[2021] Prehistoric Kingdom - Beta 0.3.21

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

Welcome, park managers!

In this small patch we've targeted some main optimizations that should hopefully scale decently well with larger builds, as well as some much requested quality of life features.
The work on those fronts doesn't end here however: high on our priorities are further guest and animal optimizations, as well as better gameplay integrations of existing systems - power is on the line for further updates, with the eventual inclusion of status pop-ups making game readability more straight forward.

Additions

• Foliage
  • Bald Cypress (x4)
    
  • Swamp Beech (x1)
• UI/UX
  • Added keybind for quick modular grid toggle - G
    
  • Added a GUI tooltip to modular actions, giving users better indication of the current modular action being performed
    
  • Added modular attaching functionality - a new piece will automatically be added to a group if its placement is in collision range
• Audio
  • Large ornithomimid family sounds added to Deinocheirus
    
  • Vocalization audio added to Parasaurolophus
    
  • Surface interaction foley added to large theropod and ornithomimid rest/sleep animations
    
  • Nursery preview audio added to Camarasaurus, Deinocheirus, Torvosaurus, Mammoth, Pachyrhinosaurus, Parasaurolophus and Protoceratops

Changes

• UI/UX
  • The building menu toolbox is now enabled by default, regardless of current player activity
    
  • The modular styling toolbox is now enabled by default whenever the player cycles through modular selection. Hopefully this will make it easier to access the full range of material editing
    
  • Added ability to double click a modular group to quickly begin editing mode and select the hovered piece
    
  • Increased max. amount of styles displayed in the modular styling GUI to 5, allowing players to change more than one material at once on a broader piece selection
    
  • Generally revamped UX for the modular power status, it should now be much easier to accurately read upon the energy status of a group
    
  • Enabled quick nursery shortcut found in the Nursery Holder menu
• Rendering
  • Updated several biomes grass colors

Bug Fixes

• Critical
  • Fixed critical modular group data caching issues, which led to incorrect power readings in the past, among others
• Graphics
  • Fixed black splotches on the distant ocean
• AI & Animals
  • Fixed animals walking on the spot
• UI/UX
  • Fixed issue that caused Escape input events to trigger at the wrong time for modular group deselection
    
  • Fixed issue that prevented the building menu to reset properly if it was upscaled
    
  • Fixed bug that caused selection outlines to disappear on piece redo, if the group was selected

Performance

• Fixed some null logging for the animals, players should see slightly better animal optimization
  
• Improved modular rendering efficiency, with larger park performance scaling slightly better. At the same time, rendering queues should now clear out if complex groups are not rendering anymore.
  
• Optimized several CPU processes, mostly tied to modular groups and power processing. CPU usage on larger parks should be smaller
  
• Improved grass CPU performance

Notes
We hope you'll enjoy this update! We've got another patch planned for the next few days, to coincide with current festivities. Afterwards, the team is gonna be taking a holiday break, with regular updates returning in January.

Happy Holidays!