Squad 9.0 Patch Notes - Return to Al-Basrah

Hello Squaddies!

It’s been a while, but today we are bringing you our Squad 9.0 Patch Notes, with our engine migration to Unreal Engine 5. It has been a long time since we started work on this, and we would like to thank each and every one of you who joined us in that testing. We would not have been able to do this without you. And a very special thank you to our Community Server Owners who joined in along the way to lend us their server space and hardware.

So let’s get down to business, shall we?

Engine Upgrade

Squad has officially transitioned to Unreal Engine 5.5. This upgrade marks a major step forward, and while it was a significant undertaking, it was a necessary one. This change to the latest technology is what will allow us to ensure Squad can thrive for the next decade.

Big ticket items we started to utilize are Nanite and some of the new frame generation technologies. All of these in combination will help us to achieve a more consistent visual look across different settings. We have also implemented Unreal 5’s new physics engine, Chaos Physics, and the new audio engine, Metasounds, helping us reach a new foundation level of these two systems, opening up a lot more opportunities for vehicles and au,dio in the future.

UE5 has enabled us to fix some legacy UE4 issues (like bad frame pacing), and has also introduced better tooling for creation and optimization, allowing us to produce content like maps more quickly and at higher fidelity.

We’ll continue to make the most of UE5 in future updates.

Al Basrah Remake

We're thrilled to launch our newly designed Al-Basrah with 9.0. This is the first new level we've built from the ground up in UE5, and it’s been an amazing learning experience for the team as we explored the latest engine’s new rendering tech and worldbuilding tools.

This new version is a reimagining of the classic Project Reality and Squad maps, featuring an expanded playable area with greater density and visual fidelity throughout the city. The airport has been overhauled and several other areas have received much-needed updates as well.

Gameplay layers for Al Basrah included in 9.0 release:

• AAS v1

• AAS v2

• RAAS v1

• RAAS v2

• Invasion v1

• Invasion v2

• Invasion v3

• Seed v1

• Seed v2

• Skirmish v1

• Skirmish v2

• Skirmish v3

General Worlds team Update

All maps have undergone a lighting overhaul. We're now using a new Global Illumination system that ensures greater consistency across all levels.

This new lighting system lays the foundation for expanded lighting and weather features in the future, enabling us to create even more believable and immersive worlds.

We've also made extensive updates to our existing maps to ensure compatibility with UE5 and improve performance. These changes include asset and material adjustments, as well as reworking foliage on several maps.

Performance has been a major focus for us. Unfortunately, some of our older maps don’t fully align with these practices, as they were originally optimized for what worked best in the previous version of UE4.

While we've worked hard to bring performance to an acceptable level across all maps, further improvements are planned in upcoming updates. Our goal is to deliver both higher visual quality and smooth gameplay, while maintaining enjoyable performance even on older or lower-end hardware.

There are some more specific changes to Maps further down the Patch Notes.

Commendations

A new Commendation System has been added to Squad, giving players a way to recognize and reward