🏰 MASSIVE UPDATE — OpenXR, URP, Quest Support & Total Polish Pass

This is our biggest update yet. We've rebuilt major chunks of the game's core - rendering, VR, animation, performance, and combat - while squashing hundreds of bugs along the way. Here's what you'll notice.

🥽 VR Overhaul

• Migrated from SteamVR to OpenXR for better compatibility and broader hardware support

• Added Valve Index & Vive controller models with improved grip and trigger bindings

• Snap turn and smooth locomotion with speed ramping for more comfortable movement

• Tunnel vignette during movement to reduce motion sickness

• Height-aware player so short and tall players both feel grounded

• Fixes to hand positioning, throw direction, and grab accuracy

🥽 Quest Support (Coming Soon)

• Full Oculus Quest build pipeline now in place — standalone Quest release coming down the line

🎨 A Fresh Coat of Paint

• Rebuilt the entire rendering pipeline for better visuals and performance

• Upgraded water, skyboxes, particle effects, and terrain shaders

• Hands now cast proper shadows, even when transparent

🏃 Animation

• Updated the way animations are handled under the hood for better performance and smoother unit visuals across the board

⚡ Performance

• The game now runs noticeably smoother, especially in large battles

• Faster scene loading

• Smaller memory footprint and fewer hitches when spells or units spawn

⚔️ Smarter Combat

• Grabbing an enemy now properly breaks their focus on your units — hand combat finally feels right

• Your army now spreads attacks across multiple enemies instead of everyone piling on one target

• Workers reliably path to trees and resource buildings

• Dead units no longer block the living or freeze on weird poses

• Fixed a long list of unit AI quirks

💥 Spells & Effects

• Fireball now reliably damages what it hits, with a tuned radius

• Anfad's heal hits much harder — she's a real force now

• Fast projectiles no longer phase through targets

🎭 Levels & Tutorials

• Polish pass on Final Showdown, Plague, Battle With The Elements, Elven Wood, and the Dark Elves level

• Retuned wave pacing in Elven Wood for a more tactical feel

• Fixed tutorial text, tutorial voice-over, and moved tutorial units closer to the village

🖥️ UI

• Fixed the Townhall UI

• Lowered the Building UI for better VR readability

• Proper fade transitions between levels and back to the menu — no more jarring cuts

• New logo, splash screen, and a progress reset button

🔊 Audio

• Fixed missing spawn sounds and missing splash when throwing units in water

• Consistent intro audio across all levels

• Cavalry audio now routes through the correct mix

💾 Save System

• Rebuilt the save system to be more robust and future-proof

• Added automatic rolling backups so your progress is protected

🧹 Under the Hood

• Hundreds of bug fixes, crash fixes, and stability improvements

• Cleaned up legacy systems to make room for upcoming content

This update is a huge step forward in stability and performance, and lays the groundwork for upcoming content and a future Quest release. Thank you for your patience and passion - we couldn't build this game without you. 💬 We'd love your feedback! Drop your thoughts, bug reports, and suggestions in the Steam community hub - what you'd like to see next, what's working well, what still needs love. Every bit of feedback shapes where Warden of the Isles goes from here.

See you on the battlefield, Wardens. ⚔️