Icarus Week 141 Update | Performance Optimizations, Reinforced Glass and more

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Welcome to week 141

This week, we continue our project clinic.

Originally posted by author: We are working on some big changes with the ‘Nullsector’ (the Prometheus Free Expansion). We are aiming to provide some very different (but good different) experiences not seen before with Icarus. Some of these changes are a bit spicy and we are doing lots of rapid balance iteration at the moment, this includes overhauling the quests for a more narrative focus. The Nullsector will be released when the experience hits the mark it deserves.

- Jake Dodunski, Icarus Project Lead

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This Week: Project Clinic Highlights
Our Project Clinic has resulted in an array of adjustments, enhancements, additions, and refinements.

Performance Optimization to Skeletal Meshes
All objects in Icarus use meshes. Some of these meshes include bones that can be moved to perform animations. These are called skeletal meshes.

In this update we’re introducing an optimization on many skeletal meshes so the frequency of when their animations are initiated is drastically reduced. We have achieved this by implementing certain limitations, one being that these updates occur less often the further they are from the player. The other is that if the skeletal meshes are not visible, they will not play their animations at all.

This reduces the amount of time your processor spends calculating animations, which in turn affects the framerate. From internal testing on a large prospect, this has caused a 75% reduction in CPU cost relating to skeletal mesh updates.

Expect more improvements in the future.



Map, Compass and Beacon Improvements
The compass has become quite busy with all the icons, search areas, map markers, and beacons, causing a lot of clutter while playing. We are looking at various ways to reduce this clutter and possibly enable some custom user options in the future. Some of our early improvements are:

• Portable Beacons have received a quality-of-life update. When you interact with them, you can set a distance at which they will appear on the compass. You can now name the beacons, which can be seen when you hover over the icon on the map
  
• Mount Compass Icons will now only appear on your compass if you are within 50m, and you can hover over your mount's icon on the map to see its name

We plan on improving this more in the future.


Tier 3 Water Can and Tier 4 Portable Water Tank
Our upcoming introduction of the new ‘Null Sector’ will provide a different experience from what people have encountered on Icarus before. You will need to prepare and plan resource usage in a truly resource-scarce environment. This week we are introducing two new bulky items that can only be carried in your Utility Slot or on Mounts in preparation.

• The T3 Water Can is craftable on the Machining Bench and can hold 50L of water
  
• The T4 Portable Water Tank is craftable on the Fabricator, can hold 150L of water, and can be deployed and connected to a water network

Mount and Tame Updates
Mounts and tames will now be affected by temperatures in different biomes, similar to the player. This means that if they get too hot or cold, they will get modifiers relevant to their current state. To help manage that, the various animal feeds now provide heat and cold resistance to animals.

In rare cases where mounts and tames disappear from the world, we have added some automatic logging so we can fix problem map areas.


New Gates for Railings
We have introduced new railing gates for each railing type. This allows the construction of enclosed areas using gates that match your railings. These gates are unlocked with the base railing in each building tier trim set, so they do not require any additional blueprint points.


New Reinforced Glass Buildings
The current Reinforced Glass crafting process requires a water network to be connected to the glassworking bench, which provides an alteration to any glass crafted. Unfortunately, this ‘reinforced glass’ looks and feels exactly the same as the base glass building pieces, which can cause confusion.

We’ve taken this on board and decided to adjust how the whole system works.

As of this patch, there is a new ‘Reinforced Glass’ Building tier that is unlockable on the tech tree. The building pieces look different and have different recipes than the standard glass tier. They also have the same level of storm protection as their reinforced alteration counterparts.

Any existing Glass buildings with the Reinforced alteration will still exist and function as they have in the past but can no longer be crafted.

Unfortunately, the upgrade hammer will not allow upgrading to the new Reinforced Glass until next week.

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Let's Talk About: Missions & Operations
One thing that has been identified through our playsessions has been that we have the opportunity to change how we approach missions. Through fixes, improvements, developments, and better processes - we have the opportunity to fundamentally change the kind and quality of the missions and operations in the game. So we are taking the time to redo the nullsector missions and be bold, try out new ways of making these.

This means it make take some time for us to redo these, but if we can get these right and achieve a better experience it means we can apply that to other missions.

It is a big change for us, so players should expect that our missions in future may be quite different. We also are looking at information applied to players. We want to ensure the players are better supported, in most cases, for what to expect for a mission. Not everything needs to be surprise twists, that can end up just frustrating the player to the point of Alt+F4.

