addition, the first note now always fails instantly if it is wrong, to at least give away the first base note.

• Chapter 4: Train Ride: Many of the challenges no longer allow you to simply fall below to skip them - it made it too easy, especially while speedrunning:

• The ones in which you still can simply fly below, are still allowed, but most now require you to play then normally even while speedrunning - which makes it harder (intended). In addition, a few new changes were made to the Train Ride rooms. If you resume your saved game from the previous update without restarting Chapter 4 entirely, you will have various invalid bugs - please restart Chapter 4 from the start if you are not starting a New Game or not resetting your save.

• Chapter 4: The Secret Passage area is now a fully enclosed, darker area (as intended).

JETPACK | Balancing

The latest update introduced smoother jetpack movement. However, it was a known issue that the first few seconds of jetpack rise were too powerful. It has now been reduced, in order to both feel smoother and prevent exploiting to jetpack almost indefinitely (as the jetpack rise of the first few seconds was too powerful, you could chain the jetpack and fly for much longer than intended).

PROP FLYING

Tablet Surfing / Cube Surfing / Prop Flying exploit (not really a bug per-say) has been present for a while, as its a complex one to solve. Finally, it has now been drastically reduced. The idea behind this change is that Cube Surfing / Prop Flying should no longer be easy to perform to skip mandatory puzzles / challenges in New Game for a new player. A Cube below your feet will still slow down your fall (intended), but wont allow you to jump higher from it anymore. In addition, whenever you try to perform it (or successfully manage to), the Cube will now be properly pushed downwards (as it should, because you are in fact, kicking it down), thus preventing you from chaining it easily. This change should prevent many illegitimate skips in New Game. [quote]Note: You can still perform it easily if the cube currently has an upwards vertical velocity (intended).[/quote]

TUTORIALS

• All tutorial visual skins have changed for better readability.

• Movement and Look Around tutorials are now present only in the intro, and only displayed if the player has not looked around or moved after a few seconds upon taking control in the intro. It is not a bug that they are no longer displayed in Chapter 1, and intended that they are never seen if the player knows how to move / look around on his own (the case of most players).

OTHER | Changes

• Flames: Flames now push Cubes that are in the way (intended)

• Crosshair: Center crosshair is now hidden when the player is carrying any object (intended)

• Respawn: Cycle and Iteration now displayed at every death, even if cutscenes are disabled / Speedrun Mode is enabled

• Speedrun Mode: Speed is now correctly updated while in Zero-Gravity

• Skip Cutscenes: The Skip button has been moved to the top-right corner of the screen, to avoid interfering with subtitles readability. It is now also automatically hidden after 5 seconds.

• Terminals: Upgrade Terminals and Room Control Terminals now show Sign in instead of Activate when looking at them.

• Heal / Reload: Request to reload Taser / Heal while nothing left in the Backpack and Health / Ammo already full,, will now show No healthpack / No Batteries instead of Health Full / Ammo full (intended)

• Health / Taser Backpacks: Moving naturally from a Chapter to another, will keep the current items from the previous Chapter (Health/Taser backpack count), but will properly be emptied if starting any Chapter from Chapters Page, or starting New Game / New Game+ (intended)

• Performance Mode: Enabling Performance Mode now also reduces the quality of Dynamic Lighting on Recordings.

• Code Changes: There has been many code changes to ensure many time-based events / User Interface animations / tutorial, etc are now fully independent from the time slowdown provoked by Hyper-Speed. For example, before this update, enabling Hyper-Speed while a Tutorial was displayed, could cause it to remain displayed for 30 seconds instead of 3 seconds. This was considered minor, but could cause other bugs that could end up being major. Most, if not all, important code is now independent from Hyper-Speed time slowdown (as intended).

BUG | Fixes

A large amount of bugs were fixed in this update - more than what will be listed here, but here's the list of the most important ones. Note that most in-game reported bugs should now be fixed as well.

LEVEL | Fixes

Here are the major bugs fixed in specific Chapters:

• Chapter 1: Various relocation fixes have been made. The relocations for Taser Room have been modified to avoid certain skip/exploit situations (could sometimes relocate next to first 2 cubes & laser cages room instead of inside Taser Room, etc). Should now be fixed for all Taser Room relocations.

• Chapter 2: Bridge Puzzle: If you were to instantly request Last Checkpoint within 1s after solving it, you would remain stuck in the Bridge Puzzle interface. Good find! It used to be a bug that could happen often and was fixed, to only be possible in that small timing window. Now it should be fully fixed!

• Chapter 3: Various vents now open faster & earlier, to avoid getting slowed down by them while speedrunning.

• Chapter 4: Train Ride: Various visual bugs (missing objects when backtracking) have been fixed. Maybe some still remain, to be tested. Various collision bugs were also fixed.

• Chapter 4: Progress Room: If you were to go through the window of Progress Room (as intended), then went back up outside to the roof, you could then drop down into the Cameras room too early (not intended), and be stuck without the Hyper-Speed Suppressor Generator present. Should now be solved:

GAMEPLAY | Fixes

And now, here is the list of most important gameplay bug fixes:

• Terminals: Fixed a bug that provoked Terminals to only be usable once, if the player had acquired every single upgrade in the game

• Keypads: Fixed a bug that could cause a softlock on Keypad interfaces, in case you spammed keys while it is hiding / showing.

• Gamepad: Fixed a bug that could cause gamepad right stick to not work to look around in some rare combinations of ALT+Tab and playing on keyboard/mouse while a gamepad is attached (not used).

• Mouse Look: Fixed a bug that could cause mouse movement to not rotate the camera properly (only vertical or horizontal look movement was working). This happened with a complex combination of ALT+Tab and playing on keyboard/mouse while a gamepad is attached (not used).

• Gamepad: Fixed a bug that could cause wrong control icons when often switching between keyboard/mouse and gamepad.

• Performance Mode: Fixed a bug when Enabling, then Disabling Performance Mode during a cutscene, could cause it to be re-enabled when the cutscene was finished, but with the game considering Performance Mode to currently be OFF.

• Room Control: Map labels for objects Camera 1, Door 2, etc. were not properly localized. Now fixed.

• Room Control: Visual gauge to represent current Available Power has been reworked to ensure the 0 state is represented correctly with the bar placed fully at the left. Now becomes red when at 0.

• Bridges: If the player is on a Bridges deployment animation path, he will now be pushed correctly by the deploying Bridge (bug also known as Bugge for Bug + Bridge). You might be teleported above or below the Bridge (intended).

• Tutorials: Changing resolution or Safe Area position while a Tutorial was displayed, could cause the tutorial to not be fully visible. It may now take 1s to update, but should ensure to adjust tutorial position to be fully visible, after changing resolution. This could mostly be noticed on 4:3 screens, rather than 16:9 / 16:10 screens.

• Crouching: Crouch / Standing Up transition could be faster when running at higher FPS, and slower when running at lower FPS. This has now been fixed.

• Flames: Fixed a bug that could cause flames to sometimes be ON or OFF incorrectly, while sometimes doing damage or not - they should now always be in sync properly with the desired state.

• Cutscenes: Disabling Cutscenes option while a cutscene was playing, but was just already requested to be skipped right before pausing, could cause various strange bugs. Should now be fixed.

• Moving Platforms: The rare, mysterious bug in which the player could slide while standing on a moving platform, should now be fixed. It was rare, because it could only happen if you were to play on a PC with a 144hz monitor and was actively running the game at 144 FPS. Official support for 144 FPS should now fix this issue.

• Moving Platforms: Fixed a bug that caused a slight player push upon reception on an actively moving platform. Repeating jumps on moving platforms would gradually move you towards the edges of the moving platform, if the reception happened while it was still moving. Should now be perfect.

• Headbob: Fixed a bug that could cause sudden camera mini-bump shortly after reception on a moving platform. Recentering (headbob stop) upon stopping requesting movement, is now smoother as well.

• Aim Stabilizer: Fixed a bug that could cause it to aim next to the object instead of directly aiming at it. It should now be solved, but could create new ones - to be tested!

• Physics: Some players could feel like the physics movement of objects, especially in Zero-G, could feel laggy. This was mostly noticeable when running the game above 60 FPS. It should now be greatly improved, as physics system is now update more often to result in smoother movement, based on the actively selected framerate in Options.

• Pause Menu: Fixed visual bug that could cause the current Chapter Stats and Upgrades Stats text to sometimes overflow their box container visuals in some languages.

• Pause: Pausing the game or ALT+Tabbing while on a moving platform could cause the player to be moved slightly forward/back in the moving platforms movement direction. Should now be fully solved.

• Lighting: Fixed unintended self-shadowing on some grounds (floors), that would show black shadow bands for no apparent reason.

• Save System: Rare cases of saving during cutscenes that modified the environment (disabled Flames, lasers, opened doors, etc), could result in corrupted level state (lasers remaining ON when they should be OFF after a last checkpoint load, for example).

KNOWN | Issues

A short list of the known bugs or issues that aren't 100% sure to be fully fixed:

• Bug 7482773931343 about somehow having a non-unlimited ammo during the Taser tutorial of Chapter 1 could not be reproduced, thus might still be active. If you find steps on how to reproduce, please report again with more information. Thank you!

• Bug 231132669394050 about a probably incorrect relocation in Chapter 4 could not be reproduced, thus might still be active. If you find steps on how to reproduce, please report again with more information. Thank you!

• Bug 4212816279831 involving an incorrect moving platform / switch state synchronization in Chapter 1 could not be reproduced, thus might still be active. If you find steps on how to reproduce, please report again with more information. Thank you!

• The new Chapter X 3D display will not adjust localized language correctly if the language is changed while already displayed. This will be solved later. It is currently only used in CH0 / CH1.

• Even though most cases of players unable to rotate the camera horizontally or vertically using the mouse, have now been fixed (happens after ALT+Tab out and back), there could still be rare cases of this happening. If it happens, please report with details of steps to reproduce. When it happens, simply moving your mouse significantly or Alt+Tab again should fix it.

THANKS | For Playing

Thank you again to all dear players for testing! We'll continue working to fix the new reported major bugs from this update, in order to update the Steam and Xbox One Demo, over the next week or two ;) When the Demos are updated within the next 1-2 weeks, we will send out new Steam Keys to players currently waiting. Have a great day, and happy gaming!

[ 2022-04-06 15:49:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! The PC Pre-Alpha Version 0.593 is now available on Steam! After recent update 0.592, we have been working on various bugfixes & improvements for 0.593, which are now ready to test! We're hoping most major bugs are now fixed, but we'll see about that once our testers get their hands on it :) Alright, let's take a look at the new changes and fixes!

NEW

Here's a list of a few new features that are worth mentioning first.

SWITCH PRO CONTROLLER

This update adds official support for Nintendo Switch Pro Controller! It will now show the correct gamepad icons (was previously showing the Xbox One button icons):
[quote]Please note it will only work perfectly while connected wirelessly via Bluetooth. If you are playing with Nintendo Switch Controller via USB cable, please follow this guide.[/quote]

USER INTERFACE | Improvements

This update includes a few user interface improvements:

• Many UI elements are now sharper (less blurry).
  • Note: This may not be noticeable at low resolutions

• Jetpack/Hover Gauges: Some unintended lines could be visible next to them. Should now be fixed

• Mouse: Button Icons: Mouse side Next/Previous buttons on a gaming mouse should now show side click buttons correctly instead of ButtonX.

• Health Bar: Improved visual indicator for Hyper Speed / Health Backpack counter above health bar. Health backpack and Taser backpack battery counters are now greyed out if empty:

• Room Control Interface: Buttons are now less blurry:

CHAPTER 2

First of all, in the first room of Chapter 2, you will now be required to shoot a button for the Bridge 1 to deploy (similar to the Pocket Edition):
In addition, a button is now also required to deploy Bridge 2 to exit this room. This was added for the following reasons:

• It is a preparation to later allow the player to drop down to access a Bonus Room (roof of the Room you are getting out of). This change makes this future secret area easier to see and access.
• Currently, there is no way to actually reach the roof anymore; but this is intended, as there is not yet any content here

Moreover, more optimizations for triggers were done in Chapter 2, similarly to Chapter 1 (still work in progress).

LAST CHECKPOINT

The Checkpoint button now displays how much gameplay time has elapsed since it was saved:
The goal of this is to allow a player to estimate roughly how much gameplay time would be lost if he uses the Checkpoint button to restart from the last Checkpoint, or if he wants to exit the game. Please note that:

• It intentionally does not change the elapsed time if the game is paused or out of focus
  • This is to avoid wrongly thinking the last checkpoint was 10 minutes ago whereas the game was in fact paused for 10 minutes.

• It is reset to 0 when loading the last checkpoint or after death, to avoid thinking the last checkpoint was a long time ago after multiple deaths, whereas it is, in fact, a very recent save, and no (or very little) progress would be lost.

In future updates, the Last Checkpoint and Exit confirmation popups will state this duration.

LOCALIZATION

Good news for translators! From this update, when you are done making a pass of changes to the Localization Kit online sheet, and would like to test them, simply let us know at charles@haze-games.com and we will update the game's database (it's in a different dedicated sheet, for security reasons) Then, you can automatically update the localization of your local version of the game, without needing to wait for a next Steam update!
This runtime localization update can be performed by:

• Pause the game (or if already on the Main Menu)
• Press Left Shift + R
  • Note: This will be changed to Left Shift + L in next 0.594 update, to avoid potential conflicts
• Wait 5 to 15 seconds for the notification to appear
• And that's it - The game's localization will be updated to the latest version!

[quote]If after 15s, no notification appears, it means you already have the latest localization version. The next update will notify you that you are already up-to-date.[/quote]

CHANGES

Below is the list of main changes in this update.

CHAPTER 1

• Chapter 1: Last Room Camera: You can no longer avoid the Camera by standing/jumping on the crates with a Healthpack on them. It is intended, though, that the Camera cannot see you on the 3-stacked Crates if you go there with Dodge (NG+ only).

CHAPTER 2

• Chapter 2: Bridges 1 and 2 in the first Room now require a button interaction to be deployed.

• Chapter 2: Corridor before Dont Look Down screen: You cant stand above the Lasers anymore

• Chapter 2: Double-Saw horizontal door replaced by Hyper-Door. The saw can be seen and climbed on from the outside, but thats acceptable.

CHAPTER 3

• Chapter 3: First bridge and first room now uses Imminent Death instead of instant-death

• Chapter 3: Crows and Leaf cutscenes will now teleport the Player to the correct end of cutscene position

• Chapter 3: Added a checkpoint if you enter the Bonus vent to reach the Recording, after the first possible Breakable Wall.

• Chapter 3: Entering the Sequence Room will now make the ground below the Laser Field disappear

CHAPTER 4

• Chapter 4: You can now shoot through the pipes of Chapter 4 to destroy the Hyper-Speed Suppressor below you. You can still either open the door or shoot through (now a player choice).

• Chapter 4: You can now shoot through pipes in the Vent 3, returning to the Door 1 after opening it (the Vent with a Generator to Destroy, and small retractable walls)

LEVEL FIXES

Here's a list of the various level-related bug fixes:

• Chapter 1: Light next to the moving platforms after the dual Laser Cages was too bright.

• Chapter 2: When speedrunning, the London Bridge area where you pickup the jetpack would require you to stand still or move backwards for relocation & lasers in front to be properly disabled / activated if you were to skip the Bridge puzzle. Should now be fixed an allow fast playthrough to skip the London Bridge.

• Chapter 2: Fixed exploit that could allow you to go through the Roof large smasher and skip a big part of the level. You will now be crushed appropriately.

• Chapter 3: Fixed a bug if you entered then exited rapidly the bigger on the inside door, after the leaf scene. All bugs of this door should now be fixed.

• Chapter 3: Various collision bugfixes in electrified water area, below the Initialization Room

• Chapter 4: Opening the Secret Passage protection of the Beam Receiver, with the Beam already directed correctly, would cause a magic free camera bug. Should now be fixed!

• Chapter 4: Fixed keyboard going through the ceiling of the last Room Control area (hopefully)

• Chapter 4: Last Room checkpoint could incorrectly save the state of lasers that protect the Power Core, and the Generator. Should now be fixed

• Chapter 4: The first Mines intro cutscene could sometimes not be played. Should now be fixed (to be tested).

• All Chapters: Removed player collisions on various lights to avoid interference with gameplay

BUG FIXES

Finally, here's a list of the most important bug fixes for this update:

• Black Screen: When restarting a Chapter or loading the next Chapter, it could happen that the game would remain a black screen. If this happens, please use ALT+Tab to fix it. At least 1 occurrence of this bug has been fixed - so it should happen much less often. Though there may still be some cases, please report if it happens again with as much details as you can about what preceded the occurrence of the bug (ALT+Tab, bug report uploaded recently, etc.). Thank you!

• Terminals: Pressing ESC or back button on the gamepad will now properly remove the Upgrades or End Game tutorials.

• Objective Markers: Enabling Objective Markers in the middle of a level, while having played without them, would cause older objective marker arrows to remain.

• Pressure Plates: When disabling Zero-G, the Pressure Plate would sometimes become green, but not activate the corresponding objects. This could likely happen for the last door of Chapter 2. Should now be fully fixed.

• Sequencer: Fixed bug that could cause the Sequencer light LEDs to be all off after resuming the game from the Main Menu, even though it should show the currently required color to press.

• Encryption Keys: When inserted into Key Readers, the Encryption Key could sometimes change to an incorrect color

• Objective Markers: Changing language while playing will now correctly update language of objective markers.

• Tutorials: Would sometimes still play appear/disappear sound even though these tutorials would not be visible to the player (already seen, for example)

• Taser: A bug could cause the Taser to hide even with Aiming button held down, when a Cube/Tablet/Power Core was respawned

• Doors: Sometimes, doors could finish their close animation abruptly, skipping the small bump upon closing part of the animation and instantly close. Should now be fixed.

• Generators: Fixed a bug that could cause Generators to be saved as Exploded, when the associated objects would still be ON. This could happen if the game was saved during a Generator Explosion. It could result in an impossible situation if Quick Load / Restart from Last Checkpoint. Should now be fixed.

• Start Screen: If a gamepad is connected, it will now display correctly both gamepad button AND Tab icons instead of Action4

• Restart: Upon restarting or loading to the next chapter, Last Checkpoint respawn hint, crosshair and other interface elements could be visible. Should now be fixed (at least improved)

• Cube: Unauthorized Object cube disappearing animation could keep the Cubes visual effects while the cube was no longer visible, for quite a while if it happened with Hyper-Speed active.

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs.

[ 2021-09-02 19:35:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! A new update is now live on Steam! Version 0.592 is available! This version includes hundreds more bug fixes, reported by our dearest fans, which we would like to thank before we continue :) We will be sending hundreds of keys to the many players who requested them since previous 0.591 was live. Get ready! Alright then, what's new?

NEW

We have a few new elements or major changes to discuss in this update.

JETPACK | Customization

You can now customize your Jetpack Color in Taser Customization page! The Jetpack fuel bar will now adjust its color based on this custom color as well:

JETPACK | Physics Improvements

Jetpack physics have been improved to feel smoother. It might take you some time to get used to it. New bugs expected with this change as well. The goals of this change are to:

• Make the vertical compensation of initiating the Jetpack during a fall, feel much smoother
• Eliminate all "abrupt stops" while using the Jetpack
• Create a smoother Jetpack momentum feel

HYPER-SHOT | Improvements

Many improvements were made to the newly introduced Hyper-Shot system:

• Hyper-Shot sounds have been added
• Sound fixes when starting to charge Hyper-Shot
• Hyper-Shot Level 2 now charges significantly faster than Level 1
• Various bugfixes linked to Hyper-Shot mechanic

FRAGILE | Windows

In most situations, Dodging while on the ground will never dodge downwards (but Dodging downwards works if you are in the air). From this update, you can now directly Dodge vertically down (towards your feet) when standing on a breakable window to break through it!

VISUAL | Improvements

This update includes some visual improvements - let's take a look at a few of them!

