BIG GAME UPDATE: Engine Improvements, Difficulty Selection Added

Hello Survivors! 👨‍🚀

A big update is here — packed with performance improvements, new gameplay systems, and long‑awaited features:

• Engine Fixes & Performance

• Improved Visual Quality

• World Streaming Changes

• NEW: Difficulty Selection

• Player Overload Indicator & Movement Restrictions

• Save / Load System Updates

• Weapons: Melee Adjustments

• Enemies: Simple Kill Cam

• Players: Nicknames in Terminals

• Summary & Next Steps

Engine Fixes & Better Performance

As mentioned in the recent Ahra Prime Times, the latest Unreal Engine changes caused a lot of chaos — not only in Hiraeth. Fortunately, I managed to resolve the major issues introduced by the current engine version.

Restored FPS — and even better than before

I’ve successfully brought back the previous performance levels, and in many scenes even surpassed the December build. On my old RTX 2060, I’m now seeing results like:

Steam post imageA stable 90+ FPS is not guaranteed — Hiraeth uses heavy world streaming, so drops will happen — but overall performance is significantly better. Correct DLSS settings for your hardware are extremely important and not always obvious at first launch. If you need help, join the Steam discussion thread or hop onto Discord.

Important Note

Hiraeth uses some of the most demanding rendering and world‑streaming technologies available today: Lumen, Nanite, HLODs, fully dynamic lighting (required for day/night), dynamic weather, and extensive world streaming. Many top-tier games avoid several of these systems entirely — yet Hiraeth achieves similar or often better performance.

Improved Visual Quality

New engine versions changed how Lumen, lighting, and objects are rendered — and most of these changes are undocumented. Fixing them required a lot of testing and knowledge.

Today’s update improves overall visual clarity: brighter shadows, fewer artifacts, cleaner lighting. There’s still more to refine, but these improvements do not reduce FPS, and future engine versions (UE 5.8) may even increase performance — once compatibility issues with older systems (Windows 10) are resolved.

World Streaming Changes in Unreal Engine

The latest engine update significantly altered world streaming behavior. I had to rework many systems that had been stable since the beginning of Hiraeth.

For example, some objects would fall “into the void” when the world wasn’t fully loaded yet — terrain, landscape, etc. This is now fixed with new safety checks that were never required before.

Most major issues are resolved. You may still occasionally see floating crates, but all essential objects now load correctly.

Is it worth it?

As I wrote in Ahra Prime Times: new engine versions come with bugs, but the overall direction is good. Working with the engine takes 80% of my development time, mostly due to undocumented changes — but there are benefits:

• many critical old engine bugs are gone

• project compilation time dropped from nearly an hour to just minutes

• future features like Lumen Lite offer hope for even better performance

NEW: Difficulty Selection

Starting today, you can choose your difficulty level at the beginning of the game!

This is a major gameplay change. This first version will be adjusted based on your feedback — movement speed, stamina, damage values, and more. Later updates will add:

• unique challenges

• Steam achievements

• perks

• content exclusive to certain difficulties (e.g., Void Rider)

Some difficulty affects:

• stamina

• movement speed

• damage dealt and received

• food quality

• healing

• task difficulty

• starting carry weight

• XP gain

• and many other factors

The easiest modes, WAYFARER and DRIFTER, have no stamina limits for running, and WAYFARER also ignores terrain slope when moving.

What’s not included yet?

• item quantity in the world (quality is affected, but not amount)

• enemy count (will be adjusted soon)

• save/load rules — harder difficulties will NOT allow saving anytime; only WAYFARER will keep full save freedom

Your feedback on difficulty levels is extremely important. Join the discussion here, on the Steam forum, or on Discord!

Player Overload Indicator & Movement Restrictions

A new Overload Indicator has been added to the HUD and to the TAB / OPERATOR screen. When your inventory weight exceeds your carry capacity, the indicator will warn you that you are overloaded.

Overload now comes with gameplay consequences:

• when OVERLOADED, you cannot sprint

• this applies even to WAYFARER, despite its very high starting carry capacity of 70 kg, which can be further increased through progression

This system ties directly into the new difficulty modes and makes weight management more meaningful across all playstyles.

SAVE / LOAD System Changes

Several updates were made to support difficulty levels:

• Only saves from the current game version are visible. During Early Access, old saves often break due to code changes — this solves the issue.

• Each save now clearly displays its difficulty level.

WEAPONS: Melee Adjustments

In the first version of the new melee system, melee weapons were extremely strong due to having no “fire rate” limit.

Now each melee weapon has its own attack rate:

• Combat Knife — ~0.5 seconds

• Gas Pipe / Gazrurka — ~1 second

Enemies: Simple Kill Cam

A basic Kill Cam has been added for enemies when you land a critical hit from over 30 meters. It’s a simple first version — more improvements will come soon.

Players: Your Nicknames in the Game!

Players who submitted their nicknames are now visible in terminals on Ahra Prime!

Only the first group is included for now — once more names arrive, I’ll improve formatting and add search options. A small feature, but I hope it brings joy!

Summary

Today’s update not only introduces difficulty levels but also opens the door for new content. With rendering and streaming issues under control, I can finally move toward:

• new locations

• expanding The Nesoi Island

• new gameplay systems

A new DEMO version is also planned soon — the current demo lacks many features like ZED Mode or new weapons.

Engine battles delayed my original development plans, but the anniversary of Early Access is approaching — and I hope to deliver major changes before then.

Hiraeth Thanks for your support

Paweł