We are also linking these changes with bold changes and new features that support new or improved ways to play. This is already somewhat obvious with this weeks additions for managing the transport of water. There is a new content work for new (and more exotic) animals as mounts and companions, but we don't want to just rush these out either. The delay with NullSector is about using this as an opportunity to "level-up" the product completely, rethinking how we make missions especially those that are not on the main chain. We want you to enjoy the missions so much that you simply have to do them all, not just suffer through the side ones because you want the Ren.

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Coming Soon: NullSector
As mentioned in previous weeks, the NullSector (our Free Prometheus Expansion) will include new Operations, a new exploration mechanic, new mutated creatures, and one new giant creature.

This region is not for the faint of heart. All the adjustments and differences are geared towards this being a hardcore survival challenge, so make sure you enter it prepared.

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Next Week: Continued Project Clinic As we continue to make iterative changes and work on the Nullsector, you can expect more improvements and quality of life improvements to the base game similar to this week.

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Your support makes these updates possible.
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/

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Changelog v2.2.16.125988
New Content [expand type=details expanded=false]

• Added Aluminium crafting options for Aluminium Ore recipes for gates
  
• Fixed issue where mount minimum/maximum temperature values weren't being set correctly
  
• Enabled logging for mounts/tames that fall out of world
  
• Disabled ticking on all ASkeltalItem root skeletal mesh components when not rendered. Now, mesh components will only tick when rendered, or when a montage is playing
  
• Adding pickup water tank audio to portable tank as well as jerrycan water
  
• Fixed being unable to drink from Water Jerry Can
  
• Fixed Crop Glasshouse Modifiers not recognising Reinforced glass for greenhouses
  
• Adding new audio for picking up jerrycan water. Audio, event and data table setup
  
• Fixed portable water barrrel emptying on pickup
  
• Added ability to fill containers and water storage from many water containers
  
• Fixed Water Jerry Can being unable to water mounts
  
• Fixed crafting time on portable water storage and water jerry can
  
• Added popup that warns user of increased loading times when enabling RTX via the settings menu
  
• Fixed issue where beacon name wasn't showing on tooltip. Increased portable beacon name max character length
  
• Portable Beacons can now be named. Portable Beacons now have hover tooltips on map screen that show name, owner, and distance. Portable Beacon icons on compass can now be configured to fade out at certain distances on a per-beacon basis
  
• Replaced workshop horse icons to the correct ones
  
• Added the two missing hair colours for the white and black horses, so all three horse colour have appropriate, distinct hair colour. Icons will still need to be updated
  
• Added new Tempered Glass Icons
  
• Fixed material UV issues with the Tempered glass building
  
• Add mount and pet temperature affects. Most mounts have talents to mitigate temperature, while all pets have base talents that mitigate temperature
  
• Arctic/Desert/Volcanic feed have cold and heat resistance for mounts. Base animal feed has a small amount of cold and heat resistance
  
• Fixed multiple material mismatch issues with the Tempered glass building tier, all through Data table entries
  
• Setting crude ammo to 100% break chance
  
• Adding slight bleed chance to crude ammo
  
• Adding and unlocking Reinforced Glass Talents / Items / Icons and removing water to craft reinforced modifier on glassworking bench
  
• Adding ability to add modifiers to players, mounts, objects when they are within certain biomes
  
• Unlocking Railing Gates for all Trim Sets
  
• Adding Water Jerry Can T3
  
• Adding Portable Water Tank T4
  
• Adding Water Can (t3) and water barrel (t4)
  
• Soups and Stews now give a small amount of water when consumed
  
• Added descriptions for anti-parasitics explaining they affect dystentry
  
• Increase Survival Kit cost by adding rope, organic resin and charcoal. This better reflects the tech and prep level of the kit
  
• Increase decay time of pies, pastry and rolls
  
• Update Glass durability row to have its own row (no gameplay change)
  
• Initial setup of Tempered Glass reskin blueprints
  
• Mount icons now only appear on compass when within 50m of mount (instead of all the time). You can now hover over mount icons on the map to display the Mount/Tame's name

[/expand]

FIxed [expand type=details expanded=false]

• Switched BP_DeployableBase's VisibilityBasedAnimTickOption to OnlyTickPoseWhenRendered to ensure no ticks happen when not rendered (pose was still being ticked even when montages weren't playing)
  
• Correcting the jerrycan water outpost to SFX bus. Reduction in volume of footstep carry water sounds
  
