4:44pm EST - The devblog and update are live!

2:00pm EST - Our update stream is live!

12:32pm EST - With the update just hours from going live, the team is still rocking out some changes. Most notable are:

• Code locks can finally be unlocked from both sides of external gates!
• supply signal drop position has a random offset of 20 units
• Fix for corpse 'flash' when hit
• Can no longer interact with stuff while wounded

12:00am EST - It’s been kind of a slow week from a new content standpoint. I don’t care though, because we’ve got FPS improvements and a double barrel buff. Along with that, there are some much needed fixes to hit registry, less garbage in airdrops, and progress on the highly anticipated graphics overhaul.

Our update stream goes live at 2pm EST. A special treat this week: We’re raffling off all 7 games from the Humble Survive This Bundle! As always, follow @Rustafied for news throughout the day. Now, let’s get into it...

Player culling

No, it’s not a gamemode where you selectively slaughter Newmans - although that does sound cool - this is a new client side command which causes player models outside of your direct line of sight not to render. Less rendering equals less resources, so this feature stands to increase those precious frames per second.

Given culling only happens in the vicinity of players, it stands to make the most difference around a high density of players or sleepers. Be it spawning on a beach after a fresh wipe or walking around a bunch of huge bases a week in (with 10+ sleepers in each) - this feature will really come in handy. 

Initial tests show between 10 and 20 fps improvement in certain situations.* Enabled by default, you can toggle this command in console via 'playercull.enabled 0'. And for you developer types, there are several other cvars to play with, just run 'find playercull' in console after the update to get a list.

* As with your meds, results of client side optimizations may vary.

Double barrel buff (and downsize)

The double barrel shotgun has been buffed to yield the same damage as the waterpipe! Spread has also been increased (more damage up close, less far away) while fire rate decreased from 1 second to 1/2 a second.

It has been reined in a bit size wize. The view model has been scaled down and the aim down sight position has been shifted. Sounds have also been tweaked. Here are some before and after pictures:

Projectile fixes

Over the past several weeks, players have experienced the frustration of shooting someone and not dealing any damage. Thankfully, Andre has made a bunch of tweaks with regards to projectiles - and specifically, invalid ones - which should result in more accurate hit detection.

Graphics overhaul

Yesterday, Petur merged the long awaited graphics overhaul branch to prerelease. As you may recall, this body of work features some stunning visual updates to various aspects of the Rust landscape. Unfortunately, the versioning control system freaked out after the merge, leaving the branch unplayable for the time being.

Thankfully, a fix should be out soon - so hopefully we’ll be able to experience this new eye candy later today. Slated to go live at the next forced wipe (Sept. 1), expect to see more progress on this over the next few weeks. In the meantime, here are some teaser screens Petur just sent me... looking great!

Other stuff

• Removed garbage from airdrop loot table
• Tweaks to the built in antihack system
• Animation tweaks to the double barrel shotgun, bolt action, and grenades
• Progress on various dungeon art (will launch next month with the forced wipe)
• Fix for disappearing ragdolls
• Semi auto rifle support hand position updated on view model

If ever you wanted to pick up a copy of Rust for a friend - now is the time. The new Humble Bundle lauched this week, featuring Rust and several other survival games.

In case you're not familiar, you name the price (currently need to spend at least $5.48 to get Rust) and dictate where the proceeds go - including thousands of charities.

I encourage you to support this great cause.