In this update4
Full notes
Full Hiraeth update
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What changed
- Gameplay
- Performance
Hiraeth changes
☵ Gratitude
Thank you to everyone who responded to the recent call and left a review for HIRAETH on Steam! A few new comments helped shift the overall rating to MIXED — a small success, but the road ahead is still long. I’m doing what I can, but the future of the game depends on you — and even minimal activity makes a difference.
☵ HIRAETH is a niche game
By design, that’s exactly what it’s meant to be. For those who value a specific atmosphere, an unusual kind of survival, and certain visual effects — even at the cost of hardware demands. As many of you know, I’m in direct contact with players, and I can confidently say this direction is the right one. What remains is the ongoing development and refinement of the game — and as you’ve seen, it’s happening step by step.
But for HIRAETH to live and grow, it needs new players. If you believe in this world — share it, recommend it, leave a review. Even a few words on Steam can shift the tide.
☵ HIRAETH vs Super Duper ARC Riders: Performance
🛠️ Technical Differences: HIRAETH vs Typical AAA Games
| Aspect | HIRAETH | Typical AAA Games (e.g. ARC Raiders) |
|---|---|---|
| Lighting System | 🌕 Fully dynamic — lighting changes in real time, reacts to environment and gameplay | 🌓 Mixed/static — lighting is often baked or fixed per map; changes require reloading or switching modes |
| Lumen (Global Illumination) | ✅ Enabled — dynamic lighting, real-time reflections, symbolic atmosphere | ❌ Disabled — traditional lighting for performance |
| Nanite (Geometry Rendering) | ✅ Enabled — ultra-detailed meshes, no LODs, high fidelity visuals | ❌ Disabled — classic mesh system with LODs for optimization |
| Visual Quality | 🌌 EPIC — light and matter carry symbolic and narrative weight | 🎮 Good — optimized for fast-paced PvPvE gameplay |
| Performance | ⚠️ Demanding — higher hardware cost, varies by configuration | ✅ Stable — tuned for broad accessibility |
| Design Philosophy | 🔮 World as protagonist — light, structure, and ritual are part of the story | ⚔️ World as backdrop — focused on action, tempo, and accessibility |
| Team Scale | 🧑💻 Solo dev — independent, evolving step by step | 🏢 Large team — backed by technical infrastructure and budget |
These are major differences, but the dry facts above don’t tell the whole story. I created a test build of HIRAETH without Lumen lighting — here are the conclusions:
lighting and rendering quality comparable to current LOW, at best MIDDLE
no advanced light effects, no colored lights, reflections, or detail
object shadows and overall depth — tragic compared to the current solution
no way to improve quality beyond that baseline
Below are screenshots from the current Steam version and the test “optimized” build (click to enlarge). In many other scenes — especially where light from windows mixes with interior lighting — the differences are even more dramatic, and always to the disadvantage of the “optimized” version. Depth, color, and atmosphere suffer visibly. The world loses its ritual weight, and Ahra Prime feels hollow.
| ☵ HIRAETH Steam version now | Traditional lighting for performance |
|---|---|
On LOW settings, HIRAETH looks almost like the “traditional” version — yet performance is still lower!
That’s true. But settings only limit visual quality — the Lumen system remains active underneath. Disabling it requires a separate build, a distinct compilation with no toggle option. Such a version might appear someday (as option), but that’s a distant possibility. And with GPU prices dropping and hardware maturing, it may soon be unnecessary altogether.
But there are older games with beautiful lighting and
Source
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