• Returned savory pies and rolls decay rate, updated decayable name to sweet pie and only increased spoil time of sweet pies
  
• Making player movement with water jerry can more subtle until I can figure out how to get the fill amount to work
  
• Fixed cases of items being deployed with out of date stats
  
• Volume adjustment to portable water tanks
  
• We now immediately force a terrain anchor re-evaluation whenever a Mount/Tame starts falling
  
• Thumper now switches to updating AnimBP every frame when active (fixes bug introduced with recent animbp optimisation pass)
  
• Updated deployable actor AnimBPs to disable re-initialisation of StateMachine nodes when going from not rendered -> rendered
  
• Adding audio for carrying jerrycan water or portable tank. Footstep carry audio and drop audio. To be adjusted based on if the container is empty or full
  
• Also made deployable main SK meshes not tick when non-rendered
  
• Fixed Vegetarian buff not applying to Smashed Avocado
  
• Added icon to indicate when needler is performing it's relocation move
  
• Made the signle shot deploy audio for trail beacon even more subtle to account for people putting multiple down in small area
  
• Fix Swamp Water escalation
  
• Add additional escalation to Sulfur Water
  
• Fixed bug where buffalo couldn't walk from stone stairs up to connected stone floor. Mount head blocker components now affect cloth physics (leather curtain doors)
  
• Fixed DNT typo
  
• Change in lighting to the wood rag torch to be inline with other early light sources
  
• Fixed Glassworking Bench indicating a water connection is required for crafting Reinforced Glass (as this is now a seperate recipe)
  
• Fixed issue where internal minimum temperature for mounts was above defined minimum comfortable temperature
  
• Fixed BP_BiomeOverride not correctly applying biome modifiers to mounts when entering
  
• Plough Cart no longer creates empty dirt mounds when you run out of seeds to sow

[/expand]

Future [expand type=details expanded=false]

• Added KNI_Hornet_Throwing knife
  
• Adding in new nul sector assets to use for mission as spawnable items, all prefixed as Bunker in item template
  
• Added White Out VFX Assets
  
• Fixed issue where animals weren't spawning above level 50 even if their spawn area had a higher level specified
  
• Added Vertex Animated Flags asset pack to project
  
• Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  
• Outpost_012 - cliff placement, new moss material variants for LC macros and cliffs
  
• Merge Ashlands temperature curve (must have been squished in merge)
  
• Fixing Modifier State Compile Error
  
• Cliff Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost 11
  
• Fixed Ice Mammoth Chandelier wrong deployable setup
  
• Fixed compile error inside UMG_Beacon_Customisation
  
• Adjustment to scyther pickaxe
  
• Added warning line subtitles for Ashlands mission
  
• Adding second version of Needler Albedo and carcass to use in Nul Sec
  
• routing scyther events correctly and also rebuilding banks to help fix bankshiz
  
• Added larger modifier background icon frame and a cyan version
  
• Added tainted sulfur water icon
  
• 'Dry_Atmosphere' modifier is now 'Extreamly Arid' and no longer has a spoil timer increase
  
• Adding new biome modifier enum type so biome modifers are displayed differently to bring attention to them
  
• Adding initial setup for New Promtheus Missions
  
• Adding in Null Sector props to use for the bunker, various broken items and decorative props to use in the room / mission
  
• Adding new dialogue for Ashlands Story Mission
  
• Remove small herbivores from Ashlands and Ice Sheet, lowered spawn density of creatures in these areas
  
• Made deploying trail beacons even more subtle to match the removal of the beeping
  
• Reimported Apex Meshes and Fixed Mat Pyramid Hip Roof Pieces Beam
  
• Removing secondary layer from deploying trail beacon
  
• Removing beeping from the trail beacons
  
• Added dirty variant of the scyther tank trophy and added it to the blueprint
  
• Updated the scyther trap animations to have the arms extended out further
  
• Adding in branch base swing and idles for tree movement implementation, extra anims to follow
  
• Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  
• Cliff Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost 11
  
• Outpost_012 - cliff and macro placement
  
• Adding scyther spear audio whoosh and impact flesh event etc
  
• Adding appropriate audio for scyther pickaxe and spear etc
  
• Fix Stretched Texture Pyramid Hip Roof Pieces Beam
  
• Added smaller basalt columns around the arena based on feedback, Rock Golem Arena
  