Crates

Simple static crates that block the player (not interactable) have been visually improved. The older version is still used in some areas to vary:

Lights

Improved lights source visuals and texture. Lights now have the center neon of the correct color instead of simply white. In addition, when the light color changes (green to red, for example), neon center and surrounding light beam around it also changes to the appropriate color. Its good to check them out, because there might be some incorrect color selected by the system in some edge cases:

OTHER | New Additions

A short list of the most important new additions:

• Smashers: Death by being crushed by moving platforms or Smashers will now instantly fade-to-black

• Taser-Gun: The character will now still squeeze his finger even if there is no more ammo remaining, as he tries to shoot.

• Terminals: Textures of Terminals and locks have been slightly improved. White lighting is present on them (especially sides/back), as it was always intended.

• Power Cores Now have gradual appear visual effect when respawned, like Cubes.

• Chapter 1: Triggers / Spawning / Despawning optimizations have been applied to Chapter 1 only. As these optimizations may create new bugs, it was only applied to this Chapter (and a bit in Chapter 3). Let us know if new bugs appear. This optimization should result in slightly less mini-freezes as you make progress through the level, but will potentially take longer to save Checkpoints in some areas on low-end PCs.

• Chapter 1: Added a new button to open / close Door 1 and Door 2 in the first Camera Room, in case you lock yourself in with the vertical moving platform. If you are detected, they remain unusable until Camera is Cleared (intended).

• Chapter 1: First Camera Room: There is now a Laser Field that will kill you below the vertical moving platform, as you should not be able to exit through here. There is now a visible gap between vertical moving platform and walls, so you can clearly guess that there is a trap below (light goes through the edges)

• Chapter 1: Picking up the Taser with a Cube in hands, will now automatically drop the Cube to ensure you see the Taser.

• Chapter 2: You can now skip the corridor that leads to the Big Room in New Game+, by using Hyper-Speed + Dodge

• Chapter 2: Door to the final lift of the Chapter, now uses a Pressure Plate instead of a switch - requires you to disable Zero-G

• Chapter 3: Initialization Room now has more lasers protecting the first Generator to destroy - this is to make it more clear you wont survive trying to go through. In addition, there are now static lasers, requiring you to either crouch or jetpack above them to reach the Generator. New static lasers when entering this area as well, to force you to be more careful after moving the Platform 1.

• Chapter 4: Processing Center Atomizer destructible floors now look cracked to have a more fragile appearance. The Protection Grid also now looks stronger.

• Quick Save: Requesting a Quick Save while the game is already saving a Checkpoint, will now force the Checkpoint save to finish instantly, to avoid you having to wait a few seconds for it to finish, before the Quick Save can finally be performed. This may result in a mini-freeze when requesting a Quick Save while the game is already busy saving your checkpoint - but should avoid you having to wait. If this mini-freeze is too much on low-end machines, let me know and this will be reverted.

CHANGES

In addition, we have some changes that are worth noting here.

• Optimization: Various Triggers and other events in Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 have been optimized. These optimizations will over the next few updates be applied to other Chapters, and be improved. The goal for them is to reduce mini-freezes while making progress.

• Jetpack Color: Default Jetpack flames color is now changed from Yellow to Cyan (Arctic)

• Headbob: Headbob movement while walking has been changed slightly to feel smoother and more natural. It may feel weird at first - or maybe you wont even notice :)

• Dodge: Requesting to Jump while already Dodging used to continue the Dodge, and perform a Jump at the end of the Dodge. This could be a few seconds later. This has now been changed to start jumping instantly - interrupting the Dodge but still providing you with higher momentum for the Jump.

• Chapter 1: First Cameras room (last room of the Chapter): You can now see better the Camera 3D Models, as there is better lighting next to them. First Camera is now behind a window that clearly shows the rest of the station outside (intended):

• Saws: Now have a more precise damage collision system. Should improve cases where players head is inside the saw without being damaged. Good idea to check if some saws no longer work correctly after this change.

• Chapter 1: Changed the first Cube room: the Respawn button has been removed. The Cube will now automatically be respawned in front of the exit door, if its placed where you would be softlocked, once the player touches the ground. This makes it more discrete, and still handles the potential softlock. This auto respawn system is disabled in NG+ if you have Dodge, as its not required.

• Chapter 1: First Power Core will only respawn in front of the fist Power Core Slot if you had reached that area with the Power Core in your hands.

• Chapter 2: Vertical Room large moving platforms are now made of 4 (now red) moving platforms instead of one large one. When opening the Exit, the light of the moving platform that stops becomes white, in order to make it clear that it is not an active danger of falling anymore:

• Chapter 2: First shooting cameras room: If you use the Override Door button, the saved Checkpoint will now respawn you force-crouched behind the boxes (intended), to ensure you will not be softlocked in an imminent death checkpoint save, if a projectile was currently heading towards you at the time you interacted with the Door Override button.

• Chapter 2: Very last room, the breakable window to get out of the optional Upgrade Terminal, now has many more lasers to make it clear you cannot survive entering it without first disabling the lasers, or going through the vent instead.

• Chapter 3: Various lighting improvements, including the Sequence Room

• Chapter 3: From Cold to Warm hint text in the Tunnel, is now white instead of cyan to avoid confusion in the order / hints

• Chapter 4: The Sun Control Room is now accessed from below, instead of on the right (when looking at it).

• Chapter 4: The Train Ride: Imminent Death system now displayed correctly. Has been changed to make it harder to be skipped in New Game (only 2s before death). If you are in Speedrun Mode or in New Game+, Imminent Death limit is now moved to be lower than normal, allowing you to continue performing your previous speedrun skips.

• Chapter 4: Various lighting improvements

CHAPTER | Fixes

Here's a list of the most important bugfixes which are directly related to Chapters:

• Chapter 3 and Chapter 4: All lights re-adjusted to avoid the too bright intensities of lights when Bloom is enabled. Some are still intentionally brighter than others - but If you still find some that are way too bright (blinding) or way too dark, please report them as visual bug.

• Chapter 1: Pandoras Box at the beginning of the level, was using the old visuals. Now updated.

• Chapter 1: Various collision bug fixes in the very first lift when using Dodge (could stand where you shouldnt)

• Chapter 1: Various collisions bug fixes with Cubes on the ledge to exit the Prison of Lasers for Cubes room

• Chapter 1: Fixed door appearing as you stepped in for the Lift just after the dual smashers area.

• Chapter 1: Fixed 2 infinite Relocations when trying to go through unintended paths

• Chapter 2: A bug could cause Relocation from beginning to Jetpack area (!) is now fixed.

• Chapter 2: Fixed exploit in which you could skip from the roof of the dual Cameras Room, directly to the Bridge (not intended).

• Chapter 2: Fixed exploit in which Dodging through a laser field that would kill you, would save at the next checkpoint, allowing you to skip a room (and creating bugs along the way)

• Chapter 3: Entering The Cube (after using the first mandatory Encryption Key) could sometimes cause missing objects before the Tunnel entrance. Lasers by the entrance vent will no longer be disable as you move forward.

• Chapter 3: Many various visual bugs have been fixed

• Chapter 3: In rare cases, very fast smashers in the Red area could be out of sync. Should not happen anymore.

• Chapter 3: The musical Hacking in Chapter 3 to access Room Control, could sometimes not play the sounds correctly for some players. Should now be fully fixed.

• Chapter 4: It was possible to complete the Sun Orientation puzzle with only B as a deployed wall. Should not be possible, and should now be fixed.

• Chapter 4: Various screens were displaying multiple times Door 1 when incorrect (upgrade before fast-shooting Camera)

• Chapter 4: Now impossible to enter the UV-color-Sequence room by entering from below, just after breaking the Breakable Window of the Sequence Room (laser field will now be active if you try)

• Chapter 4: In the room just before the fast shooting Camera, the bottom laser field of the moving dual-laser-field could sometimes be missing.

• Chapter 4: When entering the flames area (just before Processing Center), you could drop down rapidly through the closing vent and be locked out, and you could see the world being de-spawned. Now fixed.

• Chapter 4: Processing Center large crushers now change color (blue/red) appropriately when moving.

• All Chapters: Various collision bug fixes with some pillars throughout levels.

BUG | Fixes

Destructible Walls: Borders of destructible wall pieces no longer have the strange buggy colors before they are broken

• Save System: Rare bug with Save System could cause the rooms to be in an incorrect state (missing objects, lasers OFF instead of ON, etc.). I could not reproduce those, as it seems to be machine-specific depending on how fast the save process is, based on hard drive speed, etc. Many changes were made to the save system to make this more robust, hopefully solving all these rare cases of incorrect saved data. This is a dangerous change; to be tested if there are any new bugs linked to saving / dying rapidly while the game is saving a Checkpoint, etc.

• Relocation: Imminent Death message for relocation that kills the player character, were not being shown correctly and would display Relocation instead. Should now be properly fixed.

• Ceiling Clipping: In some cases, when very close to the ceiling - an object below you forcing you to touch the ceiling, for example - you would see through the ceiling (clipping bug). Should now be fixed.

• Jump Exploit: At low FPS, your character could jump slightly higher. That was enough to reach unintended areas. This should now be drastically improved, and it will be much harder to manage to reach unintended places at low FPS.

• Cube Exploit: It should no longer be possible (or much harder) to get Cubes stuck in between vertical pillars, preventing various exploits.

• Smasher Exploit: Fixed an exploit that would allow players to sometimes go through smashers, especially easier at lower FPS. If this happens, the player character will now be killed appropriately.

• Dodge Exploit: Fixed a bug that could allow to jump at the same time as starting Dodge, resulting in being able to Dodge twice without touching the ground.

• Fan Exploit: Mitigated (or fully fixed), an exploit in which the player could go through a full-speed fan even without Hyper-Speed in Chapter 3. Maybe other fans have the same bug, to be checked.

• Speedrun Mode: A bug was causing Laser collisions to not be correctly enabled/disabled when Speedrun Mode state was changed while in a level. This only applies for the lasers which should have collisions in Speedrun Mode.

• Hyper-Speed: Pausing the game with Hyper-Speed active, would then continue to be active (intended) when game is resumed, but without the Hyper-Speed visual effects (unintended). Hyper-Speed visual effects are now properly re-applied when the game is resumed.

• Quick Load: Fixed various gameplay bugs that could happen if requested to Quick Load exactly while shooting a button - could cause the player to not be able to jump for a few seconds.

• Jump: Fixed a bug that could prevent the player from Jumping after a Quick Load in which the Quick Saved player position was on a slope instead of flat ground

• Disable Cutscenes: Fixed a bug that could cause skipped cutscenes to not react to the next activation (from a button, or any other type of trigger for the cutscene), if a quick load was performed just after interacting with it

• Upgrades: Hyper-Shot upgrade icon was not showing

• Terminals: Now easier to interact with terminals when crouched, or in Zero-G and slightly lower height than the Terminal screen

• Footsteps: Sometimes, the first footstep sound when starting to move would not be played. Now fixed.

• Tablets & Power Cores: Fixed blinking blue/red tablets and power cores at low FPS.

• Retractable Walls: Made potential improvement for retractable walls/platforms which can sometimes be visually deployed when they should not (and usually, not fully deployed when this bug happens). Its a blind fix, meaning I couldnt reproduce the actual bug on my machine, so Im not sure if this is fixed. But here's hoping its improved ;)

• Screens: Fixed some screens which were not displaying their text correctly after recent optimizations of 3D texts (Chapter 4 Generator screens, Chapter 2 Special Thanks title, and more). Please report any other screen that seems to not display its text correctly.

• Overlapping Cutscenes: A very rare bug could cause 2 cutscenes to play at the same time. This should no longer happen. In the event that you manage to make 2 cutscenes play at the same time (very rare), it should now correctly play them one after the other in a sequence.

• Tablets: Removing a Cube that is below another Cube (stacked) was no longer provoking flying cubes anymore from the latest update. However, this could still occur with Tablets. Should now be solved.

• Cubes: Quick-Saving while a Cube was falling in the void, would then result in the Cube never being respawned if you were to Quick-Load to that save with the Cube falling in the air. Could also happen if you were to simply push the cube off the ledge, instead of picking up then dropping the Cube.

• Red Pillars: Could have a hole, missing face on the red pillars. Fixed in most cases (some remain).

• Dodge: Various bugs were fixed if the player requested to Jump just after a Dodge was initiated, including various exploits

• Vents: If you placed Power Cores / Cubes in the middle of an open Vent Door, Quick Saved, then closed the vent, and then Quick Load to the save with the Vent Door open, it would provoke the Cubes/Power Cores to fly a bit. Now it should be fully solved and keep the objects precise positions.

• Objectives: Playing with Objectives disabled would still play Objective sounds when an objective was accomplished. Now fixed.

• Module Management: Fixed a bug in which Module Management could be displayed over Pause menu, if it was being shown while the Taser was Toggled ON.

• Taser Ammo Indicator: Reduced unintended flickering of the Ammo display on the Taser-Gun, after the Train Ride in Chapter 4.

• Death: Requesting Quick Load or Last Checkpoint after Death, will no longer cancel the fade-to-black (which allowed you to see for a short amount of time after death)

• Death: Pausing the game while dead will keep a black background, to prevent you from seeing the world while being dead

• Taser: Fixed a bug that prevented aiming laser from turning on correctly, if insta-reload was meant to be done instead of reloading animation (ex: picking up healthpack at the same time as reloading)

• Taser: Fixed many bugs related to playing both reload & heal animation at the same time (not intended, the first one requested should play, the second one should be instant)

• Keypads: Using keyboard to interact with keypad buttons should now play the sound, just like using the mouse cursor

• Cubes: Fixed a rare bug that could cause Cubes to be non-interactable, after a quick sequence of Quick-Save/Quick Loads while the Cube is being respawned

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for next bugs ;)

[ 2021-08-19 01:33:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! A new update is ready to be tested! As usual, many bugfixes & improvements were added, in addition to a a couple of new features & changes!

COLLISION BUG | FIXED

We mentioned in our previous update news, that a major collision bug was under investigation for months with the Unity team. It was investigated and solved, but we had to wait for it to be included in order to update Fractal Space with the fix. We are glad to say the fix is now live, and included in this latest update! You should no longer randomly fall through any ground for no reason :)

TASER | HYPER-SHOT

The Taser-Gun shooting and input system has a significant change in this update:

• Normal shots (Shoot button pressed) will no longer break fragile walls, nor destroy Cameras
• When upgrading Taser Power to Level 2, you now unlock Hyper-Shot ability
• HOLD Shoot button to charge Hyper-Shot, release when charged to fire (releasing before fully charged will cancel shot)
• Only Hyper-Shot will perform first breaking impact on a Breakable Wall
• Only Hyper-Shot will destroy an unprotected Camera
• Hyper-Shot can destroy a Generator in 1 single shot
• Hyper-Shot can break through multiple fragile windows, and directly Activate the switch behind the broken window and break any next windows behind in 1 single shot!
• Normal shots (even with Taser Power level 2 or 3) will continue to only stun Cameras
• Shoot animation now blends better with walk/jump/jetpack/reception animations
• Holding the Shoot button down without Hyper-Shot unlocked will now continue to shoot as soon as possible when you have not yet unlocked Hyper-Shot (in which case it will then start charging Hyper-Shot instead).
• Pressing the Shoot button while the Taser is already shooting will now chain another shot as soon as possible (intended).

This Hyper-Shot system was always intended, but required some rework of the Taser-Gun that we didnt have time for. It was done for the following reasons:

• We want you to time your Hyper-Shot charge correctly before being able to Destroy objects (especially during speedruns)
• Greater feel of power as you upgrade the Taser-Gun
• Allows you to still stun Cameras instead if you dont have time to Charge (now a player choice)
• There will be an Achievement for completing the game without ever destroying Cameras (impossible without this new systemif you upgraded Taser Power).

Currently, a Hyper-Shot still only consumes 1 Ammo. It is possible in the future that it will consume 2 Ammo instead - but this is still under investigation. It might be like this soon as a test, and well see how that goes ;) [quote]Note: Later on, there will be a specific visual effect and sound effects that are different for Hyper-Shot (not yet implemented)[/quote]

WATER | Dynamic Reflections

From this update, when Reflections are set to Dynamic, water areas now have much more precise realtime reflections. This is very expensive, and should only be enabled with dedicated mid/high-end graphics cards. If you are playing on Mac/Laptop/integrated graphics, it will most certainly result in lower FPS:
In the future, there will be a separate setting for Water Reflections quality VS Reflections, in case you have decent playable performance with Reflections set to Dynamic, but dynamic water reflections impact your FPS too much. Currently, they are both tied to the same Reflections option.

PERFORMANCE | MODE

Fractal Space is now well-optimized and should run smoothly on any modern computer with a dedicated GPU. If you are playing with a low-end machine or laptop with an integrated graphics card (no dedicated GPU), you'll always need to reduce resolution to reach playable FPS in a game like Fractal Space, which has dynamic lighting and realtime shadows, along with post-processing effects.
In general, it is not recommended to enable any other post-processing effect than Bloom and remain around 1280x720 when you only have an integrated graphics card. The game had an old Debug Tool was used by some players to improve performance: ALT + Backspace. This shortcut disabled all post-processing effects. However:

• It was unstable, and would be automatically disabled in the next cutscene
• It could cause various rendering bugs: windows, screens would have visual bugs when using it and aiming with the Taser or using Scope
• It was not a recommended feature to use, only to debug crashes

We have now completely reworked this system, to make a proper, officially supported Performance Mode! The goals of the Performance Mode are to:

• Choose your regular settings to play most of the game with good-looking visuals on your machine. You might be able to play with acceptable FPS with Bloom, Chromatic Aberration, etc in most areas, so you will want to keep these settings for most parts of the game.
• Easily engage Performance Mode when you reach a low-FPS area in which your GPU/CPU has more difficulty
• Easily disengage Performance Mode to return to your desired higher-quality graphics when you are past the low-FPS area
• It is now activated with the F2 key (will not react while Debug Mode is enabled)
  • You can now re-assign this shortcut in the key remapping window to suit your needs (Keyboard/Mouse only)
• It is more efficient: it now disables and adjusts much more than only removing Post-Processing

In general, the FPS boost provided by Performance Mode should be significantly higher than the previous ALT + Backspace debug shortcut, and should no longer create any visual bugs! [quote]Please note that changing any of the Graphics Options will automatically disengage Performance Mode when applying settings - this is intended, you will have to re-enable it when you are back in active gameplay.[/quote]

CHAPTER 3 | NEW SKIP

Chapter 3 now has a new skip path! It is meant to skip a part, only for New Game+. Its next to the large vertical Tower area, around where you can find the very first (optional) Encryption Key of the game:
This path means that you can backtrack a bit more in this area (to return and get the Upgrade next to the Crusher if you missed it) The level has been changed accordingly to avoid most bugs. If you get Hyper-Shot Level 1 with the Upgrade Terminal just before it (inside), it means you can get out in New Game - which is intended, so you can go to the optional area on the roof in case you missed it, but cant skip this area the first time. To be tested!

OBJECTIVES | Options

From this update, there are now 2 new Gameplay options: [olist]

Objective Markers: New option to disable the Objective Markers (and keep only objective entries)

Objectives: New option to disable the Objective entries (and keep only objective markers)

[/olist]

NEW | IMPROVEMENTS

• The FPS counter (displayed at the top-right corner of the screen) on SHIFT + F was now restored.

• Power Cores: Now have higher-quality and improved textures.

• Power Core Slots: Now have higher-quality and improved textures. They also now have improved lighting effect with shadows. If performance impact is too high, later on shadows on these objects will be only enabled on Maximum Dynamic Lighting option.

• Film Grain: Film grain used in Cutscenes can now be disabled in Graphics options.

• Loading Optimization: In addition to the new Performance Mode, loading time should now be improved. Its not really the Loading progress bar time that has been reduced, but more the black screen transition time from load completed to level initialization, that should now be shorter. Same goes for black screen load for Quick Loads.

• Chapter 3: The area just before the Leaf has slightly changed

• Pandoras Box: Improved it visually for PC - still work in progress.

