v1.36.1.0 - Improved physics, smoother frame rates, optimizations

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.36.1.0) This update adds several technical improvements to the engine. This includes improved, more accurate and consistent physics across any frame rate. There are also a few improvements to frame time consistency, reducing frame hitching that existed in specific situations for some systems, and an improved frame limiter, for a smoother overall experience. This update also includes particle system optimizations, using an additional CPU thread for spawning particles, and reducing frame hitches when many particles are on screen.

Here are the full release notes for v1.36.1.0:

• Improved physics in a few areas of the game
  -More accurate movement calculations when accelerating objects
  -Fixes slightly different movement behavior for different frame rates
  -Affects these areas of the game:
  --Player throwbacks when firing big weapons or getting hit
  --EnemyC Behavior 4 (bouncing movement)
  --Many particle effects, including explosions, bullet trails, bullet impact buffs, etc.
• Improved particle spawning performance
  -Uses an additional thread to run particle spawning in parallel to other particle operations
  -Reduces particle update hitches when numerous explosions occur at once
• Reduced render frame hitches when many particles are on screen
  -Dynamically allows more time to buffer particle data into vram when many particles are on screen
• Improved CPU thread management to improve frame time consistency and reduce hitching
  -Better matches the number of active threads with the number of available CPU cores/threads
  -Ensures the graphics driver has enough CPU resources to maintain consistent rendering performance
• Improved precision and accuracy of the frame rate limiter
  -Uses 64 bit operations for the whole frame limiter process to improve precision
  -Reduced computational overhead for calculating the timing of each new frame
• -Fixed Mission+ mode erroneously being unlocked by completing Survival mode
• -Fixed some mode/ship unlocks occurring after Wave 6, now consistently requires Wave/Area 8 completion in all modes

As usual, to make sure you have the latest update, launch the game and check the lower left corner for “v1.36.1.0” or higher. Enjoy!