• Fixed slugs trying to use goap montage and freezing when spawned in water
  
• Adding separate event for lava flyer nest egg with different eq / spacial settings
  
• Cliff Pass and Landscape Sculpting Pass, Outpost 11
  
• More fine tunes and tweaks to distances and reverb and spacialisers / volumes of all 3 sizes of the hammerhead slug. Improved hammer Small death audio
  
• Fixed up Alpha issues in terrain 19 spawn map
  
• Adding Meshes for Scyther Pick, Scyther Aquarium, Scyther Trophy, Scyther Bolts & Arros, Scyther Spear
  
• Adding Talents for Sycther Aquarium
  
• Adding Scyther Bolt item setup
  
• Adjustments to hammerhead slug. Added unique hammerhead slug death taunt audio and notify adjustments
  
• Moved Basalt Columns based on feedback and changed biome to cave, Rock Golem Arena
  
• Updated sandwom saddles with improved skinning and combines both UV sets so the textures are displayed properly
  
• Fixed missed decay change
  
• Fix a couple of modifier typos
  
• Updated ITM_Shield_IceMammoth
  
• Updated Croc Skin Saddle skeletal meshs with improved skinning
  
• Added DEP_Swamp_Ape_Attractor
  
• Deep Freeze will no longer produce ice in the Ashlands
  
• Increasing ashlands biome modifier water concumptio to 500%
  
• Adding Dry Atmopshere Modifier which increases water consumption and spoil rate
  
• The Ashlands now provides the Dry Atmosphere Modifier
  
• Cliff Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost 11
  
• Adding slime PM to poison spot to play correct footstep audio
  
• Adding spit sound to hammerhead slug ballistic. Adding hammerslug taunt medium death asset etc
  
• Outpost_012 - macro and cliff pass
  
• Updated swamp and lava lakes to have higher chance of dysentary and increased water and food usage, when drank unfiltered
  
• Small additional tweak to gas cooker sizzle audio
  
• Lots of updates and tweaks to the hammerhead slug audio. Adding unique slam montages and audio for each size variant of the hammerhead. Was previously using slug montages. various other changes to accomodate for different size versions
  
• Adding correct spit ballistics to the hammerhead slugs and also adding medium and small attack montages to the medium and small BT blueprints so they paly appropriate audio for both
  
• Reduced the overall fur length on the mammoth trophy slightly
  
• Switched off the physics on the mamoth trophy Gfur and replaced it with groomed splines
  
• Added all materials and textures for all assets for the Tempered Glass Tier of buildables. Also removed test assets that are no longer needed for the Sandworm Building Tier
  
• adjusted flicker for fire source lights
  
• Added Lava Flyer autonomous spawners to some of the new Ashlands areas
  
• Cliff Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost 11
  
• Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  
• Adding hammer slug projectile item data so it uses the correct hammer slug projectile audio
  
• Outpost_012 - water body placement and landscape sculpting
  
• Updated Ape_Boss_Hide asset with new design
  
• Adding hammer head death taunt audio events and notifys and unique ballistic travel and impact eventsfor more control etc
  
• Fixed bug where dirt mounds would lose their 'wet' material when you moved too far away
  
• changed poison box collider to full encapsulate the mesh. added proper bestiary table to hammerhead slug
  
• Blocking OEI from working in the Nullsector Biomes
  
• Outpost_012 - final adjustments to height/weightmap imports, map setup
  
• Adjustments to rock golem blocker spacializer and other small adjustments
  
• Rock Golem wall destroy BP
  
• Adding rock Golem destroy blocker event and blueprint imp. adjustments to roll velocity volume etc
  
• Updated iron bucket physical material
  
• updated deplayable setup data table with scyther trophy
  
• Changed incorrect row in spin attack for hammerhead slug
  
• Added destructible meshs for the Scyther trophies
  
• Added several ranged attacks, slug now more prefers ranged as it gets smaller. Spin attack shoots projectiles in all directions and then leaves a pool on the ground
  
• Added scyther boss trophies to the project
  
• Adding missing anim notifys and BP logic for golem attack roll
  
• Adding rock golem BP logic to account for velocity of roll. Removing continuous audio playing when cre is rolling
  
• Cliff Placement in Outpost 9, on Red Quad
  
• Cliff Pass and Landscape Painting Pass, Outpost 11
  
• Outpost_012 - landscape adjustments, weightmaps, first pass placing lakes
  
• Updated trophy deploy audio for the standing Ice Mammoth

[/expand]