Changelog:

Added

• Option to use the classic crosshair shape.
  
• "Manual Object Culling" volume type which replaces/improves old per-object-asset LOD area settings.
  
• Instantiated_Item_Name_Override and Instantiated_Attachment_Name_Override options to simplify workarounds for animation component.
  
• Exclude_From_Culling_Volumes [bool] option for objects.
  
• Exclude_From_Level_Batching [bool] option for objects and trees.
  
• "-DisableCullingVolumes" command-line flag. Not recommended.
  
• "-UseLevelBatching=true/false" command-line option.
  
• Valentine's day holiday condition for secret admirer note quest on Liberator.
  
• Per-location option to hide from map UI.
  

Changed

• Improved and re-enabled batching of level objects and trees.
  
• Assets with duplicate guid are now skipped during registration rather than assigning a new guid.
  
• Use same collision height (2 meters) for all zombie types.
  
• Slightly increase zombie vertical attack range by 0.1 meter.
  
• Slide while standing on zombie's/animal's head.
  
• Allow masks to work as underwater breathing apparatus with backpack.
  
• Semi-auto repairing melee items play an impact sound.
  
• Terrain tool weight target option can be used with auto foundation option.
  

Fixed

• Stereo not *playing* the tracks not installed on the server, rendering the change in the previous update pointless. [Thanks Timmy!]
  
• Teleport animals that fall out of the map to a valid spawnpoint. [Thanks Toothy Deerryte!]
  
• Pooled effects getting prematurely destroyed. [Thanks Gamingtoday093!]
  
• Transparent pixels in supersampled screenshots. [Thanks Tiway!]
  
• Some inconsistent skin/cosmetic emissive intensity values. [Thanks diddlyono!]
  
• Animal collider not getting disabled on server. [Thanks surv0013!]
  
• Misaligned UVs on player/zombie ragdoll neck. [Thanks Toothy Deerryte!]
  
• Extremely small network positions off by one. [Thanks Gamingtoday093!]
  
• Some inconsistencies when enabling/disabling crosshair. [Thanks KarmaWSYD!]
  
• Interior culling size of several objects.
  
• Loading screen not appearing between clicking exit and reaching the main menu.
  
• Legacy airdrop/location node conversion not assigning instance ID.
  

Patch #1:

Fixed

• Holiday object collision not disabled on server. [Thanks AdamDN!]
  

Batching performance improvements:

This update should bring a noticeable performance increase on vanilla maps, and curated/modded maps too if/when the map creators opt-in. There was a similar update several years ago, but it had to be disabled because it used too much memory (RAM) for some players - actually reducing performance and/or crashing. According to the Steam hardware survey ~96% of players have 8+ GB of RAM now, so with some useful improvements it has been re-enabled. As a precaution it can be disabled by default on the backend if the update goes poorly, and you can disable it with this command-line option if necessary: -UseLevelBatching=false

For more information there are two new articles intended for map developers:

Level Batching
Manual Object Culling