Hello Everyone, Andrew here with the latest Crewin news on the roadmap, what is coming in my next update, and some info on the path to full release.
Road to Update 13 (V0.0.1.3)
Update 13 is the biggest step toward a finished game so far. This one is about how you move through the world, how the world is built, and how the game looks and runs on your machine.
Update Release
Update 13 release date: TBA. I will announce the date as soon as it is locked in.
The Move to Unreal Engine 5
Crewin has been in development for around six years, and for most of that time it lived on Unreal Engine 4. Getting it onto Unreal Engine 5 has been a roughly two year battle, and I want to be honest with you about it. This was not a button click. Marketplace plugins built for the old engine had to be replaced or rebuilt, thousands of Blueprint errors had to be worked through in waves, the water system had to be re-placed from scratch, and old combat and locomotion systems had to be reworked because the newer engine is much stricter about how assets reference each other. There were crashes, dead ends and more than one moment where I wondered if it was worth it.
It was. Crewin now runs on Unreal Engine 5.7, and the game is better for it. Here is what that unlocks:
Nanite. Nanite is Unreal's virtualized geometry system. Instead of building several lower detail versions of every rock, cliff and building by hand, Nanite streams in only the detail your screen can actually see. That means far denser, more detailed environments without the usual pop-in or heavy performance cost.
Lumen. Lumen is Unreal's fully dynamic global illumination and reflections system. Light bounces around the world in real time, so a torch in a cave, sun through a forest canopy or the glow from a doorway all light the scene naturally and change as the time of day changes, with no baked lighting.
DLSS + RTX. Crewin supports NVIDIA DLSS, which uses AI upscaling to boost your frame rate while keeping the image sharp. RTX owners can also turn on ray tracing for extra realism. Both are optional, and the new settings menu lets you tune them to your hardware.
Thank you for sticking with me through this one. It is the foundation for everything still to come.
Specific Update Features
World Map + Fast Travel
Crewin now gets a full world map. Pause the game and a camera glides over a 3D model of the entire realm, with a live view of the terrain. You can orbit and tilt, pan and zoom, and drop onto 3D pins marking the places you have discovered. Select a discovered location and fast travel straight to it.
Overhauled World Generation
I have rebuilt how the world is shaped. The new generation tools add erosion, rivers, lakes and ponds, plus rocks, cliffs and trees placed with far more variety. Expect lush deciduous forests with mossy rocks and ferns, lakes with boulders along the shore, and conifer slopes with grass and dirt paths. Existing roads are protected, so the places you already know stay where they are.
Menu Reskin + Settings
The Pause and Settings menus are getting a full reskin in the Crewin gold and dragon theme. The graphics settings are also much bigger, with new options including Ray Tracing, Ambient Occlusion, Bloom, Motion Blur, Depth of Field, Upscaling, Foliage and Post Processing.
Minimap Fix
The minimap and compass are being fixed so the map inside the frame shows the world properly.
Performance Pass
Update 13 includes a round of performance work. Video memory use has been cut down heavily, ray traced shadows are now optional, and DLSS support is wired in to help frame rates on supported cards.
For more Updates
For more updates, either Wishlist the game or follow me on social media platforms. More posts regarding specific features will be made soon!
Thank you all for supporting the game. I'll see you soon!