• Bloom: Latest update increased Bloom intensity. This causes various lights in the game to be more intense (blinding effect). Lights in Chapter 1 have all been re-examined and changed to decrease this effect, while keeping the more intense Bloom. This should solve most cases of too intense lights in Chapter 1. Other Chapters have been changed as well, but some of them arent done yet (will be in future update).

CHANGES

• Lighting: The previous update increased general Bloom intensity (as a test). As a result, many lights were much brighter than they should be. All lights in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 have been re-adjusted to compensate, and should now look better (please report if you still find some, as I might have missed some). Chapter 3 and 4, though have not been reworked, so you will still see very intense lights in Chapter 3 & 4.

• FPS Counter: Restored FPS counter feature, top-right of the screen with Shift + F shortcut

• Performance Mode: Now toggled with F2 instead of ALT+Backspace. You can now change this key binding!

• Taser Shots: Will now still show taser shots impacts when particles are disabled (but no particles will be present), because this impact display is now driven by Decals Graphics Option.

• Chapter 1: Changed the optional Color Pack in the first Power Core area (accessible in New Game) to have different relocation and save Checkpoint (with the ground below the Color Pack now always present) in order to prevent exploits of just picking up the Color Pack, then throwing yourself intentionally into the void or load last checkpoint to get back to the lift exit.

• Chapter 1: The very first Cube room of the game now has a Reinitialize Cube button for the Cube, in case you left it up next to the Vent, and cant get it anymore after dropping down.

• Aim Stabilizer: Improvements were made for it to be smarted when selecting which object to Stabilize to, when multiple possibilities are available. It might still fail in some cases, but most of the time, it should prioritize the closest object you are aiming at.

• Power Core Slots: You can no longer stand on Power Cores once they are inserted in a Power Core Slot (intended)

• Chapter 3: Musical Hacking now reduces sounds of the game and music, and ensures buttons/listen to sample are now played at regular volume regardless of sfx/music volume in case you reduced it

BUG FIXES

• Performance Mode: Bugs linked to enable Performance Mode should now all be fixed.

• Options: Fixed a bug in which Subtitles/Speedrun Mode/Cutscenes checkboxes could be shown unchecked, while these options were actually enabled (checkboxes were out-of-sync).

• Reported Bugs: Fixed many other in-game reported bugs

• Hover: Fixed a bug that would cause Hover to engage, even if it was toggled OFF using Module Management or Shortcut.
• Hover: Fixed a bug that caused Hover to engage when Dodging in Vents
• Hover: Ensured Hovering would stop crouching - if not enough space to stand up, Hover wont engage

• Skip Cutscenes: Fixed bugs that could occur when disabling cutscenes in Options, while the game was already playing a cutscene, or transitioning to a cutscene. It will now automatically skip it correctly if cutscenes are disabled while a cutscene is already playing, without causing major bugs. A small jitter can be felt, but nothing major should go wrong anymore ;)

• Interaction Pause: Fixed various bugs that could happen when pausing the game instantly after interacting with a button while Hyper-Speed was enabled. Pausing the game while transitioning to a cutscene will also pause the transition as expected.

• Save System: Fixed a bug that could cause a Quick Save to not be saved correctly, if you were to instantly pause the game after requesting to Quick Save.

• Pandoras Box: Aiming at it will now show correctly Unknown and no image (intended).

• Aim Stabilizer: Fixed a bug where the Aim Stabilizer would try to aim the incorrect object (Mostly happening in Chapter 4)

• Flying Cubes: Stacked Cubes could sometimes end up flying in the air when one of them was removed. This should be fully solved.

• Taser Customization: Various visual bugs have been fixed in Taser Customization (older button design, screen not visible from the back).

• Cameras: Fixed a bug that could cause Camera shields to be re-activated even if the Power Core was removed and it shouldnt activated (after returning to menu and coming back, not simply Quick Loading)

• Bug Reporting: Fixed the bug with scrolling Colors list if you reported a bug while on Taser Customization. Ensured pressing ESC to exit bug reporting will not exit the current Keypad interface.

• Keypad Interface: Ensured clicking the Back button will correctly exit the Keypad Interface

• Tutorials: Will now dynamically adjust in realtime when you switch from/to Gamepad/Keyboard, and when language is changed - even when already visible on screen

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for next bugs ;)

[ 2021-06-24 05:02:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! Weve been working hard on this update, which includes many new improvements & changes; especially on the code / behind the scenes, and of course, hundreds of reported bugs are now fixed! Some of the improvements, you might not even notice, but they were necessary to prepare the game for the next Chapters. Well present here an overview of the main changes that were made in this latest update! [quote]Considering the major changes in the Save System of the game, we did our best to keep older saves compatible, but there is a chance you will need to RESTART the Current CHAPTER from Start after resuming from the new version, to avoid any level or save-related bugs![/quote]

FRACTAL SPACE | 64-BIT

Fractal Space has now officially switched to 64-bit support for Windows, allowing better performance in general. Along with the big save system optimization explained later below, this should greatly help with various stutters and mini-freezes. Since this is a first 64-bit implementation of the game, there is a chance new bugs/crashes may occur. Well see how it goes! Still on a 32-bit Windows machine? Dont worry, all updates will also ship the 32-bit version, and only the appropriate version for your machine will be downloaded.

NEW | Buttons

This will feel like a big change at first for our dearest fans, as you are accustomed to how the in-game 3D interactable buttons look like, since the Pocket Edition of Fractal Space. However, it was important to improve them for various reasons:

• We want them to look better and have a bit more detail
• We need it to be more clear which state they were in, even from a distance
• They need to have a more visible state change
• Red VS (Green/Blue) state needs to have a slightly different shape to ensure colorblind players notice more the difference
• We want to make it more clear that a button is currently unusable:
• When unusable, the difference VS usable is more noticeable
• Even while being not completely off

For example, Elevators: They cant be used while the elevator is active, but the button remains in a colored state (blue) instead of completely off (intended), but it is now more understandable why you cannot activate it. It may take a while for you to get used to the new buttons (just like it was for some with the new Taser-Gun for PC) but in the long run, we feel they are better compared to the old ones Were intentionally not including screenshots for this, see it for yourself in the game! We hope youll enjoy them!

TASER-GUN | Weapon Sway

One of the additions we wanted to work on for a while, was adding a dynamic weapon sway system for the Taser-Gun in Fractal Space. We took the time to add this, and even though this is a first version, it now:

• Adds a feeling of weight to the Taser-Gun
• Feels more natural as the player looks around while aiming
• Feels more natural as the player moves/uses the Jetpack/hovers while aiming
• Adds this rotation/movement momentum over regular Taser Animations, smoothly blending with them, making a more natural movement feel
• Small change in Taser-Gun position when crouched VS standing up

TASER-GUN | Animations

We made a few improvements to Taser Animations in this update:

• All Taser Animations have been improved to feel smoother
• Many cases of instant interruption of some animations (upon jump/reception/jetpack events) have now been fixed and general Taser Animation transitions feel much smoother than before.
• NEW: Taser Animation for Hover, with sound and vibration. Additional visual effects will be added in later updates
• Zero-G Boost: Slight Taser-Gun shake while using Zero-G Boost

VISUAL | Improvements

There are countless of small visual improvements in this update, well mention the most important ones here:

• Bloom: Now more intense in general (slightly). Might be too much now in some areas. Well see if this will be reverted, or if in general lights will need to be lowered to compensate.
• Hyper-Speed: Visual effects (Distortion + Chromatic Aberration) are now reworked for progressive transition instead of instant when enabling / disabling Hyper-Speed.
• Smashers now become RED while moving:
  
• Power Cores and Cubes now look better (RED lines highlights) when held in an invalid position (Cannot drop here). The rest of the Cube / Power Core does not become red anymore:
  
• Generators: Textures have been improved and better metallic feel. In addition, generators are now red when destroyed:
  
• Generator Explosions: Now look better, and more realistic. Looks also better when Hyper-Speed is active. Uses Particles, so will look better with Particles enabled (just like the Taser-Gun shooting)
• Camera Explosions: Now look better, and more realistic. Looks also better when Hyper-Speed is active. Broken Camera has a small blue fire for a few seconds after being destroyed. Uses Particles, so will look better with Particles enabled.
• Lasers ON/OFF states (color/lighting) is now better, and visual difference is more noticeable (there were texture bugs with them). Side grid of Lasers now also become RED when ON.
• Lasers: Some laser sets now have a STATIC rail support (different from moving laser rails). More will be added over time. Not all static lasers should/will have them (intended):
  
• Bridges: Improved Bridge textures:
  
• Water: Objects falling in Water, and Taser Shots, will now create various water splashes:
  
• Chapter 4s Solar Station now has proper cables for all Solar Panels
• Many optimizations of some some specific Areas in all Chapters
• Various animations improvements to the Taser-Gun
• New Buttons visuals

AUDIO | Improvements

Weve reworked a lot of the audio as well to fix a few issues:

• Some players could have cracking sounds at higher volume, especially if volume sliders were all at maximum.
• The default sound setting for the game have changed, to have most sliders to maximum value, and sound is more normalized to your current system sound volume.
• All bugs related to cracking sounds at higher volume should now be fixed. Please report if you still find some.

In addition, as general Audio changes:

• Water now has specific sounds when walking in it, and creates water splashes with sound, reacting to objects and player
• Footsteps: Better in sync with camera headbob. Reworked system to sound smoother from one step to the next, and for more variety in sounds. Lowered their general volume as they were too loud.
• Added many new sound effects and made sure some existing ones can be heard better: saw hit, pickup Healthpack / Battery Pack, objective accomplished, Taser Reload, Hover and more
• All sounds have been re-mixed and volume-adjusted in order to create a more harmonious sound experience, so it should be more comfortable to play.

BRIDGE | Puzzle

The Bridge Puzzle has changed in this update:

• It no longer activates automatically as you approach the Bridge
• It now requires interacting with a Terminal
• It is now fully skippable in New Game+ with Dodge and/or Hover. Should NOT be skippable in New Game.
• The game no longer saves checkpoints if you try to continue without picking up the Jetpack. Its authorized to try, though, but to avoid encouraging you to do so (impossible to continue later), the game only saves next checkpoints after picking it up.

CUTSCENES | Improvements

Weve made a push on cutscenes issues for this update, finally solving some older bugs and adding missing functionalities:

• Chapter 3: InitializeRoom.cpp room cutscene can now be skipped like any other cutscene! To be tested, should not break anything (but could, as its a complicated one to make skippable)
• Auto-skipped cutscenes (Cutscenes disabled) should no longer create any gameplay/camera jitters!

SAVE SYSTEM | Optimization

A while back, we introduced the new save system, which allowed to add many more checkpoints, and allow instant Quick Save / Quick Load. In this update, there was a tremendous change of how the Save System works: it is now more optimized and now takes advantage of Multithreading. Even though it was functional, there was still a lot that could be done in order to make it safer, and optimize it to be more efficient. Hopefully, this update addresses both of these concerns. However, as this is a first test version of the newly-optimized save system, you might encounter various new bugs about saving / loading, that will need to be fixed ASAP. You might be wondering: What changed exactly in the save system? Heres an overview if youre interested (skip this if youre not interested in technical): [olist]

Objects Gathering: In order to save, the first step is for the game to check every single object in the level (there are tens of thousands!), and gather each of their individual states to save. All this must be done as fast as possible to avoid mini-freezes. This is much now more optimized, and will use much less CPU.

Conversion: This step is also expensive. It now needs to convert all the data into saveable data before writing the save file. This is also much faster, and is now multithreaded in the background. It should not stall the game, and reduce/remove mini-freezes in this step as well.

Writing: The game will now write the save data using multithreading in the background. Should also greatly help with mini-freezes and slowdowns. [/olist]

WHATS THE BENEFIT?

The game should now: [olist]

Save Faster: Saving is generally faster and uses much less CPU

Optimized: When saving at a checkpoint, you should feel much less slowdown and mini-freezes. If you were having them before, they should be greatly reduced, or completely fixed from this update!

Safer Save/Load: There should no longer be moving lasers out of sync bugs after Quick Save / Quick Load, or some objects not being saved properly they should all be fixed. [/olist]

OPTIONS | Improvements

There were various improvements to the Options menu in Fractal Space:

• Many Graphics options have switched to a Checkbox system
• NEW: Decals setting, default to Medium. This controls how complex the shooting impacts are with Taser shots and others. Integrated graphics and low-end PCs might have severe performance issues when shooting at the same position multiple times. This setting on lower than Maximum should help with this.
• NEW: Chromatic Aberration option in Graphics options. Used for Damage effect, Hyper-Speed, Scope. Remains subtle to avoid it to be disturbing (especially visible on edges of the screen). Now fully disabled if this new option is disabled.
• Hard of Hearing: New Accessibility option. Doesnt affect anything yet, except the musical hacking sequence in Chapter 3; it will fail at first mistakes with this option ON. However, it will now require you to complete the sequence before knowing if its correct or not, if you dont have this enabled.
• Particles: More particle effects will now be disabled from visual effects, when Particles are disabled (Taser/Ammo Pack pickup points smoke, vent door smoke, Taser Shoot effect, Camera/Generator explosions,etc.). This will help improve performance if you disable Particles.

GAMEPLAY | Changes

Heres a list of various other changes & improvements that are worth noting here:

• Chapter 4: Achievement added for using only 2 portable mirrors!
• Flashlight: Will now adjust its size based on the selected Field of View (larger spot with higher FoV).
• Chapter 1: The Ramp and recording on top of the first Bridge room (orange ceiling) should ONLY be accessible with New Game+ using Dodge. Changed it to be so please report if you can still get up there in New Game.
• Chapter 1: You can now keep cubes from the room just after the Math door, and use them to skip directly to the roof of the next area (Platforms button). This is intended. They will only be destroyed later on. You may test around with this, as youll have more cubes and might lead to unintended skips / exploits.
• Chapter 1: Double saws after interacting with the Bridge button (dancing platforms before Taser) will no longer disappear. They will turn off and move slightly away from each other to let enough space for you to walk in between them. If you Dodge to skip from below, the area will be initialized correctly.
• Chapter 1: After Escapism room, less objects are destroyed, to avoid too visible inconsistent shadows. This means in the optional area above, you can now jump onto Cage 1, which is now intended
• Cubes: Collisions are still present with collectable objects (intended), but can no longer remain standing on Taser or Ammo Packs or Color Packs.
• Saving: If character dies while saving the first very checkpoint of the current level, the game will now wait a few seconds until the new save game is written, instead of instantly restarting the Chapter from start. Ex: rush fast into first lasers of Chapter 4. The game wont restart the entire level anymore.
• Zero-G: Dangerous changes: It was necessary for technical reasons to disable Zero-G instantly upon death. It has now been changed to not do this anymore. This is a dangerous change, please test zero-g ON / OFF saves and last checkpoint saves, as this may have broken this!
• Taser Shots: Light effect when shooting (impact) now only produces shadows if Dynamic Lighting is set to Maximum
• Chapter 2: Bridge Puzzle will now have black buttons before performing it. Once solved, the buttons will be unavailable, but reflect colors of their respective states instead of remaining black.
• Chapter 2: Bridge Puzzle doesnt start automatically anymore; youll need to activate the newly added Computer. This also means you can entirely skip it in New Game+, using Dodge (from standing on buttons to reach upper platforms), or Hover + Dodge.
• Chapter 2: Some Laser Fields could be walked on or prevent you from standing up. This was intentional. Changed them intentionally now to not allow this we will see how things go!
• Chapter 3: Musical hacking Terminal will now only fail when finishing a whole sequence. Added Reset button. If you enable Hard of Hearing in Options, it will be as it was before (to ensure you can find it by memory + trial and error, at least, and without Reset button as it is not useful in this case).
• Chapter 4: Small changes to the Structure Control room (added pillars, fixed various visual bugs and such).
• Chapter 4: First mines area (with the Light Beam Receptor for Secret Passage): Reworked mines to ensure you cannot get through without shooting at least 1 mine. The ceiling for the upper mines now remains when retracting the wall, which allows the mines to remain present.
• Chapter 4: Flames corridor in the room before Processing Center: it is not mandatory to disable the flames; only if you want to not be damaged at all. However, added more flames to provoke more damage in most cases and keep it more discouraging (even though possible).
• Chapter 4: When the suns is turned OFF (approaching secret stairs), there are now much less reflections, and its now much darker outside. This is intended and desired.

BUG REPORTS | Retry

Weve made quite a few changes as to how bug reports are uploaded. Most importantly:

• Progress of bug report upload is now displayed. You cannot report another bug until the previous bug is fully uploaded. This avoids various errors that could cause some bug reports to fail.
• If a bug fails to upload to Haze Games servers, it will show the bug reporting window again, and keep the title/description/category/screenshots in order for your to try again. If you cancel it instead of retry, it will discard your bug report and not bother you again.
• If the bug only fails to send to Discord server (separate system), it will not try again. However, this is not a problem; if you dont see an error, it means we have received the bug report no need to report again if you do not see it on Discord

These changes should help with reporting bugs, but might add new bugs to the bug reporting system. To be tested!

COMING SOON | Random Collision Bug Fix

You might have encountered this bug before:

• Some grounds becoming non-solid for the Player, making you fall through the floor
• The concerned ground is random; it can be any of them in the entire game
• Its rare, so you may encounter it only once in a game, or never
• The bug persists until you exit the game and resume your save (or use SHIFT + F9 or SHIFT + F10)
• Weve been investigating this a lot the past couple of months, and we can confirm this is NOT a Fractal Space bug. Its a Unity Engine bug. Its been present in the engine games for a few years now.

It was very hard to point out the issue precisely, and understand how to fix it. Weve been working with Unity the past few months to help reproducing the issue in a separate reproduction project:

• They were then able to focus on it.
• Great news! They have indeed fixed the bug!
• Bad news: the fix is not ready yet.

