Update 1.3.0 includes a new playable singleplayer map, visual adjustements, new features/enhancements as well as bugfixes.
New Map
Update 1.3.0 brings a new playable map called "Bridge".
It's one of the bigger maps and harder maps in the game, featuring guite a lot harder/more precise shortcuts which will require a fair bit of practice from the player.
The map was still designed to be beatable by less-experienced players but it's recommended to play some of the main campaign maps first before tackling this one. (Especially if you want to go for the medals.)
This map also has 5 collectable spheres scattered around the environment with little platforming puzzles/challenges for those of you who like to explore the map and go off the beaten path. ;)
You may have noticed a new orange colored element on the left side of the first screenshot. Those are new barrier objects which are being introduced in the 1.3.0 update and are first featured in this new map.
Barriers are not solid and can be run through. However, by doing so you loose temporary power-ups of the green and yellow block. (Passing through the barrier caps/reduces your running speed & jumping distance back to normal.)
They were mainly introduced for balancing reasons to give map-creators the ability to somewhat control in which areas of the map speed & jump boosts can be utilized.
Those barriers can also be placed in the map-editor so custom map makers can use them too. They can be either placed in a vertical orientation (like a wall) or a horizontal one (floor).
The new map can be accessed from the singleplayer menu in the new "Post-Launch Maps" option.
In the future all officially released maps will be added to this submenu.
Refinements
Shaders
Lighting shaders were further updated. Size of the (visual) sun was reduced and the volumetric lighting/godrays effect was adjusted.
Ghost format & player skins
The ghost/replay format was updated to also store the player colors/skin set in the profile menu.
So the next time you race agains a newly created ghost you will be able to see the skin/color configuration of the recorded player.
Ambience Track
To avoid repetetiveness in the soundtrack playback, a new ambience track (simulating a windy weather condition) will play in between regular music-tracks. (Essentially alternating between ingame soundtracks/music and ambience back and forth.) This feature is by default enabled but can be disabled in the sound settings.
Jump buffering
An experimental jump-buffer of around 150 milliseconds was added so that pressing (&holding) the jump-key will still cause jumps to be registered after this small time period. (This can be adjusted depending on player feedback.) This buffer only works on jumps performed from geometry underneath the player. Walljumps are ommitted as it would interfere with the wallrun controls.
Game settings in the pause menu
Now the sound- and control settings can be accessed from within the pause menu.
Video settings were ommitted for the time being as switching resolutions can cause timeouts in multiplayer modes. (This will be added in a future update.)
Internal updates
Behind the scenes updates include several bugfixes and refactoring work.
One other noteworthy change is the update of the gamemap file format (.cmap and .ecmap files) which changed how coordinates are stored inside those files.
Update 1.3.0 also includes an important bugfix which fixes reduced framerates/CPU utilisation on some PC configurations since one of the recent Windows updates.
Up Next
The intention is to release the source code of the multiplayer server to the public for modding purposes.
As of right now, the server has a relative simple game-structure/featureset (a time-trial round-based gamemode) so in order to allow more freedom on the modding side of things, additional code refactoring is being done to increase customisability. (To allow for example enabling/disabling roundtimers, additional servercommands to display UI elements on the screen, player teleportation, etc...)
Update 1.3.0 already has some of those internal changes built in in preperation for the open-sourcing of the server code. There is still work left to do but it's on a good path the be released with the next update.
There are also some unfinished maps in the works so stay tuned for new map releases in the future. (And maybe one or two other surprises.)
The game is still constantly evolving & being adjusted accoding to player feedback. So i hope to see you in the next update. :)