Preface: Undiscovered World v0.4.5

Version 0.4.5 for Preface: Undiscovered World is now live. This update introduces a brand new planet, along with system, memory, UI, and performance improvements.

v0.4.5 Changelog

Features

• Added a new default Earth-size planet with improved terrain, better biome continuity, and richer data layers

• Added clouds support and enabled clouds, depth fog, and screen-space shadows by default

• Added Reset Settings button to discard all user settings

Fixes

• Reduced memory pressure during large map loads by loading one basemap at a time

• Improved shutdown stability when unloading system DLLs

• Fixed deeplink protocol handling when multiple protocols are registered

• Fixed rare crash when clicking before UI initializes

• Fixed crash when audio category config is missing

• Fixed UI button tracking on ultrawide resolutions

• Fixed positional audio playback at world locations

• Improved ocean shading and terrain seam handling

• Removed stale default bookmarks from the devgui bookmarks list

Invisible and Upcoming Work

• SwarmDemo (WIP: multi-user demo)

  • Add faction banners using sprite rendering

  • Add text sprite component with dedicated render pass and sorting

  • Add sprite UV rect, screen percentage sizing, and depth modes

  • Add smooth NPC movement replication with rate limiting

  • Add multiplayer debug tools for state update history visualization

• OrbDemo (WIP: art+ml demo)

  • Add placeholder custom ML agent for OrbDemo (to be replaced later)

  • Rework ML APIs for elevation/basemap and remove legacy ML API

  • Support small planets in surface rendering with related basemap/agent changes

• PrefabViewer (tooling)

  • Add settings window and packaging improvements

  • Add fallback model for prefabs that cannot be spawned

• Add [c]`SuperLauncher.bat`[/c] and demo startup/shutdown tests

• Rendering and data pipeline

  • Texture system refactors and hot-reloading behind a feature flag

  • Data reorganization and import/cooking improvements

Known Issues

• Ocean tiles are sometimes missing