This means this bug is still active in this latest update. However, we think they will have published the fix in about 2-4 weeks, so well have it soon finally fixed in Fractal Space as soon as they are ready

BUG | Fixes

There were many bugfixes in this update. Here are just a few of the most important ones:

• Coming Soon: The black-magic-random weird bug when you could sometimes fall through some grounds, and this would persist for the entire session for these concerned grounds until you restarted the game, was a long-time-running Unity Engine mystic bug. We have worked with them to finally reproduce and isolate the bug; they were able to fix it! Thanks to all your reports, as it also helped with identifying it and escalating the issue on their side. However, the fix is not ready yet, so it is still active in this update but it will finally land in the near future
• Chapter 1: Invisible wall on ceiling of the first Bridge room, next to the ramp (bug introduced by recent changes of this area).
• Crouch: Crouch jump could sometimes result in crouching upon respawn instead of standing up. Should be fixed.
• Crouch: Saved Crouch state could sometimes fail to be applied correctly upon last checkpoint or quicksave loading resulting in sometimes being spawned too high, and other issues. Tested many combinations, but this is quite a dangerous change to be tested in combination with Zero-G checkpoints / Quicksave if something got broken by this.
• Dodge: Dodge would sometimes be not allowed when starting a level from the beginning (no Checkpoint saved data). Dodge cooldown gauge could be displayed on Computer Interfaces
• Cutscenes Off: Finally, the camera jitter and other visual bugs upon auto-skip of cutscenes with Cutscenes disabled, is now fixed! Should no longer happen. Please let me know if you still encounter it on some specific cutscenes. Now, this is a dangerous change; maybe auto-skip of cutscenes or the normal cutscenes enabled system now have new bugs with this change. To be tested!
• Interaction: Since recent changes, it was possible to mistakenly activate a button multiple times just before a cutscene, if you were to spam the interaction button. This was a new bug with the changes with the hand interaction system. Should not happen anymore.
• Pause: Clicking Resume button would fire the Taser-Gun if it was toggled ON
• Fragile Windows: Floating pieces of glass not being broken should now happen much less often / completely fixed. Please report if you still encounter it (should be more rare).
• Saws: Remaining inside a saw would allow you to not be damaged again after the short saw damage cooldown.
• Taser Toggle: Fixed a case in which Taser would be forced Toggled Off when it was set to Toggled On (after a skipped cutscene with cutscenes OFF). Fixed states in which center dot Crosshair would be visible while aiming Taser because toggled ON (should not)
• Taser FoV: Laser offset while Dodging with Taser aiming is now fixed, and a jitter of the Taser Gun when starting to Dodge is now also fixed (smoother for Taser)
• Depth of Field: Ensured first Depth of Field setting is set correctly when you start aiming the Taser. Avoids waiting 0.2s to focus on desired, already-aimed at object. Depth of field change speed is now more consistent and more reactive.
• Main Menu: Fixed a bug that could cause Main Menu buttons to not react to mouse input at all. This was only if you pressed ESC to show Pause, just after leaving a Computer Interface (within 0.2s)
• Laser-Equipped Cameras: Shots would sometimes ignore the player. Should happen much less often, thus you will be damaged more often (especially fast-shooting camera in Chapter 4)
• Hover: Fixed various exploits with Hover toggle ON/OFF and Quick Save / Quick Load. Last Checkpoint load should always restore Hover/Jetpack to full energy (intended), but Quick Save / Quick Load will now restore the same gauge state at time of Quick Save.
• Chapter 3: Fixed issue where cubes outside the Tunnel could sometimes be much higher than they should be
• Chapter 3: Crows could be seen for a very short duration if Cutscenes were disabled.
• Chapters Mode: Could start Chapters with 0 Taser Ammo, whereas Chapters Mode should always start with at least 6 Taser Ammo.
• Safe Lander: Fixed various display bugs some cases where it should not be displayed (cutscenes, interfaces, etc).
• Power Cores: Could have (undesired) collisions with the object currently held in your hands. This should never happen. Should now be solved and back to normal (currently held object does not collider/push other objects).
• Power Core Slots: If you performed a Quick Load while a Power Core was at insertion position (but NOT inserted) of a Power Core Slot, the Power Core Slot would be activated without any Power Core inserted, and would be in a broken state.
• Interface: Various interface elements should no longer be visible between Chapter loads (Scope, Jetpack gauge, etc.)
• Hyper-Speed: Restarting the Chapter from start with HS enabled could result in reducing the games speed.
• Chinese: Some in-game characters were not displaying correctly. Now fixed
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs

Thank you for testing! Well continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for any major bugs Have an awesome week, and happy gaming! Charles & Amlie from Haze Games

[ 2021-04-14 19:28:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear players of Fractal Space! We thank you again for the many bug reports, suggestions and more that we have received lately. We've been delaying the hundreds of Steam key requests to access the Pre-Alpha, in order to solve these first before having new players report new bugs :) The latest update 0.587 is now live on Steam! It solves many more bugs, and adds new improvements, various levels changes and more. We'll discuss the important ones here. [quote]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.[/quote]

DIALOGUES | REPETITION

Some players were complaining about hearing the same dialogues again after dying and respawning. We have changed the system to:

• Do not play already played level dialogues again within the same session
• There might be exceptions for some dialogues because some should be repeated in the same session
• If you exit the game and resume, these dialogues will be played again (intended)

We hope this change will make dying feel less repetitive, and avoid hearing the same level dialogues over and over. Respawn dialogues have not changed, and will still be different at each death, until there are no more available, in which case it will then be "sighs" instead of sentences.

CUTSCENES | HANDS

In this update, you can now see the player character's hands during the very first introduction of the game, and during Respawn cutscenes! They should work correctly with any FoV setting - even though high FoV will always result in slight distortion of objects, which is normal. Ensuring animations work well with all FoV values isn't as easy as it sounds, so it has to be tested ;)
On some specific respawn points, you might see the hands go through objects or the ground; please report in-game when this happens, so it can be fixed in the next updates.

FRAGILE | WINDOWS

Fragile Windows have been reworked in order to solve multiple issues:

• They had holes, which required you to aim more precisely to avoid shooting through he holes instead. This was intended, but it seems like more players are annoyed by this than anything - so they no longer have holes, but they do have visible cracks.
• Holes were partly also present to make the fragile windows stand out more from regular windows and make them more visible. This new version now has a much more visible crack to help making them more noticeable, as some players had a hard time differentiating them.
• After shooting a first time on a fragile window, shards will then break with player weight and / or dropped cube on them. It now makes more sense that they do not do so until a first shot has been fired.

You can see the crack is much more noticeable than previously, and holes have been removed:

CHAPTER 1 | NEW AREA

Just after the first 2 pressure plates, in front of the Math door, you can now freely access the white light hole to your right. There will be a recording here in the future:
It is meant to be accessible and completable in New Game. You can do this before or after getting the Taser. The roof above the math door will still relocate you for now, but in the future there will be a recording accessible only in New Game+ up there as well.

CHAPTER 1 | OPTIONAL RECORDING

The optional Recording to get around the first Smashers area (requiring Cube/Dodge to reach the Roof) is now protected to be inaccessible or by simply Dodging from below, or by using various other techniques to reach the ceiling:

CHAPTER 2 | LAST ROOM

The Power Core Storage button will no longer disable the lasers above the Power Core, and will only open the door. You will need to open the door, then enable Zero-G to get the Power Core that will be pushed out:
In addition, the optional Upgrade in this room will now require Zero-G to be accessed:

OTHER

Other new additions worth noting here:

• Chapter 1: New checkpoint added above the Go Left, Go Right area to save outside as well. In addition, checkpoints here will save multiple times after various key interactions are done.
• Cameras: Disabled Cameras can now be destroyed
• Physics Debris: You can now shoot through the cylinder of floating pipes debris in Chapter 3 (The Cube area)
• Tablets / Power Cores / Encryption Keys: Will now react to Taser shots (be pushed) in Zero-G.

CHANGES

Below is a list of various important changes in this update:

• Lasers: Various insta-kill lasers now have more tightly-packed lasers to make it more clear you wont survive if you try to get through. Many of these areas will have similar additions over the next updates to make it more predictable.
• Saws: Some saws (especially moving saws, or static that should be jumped over) are always more tolerant than others (intentionally) to avoid you getting damaged when a fairly acceptable jump was performed instead of a perfect jump. This will remain for the upper part to avoid frustration. Though the sides shouldnt behave like this for this saw. They will now damage the player more accurately from the sides. Please report any unintended damage by saws that may now occur with this change (in some specific areas, this change might be an issue)
• Saws: Now have additional red lines coming from the center when activated
• Bloom: Bloom is now a bit more intense
• Taser Shot: Impact light now more intense and more visible
• Doors / Vent Doors: Closing a vent door with a Cube in the middle would now push it better out of the way since the previous update already. With Power Cores, its more complicated due to their shape. Now, if a Power Core gets caught inside a closing door or vent door, it will be automatically forced out of the way. This solves the issue. To be tested in case it creates new bugs!
• Dodge Cooldown: The Dodge cooldown gauge could sometimes remain indefinitely visible when used with the Taser Toggle system. In addition, it could sometimes not be visible with Taser Toggled on, preventing you from knowing when it has finished recharging.
• Dodge Cooldown: Will now always be displayed, and move downwards while aiming in order to avoid being disturbed when trying to aim with the Taser.
• Speedrun Mode: Some lasers have player collisions in speedrun mode only. Previously, changing Speedrun Mode during a level would not update laser collisions (restart of Chapter required). It will now change appropriately instantly.
• Chapters Replay: Selecting Chapter 1 from the Chapters page would not play the first introduction (it was only played on New Game without Speedrun Mode).
• Chapter 1: Pipes to reach the skip (Fragile Wall) next to the Smasher button are kept, but not the lowest one, as it creates more confusion than anything (was intended to be here to help and provide a hint that roof is accessible).
• Chapter 1: Small vent in Taser Room cannot be closed after being opened to prevent potential softlock
• Chapter 1: Saw in This is bad room has a new path, which doesnt clip through the Door pillars. Other various small changes and improvements were made in this room.
• Chapter 3: Vertical row of Lasers next to the Camera (for which you must disable Shield to get through, that is looking at the vent), could let you go through with somedamaged - they are meant to kill if you go though. Now changed to reflect this.
• Chapter 3: Horizontal lasers in the area after the 2 breakable glass to access the Power Core to disable the camera shield mentioned above, will now instantly kill you if you go through it to prevent you from skipping this room.
• Chapter 3: Solved potential softlock with locking the cube on the wrong side in the Initialization Room
• Chapter 4: When reaching the last room, the retractable walls will now deploy to prevent you from backtracking to a potential softlock (room with flames)
• Upgrades: Tutorial about upgrades (and associated dialogues) will not play when interacting with a mandatory Upgrade Terminal if its your very first terminal ever (ex: first terminal ever interacted with is Hyper-Speed terminal in Chapter 3). This is because the player has no choice for this terminal.

BUG FIXES

Below is a list of the most important bugfixes included this update:

• Taser Toggle: When toggled always on, the Taser could be shown after a Cutscene, even with an object currently in hands.
• Saws: Cannot Stand Here could happen when crouched really close to a Saw
• Room Control: Sometimes, a button would require clicking it twice to perform the turn ON/OFF of a specific action. Should be fully solved. To be tested - as this change may have caused unwanted new bugs in various other Room Control interfaces.
• Moving Platforms: Vertical Dodge from a moving platform could sometimes result in bouncy reception upon the next moving platform landing. This should now be fixed (to be tested).
• Power Cores: You could potentially encounter bugs if you inserted a Power Core inside a Power Core Slot at the same time as Relocation would be happening. You can no longer drop / insert a Power Core Core while a relocation is in progress (to prevent this bug, and to prevent unintended situations / softlocks due to leaving a Power Core in an unreachable area).
• Lasers: Laser beams could go through the edges of vent doors (leak). Now fixed.
• Taser: In some specific cases / angles, you could sometimes shoot through walls. Shouldnt be possible anymore.
• Sprint: When a sprint is pending, and getting out of a vent could result in sprinting while remaining crouched.
• Chapter 1: Ensured the Ext door of the very first Camera room will not sometimes re-open once you went past the door (could happen in some cases).
• Chapter 1: Relocation could sometimes briefly be displayed upon entry of the very first Cube room.
• Chapter 1: Math Door: Entering slightly then returning back, could result in relocation bug that allowed to skip the Laser Cage room if you were to go outside on attempted to reach the roof.
• Chapter 2: Solved possible unintended backtracking after disabling lasers in the first Electrified Room if you returned outside using the vent below, after going past these (now disabled) lasers.
• Chapter 3: You could skip the 2 cages with cubes by flying further on the sides
• Chapter 3 You could activate The Cube button remotely with the Taser, earlier than you should be able to. Now fixed (not usable until going actually through)
• Chapter 3: Generator to break for glass-cubes area (just after the Tunnel): There were multiple bugs with the vents / lasers in this room, could cause laser issues, and softlocks. All should be fixed. Added an Ammo Pack in this room as well to prevent soflocks.
• Chapter 3: The Cube Area Encryption Key Formatter: The game should now only save in front of the formatter Terminal, after leaving it, but only if the Lasers have already been disabled by breaking the generator. This avoids potential softlock if went through using cover, then removed it, or passed through and survived during Dodge.
• Chapter 3: In the last hallway, sometimes laser fields would not be properly activated for the Bridge power puzzles (where you must deploy only necessary Bridges). Should now always be the correct way (all laser fields enabled correctly)
• Chapter 4: The Map of the Room Control Terminal in the Hyper-Speed suppressor area would not be displayed correctly upon very first interaction
• Chapter 4: Portable mirrors were falling like leaves when Zero-G was disabled. Should now behave correctly.
• Saving: A change was made on saving data, hopefully will help reduce chances of having an in-game error about a value being negative. However, if your game crashes while saving, or you exit the game with ALT+F4 while saving, data will still be corrupted (like with any other game). Later on, there will be a backup system in case this happens, but this is not here yet.
• Texts: Texts that appear gradually (tutorials, etc.) could display the full text for a very short period of time, before starting the smooth apparition. Should now be fixed.
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for next bugs ;)

[ 2021-02-01 05:35:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, dear Fractal Space players! We wish you all a Happy New Year 2021! A new update 0.585 is now live for Windows, Mac & Linux! [quote=""]Please restart Steam to ensure you get this update now[/quote] This update focuses on fixing the various major issues in levels, that could prevent you from completing the Pre-Alpha. Some of these issues were added with 0.584 changes, and should now be solved. In addition, there are various level changes to solve some gameplay issues, most important ones are listed below. There is a chance these new changes provoked new bugs - to be tested! If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report as usual, and also send an email to bug@haze.games ;) [quote=""]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied. [/quote]

NEW

List of additions / new elements in this update:

• Chapter 1: Optional Area with Impressive Recording: Checkpoint to save progress if you reach this area. To be tested.
• Ammo Packs: Now slightly smaller visual - same pickup range. Now it has more polygons to look better on circular parts. Texture will be improved later on:


• Screens: They no longer have player collisions. Only a few will keep them (the very large ones that should have some). Please report if you find large ones that should be walkable and that currently arent (should be very rare).
• Controls Remapping: Skip cutscenes control will now use the Show Objectives input to skip cutscenes if remapped. Only with the Keyboard, as with a Gamepad it should always remain on the Y button (intended).
• Taser Power Upgrade Previous updates added more powerful wall breaking with Taser Power Level 3. Now, from Taser Power Level 2 upgrade, fragile windows will also break much more in 1 single hit.
• Lasers: Some individual lasers (selectively) will now destroy broken glass shards upon contact (intended), to avoid blocking the beam. Please report any areas where specific lasers should use this new system to destroy glass shards in order to avoid game-breaking situations (like going through lasers you shouldnt be able to, etc.). These situations will usually be isolated to vertical lasers, placed low on the ground, next to fragile windows.

CHANGES

List of changes to be aware of from this update:

• Taser Toggle ON/OFF: As some players pressed T by mistake, and thought it was a bug that the Taser Gun would remain toggled ON, releasing the AIM (HOLD) key will now cancel the Aim (Toggle) in order to hide the Taser to unblock aiming.


• Chapter 1: Room with first 2 pressure plates: reworked to prevent being able to get up onto the pipes and upper vent (upon return) without a Cube in New Game. You can either get past the lasers (with the 2 lower ones now disabled) and use the Cube to get up unharmed, or go through lasers without a cube (on the side of pipes), but you will be damaged (intended to allow it, but not optimal choice). From the start of the pipes (higher than the rest), you may stack 2 cubes to directly reach the upper vent from here (intended). You can step on the pipes directly on the right as you enter but wont be able to get onto the vent:


• Chapter 1: New Game + shortcut with Dodge through fragile window, upon returning with Taser to get Ammo Pack: Has been changed to ensure that: You cannot go outside through that window without Dodge anymore; recently added Cube Respawn here has now been removed (you can stack cubes and wont be able to go out in New Game). Its now higher, to discourage new players from trying to get there. With Dodge, you can still go outside or inside through that fragile window:


• Chapter 1: New Orange thingy dialogue actually refers to the structure on your right as you return to this room (which wasnt here first time you crossed the Bridge). Moved the Color Pack to be less visible upon return here to avoid confusion with the Color Pack, until this dialogue is changed.
• Chapter 1: You cannot simply jump over the laser field in the This is bad room after the fall in New Game anymore. Youll need Dodge as intended:


• Chapter 1: Alternate route: You cannot use only 1 cube anymore on New Game and will require 2 cubes (except if there is still an issue with jump height in some cases or another collision bug here)
• Chapter 4: Second propeller (super-fast one) in the Train area (which requires to remove Power Core) was too easy to get through without removing it, because it was pushing you instead of killing you (this pushing is kept and appropriate for other areas). It is now still possible without removing the Power Core, but much harder, using a perfect Dodge, or quick jetpack below before relocation. There will be an achievement here in the future. You could also just crouch below them - no longer possible.
• Chapter 4: Sun & Solar Panels: The only possible combination should be A-B-E green. Solved multiple cases of other combinations that could work (not intended, and objectives would not accomplish). If you find other combinations that work, please report them ;)
• Speedrun Timers: Will now correctly be hidden on all Computer Interfaces / Upgrade Terminals, but remain on Keypad and other interfaces (intended).
• Screens: Small screens (rectangular ones - most of them) will now have borders that dont look as stretched as they used to.

BUG FIXES

List of major bug fixes in this update:

• Dodge: Dodging upwards from Crouched stance could allow you to enter small height areas that you are not meant to.
• Jump Save Spam: Spamming Quick Save / Quick Load with Jumps could allow multiple jumps. Now solved.
• Save System: 0.584 introduced a safer save system to ensure there were no level bugfixes after saving when many changes are being done simultaneously in the level. Fixed some additional cases of these issues (with buttons triggering Timers and such).
• Interaction: Could interact with some objects through some types of walls. Should be fixed. In order to solve this, a few changes had to be done to interaction in general - please check interaction for all object types to see if this change didnt break interaction with some object types. In addition, it was possible to pick up cubes through vent grids.
• Show Objectives: Various bugfixes with the system which sometimes would not show objectives when requested. Fixed cases where health / fuel bar could remain displayed on interfaces if quickly interacted with it after unpausing the game.
• Objectives: Objective entries could sometimes remain displayed as a line for a few seconds before being shown. Should now be fixed.
• Objectives: Objective cancelled red square could be displayed at a wrong position in the notification system, overlapping text, etc. Should be fixed.
• Music: More cases of Detected music remaining indefinitely now fixed. Shouldnt happen anymore, or at least, much less often. If it happens, please report again with steps to reproduce (if you know them).
• Chapter 1: This is bad room Relocation will now be performed before dying from falling into the void
• Dodge: Fixed exploit that allowed you to Dodge through lasers or others if Dodge was performed immediately after a Quick Load. Dodge is no longer available until the Quick Load is fully completed (around 0.5s).
• Upgrades: Could sometimes fail to provide non-acquired upgrades when reaching last terminals in the game (and End Game not yet reached)


• Controls Remapping: Fixed a bug with Aim Toggle being displayed and empty on Gamepad input, which was creating a conflict - should not be here with Gamepad (at least for now, intended not to be).
• Controls Remapping: A bug caused deleted secondary mappings to cause conflicts on empty keys.
• Localization: Various localization fixes
• Taser Ammo: The Energy text on the Taser screen was not using the correct color and would keep orange / red even when fully charged.
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next found major bugs ;) We wish you all have a great year 2021! Charles & Amy from Haze Games

[ 2021-01-08 20:35:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space PC Pre-Alpha players! Latest update 0.584 of the PC Pre-Alpha is now live on Steam! The update is also coming within a few hours for the Xbox One Demo. There has been a massive amount of bugfixes from the recently reported bugs, and many changes and some new features! [quote]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied. [/quote] After updating, if at any time you are encounter a missing object in the level (Power Core Slot or other), please restart the current chapter from the beginning (not last checkpoint, full Chapter restart) and check if the issue is still happening. If it still missing, please report with ALT+B. [quote]IMPORTANT: DEBUG MODE AND TERMINALS: Acquiring upgrades via Debug Mode will always likely result in bugs with Terminals upgrade list, Terminal usable states and such; if you are testing the Upgrades distribution and End Game, you should play the game normally and never acquire upgrades via Debug Mode. Any bug about Upgrades / Upgrades PC / End Game mode (all Terminals found once) are invalid if any upgrades are acquired with Debug Mode as it results in impossible situations. [/quote] If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report as usual, and also send an email to bug@haze.games ;) Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

TASER | TOGGLE AIM

Fractal Space is meant to be played with the Taser-Gun hidden, and shown only when the player requests to aim. This will not change for regular and new players as a first experience with the game. However, if you are an expert at the game and/or a speedrunner, you will enjoy having the ability to toggle the Taser-Gun to be always displayed - and we want this to work.
This will require you to change the default keys for Dodge, and use the new Modules Management system to enable / disable the Aim Stabilizer and Hover modules at your convenience. The Toggle Taser is set by default on the T key. It has now been greatly improved to:

• Save the desired Taser Toggled on / off state to avoid you from having to request it again at every game load / checkpoint
• Keep the desired Taser Toggled on / off state after cutscenes, interfaces, and dropping objects. It used to sometimes be forced off.

