Everyone who wants to jump into new game material early on - save the date! #Empyrion v1.8 EXPERIMENTAL will be released tomorrow!
Thank you for the information......You put a smile on my face, one more time. I can not wait for tomorrow. Upd: Seeing the photo again and again every time I come read new comments I think all is missing is Aladdin and the Genie flying on a magic carpet over the planet....
Well... I guess I can try out this new experimental... after 2 years of non-playing EGS Just have to remember how to activate it on Steam!
Random question: Is it still possible to maintain two (or more) instances of Empyrion via a simple copy? I.e. Once upon a time I was able to just copy the main Steam instance to another folder, then run it as a separate entity (as long as Steam client was running) not subject to updates etc. This was somewhat unusual as normally a Steam game would insist on running from the official folder. I.e. I can clearly see the game running from the proper Steam folder, not the copy. This also allowed the game to be run from RAM Drives (with a symbolic link for saves) given enough RAM... Just wondering as not at gaming PC currently to try it, and I would like to continue the current v1.7 game I'm playing as well as having a play with the Experimental. I'll probably try this a bit later... Basically, I was going to update the game to the Experimental Version, copy that to a new instance, then restore the "live" build to the current 1.7.9.
I must say that the planet generation is jawdropping now with all of the new assets with their random sizes, colors and positioning. Really helps immersion a ton. Also I'm seeing constant framerates here - without hickups - even with a lot of grass and vegetation.
The variety of trees really does make for some very pretty environments, this is a huge visual improvement no doubt. Performance is noticeably lower at the same settings, my previously solid 60 fps (vSync-limited) is now regularly mid-to-high 50's with my GPU working hard to hold that. Still, my GPU (1070) is old now, so this isn't the only game that pushes it harder than it once did. I've not tried turning tree details down yet, but I might see what difference that makes. Traditionally, for me at least, dense foliage didn't have much impact on fps - PC could still hold that 60 fps just fine - it was only dense POI groups, such as those of Polaris, that pushed things. I will continue playing normally (for me) and see how I get on. I still miss the Mechanical Drill though as an intermediary upgrade between the Survival Tool and the Laser Drill - mining with the former is still a bit of a pain outside of gathering regular surface rocks early-game, though better than it once was of course. I play the Reforged Eden Scenario often (pure vanilla at the moment though), which has reintroduced the Mechanical Drill, and it does give an early sense of progress as mining gets that little bit more convenient vs. the Survival Tool. Example: Those 1,000 hit point Titanium resource rocks are particularly slow-going with the Survival Tool, as are the rare Promethium Rocks. Being able to get a Mechanical Drill early on, would be extra beneficial considering these changes to rocks. Additionally, I'm finding myself needing a LOT more Crushed Stone for things. While I mined a lot of Carbon rocks, I've still needed the Crushed stone to make more - needed to create a basic, starter HV. Having a slightly faster way to gather those larger surface rocks would be welcome. As an aside, I notice that size of tree does not appear to influence the amount of Wood gained. For example, I harvested some medium-sized trees of a given type and was gaining just one wood log from them. I then harvested several tiny trees and was regularly getting ten or eleven logs from those. These trees were smaller than bushes I only get a a small amount of Fibre from. I was using the Chainsaw.
I deactivated V-Sync for good reasons as I have 90 FPS on max Graphic Settings (ingame 1920x1080 Res)
The tearing irks me when vSync is disabled...not that it's often active (NV Adaptive vSync in use, not game vSync) in v1.8. What GPU do you have Germanicus? I'm waiting for 40-series now, even though many 30-series are available at RRP finally. Thought it worth holding on a little longer...assuming stuff is actually available in decent quantities at launch...
Thanks @Germanicus, good to hear that GPU is playing the game so well. Should have zero issue when I finally do upgrade. I'll likely go for a 4080 or maybe a 4070 - or AMD equivalent - depending on price and performance. Should keep me going for a few years. The 1070 has lasted very well, as I bought it the week of launch (mid-2016) to tide me over as I waited for the 1080Ti, but ended up keeping it for years. Good value. Hope to get similar value next time.
Got an odd HV issue. The HV drives fine, but if I exit it then get back in the steering doesn't work for several seconds, then just starts working fine again. It appears to have started doing this the more laden the HV is but it's not just the expected mass-related sluggish steering. It's literally like this: - Driving along in HV, working perfectly. - Exit HV to do something. - Re-enter HV, steering (left / right yaw) does not work. - A few second (up to around 10) later it starts working just fine again. - Steering also randomly stops working. Most odd. Sometimes (quite often in my testing) quickly powering the HV of then on again fixes the issue. Note that all slider are at 1.0 - it's not the old bug that'd randomly set them to zero. Note: this HV build does not use RCS, rather it has both fore and aft left / right thrusters to provide turning. The HV continues to turn great, but only once it responds. I can (eventually) turn left / right just fine, but if I then zoom off in a straight line, it will fail to turn right away next time I try. Definitely getting worse the more laden the HV is, so it appears to be a bug with how mass effects turning.
Further to my earlier post about hitting some of the new deco objects... I'm flying in an SV, 50+ metres above the ground and I occasionally "hit" things. When looking down, I see the one of the new deco tree items. The SV hasn't the mass to break these, so the tree remains. Here is a link to the save. Just press "w" to fly forwards and you'll "hit" the tree that's below you - at least, that's what it looks like. I've tested reloading this save and the issue can readily be recreated for me.
