0.2.55.3 (EXPERIMENTAL) - Christie Suspension & Optimizations

Hi all,

There's a build up on the experimental branch which adds Christie spring suspension. Compared to torsion bars, they're cheaper, more space consuming and they run up the sides of the hull instead of across the width, letting you build lower profile vehicles.

In addition, some big optimizations to rendering have been made.

(Technical) Parts are now merged where possible and rendered using atlases created from all loaded parts, allowing them to be rendered with fewer draw calls.
Shadow proxies are now merged together where possible.

Let me know what this does for your performance!

New Parts

• Christie spring suspension
• KV-1 stowage box
• Round split hatch
• Periscope hatch

Changes

• Increased consistency of part texture quality.
• Fixed vehicle detail levels not being affected by the distance object detail setting.
• Significantly optimized vehicle shader with no quality loss.
• Reduced GPU performance cost of depth of field set to high.
• Fixed a minor memory leak.
• Added a subtle blur to paint jobs, to lower pixelation at high scales.
• Raised the resolution of all paint job textures from 1024x1024 to 2048x2048.
• 'Abstract' and 'Block' camouflages are now available again.
• Fixed axles not connecting to sprocket wheels correctly.

- Hamish