If you find cases where the Taser-Gun gets hidden and doesn't come back automatically when you indeed had toggled it ON, please report a bug. The end goal is that if you Toggle the Taser-Gun ON in the first room of the game, you can complete the game without ever having to request it again. Except, of course, if you intentionally toggle it off yourself ;)

TASER | RELOADING

Added a first version of a new Taser Reload animation! No longer instant reloading. Still, its very fast to make sure you dont wait too long.
It is intentional that reloading now takes around 1s - and is not meant to be instant in Speedrun Mode either. Youll need to take that time into account during speedruns and reload at the right moment (intended). The following cases INTENTIONALLY result in an instant-reload to avoid waiting / frustration:

• Reload animation will not be played if you are currently healing (intended)
• Reload will interrupt Scope and return to previous Scope zoom after reload is completed, if aiming is still requested (intended).
• Reload will NOT interrupt Hover if you keep requesting to aim the Taser (intended). If you stop requesting to aim the Taser during the reloading process, Hover will stop as intended.
• Requesting to shoot while reloading will shoot as soon as the Taser is ready (intended).

IMPACTS | IMPROVEMENTS

Many improvements to impacts were made:

• Less chances of floating on sides of objects (Power Cores, etc.)
• Impacts are now visible on glass!
• Lasting impact doesnt last as long as before, but looks better than the circle that was here in previous versions (and PE), and now disappears smoothly over time
• The impact will still look strange on edges / corners, but much less than before
• Cardboard Boxes: Added visual effect when destroyed by lasers.

MODULE | MANAGEMENT

[previewyoutube=WnZDKSzj1QY;full][/previewyoutube] We've added a new Module Management system to allow you to:

• Toggle Hover ON / OFF anytime using "1" key
  • When disabled/enabled, Hover gauge will be hidden / shown accordingly
• Toggle Aim Stabilizer ON / OFF anytime using "2" key

However, in addition to this, you can now see which modules are currently active by holding the Show Stats key (TAB by default):
While playing on PC with keyboard / mouse, this Module Management will mostly be cosmetic and to help you to learn the shortcuts by heart. After a while, you won't need to use it, as you can use those shortcuts anytime without showing Module Management. If you toggle any module ON / OFF while aiming, the Module Management will display for 3 seconds as feedback, without disturbing you current aiming state:
While playing with gamepad, the shortcuts to toggle Modules are set to A and B buttons, and are only active while Module Management is displayed. This way, you can still jump and crouch using the alternative LB and RB buttons while this interface is displayed:
Please note that since gamepads have less input buttons, you will need to hold Show Stats button (Dpad Down by default) in order to toggle Modules ON/OFF if you are playing with a gamepad. This is to prevent disabling modules by mistake.

OPTIONS

Many improvements and bugfixes were made to the Options menu:

• Reworked the Fullscreen / Windowed / Borderless system to work more consistently, and more stable:
  • Now starts by default in Borderless mode, switching to other modes should now work better
  • ALT+ENTER now disabled to prevent engine bugs
• Language now uses a Drop-Down list:

• Resolution now uses a Drop-Down list:

• Some sliders now have values text displayed
• Changed some options to use Checkboxes (Speedrun Mode, Cutscenes, etc)
• New Aim Sensitivity Multiplier slider (set it to 1 for same sensitivity as when not aiming):

• New customization shortcuts for Aim Stabilizer and Hover Modules Toggle ON/OFF

CHANGES

Summary of the major changes of this update.

AIM | STABILIZER

Improvements were made to the Aim Stabilizer: [olist]

Can now be disabled anytime with 2 key (default)

Toggle Aim Stabilizer key can now be changed in Remapping

Disable Aim Stabilizer now has an animation and can be seen inactive on the Taser-Gun

[/olist]

GENERAL

• Button Interaction: Improved interaction hand animation - smoother
• Power Cores: Now have reworked, more precise collisions.
• Chapter 1: Added relocation for the first area outside, to prevent climbing around for huge skip
• Chapter 1: Smasher Room will no longer close behind you as you approach the lift protected by lasers section. This allows you to return to the Bonus Room behind you, in case you missed it. It also allows you to come back from here in case you backtracked after opening the retractable wall to Find an Alternate Route
• Chapter 1: First Cube Room: The Healthpack in front of the first vent door (Vent 1), has now been moved on the pipes as an optional Healthpack
• Chapter 1: Changed Vent 1 in the room with very first Cube to now be locked at start, requiring to be unlocked with a small button. It will now be locked when opening the Door as before. This keeps the upper vent mandatory for return to the main room, but still allows going back inside to get the recording using the new Vent 1 button to reopen it, after dropping out of the upper vent.
• Chapter 1: Use Protection room row of lasers now changed to not have collisions when ON (like most others in the game), as on PC you can simply Dodge over them for speedruns. They have collisions when turned OFF (intended).
• Windows: Windows variant with holes to let pipes / cables through will now allow you to shoot through them (collision bug fixed on them). Good idea to check if this doesnt break the game by allowing to shoot some gameplay objects in advance through them.
• Hyper-Speed: Will now auto-consume Healthpack from your Backpack (if available) when requesting to activate Hyper-Speed while you currently not have enough Health to do so.
• Chapter 2: Reworked the vent in the optional area above the first room control room with Cameras - it was using an old layout. Changed slightly how to the get the NG+ only Color Pack here.
• Chapter 2: Big Room: Healthpack can now only be obtained through the crusher. We will see if it has become too hard to get healed in this area - in which case I will change it back to how it was before.
• Chapter 3: Bonus Room: You could glitch / crouch on the glass vent, probably to protect yourself with a cube placed on top of it, instead of destroying the generator to access the second Cube. Now blocked to avoid this possibility. Might revert it back if you suggest it, to conserve both possible solutions, but as this would require a higher ceiling in this area (not enough time to do this yet), it wasnt done yet.

BUG FIXES

This update includes hundreds of bugfixes; only important ones are mentioned here:

• Corrupted Save: Might still happen - will be investigated more in a future update. Not sure what causes it yet. However, when save corruption happens while reading the save file (resume or last checkpoint), the game will now restart the Chapter from start to unblock the game (no other solution yet).
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs
• Upgrade Terminals: If you had all upgrades acquired for a Terminal, or in End Game mode, Hyper-Speed could show up as an upgrade. It shouldnt.
• Color Packs: After requesting a New Game (not NG+), picking up Color Packs would not correctly update the count of found Color Packs in the Pause menu. This fix requires you to request a New Game to test if its now correctly solved.
• Lifts & Moving Platforms: After a Quick Save / Quick Load, in some cases, some Lifts or Moving Platforms would refuse to move after being activated.
• Chapter 4: Many gameplay and visual bugfixes in Processing Center.
• Save System: More cases of saving are now safer (lasers positioning and more)
• Interaction: When not in Speedrun Mode (rarely if enabled), interaction with buttons could fail if you looked rapidly the other way while interaction animation was playing.
• Lasers: After a Quick Load, moving lasers could be out of sync / moving towards incorrect direction. There might still be cases of this, but most should now be fixed.
• Screens: A bug was provoking second run texts to not be used in New Game+. Should be fixed.
• Moving Platforms: Many bugfixes coming from PE with platform pushing/crushing player fixes. Quick loading while standing on a moving platform could cause wrong moving platform movement after quick load.
• Show Stats: Tab key would not always work to request to hide/show stats & objectives. Should now be more reactive.
• Hover: Hovering just after a fully-vertical-upwards Dodge could result in sliding vertically up for a few seconds.
• Sparks: Particles for lasers could sometimes go through objects.
• Crouched Jump: If you chained jump just after a crouch request, youd have a jump height boost. Fixed.
• Moving Platforms: Spamming Jump when Quick Loading with a Quick Save on a moving platform could result in your being able to fly
• Recordings: If Steam failed to initialize correctly, errors could happen when picking up Recordings. Should not happen anymore.
• Other: Countless other bugs in all Chapters :)

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few weeks for the next found major bugs ;) Enjoy your wonderful holidays, and we wish you a Happy New Year in advance! Charles & Amy from Haze Games

[ 2020-12-27 19:44:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear Fractal Space players! Update 0.583 is now LIVE on Steam for Windows, Mac & Linux! This update focuses on fixing many reported bugs in 0.582. The game should now be more stable [quote="Haze Games"]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER after updating to avoid bugs, softlocks and ensure new bugfixes are correctly applied![/quote] After updating, if at any time you are encounter a missing object in the level (Power Core Slot or other), please restart the current chapter from the beginning (not last checkpoint, full Chapter restart) and check if the issue is still happening. If it still missing, please report with ALT+B. As there were a huge amount of bug fixes and important changes, please expect new bugs to occur. If major blocking bugs occur, please report and there will be a quick patch within a few days to fix those first. Other bugs will wait for the next update. If you have specific bug reports that require videos, please send them to bug@haze.games Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

| NEW IN 0.583 |

• Interaction: A bug made all interactions possible from further away than intended. Fixed, which might create new bugs or unsolvable situations. Picking cubes that are on platforms below you may now require you to crouch (intended and acceptable). Please report if you find blocking issues with performing interactions after this change. Im aware speedrunners might dislike this change; Im expecting complaints Youll need to get used to the smaller interaction range. If after a few runs you still cant adapt to it and it is too annoying, Ill increase it slightly again (but will remain smaller than it was before), and maybe only for Speedrun Mode. Please report as Suggestions what you think about the smaller interaction range (please not the first time you try only after doing a few runs and being used to it).
• Button Interaction: First version of button interaction animation; will be using the left-hand glove with an electrified short-range visual effect towards the button activated in the future. Its meant to be very short and quick to avoid adding delays for interaction. Current delay is only 0.1s. Speedrun Mode completely removes this delay and keeps instant-interaction (the animation will be slightly out of sync, but its intended for Speedrun Mode). You can safely request interaction and move / look away and it will work (intended to avoid annoyance, and remain cosmetic). If you press it multiple times, it will correctly perform the interaction multiple times (might sometimes be out of sync visually with the animation, but that will be fixed later). Wont be played if currently healing, but instant interaction will be performed (intended)
• Achievements: Many existing Achievements now have new icons, 2 small ones were added. Many more to come, when I have time to add Achievements
• Hyper-Speed: Auto-heal if the player has a health kit in his backpack when reaching the low health threshold for Hyper-Speed.
• Chapter 1: Added softlock release in the first vertical corridor if no more Taser Ammo. You need to aim really badly to have it Its a silent dialogue for now.

| CHANGES |

• Damage: Invincibility period after being hit by Lasers / Saws has been reduced
• Dodge: Crosshair disabled will now still show Dodge cooldown gauge (washidden as well with the crosshair)
• Chapter 1: Taser pickup dialogues and objects are now better tied to picking up the Taser, avoiding them to be triggered if you dont pick it up directly.
• Chapter 1: First button to shoot in the game, can no longer be accessed manually
• Chapter 1: Skip through the breakable window in the room with the first Cube will no longer destroy the first cube you can continue to Taser Room door with it. Previous vents wont be automatically locked.
• Chapter 1: Cannot go back into the lift Maintenance hatch of Alternate Route anymore after using the lift to go up to the first Power Core
• Chapter 1: After dropping in the room below the vertical corridor with a button to shoot, the blinking laser will turn off after interacting with the first switch.
• Chapter 2: Upon entering the last room in the Zero-Gravity part, the ground will be blocked to prevent you from returning down.

| BUG FIXES |

There were many more bugfixes than the list below; only noting here the most important ones:

• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs
• Saving: In some cases, resuming the game from Main Menu could provoke some triggers to re-activate and checkpoints to re-save. This has been fixed.
• Cutscenes: Disabling Cutscenes while a cutscenes was already playing could result in a black screen.
• Cutscenes: Auto-Skipping a Cutscene with Hyper-Speed activated could freeze the player for around 1s if the player was static or impede controls if already moving
• Music: Could play detected soundtrack at the same time as level soundtrack, especially when there were multiple cameras involved in the room. Most cases should be fixed, please report steps to reproduce if you find additional cases of this happening. Thank you!
• Music: Entering loading transition will now stop playing current chapter music until next chapter is loaded (intended).
• Cameras: Will now switch to normal level music and show Cleared when no more cameras are searching for the player. The game would sometimes do this when there was still another different camera detecting / searching for the player.
• Sequence Switches: Bugs were fixed with them sometimes remaining pressed down without actually moving to the next sequence step. Other bugs related to saving at specific moments of sequences have been fixed too they should be more stable.
• Room Control: Improved buttons to avoid them not always being activated when clicking outside of the center
• Sound Volume / Music Volume: Various bugfixes were made to music / sound volumes: a bug was provoking music to return during level loading (should be silent for now between levels), and music volume could be changed to higher than desired. Should now be better, might provoke new sound-related issues.
• Chapter 4: Power Beam switch was not playing its Activation animation.
• Chapter 4: Secret stairs to secret passage could sometimes open / close instantly instead of playing the intended animation. This is quite a dangerous change, please test and report any bugs regarding stairs animation or other animations like this.

Thank you for testing! Well continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for next bugs

[ 2020-10-29 02:23:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

What are you really trying to escape?

[hr][/hr] [previewyoutube=9dda1sfVAGo;full][/previewyoutube] [hr][/hr]

HELLO | DEAR SPACE TRAVELER!

We are Haze Games, an indie studio of 2 members. We have been working on Fractal Space for the past few years to bring our first-person adventure & puzzle game to life. No violence here. You will need your precision and timing skills, though. Oh, and don't forget your brainpower! [hr][/hr]

KEY | FEATURES

• Control your Jetpack to fly freely around space!
• Shoot your Taser-Gun to power-up devices remotely
• Solve amazing puzzles involving Zero-Gravity rooms
• Use Hyper-Speed to bend time around you and survive impossible traps
• Find Upgrade Terminals to acquire new Abilities
• Find lost Recordings to understand what lead you here and learn about yourself
• New Game+ to keep Upgrades, access Bonus Rooms and secret passages!
• Enable Speedrun Mode to skip cutscenes and accelerate parts of gameplay

[hr][/hr] If you enjoyed this Demo, the game is available in free closed Pre-Alpha testing up to Chapter 4. You can request a Steam key directly from the Main Menu of the Demo, or with the button below: Request Pre-Alpha Access We would like to thank our great community of testers, who have been supporting us in the long journey to improve the game every month! [quote=Charles & Amlie, Haze Games]We sincerely hope you will enjoy this free Demo of the first Chapter of Fractal Space![/quote] Charles & Amlie, Haze Games Haze Games

[ 2020-10-07 19:53:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello dear Fractal Space players! Latest update 0.58 is now available on Windows, Mac and Linux! Please restart Steam to be sure you get the latest update as soon as possible. This update focuses on a massive amount of bugfixes, that were introduced by previous update 0.57; as the previous version had many code / structural changes, it also brought in many new bugs. Theoretically, most of them should now be fixed! We hope this 0.58 update version is more stable than 0.57! [quote=Haze Games]RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs.[/quote] After updating, if at any time you are encounter a missing object in the level (Power Core Slot or other), please restart the current chapter from the beginning (not last checkpoint, full Chapter restart) and check if the issue is still happening. If it still missing, please report with ALT+B. If you have specific bug reports that require videos or cannot be sent via ALT+B, please send them to bug@haze.games ;) Thank you for testing and reporting bugs! In case you had missed our behind-the-scenes video about adding pipes in the past few updates, you can check it out now: [previewyoutube=K8_2cIC18bM;full][/previewyoutube]

NOTES | KNOWN ISSUES

Ghost Mode: Using Ghost Mode will result in bugs that you do not need to report. If you use Ghost Mode, please play the "normal way" and activate all the buttons / objects correctly in the right order, and "fly" through the normal path.
Otherwise, the level won't respond correctly and won't be initialized how it should. This is intended, as the game is highly optimized with all rooms being initialized as the player progresses. If you skip them completely with Ghost Mode, they won't be initialized. This is not a bug and does not require to be fixed, because it's simply an impossible situation in normal play. There will be an in-game warning about this in the future ;) Random Clipping: It can sometimes happen that you may randomly clip through a wall or ground. This is a Unity engine bug with physics. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything about it at this stage. The bug was reported years ago, and Unity is finally working on a fix. I will let you know when this issue is presumably fixed, from which point this issue shouldn't happen anymore. Until then, you might still experience it once in a while. You may still report bugs about them for information purposes but it requires Unity to fix their physics bug :(

NEW | IN 0.58

• Propellers with Blades: Being improved and reworked visually; you currently will have a mix between the old and new version (it's intended as work not finished). Will be improved in the next updates ;)
• Safe Area: Added "Reset" when editing Display Safe Area to reset to default values in Options - Accessibility:
  
• Upgrades: Reworked Upgrade interface with more readable layout and new icons for each upgrade. If you want to discover the updated Upgrades page yourself, please dont hover the SPOILER black bar below: [spoiler]
  [/spoiler]

CHANGES

• Chapter 1: Solved softlock before/after getting the Taser: if you have disabled the Platforms button, platforms will be forced active after shooting the very first switch, to ensure you can get back. If you disable the platforms after getting the Taser and try to return to Taser Room and fall, relocation will now appropriately relocate you to the correct side to avoid softlock.

BUG | FIXES

• Zero-Gravity: Fixed the major bug that would cause "throwing the player" around while in Zero-Gravity and going out of cutscene state (even with cutscenes disabled this bug would happen)
• Moving Lasers: Could sometimes stop movement after character death and save reloads
• 3D Texts: Some Russian characters were not displayed correctly (squares). Should be fixed. Please report if you find others ;)
• Breakable Windows: Falling from breakable window glass shards (example, walking on it and dropping down) could cause jetpack request to not happen until next time you touched regular ground
• Hover: Was recharging during cutscenes
• Collectibles: Various collectable objects could still have collisions (with other objects) after being picked up. Lens flares (small lights) were not displayed correctly (they should be back)
• Cutscenes: Some cutscenes could have lens flares wrongly placed (stars)
• Chapter 1: Could see the Power Core after 3600 code sticking out of the wall if you then decided to go outside
• Chapter 1: "Find a way to unlock the Taser Room" objective could be triggered and displayed as active when going through the vent before entering the room (too early).
• Chapter 2: The Bridge to get out of the first room had a ground placed above it - this was a bug.
• Chapter 2: Interior of the Big Room could have a missing part
• Chapter 2: First shooting camera cutscene could go wrong and prevent camera's surrounding walls to retract, if you were in first run (not NG+), and cutscenes disabled.
• Chapter 2: Last room's Cube could be picked up through the breakable window at some angles
• Chapter 3: Horizontal fast smashers could kill the player at incorrect moments of their moment:
  
• Chapter 3: The first double-pressure plates for the first door will now become inactive and unusable (stop reacting to cubes) when the button below has been activated. Intended, to avoid issues with the door they control, and keep that door closed.
• Chapter 3: After the first double-pressure plate area (with 2 timer boxes), the Cubes and structures behind would be destroyed while the moving platform was moving to the next area. Now, has been changed to be destroyed when entering the Vertical Room, to be less noticeable.
• Chapter 3: Power Core Slot for optional upgrade before The Cube initialization button, and others, could sometimes not be present.
• Chapter 3: The Cube area could be missing the Encryption Key readers and formatters. If you still have them missing, please share a video of how you played the previous rooms, as it may be linked to what actions you perform before reaching The Cube:
  
• Chapter 3: Invisible ground just before the "Timing is Important" room, after getting out of the vent
• Chapter 3: After the Bridge from the Vertical Room, you could shoot the button and result in a buggy entrance towards the next area. This button is now manual only.
• Chapter 3: Going through the disabled lasers after the music hacking part, would destroy the camera and other objects, even if you went back down. This has now been changed to be done later in the level to make it less noticeable.
• Chapter 3: "initializeRoom" button cutscene had a few objects wrongly present beforehand
• Chapter 3: Fixed various blinking objects inside Initialization Room, and some floating structures of the level that were visible too early
• Chapter 4: Sun Room Power Core Slot and others could sometimes be missing
• Chapter 4: A Train wall collider was bugged and you could clip through it
• Chapter 4: The Hyper-Speed Suppressor area could sometimes have a missing destructible wall on the ceiling
• Fixed camera glitches during cutscene transition for a non-skippable cutscene with Disable Cutscenes enabled
• Keyboard / Mouse Objects: Keyboard / Mouse objects of Terminals would be thrown very fast if shot with Taser in Zero-G. Will now react appropriately.
• Localization: Various typos and wrong localizations were fixed (thanks for reporting them)
• Subtitles: "Nope" subtitle wouldn't disappear

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update the game within 3 weeks ;)

[ 2020-10-01 00:30:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, dear players! A new update 0.57 of Fractal Space Pre-Alpha is ready to be tested, and live on Windows, Mac and Linux! Please restart Steam to be sure you get the latest update as soon as possible. As mentioned below, this update is significant in terms of code changes and optimizations - I'm expecting new bugs to appear with lasers, in-game screens, and character movement. [quote]RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs[/quote] Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

TIMELAPSE | Adding Pipes

In case you might have missed the video, we added new pipes in all levels in the last few updates. This updates adds a few more around the end of Chapter 3. Here's a timelapse of the addition of only a few of them: [previewyoutube=K8_2cIC18bM;full][/previewyoutube]

CHAPTER 1 | Dialogues

From v0.57, most dialogues are no longer silent for Chapter 1! As you might be used to the old dialogues from the mobile version, you might not like the new ones at first, and it will take some time for you to adjust to the change; but they are better for new players who do not know the mobile version. [quote]NOTE: They are not all final in terms of quality and acting, and some will be improved over the next updates. Chapter 1 dialogues will soon be added to the Localization sheet.[/quote]

CONTROLS | Rework

There has been a major rework of the controls / gravity / fall movement engine. This is a significant change in code, which came along with a pretty significant amount of headaches :) You won't see the difference much at first glance - but this major rework was necessary in order to fix a few complicated bugs, that were annoying whenever they would happen, especially during speedruns. The end result is smoother fall / landing on grounds, especially while running and on slopes, etc. Here's an explanation of the fixes and desired behavior with the new changes:

• Undesired Fast Fall: When "dropping from a ledge" without jump, the player would "fall very fast" for around 0.2s, which created a visible downwards "jitter". This could sometimes prevent a jump from being performed as requested.

