Optimization 2

As mentioned during the last optimization pass, the bulk of Soar's performance problems stem from inefficiently loading in the overworld & poor foliage optimization. Sharp-eyed players will have noticed lag spikes as they approach Fadh-as-Sayl, Shajara, and the trapped Whale. These are areas where, for one reason or another, large chunks of the overworld are loaded in all at once. Unlike most performance problems- which are tied to the GPU or CPU- streaming is limited by storage and RAM speed; which is why these issues can affect even high end systems.

The solution is very simple- turn down the streaming distance, and use HLODs to fill in the now-empty world. We've avoided doing this because HLODs are very intensive to generate- they lock up a given machine for up to an hour, and on top of that they need multiple passes to get right. For our small team, that's a massive amount of developer time we're not using to playtest or bugfix. However, as Soar is maturing, it feels like an appropriate time to start investing in HLODs. This has the added benefit of allowing us to keep the entire map visible at all times without any added performance cost, a massive win in our book.

While this update (probably) won't improve your peak framerate, it will significantly stabilize framerates in problematic areas compared to the last update. We don't feel that optimization is complete- it never is- but, for better or for worse, the bulk of what remains will just involve improving the HLODs. So, unless there's another major bottleneck that we find, this is the final optimization oriented update, and all other future performance improvements will be rolled into other patches.

Some players have expressed frustration that Soar has un-removable motion blur or uses upscaling. While we greatly sympathize with concerns around certain industry trends, there's no motion blur whatsoever, and the only upscaling in the game- TSR- is totally optional. However, as always, these frustrations come from a legitimate place. In this case, our cloud material uses sub-surface scattering to give them a soft, voluminous look- at some distances, angles, and speeds, this can cause a smearing effect on the player character that looks quite a lot like temporal smearing. It's most noticable in the opening cinematic, which certainly may have soured some first impressions. Rest assured, we're aware of the issue and plan to fix it, but as it has no impact on gameplay and isn't triggered often, it's a low priority for us right now.

Alongside optimization, we also have a variety of bugfixes and improvements to tide you over until the next major update.

Patchlist:

• Add HLODs

• Optimize foliage meshes

• Fix collected trapped stars leaving behind corruption when loading a save

• Removed extra UI element from inventory popup

• Fix incorrect water rendering, especially in Shajara

• Polish ball challenge

• Improve the way NPCs choose dialogue from their available pool

• Update obelisk hunt translations

• Tweak obelisk cutscene timing

• Seed collectible no longer leaves behind an interaction icon

• Make herbs bigger & respond to player movement

• Make mouse hide on pause menu if using gamepad

• Fix text overflow on 'leviathan's repose'

• Fix a couple of zones that were offset from their content

• Improve Corruption effect

• Tweak Corruption placement to be more logical

• Improve boar behavior on mountain foot trial

• Exiting to main menu now triggers a save

• Reverse shot in the intro cutscene that had the player falling backwards

• Fix a lighting bug at lower scalability settings

• Fix gyroscope (by laser) being uncompletable