The new grass is nice, still quite a bit more I can do with it, and plan to, but really it was added primarily to improve the load speed of terrains post-generation. The way that Unity processes grass out of the box when you're generating them at runtime like we do is just horrible and was the main reason for the lag spike that happened with each new terrain. The spike is better, but not gone, though the remaining causes are much more manageable problems I'll be working on over time.

Map usage has also been improved in part to make it easier for me moving forward towards cave maps, custom map markers, and more, but also in that the system is now almost entirely self-contained. It used to make use of currently loaded encounter and resource data to try and comb out the data it wants for scanning, which is setup via towns. This meant that it was more or less impossible to see map data from distant locations. I remedied this by creating a very lightweight data storage system that resources and encounters now report to post-generation and again post-death. This also means no more tower icons in the water for example, but more importantly that once a solace aura is fully upgraded you can scan a massive amount of land for resources provided you've unlocked the area.

Besides that a number of general improvements have been made, some of which include tree generation and terrain texture (splat) generation methods. Unfortunately this means that some of the save data from saved games is now out of date and needs to be wiped. Rather than forcing a wipe, I long ago implemented an "Update" method that will go through a world, wipe out the outdated data, but then still let you play with the same buildings and everything as before. This may cause a tree to spawn in a previously placed building, or small things like that, but it beats having to start over from scratch.
As coal mines (a work in progress) have also changed frequency this may cause a coal miner to be standing next to open ground instead of a coal mine, but that will be addressed when they start doing their jobs.

I'm looking to add support for tessellation and a few other small improvements tomorrow before pushing live so that we can get the Unity upgrade and the tutorials onto the live branch.

v 0.4.5 - 2019.04.11
Map
- Map markers are now stored in a specific compact format, rather than attempting to make use of resource and encounter data
- Improved the way that large encounters generate and report themselves to the map
- Resource scanning can now display resources from all known terrain, not only those loaded during the current session
Environment
- Added GPU instanced grass and settings under the in-game video settings
- Grass will now automatically be removed beneath foundations (not around them)
- Reduced smoothness of most terrain textures
- Trees no long use the "forest" method of simulated placement, now using perlin noise
- Improved biome noises to more aggressively keep grass and desert out of the water
- Improved mountain tree height positioning to keep stumps from sticking out of the ground
- Fixed a world generation bug that could cause large patches of empty land
- Fixed rarity colliders and colliders sometimes remaining after harvesting trees
General
- Added a fourth type of large encounter placeholder that won't spawn yet creating some terrains with no large encounter
- Added tier indicator to campfire, smithing station, and refining facility interfaces
- Added table tier and title to enchanting window
- Removed "Upgrades" button from treasure chests
- Fixed an error that could prevent world loading on non-english Windows
- Fixed player getting stuck in the falling animation when jumping into water or pressing tab while jumping
- Fixed storage chest colliders
- Fixed a couple english spelling errors
- Fixed storage chest text ignoring lighting
- Fixed default rotation of leatherworking station

You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin.

To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta. This beta version is only available to Windows 64-bit users.

Interested in supporting development of Solace Crafting?
Please consider becoming a patron via Patreon!