• Slopes Fast Fall: The same as the above, but was worse when running on slopes (especially downwards slopes). This could also happen when falling off the edge of a vertical moving platform.

• Hard sticking to Ground: When running off a ground towards another ground slightly below, the character would "hard stick", meaning instantly teleport to the next ground's vertical position, creating a "vertical jitter" of the character instead of smoothly falling on the next ground.

• Tolerant Jump: In order to avoid frustration, there is a jump tolerance of around 0.1s that allows the character to jump, even if he is no longer on the current ground for less than this duration. This avoids jumps being ignored if the player just got off the platform (necessary, especially while running fast). However, before the rework, these jumps would create a visible "downwards jitter" of the character too. Should now be smooth.

• Sprinting on Slopes: This was still an issue and the character would sometimes "unstick" from slopes when running downwards on them. Should happen far less often.

• Various other non-smooth movements were happening in other situations, especially on smashers / moving platforms. This has been improved.

[quote]NOTE: The rework does affect how gravity / ground collision / jetpack / hover / dodge is applied to the character - this means that even though the bugs above have been fixed in most cases, these changes may have introduced new bugs, especially if you test complicated combinations of hover / dodge / jetpack / jump / moving platforms. [/quote]

NEW | From v0.57

• Screens with Texts: Screens which display texts in-game were OK, but they were becoming an issue. Every single one of them has been replaced in all levels with a new display system that allows: - Smoother texts (no blurriness), even with large characters (like the Big Room screen) - Significantly more optimized when there are many (the PC version has more than 200 screens per level)
  The new system for these screens doesn't have yet the "typewriter effect". It will be added in a future update (needs to be re-done).
• Active Lock: For some locked vents where the player must act to unlock them (removing a power core, Room Control, etc.), now have a visible "active lock" to make it more clear that this vent is currently locked, and that power to this lock must be cut-off to unlock it:
  

• Chapter 1: All collectable recordings are now placed for this level:
  

• Relocation: Added Black & White effect when starting a relocation

• Cables: Added many new cables for some Power Core Slots / buttons in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, to make some areas more clear:
  

• Chapter 3: Added more pipes at the end of the chapter

• Texts: Both in-game 3D texts and User Interface now support all languages characters display. All Ukrainian / Russian characters should now be displayed correctly:
  

• Options: New Accessibility tab: You can now disable / enable the white point crosshair when not aiming the Taser, and change Subtitles Size. In addition, you can now change the Display Safe Area if you have a screen aspect ratio that may have UI elements "oustide the screen". This can mostly happen when connected to a TV:
  More accessibility options will be added in future updates, like color blind options, and more. In the future, you'll be able to select different crosshair styles and colors.

CHANGES

• Lasers / Mines Optimization: The code that handles lasers and mines has been significantly optimized. It will run better on low-end CPUs when many lasers are active. These changes might have introduced new bugs with Lasers - keep an eye out ;)

• User Interface Optimization: The code that handles the user interface in general has been significantly optimized as well. It will run better on low-end CPUs. In addition, all in-game UI elements positions are now depending on the new Display Safe Area. These changes might have introduced new bugs with user interface elements - keep an eye out for new UI-related bugs too ;)

• Various Optimization: Many other systems were optimized, and many more to come in future updates.

• Lens Flares: Disabling / Enabling "Bloom" will now also enable / disable associated Lens Flares of lights (small stars on them). This will improve performance on low-end PCs when disabled.

• Chapter 1 Quote: Has been removed and replaced by a different one. It is now on an Information Tablet, not on a wall screen. Please check localization sheet to re-translate it. Thank you!

• Chapter 1: First Crushers Room: In case you leave your cube in an inaccessible place without it, you can now regenerate the cube with a button next to the platform to avoid softlocks:
  • This button doesn't work until cube has been picked up at least once after initial spawn / manual respawns.
  • Note: This new Reinitialize Cube button cannot be activated while the cube is on the objective Pressure Plate (intended), to avoid mistakenly respawning the cube when you have solved the room.

• Chapter 1: The pathway to get to the optional area to get "Impressive" recording has changed visually. Since the Cube can be re-generated using the new button, the slopes to help get there without a cube after completing this area has been removed.

• Chapter 1: First Power Core Slot will make the Entrance door button activable; but opening the Entrance door will properly make the button inactive again to avoid softlocks.

BUG FIXES

• Smasher Death during Cutscenes: Was no longer resulting in "red invincible state" since 0.56 (good), but was then breaking collisions with the Smasher (bad). Should now be fixed.

• Language: When changing languages, tutorials, objectives and other texts that were not updated to the new language until next time they are shown - will now be updated correctly.

• ALT+B In-Game Bug Reporting: Should now be displayed properly on all screen aspect ratios and resolutions, including very low resolutions.

• Zero-G Boost: Was wrongly displaying "Pending" for the Sprint when performing Zero-G Boost

• Chapter 1: Fixed more misaligned walls in the last camera rooms.

• Chapter 2: The door at the end of the first shooting cameras corridor could be missing, allowing you to enter the room with the first electrified water, without it being properly initialised. This is a bit of a mystery bug, as it doesn't happen here in normal play. I made some changes to try and avoid it, but cannot guarantee it's fully fixed. To be tested ;)

• Chapter 3: Fast horizontal Smashers should no longer push you through the wall upon death.

• Chapter 3: I was not able to reproduce the bug in which the initializeRoom.cpp button failed to initialize the room. If you do manage to find a way to reproduce this, please report it again with more details of how this bug can happen (maybe something specific to do before?)

• Interaction: Fixed a case in which the "Interaction" sign would be stuck in a loop of being hidden and shown very rapidly.

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update the game within 2/3 weeks ;)

[ 2020-08-26 21:36:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all! PC update 0.56 is available on Windows, Mac and Linux! Restart Steam to be sure you get the latest update as soon as possible. This update is mostly about bugfixes after the 0.54 - 0.55 updates. You can view the previous full 0.54 update changelog on our post here: https://haze-games.com/update-0-54 There has been changes to Chapter 1 - Please read the changelog before testing, or else you might think these changes are not intended ;) [quote] RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs RESET SAVE: If you want the recordings counter fixed properly, you'll need to reset your save with the !Reset Save! button. As a precaution, it's good to reset your save if you are going to test the full game ;) [/quote] Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

NOTES & KNOWN ISSUES

[quote] Reset Save: "Bonus rooms count doesn't reset by !reset save!" -> Was not able to reproduce; every time I reset save (either from Main Menu or Pause), everything is reset correctly, including Bonus Room count and states. Maybe there is a specific step to do in order for this bug to occur? However, I made a change to Reset Save that may help this, so it might be solved. Jetpack & Cutscenes: "Sometimes, when cutscene start, and you starting to use jetpack, after cutscene, jetpack would start and hold Space until end of oil" -> Not able to reproduce: jetpack is always interrupted when a cutscene starts (intended) and request to use Jetpack is always ignored during cutscenes, until cutscenes end. At end of cutscene, jetpack reacts normally. If you find a way to reproduce this, please report again - it doesn't look systematic. Text: Russian characters are supported by the main User Interface of the game - the Taser screen and hidden messages aren't displaying correctly with all languages yet - it's a known issue, I'll be working on this soon. It's different because text display in 3D uses a different system than UI texts - dynamic font switching support needs to be added for 3D texts (missing feature, will work on it for future update). ALT+B Reporting: Not displayed correctly on super-low resolutions (like 640x480). Will be fixed in a future update. [/quote]

NEW IN 0.56

• Ukrainian: Added Ukrainian (thanks for the translation!). However, some characters might not yet be displayed correctly, please wait for the next update if there are issues with this language.
• Vents: Outside texture of ventilation shafts has changed to look cleaner, and more consistent with the rest of the level. You might not like it at first, as you were used to the previous texture - but it looks better for new players. They will be improved later to look more different than grounds.
• Cables: New cables visuals have been added in Chapter 3, first Encryption Key area on roof of vertical room. They will be gradually added to various Power Cores Slots (not necessarily all of them).
• Local Pixelation effect has been added to "censor" the player position on camera feed screens. There will be something for Cutscenes too in the future
• Chapter 1: Roof next to first smasher button has been visually improved. Walls of this smasher room have been reworked to be better aligned, avoiding ghost collisions on small borders.
• Chapter 1: Room with "Taser Room" door using 2 pressure plates has changed. In addition, all elements are directly present the first time you enter it, but can't be used yet (before, elements for your return were not present at all the first time).
  • When coming back with the Taser on New Game+, you can skip activating the platform by directly activating the Laser Field button (inside the room, or button behind Laser Field, coming from breakable window).
  • Made the dual pressure plates safer: You can't get out onto the Bridge with the cubes anymore in New Game. If you do so using HS + Dodge in NG+, they will be respawned as you cross the bridge to ensure they remain on the pressure plates and keep the door open. Dropping it on the bridge will also result in respawning.
  • You also cannot softlock yourself in this room by using HS to drop the cube on the bridge and go back in
• Chapter 1: The roof of the room mentioned above (where you find Orange color pack) has changed too.
• Chapter 1: First Power Core Area: Has changed to add a little bit more to explore, and different way get the Color Pack ;) It is intended to be playable on both NG and NG+. Easier in NG+ as you can use Hover / Dodge to get it directly (intended)
• Chapter 2: Player stuck between moving platforms and walls in the first room, will teleport him above or below the platform, instead of pushing him out and killing him. Please report other occurrences of pushing you out of bounds, as this is complicated issue that needs to be solved per-platform.
• Chapter 4: Until now, Chapter 4 had no recordings to find in the level. You can now find 3 of them (there will be more) - even though they are silent and temporary "Work In Progress" .
• Camera Screens: Camera Feed Screens now display "Error, rebooting" when stunned, and "Camera Destroyed" if camera is destroyed instead of "Offline" for both cases.
• Destructible Walls: Made walls easier to break in general.IMPORTANT: Walls are meant to feel stronger than windows and harder to break completely. Multiple shots are required, and pieces remain and require you to shoot more. This is the intended feel and won't change for the normal game.However, I know this can be annoying in speedruns. From now on, Taser Power Level 3 will break walls much more efficiently than Level 2 (was intended, not yet implemented). If you want to speedrun faster with breakable walls, please do so with Taser Power Level 3 ;)
• Destructible Walls: Dodge will still not break non-broken walls (intended). However, walking through a broken wall will detach the remaining parts slowly, and Dodging through it will break them to ensure you get through. This should help for speedruns :) Still recommended to make decent hole before going through ;)
• Destructible Walls: Now have sounds

CHANGES

• Chapter 1: First lasers "Don't be Afraid": ATTENTION, SPEEDRUNNERS: I want the player to not be able to go through them at all on first run, but still allow speedrunners to skip them, so it has changed:
  • There are more lasers now, and it's intended that you can't walk through them on New Game (you won't survive)
  • On New Game+, you can decide to go through while speedrunning and lose some health by moving through them crouched (crouch + dodge works too) to minimize the count of lasers that hit your body.
  • You will need to haveHealth Level 2 minimum to survive it.
  • The 3 blinking lasers just after this will now be activated even if you skipped the first lasers - you'll need to be more careful ;)
• Chapter 1: Prevented softlock in first elevator bonus area: vent will now close correctly upon going through the breakable window.
• Chapter 1: Prevented softlock in Taser Room: cubes respawn if thrown to the other side of pipes until you reach other side of pipes, way to return to Taser if you didn't pick it up in the fall and then went over pipes. Softlocks here should now be impossible.
• Chapter 1: Taser Room changed Cubes initial positions to force player to drop a cube for protection.
• Chapter 1: First Power Core Area: Button to open Entrance Door to 3600 code vent will now be present at start, but will only be online after inserting Power Core into Main Power.
• Chapter 1: Right after the lift to reach the first Power Core Area, it was possible to be relocated next to the Main Power Core Slot instead of start of the area. It will now properly relocate you next to the lift, then next to the Power Core Slot when you have reach it first at least once.
• Chapter 1: 3600 code hint screen now shows "Unavailable" by default instead of nothing until Information button is activated, to avoid feeling like it's a bug that nothing is displayed yet.
• Chapter 1: Relocation in the First Power Core area will now only relocate you to Bonus Room if you at least touched the ground of the bonus area (orange) once - then relocation position will return back to "in front of power core slot" if you successfully get out of the bonus room. You could sometimes die before relocation happens - now fixed.
• Chapter 1: This orange bonus area mentioned above now allows you to go closer to edges, and avoided some softlocks here in NG
• Chapter 1: "Disobeyed orders" dialog has moved to be a bit earlier (inside vent) than before. Can be skipped in NG+ if you go through window (intended)
• Chapter 2: You can now stand on the "Big Room" screen - not very useful, but looks like something would expect.
• Damage Blur: Smoother blur effect on / off when damaged
• Depth of Field: Smoother aiming depth of field change when aiming close / far objects (now gradual)
• Chapter 1 Dialogs: Improved quality of most of the new dialogs. Some are still not good and will be re-done later on. Priority is just reaching a state where there is no silent dialogs in CH1 - then a second pass on dialog recording will be done.

BUG FIXES

• Invincible Red State: Dying during a cutscene should not be possible; if it happened, you would enter an invincibility state, with the red "death effect". This has been solved, and you should never get killed during cutscenes (yes, even if you are squashed during a cutscene - this is an intended choice to avoid the frustration of being killed during a cutscene rather than being realistic).
• Dialogs: Some silent dialogs were actually playing "Cmon, let's go on an adventure" instead of silence. You were not crazy, hehe :)Fixed many - You might find more - let me know if you do!
• Cubes: A player reported sometimes not being able to pick up a cube. After a lot of investigation, found and fixed a case that provoked this; it was having a cube forced respawned via "Unauthorized Object" while the cube was in hands and invalid position (red, cannot be placed here). Should no longer happen.
• Game Completion: After completing the game and directly exiting, the game would start a normal New Game upon re-launch, instead of New Game+, thus resetting your recordings to 0 and probably upgrades too. Should now start a New Game+ as intended.
• Recordings: Number of recordings collected could not be displayed correctly (showing 0), especially after re-launching the game or New Game+. If you are still having this bug, please !RESET SAVE! in the menu.
• Customization: Resetting the save will correctly select default colors to avoid selecting colors that aren't unlocked anymore
• Reporting: Reporting a bug in the main menu without any level loaded will now behave normally again
• Tables: You could crouch underneath tables - not intended
• Rumble: Fixed some rumble sequence to still trigger when Rumble is disabled (rumble only with XInput devices like Xbox controller + Windows)
• Chapter 1: Could stand on the retracted Bridge that closes in front of you, on return from picking the Taser.
• Chapter 1: Skip breakable wall with pipes was hard to break than others.
• Chapter 1: Fixed being able to stand on invisible ground next to moving platform in front of Smashers button
• Chapter 1: Button in first Power Core area, (next to the blue light) to shoot with Taser could not be activated manually.
• Chapter 1: Fixed sometimes being "stopped in the air" when falling down the vertical corridor, just after recharging Taser for the first time
• Chapter 1: Ceiling pipes for Recording in Smasher Room could sometimes be disabled and would be enabled only later on.
• Chapter 1: Fixed floating pipes when reaching the first Power Core area. This won't happen in a normal run. If you use Ghost Mode, many bugs like this will happen but ignore them - shouldn't in "normal play".
• Chapter 1: Fixed softlock in when doing optional room for the recording ("Impressive" bridge). If you dropped the cube a on some remaining objects in the room, you couldn't retrieve it. Room should now be empty as intended, preventing this from happening (cube will respawn).
• Chapter 2: Bridge Minigame: Wasn't able to reproduce reported bug about Bridge minigame being ended with a wrong solution - changed it to be safer - let me know if you find a way to have it end on an incorrect solution.
• Chapter 2: Weird bug with Cubes jumping off the vertical moving platform without being touched by the moving saws, next to the the lift to the first shooting camera room: made some changes that should help, but couldn't reproduce the issue here, so not 100% sure it's fixed - to be tested!
• Chapter 3: Fixed a critical error that was happening for a specific language (Czech) when loading this chapter.
• Chapter 3: New roof of vertical room: You could squeeze through some pipes (not intended) instead of using the Power Core to open Maintenance Access of the new area, to get the Recording.
• Chapter 3: The Recording in the new area above, would sometimes not be present.
• Chapter 3: Standing up in the glass vents of Chapter 3 with Zero-G disabled would result in a bug.
• Chapter 3: Crypto-Locator button would fail to work as intended if player picked up the Encryption Key beforehand. It was a bug that the key was already present, as it should spawn randomly when Cypto-Locator is activated.
• Crosshair: Could sometimes see Crosshair, Dodge Cooldown gauge, or Dodge visual effect while in Pause / Taser Customization.
• Music: Fixed a case where detected music would continue playing even after being cleared (maybe still more cases present)
• Other: Various other reported minor bugs have been fixed

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update the game by the end of next week ;)

[ 2020-08-01 19:56:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first patch of version 0.54 is now live, as 0.55! Restart Steam to ensure you receive it as as soon as possible! This update focuses on bugfixes from the first wave of reports from the 0.54 update. We'll continue fixing more as they are reported during the week. Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

| NEW IN 0.55 |

• Chapter 3: Added hint dialogs for Encryption Keys, improved info tablet text. Encryption Key on roof now easier to find. Information tablets will look different than Encryption Keys in the future.
• Resolution: First launch of the game will now be in full resolution of screen. Windowed mode will now work correctly for subsequent launches, and will not return to full screen after ALT+Tab.
• Sprint: It's intentional to see the Sprint icon even when not able to sprint, to ensure you are aware if sprint is Toggled ON or OFF (especially useful if using TOGGLE sprint type in options).
• New Sprint request icon now visually different when sprint request is pending (not sprinting right now / cannot sprint now) or currently sprinting to make it more clear. This way, you clearly know if you are going to sprint ASAP or not.

