This update focuses primarily on performance optimization, staff behavior, shadow quality, building improvements, and general polish.
New Features
- Added a Feedback Form to the Main Menu, making it easier to report issues and share suggestions directly from the game.
- Added a new Shadow Quality setting to provide additional control over visual quality and performance.
Graphics & Lighting
- Improved and optimized several shadow rendering settings.
- Further optimized shadow quality and performance across different graphics configurations.
- Adjusted internal wall positioning slightly to prevent z-fighting/flickering after walls are painted.
Performance & Optimization
- Significantly optimized grid accessibility checks by caching accessibility data instead of recalculating it repeatedly.
- Accessibility data is now refreshed only when relevant changes occur.
- Optimized staff task searching and navigation calculations.
- Staff members now reuse navigation path data instead of repeatedly allocating new paths.
- Cleaning, cashier, and shelving task candidates are filtered by priority before performing more expensive pathfinding calculations.
- Storage-to-shelf route checks have also been optimized to reuse navigation data.
- Roaming staff now use staggered task-search intervals, reducing unnecessary simultaneous calculations while maintaining immediate task searching for newly hired staff.
Staff & AI
- Fixed an issue affecting idle staff movement.
- Improved roaming staff task-search behavior and overall background AI efficiency.
UI & Expansion Mode
- The HUD is now automatically hidden where appropriate while purchasing store expansions.
- Relevant UI elements are forced into a semi-transparent state during expansion purchasing for improved visibility.
Building & Placement
- Placement animations now use real-time timing, preventing them from being affected by changes to game time or simulation speed.
- Flags can now be placed indoors.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the Best Customer Category shown in the end-of-day report.
- Fixed visual flickering between painted wall surfaces.
- Various smaller shadow, staff, navigation, and placement-related improvements.