(ridiculously epic replay showing the top times on Inferno) Hi everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating! Today we released build 5007 on the experimental branch. It's essentially a release candidate for the major release (minus a few minor tweaks). Throughout November we powered through some exceptionally tricky bugs that forced us to rewrite a few areas of the game, but we're feeling optimistic about the stability finally being acceptable for a major release. After this weekend we'll look at the experimental build feedback and determine if any last minute things need to be addressed. If you'd like to try this build early simply check out this thread for more info. See the changelog down below for everything that changed since our last Steam Announcement.

COMMUNITY QUESTION: LEVEL VERSIONING

(top replays for official level 'Dodge' with HUD toggled off) The replay system is probably the most new complicated system we've added since entering early access. It touches most of the other systems in the game, and we have to ensure it's as complete as possible before launch so that we don't get into a scenario where some detail needs to change and we have to invalidate existing replays. Obviously this still could happen, but we doing our absolute best to avoid that scenario. Along those lines, we've wanted to support level creators if they want to manually "clear" their leaderboards and invalidate replays for that track. Steam doesn't give us the power to delete or clear leaderboards from within the game, so we have to come up with something different. We're currently debating between two options, and before we commit to one or the other we'd love to hear what the community thinks. Please read both and see if you feel strongly either way: Option #1: Leave everything it as is. If creators want to "clear" their leaderboards they'll need to upload a new version of their level. Upside is that no leaderboard entries and replays are lost (i.e. players won't be confused when they check the global leaderboards and see that their incredible sub-2:00.00 run was invalidated). Downside is that creators will have a harder time getting old subscribers to check out the latest version of their level (which is apparently quite a bit different). Option #2: Add the ability on the creator's end to invalidate all previous leaderboard entries and replays. Upside is that creators will maintain subscribers if they change their level dramatically. The downside is that players will lose access to both the old level and any old replays associated with that track. We'd also need to add something in the leaderboard menus that makes it clear when your scores are no longer available (to reduce confusion). It's also quite a bit of work on our part, so technically that's a downside as well. If you have an opinion either way, let us know what you think in the comments!

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD 5007

General Improvements

• Added listing for ghosts in match results screen (so you can see how you directly compare)
• Made it so when viewing leaderboards in the level select it doesn't place your entry at the top of the list unless you are number 1
• Reduced memory leak in input code when a controller is connected
• Improved error text when a Steam Workshop file fails to download
• Added a new system for caching level information to improve initial startup time of Distance a bit
• Levels will now be unlocked if you have achieved a local Bronze medal or better on them
• Updated loading animation so second half of loading bar represents rendering of cubemaps
• Disabled realtime-reflections when in VR
• Improved awkward camera when failing a challenge level
• Improved awkwardness when there is no player to spectate after finishing
• Death camera fades to static slower now
• When failing a Challenge level, restart is now highlighted by default
• Made it so time display in the stats page supports days
• Removed all Halloween features added to the previous build
• Creator Version was removed from the Level Settings (it wasn't doing anything helpful at the moment)
• Car colors are now clamped for multiplayer and replays

Replay System

• Improved accuracy of replay playback
• SFX and music are now affected by replay speed when viewing replays
• Added "Playback Speed Affects Music" toggle in Replay options
• Dropper drones are now supported in replays (Applies only to replays recorded after this update)
• Can click on speed slider to change speed in replays now
• Replay menu now shows the time within the replay
• Opening/closing the pause menu now doesn't override replay speed when viewing replays
• Ghosts are now re-downloaded if a new leaderboard place is obtained
• Clicking the "Change Camera" button now changes the camera
• Changed "Toggle Menu" to "Toggle HUD" when viewing replays
• Fixed bug where replays would finish a little early
• Flames and wing trails on ghosts are now affected by the ghost brightness option
• Added Seek Forward/Backward buttons in the replay menu
• Heat is now reduced any time you seek within a replay (fixes bugs with the overheat sound playing and too much camera shake)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where the Steam Workshop update would fail to fully update all levels after a single file had failed
• Fixed bug where deleting unsubscribed files after a Steam Workshop update would fail to properly clear all unsubscribed files
• Fixed bug where the car's overheat sound could continue playing after exiting a replay
• Fixed bug where reflections on car wheels were incorrect
• Fixed bug when toggling the level editor with '~' in the pause menu
• Fixed bug where TurnLightOnNearCar component was being affected by scale
• Fixed bug where backing out of split-screen options could break the level select menu
• Fixed bug where Restart and Next Level were available to non-host players in online matches
• Fixed bug where replay count in General settings wasn't working
• Fixed bug where the Community Highlight section of the main menu wouldn't update after subscribing to a level in game
• Fixed bug where extruding from a spline node attached to a group within the level editor would corrupt levels by not allowing that functionality
• Fixed bug where after scrolling through several levels in the level select menu the Friends leaderboard would seem to lag behind the current selection
• Fixed bug where global low pass was enabled after mode finish
• Fixed bug where you couldn't hold Esc when connecting to Steam Workshop
• Fixed bug where invisible network cars still had visible wheels
• Fixed bug where a near network car could glow really bright when going through a checkpoint
• Fixed issues with changing tabs in Garage (weird color changes were happening)

- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-11-24 15:43:02 CET ] [ Original post ]