[quote=Haze Games]Known Issue: Bug Reporting: Reporting a bug in the Main Menu with no level loaded, will result in an error; please only report bugs while a level is loaded in 0.55 - this will be fixed in next update ;) [/quote]

| CHANGES |

• Pre-Alpha Warning Popup: The popup explaining that most dialogs are not recorded yet, and it's not a bug that they are silent, was not being displayed on first launch. Should now be displayed again.

• Sound Effects: I was not able to reproduce the bug with sound effects that stop working (music only) after character death. I tried many times with the same save as The Promidius, unsuccessfully. If you manage to find a way to reproduce this, please let me know the steps in a bug report. It may be linked to character death exactly while volume is being reduced for a dialog to be played, or something tricky like this ;) I made some changes to try and avoid this, but not sure if this is properly fixed yet.

| BUG FIXES |

• Mines: Potential critical error in some cases of Exploding a Mine should be fixed

• Discord: Username was no longer being added automatically to the in-game bug reports. Should now be functional again

• Collisions: There can be times when the player would ignore some collisions randomly, like fall through a floor. This is very hard to solve everywhere - Theoretically, fixed a few that were reported in Chapter 1 by Ilya. If you encounter any others, please report them so I can investigate. Thanks!

• Safe Landing: Potential critical error in some cases of Safe Landing detection should be fixed

• Cubes: Picking up a cube that is below another cube, could result in the stacked cube to remain stuck in the air.

• Chapter 1: Platforms disappeared on first try when opening the Bridge: They will now act as intended, and appear after activating the Bridge switch ;)

• Chapter 1: Collision bug pushing the player in room with first Cube.

• Chapter 1: Third laser in first Cube room couldn't harm you if moving towards the "vent access bloc"

• Chapter 2: Various visual bugs reported in 0.54

• Chapter 3: New area had a bug provoking a missing button for Platform 1

• Chapter 3: Some disappearing objects when exploring the new Cube area on some angles

• Chapter 4: Power Cores could be "sticking out" of Processing Center and the room just before

• Chapter 4: Visual bugs with blinking walls on solar station roof

• Lights: Lens flares ("stars") from lights are no longer "outside the light", but at the edge limit. They are intentionally not fully "inside".

• Bug Report Error: If you are having a "invalid uri" game error when trying to upload a bug, it may simply be that your Firewall is blocking the game from uploading files externally. Please check your firewall settings to allow the game, or disable it while reporting bugs ;) Otherwise, it can also be that another user is uploading at the same time, the server has limits of concurrent users - simply try reporting your bug again a few seconds later.

[ 2020-07-24 14:24:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

After a lot of work, the major Update 0.54 of Fractal Space is now live and ready to be tested! As Steam announcements do not properly support Spoilers for images, we have decided to keep the changelog on our on our official website for a few days - until most of you have had enough time to play the update. Please click the link above to read more about the content of the new update without getting spoilers - we recommend reading the spoiler parts once you have tested the new update :)

[ 2020-07-22 18:11:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have updated the game today to version 0.53 on Steam! This update brings hundreds of bugfixes reported by players since 0.52 last week! Restart Steam to ensure the download is detected, then check top-right of the main menu that you are on the latest version. We only going to detail here a few of the important bugfixes and changes from this update. More Steam keys are going to be sent now for a few new players. [quote=Haze Games]Please remember: silent dialogues are normal as they are changing - not bugs If you are in Chapter 3: Restart CHAPTER required![/quote]

KNOWN | ISSUES

Here are listed the known bugs. You can avoid them, but please don't report these bugs again, unless you have found new information or a 100% reproducible situation to help solve them:

• Aim Stabilizer: Auto-aim when high angle vertically (object right on top or right above you) will result in fast camera rotation instead of auto-aiming. Will be solved in a next update
• Camera Rotation: Maybe a consequence of another bug, that can cause "camera jumps" when looking around you. Please report if you find any way to reproduce the occurrence of this bug. Possibly only with a gamepad.
• Chapter transition might result in playing 2 soundtracks. Restarting the chapter should fix it, or exit the game and resume. Will be fixed in future update.

CHANGES

Below are listed the changes - not bug fixes of this update. Bugfixes are listed further down.

UPGRADE | SAFE LANDING

The behavior has changed for this upgrade:

• Now only displayed when GROUND is detected, AFTER flying at least once over an UNSAFE area (this avoids it being displayed most of the time, when unnecssary, like small jumps).
• Now shows LIMIT for relocation detection, 2 to 10m before reaching the lower limit (only a few meters to avoid always showing where limits are from far away, different per-relocation systems)
• Always displayed when flying over a HAZARD (electrity, large laser fields)
• Doesn't show VOID anymore to avoid showing it too often, and it's best to inform when it's safe rather than when there is nothing to land on.
• Distance always shown if distance < 30m (except for limit detection, for which distance display varies)

There may be new bugs with this new behavior, like false-positives on GROUND detection. To be tested! Please note it will still show GROUND when normal lasers / saws are present. This is intended, as it's up to you to avoid small traps ;)

SEQUENCE | SWITCHES

Sequence switches were reacting to Cubes in addition to the player. They have been changed to only react to the Player. This is the intended behavior.

OTHER | CHANGES

Chapter 2: Changed the large button platform to require player presence to start. No longer possible to "stay behind" (safer relocation system).

BUG | FIXES

Chapter 3: You could place cubes through the small breakable windows, at the glass-window station area in zero-gravity. This was not intended, and not possible before:
List of some of the bugs that were solved in 0.53:

• Chapter 1: First dialog sequence fixed
• Chapter 1: Picked up recordings were not played correctly
• Being crushed could sometimes cause character to teleport through crusher
• A bug allowed you to interact with Terminals from further away than before, and without facing them (not intended)
• Skipping cutscenes could create a game error, leading to cutscene events not being executed properly
• Jumping in an accelerated lift with Speedrun Mode enabled could cause you to fall through it
• Chapter 2: New change in first Shooting Cameras would make them being active too early
• Chapter 3: Large button and moving platform after double-cube door safer if you try to leave the platform or skip (relocations and others should trigger correctly). To be tested!
• Chapter 3: Player pressure plates (sequence switches) were also reacting to cubes. Won't anymore (intended this way).
• Breakable Windows: Various bugs solved with them. Shouldn't result in "flying parts" anymore as well.
• Many various bugs fixed in Chapter 4
• Safe Landing: Could previously show false-positives for "VOID"
• Color Packs Stats: CH1 would display "3/4" max, and CH3 too. Fixed, but requires a SAVE RESET if you want this counter to be correct. If you don't reset your save, you'll keep "3/4" as max for CH1, and will reach "5/4" for CH3 if you find them all.
• Bonus Rooms Objectives won't be activated anymore in End Game mode. They might still appear as "Completed". Will be solved in the future.
• Many other bugs and rendering issues reported in some Chapters were fixed

Thank you to all players who reported bugs from the game, and helped solving these!

[ 2020-03-20 03:35:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

HELLO | DEAR PLAYERS

Hi there, Fractal Space players! New update 0.52 is finally live! This update includes many changes, improvements and bugfixes!

MAJOR CHANGES | RESET SAVE

This update contains many bugfixes and changes to make the game more stable, and fix various gameplay bugs & additions, and save system reworks. [quote=Haze Games]IMPORTANT: These changes imply that a full RESET SAVE is required for the game to function properly. We strongly recommend you press the !Reset Save! button in the main menu after the update![/quote]

CHAPTER 1 | DIALOGUES

Chapter 1 had many old dialogues coming from the Pocket Edition, and most of the new PC-exclusive dialogues were simply not present. We have added the missing dialogues in Chapter 1 for PC; they are silent and this is not a bug. As we are reworking them all in the game, please ignore the fact that the audio is not yet recorded, and read subtitles meanwhile. Please note that new dialogues are not yet localized, and they should not yet be translated as they are liable to still change. Some lines are the same as on mobile good chance these will change as well in the future. They will only be added to the Localization Sheet when they are considered to be final. In addition to Chapter 1 dialogues, there are also many new dialogue events. Here are a few examples:

• Dialogues for first Upgrade Terminal discovery
• Dialogues after taking an upgrade
• Dialogues for approaching already used Upgrade Terminals in New Game+
• Dialogues which only exist in New Game+, or changed for New Game+
• Dialogues for trying to get out of the level (relocation system)

SPEEDRUN | DIALOGUES

Speedrun Mode now disables many dialogues in Chapter 1 (around 60% are disabled) to prevent having too much talking during Speedrun sessions. If you want to test the new dialogues (silent, only subtitles for now), please play without Speedrun Mode first. This will be applied to all Chapters in the future.

LEVEL | CHANGES

Many changes were made to various areas in most levels sometimes these are small changes and fixes, and a few larger ones:

• Chapter 1: Cutscene that shows the door closing in front of you in 1..2.. SLICE room has been removed, to allow skip using HyperSpeed without the need to disable cutscenes.
• Presure Plates: Reworked in Chapter 1 before Taser Room in order to solve many bugs with their logic. They now enter lockdown for the second time you enter that room, after picking up Taser, preventing many possible bugs, and making them inactive (intentional).
• Chapter 2: A room now has higher ceilings to avoid the feel of being too constrained.
• Chapter 3: First breakable wall with Upgrade Terminal has changed into Bonus Room 6; now also contains a recording and has been rebuilt differently.
• Chapter 3: The corridor with the breakable wall above now has higher ceiling
• Chapter 3: The area in which you must destroy the Generator to disable the laser field, before the Sequence Room, has changed a bit
• Chapter 3: The Bonus Room 7 next to the Sequence Room area has been built and should be functional

END GAME | NEW GAME+

The End Game was one of the main game systems that was not yet functional and it is now! There might be bugs with this, but the main logic is implemented. The End Game system is activated when the player has found all Upgrade Terminals in the game, and none are available to use:

• Makes all terminals available for a second upgrade
• These terminals will now provide you with missing upgrades
• When the player acquires all upgrades in the game, all terminals become unavailable

Selecting New Game also resets all picked up Recordings and Color Packs (intended). Only New Game+ keeps upgrades and collectables. Selecting New Game+ should never reset anything.

NEW UPGRADE

A new Upgrade has been added to the game!

SCANNER

This upgrade helps finding Recordings, Upgrades Terminals and Color Packs. It has 2 levels of upgrade:

• Level 1: Be notified when an Upgrade Terminal is nearby
• Level 2: Be notified when Recordings or Color Packs are nearby

NEW | CHAPTERS PAGE

The Chapters page has been reworked to be more suitable to PC and gamepads. Each Chapter now has a specific image and loading image. It now also displays new stats for each Chapter:

NEW | STATISTICS

This update introduces new statistics available in the Pause Menu. Later on, well rework the interface display to be easier to read, but for now its important to check it regularly to see if it displays accurate information at all times:
Both stats of your current Upgrades (left) and the current Chapter are displayed (right) [quote=Haze Games]IMPORTANT: Its intended that Chapter Stats (right side) are NOT DISPLAYED on the first run of the game. Upgrade stats are displayed after acquiring your first Upgrade.[/quote]

UPGRADES | CHANGES

Changes and fixes were made to various upgrades in the game, detailed below.

HOVER | FIXES

Level 3 Upgrade of Hover had a bug, and felt like walking freely in the air because of perfect air control. Changed to feel like hovering, while still having more air control than previous levels.

JETPACK | HYPER-SPEED

• Jetpack light and gauge color now yellow to make it easier to distinguish between health / hover / hyper-speed and another element to be revealed in Chapter 5
• Health Backpack and Hyper-Speed display improvements, now above health gauge
• Health gauge now becomes blue while Hyper-Speed is active, and becomes red when not enough health to activate Hyper-Speed. The gauge and buttons now look like it has been Toggled On:

AIM | STABILIZER

Many improvements were made to the Aim Stabilizer upgrade mechanic:

• Now shows Stabilizing gauge when auto-aim is starting and waiting for you to stop moving the camera. Any camera movement will cancel stabilization. it will resume if you stop moving the camera again. This will allow you to still play normally with Aim Stabilizer, and only use it by not moving the camera and prefer to wait for Aim Stabilizer to perform.
• Longer delay before auto-aim kicks in.
• Will no longer instantly auto-lock while in air / hovering / using Jetpack, in order to avoid unintentional instant auto-lock. Instant auto lock now only works if you aim close to the target while on the ground.
• Instant auto-lock when starting to aim close to a target to now exclusive to Aim Stabilizer Level 2.

CROUCH | SPRINT

Many bugfixes and improvements were made to Sprint and Crouch mechanics for this update:

• Requesting to Crouch shortly after touching the ground wouldnt be taken into account properly. It will now work and crouch as expected.
• Holding the Sprint key would not always work if the character could not sprint at that moment (cannot stand up or other scenarios). Any Sprint request should now always be performed as soon as possible.
• Crouch: TOGGLE mode is now the default mode.
• Crouch: Various bugs fixed cause by alternating between crouch and sprint

CHAPTER 5 | PROGRESS

If you have played Chapter 4 on PC, the word Progress might ring a bell Chapter 5 is a lot of work, just like Chapter 4 on PC was. Were gradually getting there, though. Were getting more rooms functional. Theres a few new features that were added for this Chapter, and creating rooms, puzzles and traps that use them takes time.
Were hoping to have a first playable of Chapter 5 in Experimental Builds in April. Thank you for your patience!

FUTURE | PC TASER

We have started to rework the Taser-Gun exclusive for the PC version. It will have the following major improvements over the current (mobile) version:

• The Taser model have better visuals
• All Taserrelated Upgrades will have a visual impact on the Taser in-game: Batteries will be added, scope attachment, etc.
• Ammo will be displayed more clearly as a number instead of gauge
• Taser Customization will affect more parts of the Taser
• Reloading system: Batteries will be ejected and replaced with a reloading animation
• New animations
• Taser Power Level 2 and 3 will be replaced by a Charged Shot Level 1 and 2 mechanic. A Charged Shot will consume more ammo, but will break walls (Level 1) and destroy cameras (Level 2) . This will allow you to still choose to only stun a camera, even after reaching max Taser Power level, by not charging the shot thus saving ammo. This change will also make Taser Capacity and Taser Backpack upgrades more meaningful.

The new Taser system requires a lot of work as well, in parallel of Chapter 5. The first playable version is planned to be tested at the same time as Chapter 5 PC. If its ready before CH5, it will be set live before

BUG FIXES | IMPROVEMENTS

Heres a list of the many other various bugfixes of this update many more have been fixed, only listing the major ones here:

• Crashes & Optimization: GPU memory load has been improved for all Chapters. Crashes on old graphics card should occur less often when loading next chapters. Chapter 4 might still have issues, thoughm as there is still work to do for this one. Let us know how it goes!
• Subtitles: Could sometimes display slowly or with wrong timings with Hyper-Speed active should now work fine in all cases
• Jump: Low framerate would make it impossible to jump quite often, usually after interaction. Should now be at least reduced, or fixed let me know if it still happens
• Fast Moving Platforms / Smashers / Lifts: Reworked to ensure smooth movement while standing on them, and avoid going through them at low framerate. Please dont jump while in accelerated lifts for now, still not perfect
• Water: Would only be rendered if Depth of Field was Enabled, or Reflections was set to Dynamic. Should now always be displayed, as intended.
• Triggers / Events: A bug could provoke some triggers / events to be activated twice, when they should only work once. This could create many level bugs, like unexpected relocations.
• Save System: After loading a save, some triggers or objects could be enabled when they shouldnt be would create unexpected random level bugs
• Aim Stabilizer: Could continue trying to aim after stopped aiming Taser.
• Jetpack: Starting using jetpack when a vertical moving platform just started to move upwards would provide massive boost to jetpack.
• Jetpack: QuickSave / Quickload will keep Jetpack Fuel at time of save (avoid exploits). For Auto-Saves / Last Checkpoint, fuel will now be fully recharged
• Exit Crash: Fixed crash that could occur upon game exit
• Shadows / Reflections: Many reflections / shadows fixes that were reported

Thank you for reading, and see you next time! Charles from Haze Games

[ 2020-03-09 23:42:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dynamic Reflections

The latest updates of the PC version now support a new Dynamic level of Reflections in the Graphics options: [previewyoutube=JyqThxyS1YA;full][/previewyoutube] Staticreflections are precomputed andgreatly optimized, so itshould be fine keepReflectionstoMediumorLowevenwith an integrated graphics card. The main drawback is that as the environment changes (a door opens, a screen changes color, etc.), these new changes are not seen in the reflections. It is a performance VS realism compromise. The newDynamicreflections level usesScreen Space Reflections and solves the issue stated above. However, it is resource demanding, and should be usedonly if you already have a good framerate. It usually lowers the FPS significantly on integrated graphics cards. If you are onintegrated graphics instead and not a dedicated GPU, you shouldkeepReflectionstoMediumorLowlevel.

New Electrified Water

[previewyoutube=IiKRe5DlKoo;full][/previewyoutube] The Electrified Grounds were only made of an electricity visual effect. We have improved them:

• Optimized the electricty effect to have a lower impact on framerate - will be even more optimized later on
• Water has been added below them, with the associated sound effects

New Vent Doors

[previewyoutube=WAH0rzaQJSI;full][/previewyoutube] Vent doors were using a small regular door visual. This was temporary. They now all have been replaced with the new visual! They have been improved to:

• Look better from both sides
• New animation that avoids sticking out through walls and windows

Aiming Depth of Field

[previewyoutube=NWl-iX7W6sQ;full][/previewyoutube] TheDepth of Fieldeffect cansimulate the blurthat can be observed by areal-world camera, when it isfocusing on close or distant objects. If this effect is enabled, it will beused in the following cases:

• Aiming Taser:Theaimed at pointbecomes thefocus. When aiming atclose objects,distant objects are blurred, and vice-versa
• Taking Damage:Thescreen becomes blurryfor afew seconds

This effect isdemanding;if you have anintegrated graphics cardand alow framerate, it'sbest to keep it disabled.

Reworked Taser Aiming

The aiming laser for the Taser -Gun has been reworked significantly to fix the following issues:

• The laser was not always pointing at the exact position the shot would be performed
• The laser point was sometimes positioned wrongly to the left or right of the laser line's end
• With a high Field of View setting, the laser would not be aligned with shooting final point (with default FOV, it was working correctly most of the time)
• The laser line could be seen through some solid objects in some cases, making it hard to perform precise shots (ex: through pipes)
• Aim Assist on mobile and PC would use the center point of the screen, resulting in sometimes locking slightly next to the target (because the laser end point cannot always be at a perfect center of the screen depending on the distance and angle with aimed object). It is now using the laser's end point instead. This was much more complex to accomplish than it seems! Pfew!

You can see the issue described above, in the following image:
With the newly reworked Taser aiming system:

• Aiming laser always points exactly where the shot will be performed, regardless of the conditions or current FOV value
• Laser point now has dynamic lighting: makes the Laser color from Taser Customization more visible, and allows easier aim in dark areas without having to turn on the flashlight
• Aim assist will always perfectly lock at the desired target, regardless of distance and angle with the target

Here's an image of the updated version of aiming, with these issues fixed:

Softlocks and Hyper-Speed

In the game, for quite a while, it was possible to get on the wrong side of some doors as they were closing; this would result in being softlocked, requiring to reload from last checkpoint.

New Door Type: Hyper-Door

[previewyoutube=GZyj2YzLk4w;full][/previewyoutube] Since we have introduced Hyper-Speed in Chapter 3, there were 3 major design problems to solve:

• The player should not be able to skip all doors of the game by slowing down time using Hyper-Speed: only some that are intended
• The player should not be able to use Hyper-Speed to go backwards while a door is closing. By doing so, he can get stuck behind a locked door, resulting in a softlock :(
• If a door can be slowed down with Hyper-Speed, it needs to be clear to the player, using a different visual for doors that are Hyper-Speed proof. This way, the player can plan his action accordingly, and doesn't have to try skipping every single door with Hyper-Speed only to see if it will be slowed down by the ability or not

In order to solve the issues above, we have introduced a new door type: the Hyper-Door:

• It always closes or opens at a constant speed, even if Hyper-Speed is activated.

