9:45pm EST - Another small patch came out a couple hours ago which should improve some lerp things (smooth player movement). Also, I'm streaming from our low pop server in a couple. If you're a lone wolf looking for a group, feel free to join up on teamspeak and we'll put a bag down for you.

2:10pm EST - It is a fresh week in Rust development and time for settle in for a slightly longer stretch till the next update. Garry informed me earlier they would not be releasing a big patch this week, instead, the next update will be 2 weeks from now (on June 4th). Expect a forced map wipe when that update hits.

The team has hit the ground running this week, focusing on bug fixes and performance optimizations. We saw a couple patches released over the weekend, addressing some of high priority bug fixes (seeing through floors when the shader level is all the way down, maps not working, etc). Earlier today, we also saw a patch released which includes most of the changes below. Let's start today by addressing a big pain point...

Performance

Let’s face it, performance has been pretty shitty as of late. Even on high end gaming machines, FPS can drop significantly, especially in the presence of player made buildings. Thankfully, I spoke with Garry briefly about this over the weekend and he told me he is working on a bunch of things to provide improvements in this realm. He’s also submitted several bugs to Unity, because certain optimizations to the underlying engine could stand to make impact performance in a big way. The downside: we will have to wait till next week to see most of these improvements hit the main branch. Given this, and as always, as entities rise and performance drops on our servers, I will not hesitate to wipe the map.

New F2 menu

As the F2 menu has grown, its single column scrolling layout has become less and less optimal. To counter this, Garry has added category tabs to the left (similar to the F1 screen). Along with shifting the design, he has added some new options: Turn off nametags and auto voice transmit (broadcast automatically when speaking instead of holding “V”). Here’s some screens:

Note: There are some check boxes currently missing from the graphic settings at the moment. I confirmed with Garry, this is not permanent and we can expect to see them back in shortly.

Hapis progress

Petur has been trucking along on improvements to the Hapis Island map. Along with adding biome specific grass again, he’s made some atmospheric tweaks to improve the tones during sunsets. I can’t wait to move back to the Hapis map once this update hits and experience these improvements first hand.

Bow has less max condition

Helk has tweaked the durability of the bow, lowering the max condition. This basically means you’ll get less shots off prior to having to repair this item. Makes sense, hunting bows do seem to last forever at the moment.

Map search added to server browser

Given the addition of the Hapis Island map, and in preparation for future custom maps, Garry has added a map input field to the filters on the new server search form.

Furnace sound quieter

In a much welcomed change, the furnace sound has been lowered yet again. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to hear ourselves think again while sitting around several lit furnaces, waiting for the ore to smelt. Now if we could just lower those ambient sounds a bit (they seem a bit overbearing sometimes, no?).

Campfire burn notice

Stepping on a burning fire now not only just lowers your health, it also causes you to bleed and makes that same noise you hear when you snare yourself on a barricade. Hopefully now less people will accidentally leave their foot in the campfire.

EAC update

Garry has updated to the latest version of Easy Anti Cheat, improving the ability to catch the newest wave of hackers. Nice.

Giveall command fixed

The admin command to give an item to all players in the server hasn’t worked since it’s inception. Thankfully, Garry has fixed this so, rather than just giving the item to one person, all players actually receive it as intended.

Question? Comments? Join the conversation at Rustaforum.com

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