Update 0.603 is LIVE!

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UPDATE

Hello, dear Fractal Space players!
New PC Pre-Alpha update 0.603 is available on Windows, Mac & Linux!

IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER
If you were playing before this update and do not wish to start a new game / reset your save, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent invalid softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.

If you encounter a major blocking bug that prevents you from finishing the game, please report in-game as MAJOR Bug with ALT+B.

Thank you for testing and reporting bugs!

CHAPTER | FIXES

• Chapter 0: Objectives accomplished / new objectives were silent in CH0 intentionally, to not be too disturbing to the atmosphere. An additional change is now to only have 1 objective: “Investigate the Red Platform”, instead of first “Reach” then “Investigate”. This is to avoid disturbance too. Please let me know if you think it should be reverted or if it’s better like this ;)
• Chapter 1: When coming from Chapter 0 to Chapter 1, some objects, like moving platforms, some doors, vents, and other objects, could be significantly darker than expected. A restart of Chapter 1 was required to fix it. It should now be fixed and be correct, even when coming from Chapter 0 to Chapter 1.
• Chapter 1: Cannot use cables to skip the dual laser cages with 2 cubes anymore
• Chapter 1: Added “Reinitialize Cube” button in the dual laser cages/cubes area, in order to prevent a potential softlock. This may be making this part too easy, so maybe it will be removed, if enough players suggest its removal. But maybe it will remain if we see it does indeed prevent the softlock, and doesn’t add any confusion. I prefer this rather than an auto-respawn in this case, as the auto-respawn might respawn the cube by mistake / when not necessarily desired.
• Chapter 2: First room: Vertical moving platform above the space gap will now crush you if you stand in between the void and the ground. It will still not crush you if you have no ground below your feet (intended), but will do if you get squashed between the platform edge and the ground. There is still some tolerance, if you are far away enough from the gap’s edge, you will still be pushed back instead of crushed (intended)
• Chapter 2: Fixed visual rendering bug with windows that caused a window to be rendered on top of another window.
• Chapter 2: Fixed a bug that caused Power Core to indefinitely respawn in a loop showing Power Core Respawned, after reaching the first Zero-Gravity room.
• Chapter 3: Fixed a bug that could cause infinite relocation just after the first Hyper-Speed blinking lasers.
• Chapter 3: Fixed a visual bug at the very end, that could cause some “white lines” due to the blinking lights in the corridor, when looked at from outside / above.
• Chapter 4: Fixed a rare bug that could cause the Secret Passage to be in an inverted state, blocking the player.
• Chapter 4: Fixed Hyper-Speed Suppressor sometimes not showing the “red cross” above Healthbar, meant to show that Hyper-Speed is currently unavailable.

BUG | FIXES

• Taser: Fixed an exploit that allowed you to control the direction of a pushed Cube by rotating the camera very fast just after a Hyper-Shot.
• Cameras: Destroying them right as they detect you, will ensure the shield is disabled (to avoid camera football)
• Moving Saws: Fixed a rare case in which Saws would rotate incorrectly sideways when not needed.
• Moving Saws: Moving saws, which need to rotate sideways, could sometimes not be perfectly aligned with their moving direction. They should now always be aligned in a straight line with their moving direction.
• Moving Lasers: Fixed remaining edge cases with Moving Lasers, which could become de-synced from their intended pattern. There should not be any remaining cases of Laser movement de-syncs anymore. To be tested, though, as this fix might have broken other specific cases of Moving Lasers.
• Flashlight: When triggering a cutscene with Flashlight currently ON, the flashlight will no longer move along with the cutscene camera during the transition (it will remain where it is, as intended). In addition, some cutscenes will now force Flashlight state OFF during the cutscene, and restore it after the cutscene (intended). Please report as a visual bug, if you see cutscenes in which the flashlight should be forced-off to avoid various visual bugs or strange-looking situations.
• Bug Reporting: Should no longer be possible to interact with objects or other actions while the Bug Reporting page is displayed.
• Bug Reporting: Video URL field could sometimes be resized to be taller than intended. Shouldn’t happen anymore.
• Jetpack Notifications: Low Fuel sound and text notification system have changed. It now is as follows:
• - Low Fuel Sound: Played when going from "normal fuel" to "low fuel" state, with a minimum allowed interval of 3s. This prevents it being spammed when you are letting it recharge slightly, then using Jetpack again (avoids spamming the low fuel beep sound)
• - Low Fuel Text Notification: "Low Fuel" text notification when going from "normal fuel" to "low fuel" state, is now shown only once per game session. This allows new players to see it the first time they use the Jetpack and reach Low Fuel. Then, only the sound plays. Every time you restart the game, you'll see it once, just as a reminder of associating the notification to the sound. Then, only the sound is played. This change is to avoid having "Low Fuel" notification appearing too often on the screen.
• Encryption Keys: Approaching a Formatting Terminal, with a Power Core or Cube, would play the dialog and show Incompatible Device Notification, whereas this was meant to only happen when approaching them with an information Tablet. Also, it used to only appear once. It will now always appear if the player approaches a Formatting Terminal with an information Tablet instead of an Encryption Key.
• Custom Resolution: The -allowCustomResolution argument to allow custom resolution, to use with -screen-width and -screen-height was working correctly for most PC configurations. However, it should now also work for more specific setups and Windows versions. If you still experience resolution resets, please try also by adding the new -noForcedRefreshRate (but only as last resort, as it should not be needed, in theory)
• Leaderboards: Potential fix for Cycle leaderboard, which would always incorrectly round legitimate scores milliseconds to 0. It should now send the correct entire game duration value, with correct milliseconds. To be tested if properly fixed, though. To test this, make sure you never enable Debug Mode in your run.

ADDITIONAL HOTFIX 0.603

• Game install size on disk increased, because of a test using a different type of compression
• The change should significantly speed up loading times on older PCs
• The change should not change anything for modern/powerful PCs - it should feel the same
• Performance in general should be better on older PCs, same on modern PCs
• Chances of crashes during loading times should be reduced on older PCs
• This is a test, if too many players are affected negatively regarding level loading times / performance, let us know, it might be reverted
• Screenshot Mode: Default shortcut changed from F3 to F11 to reduce chances of mistakenly activating it