With this new door type and other changes to the door closing system, it is now impossible to go backwards behind a closing door and remaining stuck. This means many softlocks were solved. If you find any softlocks while playing, let us know!

New Upgrades

We have added 3 new upgrades to the game; the upgrades distribution has also been changed to reflect the new upgrades and a few new improvements were made:

• All playable Chapters have the correct amount of Upgrade Terminals per level, using temporary Work in Progress Bonus Rooms
• All work in progress Bonus Rooms have the intended Upgrade Terminal even if the rooms are not built yet.
• Associated Bonus Room screen will now reflect the state Incomplete or Completed if the upgrade in that room has already been consumed
• All Upgrade Terminals already consumed will now display the selected upgrade on this Terminal.

Upgrade 1: Scope

Allows to zoom while aiming with the Taser. Simply use the scrollwheel or Directional Pad Up/Down while aiming to start using the Scope. The Aim Stabilizer is disabled while using Scope to allow precision shots. It has 2 levels of upgrade:

• Level 1: Moderate maximum zoom
• Level 2: High maximum zoom

Upgrade 2: Aim Stabilizer

Taser aim assistance module, which automatically locks aiming to the closest aimed at target. It has 2 levels:

• Level 1: Only works while standing still. Any horizontal character movement requested by the player will prevent the Aim Stabilizer from locking to targets
• Level 2: Works in all conditions and faster lock on targets

As this upgrade makes the game much easier, it is only available from Chapter 2. This system is hard to make comfortable in all situations. At the end of this post, we have some additional details on how it works ;) You can see these 2 upgrades in action in the following video: [previewyoutube=-jO7PNcPzM0;full][/previewyoutube]

Upgrade 3: Safe Landing

This upgrade informs the player if it's safe to land below him. It has 2 Levels of upgrade:

• Level 1: Displays a notification when a hazard is detected below the player
• Level 2: In addition, shows a view camera of what is directly below the player in realtime. This feature has not yet been implemented.

You can see this Hazard notification at the bottom of the screen: [previewyoutube=6j4dB1LIBCQ;full][/previewyoutube]

Elevators

We have reworked and improved elevators in all Chapters of the game:

• Ensure they open faster and earlier in case you are speedrunning
• Ensure they move much faster in Speedrun Mode
• Avoid elevator doors to "stick out" that could block you
• Avoid activating an elevator switch if you are not inside: prevents having the lift leave without you

Chapter 1: New Elevator Skip

[previewyoutube=z03hqM4Egt4;full][/previewyoutube] We have added a new Skip path in Chapter 1! It is located in the very first lift, and is only accessible after activating the elevator, using Dodge in New Game+. The first time you try it, you might not be faster than the lift - however with a bit of training, high Speed upgrade level and Sprint ability, you will be able to get up much faster than the lift ;) In addition, this new skip path contains a Bonus Room (currently empty), in which you can acquire an additional upgrade.

Chapter 4: New Bonus Room

A new Bonus Room has been added to Chapter 4, just before the Enhanced Camera. It allows you to acquire an additional upgrade.
This is one of the rare Bonus Rooms that will be accessible on the first run and not only in New Game+, as it doesn't require a specific ability, and is only protected by a Breakable Window.

Chapter 5

We have been working a lot on the PC version of Chapter 5 in parallel. Progress is slow, but steady. It's a complex Chapter, introducing quite a few new elements, similarly to Chapter 4 on PC.
We can't give you too many details as we don't want to spoil your first experience with this new Chapter when it's available to play. Here's what we can say:

• It will be quite surprising
• It will have a few new elements that you haven't seen in the previous Chapters
• It will start with new PC exclusive content, and end with a "similar logic" than Chapter 4 on mobile, but reworked and improved

Level Editor

In parallel, we have also worked on the Level Editor, but we are still currently focusing on Chapter 5 and mobile updates, so it's still not ready to be tested. Here's a bit of news on the status. We have started to create a basic user interface (currently, all icons are the same) to add objects, and edit selected objects, in addition to a customizatble Quick Access hotbar:

Functional

• Placing/deleting objects
• Changing "floor": construct on ground floor, or at higher / lower levels to build vertically
• Placing walls, grounds, windows
• Placing doors, buttons, cubes, pressure plates
• Placing Lasers, Mines
• Customizable damage for lasers and mines, and option to make blinking lasers
• Saving/loading a work in progress level
• Hooking events to ensure buttons/pressure plates can interact with the environment
• Testing a level instantly: not perfect yet, a few bugs, but mostly functional

Not Functional - Required

Here's a list of what we need to work on before a first version can actually be tested or shown:

• Checkpoints must also save while "really playing" a level
• Placing checkpoints, saws, invisible triggers
• Placing invisible killzones
• Placing collectibles: Taser Ammo packs, Healthpacks
• Placing Jetpack, Taser collectibles
• Customizing player spawn point, player stats (health etc) and if player starts with Taser / Jetpack and which upgrades
• Improving the user interface (many functions are only on hotkeys currently)
• Interface to load different levels (only 1 level supported right now)

When we will have the features above ready, we will either upload a video or livestream a demo of these basic functions before it can be tested by players ;)

Bugs & Crashes

We have fixed hundreds of bugs in the last few updates; one major victory was made on mysterious crashes some users were experiencing every time the game was trying to reload the latest checkpoint.

Fixed Crashes

The crashes upon last checkpoint reload were linked to some Graphics Cards not supporting some specific instructions. After a lot of work and testing of special development builds from these users (thanks again for helping out!), they are finally fixed and these users can enjoy the game again without crashes!

Important Bugfixes

• Jump: If the character was standing on an edge (half on the ground, half in the air), he would sometimes refuse to jump
• Reflections: There was a bug that could cause LOW or MEDIUM level of static reflections to not be displayed
• Cameras: Destroying a camera while the room was in lockdown could result in a softlock. Other bugs were fixed with Cameras.
• Interface: Many interface elements adjusted to reduce pixelization, including Dodge Cooldown widget, center crosshair and objective markers
• Performance Guide: Has been updated to explain and describe the new Dynamic Reflections and Depth of Field effect.
• Steam Leaderboards: Were not updating properly in Chapters page

Aim Stabilizer Details

Here are a few additional details about the Aim Stabilizer system:

• Disabled while using Scope
• Works with both mouse and gamepad aiming
• Does not snap to breakable windows or breakable walls, as they are large targets - all other targets can be locked

• If you start aiming with a target next to the center of the screen, it will immediatly lock it
• If you move your aim next to a target while already aiming the Taser, it will start locking after a short delay (this delay is to avoid snapping to the wrong object while moving the camera to find your desired target)

• While locked to an object, shooting or moving the camera (a certain camera movement threshold is required) will cancel the lock. If a lock is cancelled in this case, it will not try to lock again until you aim somwhere else and then aim again at this object or release aim button (this is to avoid repeatedly lock an object you have just explicitly stopped aiming at)

• While aiming is locked to an object, any visibility obstruction will cancel the lock. Example: wall or moving platform coming in between
• However, in this case, it will auto-lock again to this target immediatly when it is visible again

That's it! Thank you all for reading and see you next time! Happy gaming, Charles from Haze Games

[ 2019-10-28 23:28:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, dear Fractal Space players! Weve had quite a lot of new things added to the game recently, and many long-lasting issues were addressed in the latest updates. Well discuss here the new and changed elements in Fractal Space. You can also check this post on our official website here.

Taser Customization

Were very happy to announce a new feature that was requested a lot over time by the community on both PC and the Pocket Edition of Fractal Space: The ability to customize your Taser! https://youtu.be/QsX_JiNxozg In the video above, youll see that you can separately select a color for:

• Structure: Color of the Tasers body structure; becomes brighter when aiming at an interactive element
• Laser: Color of the laser when not aiming at an interactive element
• Laser Active: Color of the laser when aiming at an interactive element
• Screen: Color of the Tasers screen when aiming at an interactive element
• Impact: Changes the color of the shooting impact lightning effect, particles and explosion lighting (not visible in the video)

When you start the game, you have access to a 2 default unlocked color swatches:

• Cyan: Default Taser Structure / Laser / Screen color
• Green: Default Laser Active color

There will be approximately 20 color swatches in total. In order to unlock new color swatches, youll have to find them by exploring all levels and picking up the Color Packs in the game:
If you try to activate a locked color, a hint will show you in which Chapter it can be found:
Some Color Packs can be found in the first run; rare Color Packs can only be accessed in New Game+ using Taser Power Level 2, Dodge and Hyper-Speed.

New Objectives System

The game was missing a core element: objectives and objective markers. We have now added this to the game, and completely reworked the objectives system. You can see a demonstration of this new Objectives Systemin this video: https://youtu.be/tcTrL-R96NU As you can see in the video above:

• Multiple objectives can be active simultaneously
• An objective can be completed or cancelled
• Objectives can have an associated Marker, showing an action name and distance

We are keeping objectives as general goals like Open the Door or Find an Exit, and we rarely provide step-by-step help in order to avoid making the game too easy. However, its now much harder to forget what you are supposed to do, by simply pressing Tab or Dpad Down to see your current objectives and their markers anytime. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 have new, reworked objectives throughout the level; we will soon be adding them toChapter 4 too on the Experimental branch.

Controls Remapping

Controls Remapping has been improved, bugs have been fixed, which makes it more stable and all cases should work fine: https://youtu.be/AZFgbkXt0_I

Gameplay Changes

Many changes were done to the core gameplay of the game; some that are hard to notice if you dont know about them, but they should prove to make the game more comfortable especially for newcomers.

New Area

We have added a new hidden area in Chapter 1 in which you can find a Bonus Recording (coming later) and a Color Pack: https://youtu.be/uS2FfoLrePo And below is a Time Lapse of how this area was created if youre curious :) https://youtu.be/ohMcypxl06Q

Multiple Paths

The game now supports multiple paths to reach the very first Taser Ammunition Pack in Chaper 1 on New Game+ demonstrated in the video below using the Dodge ability: https://youtu.be/Z45gvUuRpqo

New Skip

We have added a new skip path in Chapter 1 for New Game+ only, next to the very first crushers you encounter in the game: https://youtu.be/JAT3AJylcnQ

Improved Area

In Chapter 1 on New Game+, you can walk on the vent next to the very first Power Core; this area looked visually buggy; it has been reworked to look more like an intended secondary path:

Interaction

• All interactions no longer require to aim precisely to objects
• Power Cores can now be inserted even while they are currently moving to their insertion preview position

Jump

In some cases, the character wouldnt respond to jump requests; now this shouldnt happen anymore and the player should always jump when requested, even while moving fast considering there is a valid ground below.

Slopes

There were many issues when the player was moving fast on slopes. Now, moving fast up or down a slope will still ensure the character remains sticked to the ground all the way instead of slowly flying down the slope sometimes (that was preventing you from jumping while going fast down slopes).

Jetpack

• Jetpack activation requests wouldnt work every time, especially if you requested to activate the Jetpackjust as you were touching the ground. It should now always turn on when requested, or jump if there is no more fuel.

Mine Beams

We have reworked the mine beams visual effect to be more distinguishable from normal lasers, and to look nicer: https://youtu.be/gbTSm4CXR5k

In-Game Bug Reporting

We have reworked the in-game bug reporting system. It is now:

• Faster to upload
• More stable: Sometimes, there could be errors after posting bugs
• Uploads screenshots, log files and save games directly to Haze Games
• Reported bugs in-game are now linked to the Discord Server

https://youtu.be/WFpqZqjnv9I It is now the recommended way to report bugs: Please press ALT+B directly in-game. A great addition thanks to these changes and The Promidius hard work on the Discord Server code, bugs are now fully linked to the server, and it will automatically post a new bug report on the #active-bugs channel!

New Sounds

• Heartbeat: There are 2 new heartbeat looping sounds: slow (low health), fast (low health while Hyper-Speed is active)
• Jetpack: New sounds for firing the jetpack, the jetpack loop and jetpack stop
• User Interface Sounds: New sounds for user interface confirm, cancel, show taser screen, etc
• Dodge: New fast wind sound when performing a Dodge

Next Steps

From now on, we have the following main next steps that we are going to be actively working on.

Finishing Chapter 4

Chapter 4 on PC is currently only available in EXP builds. We will now make some final additions:

• Implement all remaining temporary silent dialogues
• Integrate all the Objectives using the new Objectives System to help guide the player
• Minor level changes to result in more clear puzzles / somes easier challenges based on feedback of experimental testers

After these 3 steps are completed and testing is done, Chapter 4 will be available in the default branch!

Building Chapter 5

We have just started the work on Chapter 5 for PC; It will be a long journey of work, estimated to 2 months.
Chapter 5 will be a reworked version of Chapter 4 on mobile, with many new rooms and new PC-Exclusive content. The existing mobile content will be completely re-designed to look and play better with the PC gameplay mechanics. When it will be ready to be tested, it will first only be playable on EXP builds.

Creating the Level Editor

We have started working on first tests for a Level Editor for Fractal Space a while back. However, its in a very early state, and cannot be tested currently. We will now be spending some time every week working on the Level Editor in parallel, and we will now share screenshots and progress of how the Level Editor is coming up on social media, hopefully once a week!

Updating the Pocket Edition

https://youtu.be/1s2iQAbm29g With our focus on progress for the PC version recently, we havent updated the mobile version for a while. Well now be working on the mobile version in parallel, in order to:

• Fix many bugs that were reported
• Add Taser Customization to all mobile versions of the game, with exclusive colors for players who Donate or purchase the HD Edition on Android and iOS.
• Add Speedrun Mode support on mobile versions

Well keep you updated as progress is made on the mobile version update; there will first be a Beta-Testing phase on both Android and iOS. That's it for this month! Thank you for your support and for reading us!

[ 2019-07-14 20:07:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Experimental Chapter 4!

We hope you're all doing great since last time! We had quite a lot of updates of the PC version since the last article - I'll try to summarise them all up here! It took a great amount of time to get this new, exclusive Chapter 4 ready for you to play and test to help improve and find bugs, but it's finally available in an early, experimental version! This new Chapter features quite a lot of new gameplay mechanics - we sincerely hope you'll enjoy them!
It's currently missing objectives and voice-over dialog; even if they are silent, subtitles are displayed to help you understand what to do as you play. There was a very first release of Chapter 4 a few weeks ago, but it had various bugs and was missing some rooms, that have since then been added in the latest update v0.4.2c_EXP. In addition, the first version wasn't optimized; the latest should now run better on low-end computers.
Even if the ending of Chapter 4 is still missing the latest version, most of Chapter 4's playable content is now here. Chapter 4 will then be available on the main Default branch for all players only once the final ending of the Chapter is implemented. This is estimated to be for the end of May 2019. I would like to thank all the early testers that have already tested the new Chapter through our official Discord Server!
I'm not going to provide more details of this new Chapter to avoid spoilers :) If you're interested in trying out the current Experimental version of Chapter 4, head to the Official Steam Guide for accessing Experimental Builds!

New Upgrades

New Upgrade available, with 3 upgrade levels! You can find it in all Chapters. This new upgrade is called Hover: It allows you to hover in-air for a short duration while you aim your taser, making it easier to shoot while airborne. This upgrade is meant to be functional before picking up the Jetpack, which is why it's a separate system than the Jetpack. However, it does prevent the Jetpack from recharging while in use (intended). Check out a video of the new Upgrade here! Health Backpack and Taser Backpack upgrades are now considered Abilities until first unlock to Level 1. Then, can be upgraded to Level 2 and finally, Level 3. Until now, there were only 2 upgrade levels possible for these upgrades - we have now brought it up to 3 in order to carry up to 3 of each item types (Healthpack or Taser Battery).

New Graphics Options

The game now has a new Display Type option in the Graphics tab: Select either Fullscreen, Borderless or Windowed mode.
We have added a new Depth of Field option in Graphics tab: Enable or Disable the hit blur visual effects (high performance impact on low-end integrated graphics cards)

New Sounds!

We have started to rework the sounds of the game! Philip, a good friend of mine and sound designer, is working on his free time to replace gradually the sound effects of the game, and he will help with some new music sound tracks.
We already have quite a few new sounds implemented: taser shooting sounds, heal, healthpack / taser battery pickup, taser reload, ui notifications, and a few more. More will come over time as he has time to work on them!

More Optimizations

In the previous major updates of the game, we had already made big optimization improvements, making the game more playable on low-end computers.
With this latest update, many of the rooms that were still a bit more demanding have now been adjusted, re-structured and optimized to be easier to render on integrated graphics cards.

Bug Fixes and Changes

• Use Dodge ability into it a Fragile Window to blast through it without consuming Taser ammo!
• Many Dodge ability improvements: Smoother + Verticality in dodge movement now more accurate in Zero-Gravity. Dodging temporarily interrupts Jetpack, but Jetpack resumes correctly if Jump button still pressed. You can now dodge while crouched, but will be forced to stand up if dodging up vertically
• Linux builds should now launch properly in both Default and Experimental branches.
• Many level design and visual bugs were fixed
• Fixed: Various Taser aiming laser bugs: misalignment when aiming laser switches from "far away empty space" to touching an object, and sometimes going through objects should now all be fixed. Makes it easier and more precise to aim far away objects.
• Changed: If cutscenes are disable OR speedrun mode, first intro of the game is automatically skipped
• Changed: Disabling Cutscenes, OR enabling SpeedRun Mode will always automatically skip the respawn animation
• NEW (EXP only): New additional rooms at the end of Chapter 4! The ending is still missing, but the transitional rooms towards the ending of Chapter 4 are now here. It's not very long, and they will be improved a bit since this is a first version, but please tell me if you find any problems or bugs already :)
• Changed (EXP only): Optimized more rooms in Chapter 4: A lot of areas should now run fine on integrated graphics cards. Still some rooms are required to be optimized (50% done)
• Changed: Optimized Destructible Walls: Some Areas in CH3 were heavy on performance due to presence of 2 or more destructible walls; should now be much better. It is a known issue that the "interior" sides of wall parts have a texture visual bug - ignore it - it will be fixed later.
• Changed: Optimized Destructible Windows: Destructible Windows should be much less heavy on performance than before. Still some optimization to do on them once they are broken, that will come later.
• Fixed: Dodging into a breakable window during Zero-G will also break it (used to work only in non-Zero-G)
• Many gameplay bugs reported by the Discord Community were fixed. Check the #solved-bugs channel of our Official Discord Server to know more.
• Changed: Smoother Jetpack: Short jetpack impulsions while falling used to create a "jump" - no longer the case. Acceleration is faster after long fall (used to take up to 4 seconds to start going up again)

Chapter 4: Ending

Now that most of Chapter 4's content is functional, we have the ending of the Chapter to create. This will be done in a future update, as it's going to require a lot of additional work. We will now be focusing on that.

Chapter 5

Once we have implemented the ending of Chapter 4, the chapter will be out of Experimental build for all players to test, and we'll start working on Chapter 5, which will be a longer, improved version of the mobile version's Chapter 4.

Mobile Updates

Currently, the mobile version's updates are on hold as we focus on the PC version. However, we're planning to fix a few additional bugs, and improve performance and quality even more within the next 1 or 2 months.

Level Editor

We are aware you all would love a Level Editor. We still haven't announced anything yet, as we are still researching the possibility of adding a Level Editor in the PC version of Fractal Space. Yes, we are experimenting, in parallel of creating the ending of the game. However, we will only start focusing on a Level Editor once we are closer to releasing the final version of the PC version.
Once experiments are concluded and if they are successful, we'll officially announce a Level Editor and start a beta-testing phase for the feature. However, at this stage, we still cannot confirm there will be one, and when it will be released. One thing is sure: if there will be a Level Editor, it will be completed and available to the public only after the story mode is completed, as we are too small a team to work on the game itself and a fully-fledged Level Editor. Thank you all for playing, for your endless support and for reading! Talk to you soon,

[ 2019-04-25 14:37:30 CET ] [ Original post ]