Chasers,

We're thrilled to introduce the long awaited 0.3 Major Update, featuring new core features and significant improvements. This milestone update includes a weather graphical overhaul, performance optimization, and dozens of QoL and UI enhancements. Traversing the core of the storm is more immersive than ever, and we are thrilled to see you take on this challenge.

WEATHER

• Updated rain to behave dynamically & interact with environmental winds
  

• Improved rain shaft VFX quality & behavior significantly

• Improved dust cloud visuals and blending with rain

• Improved lightning illumination and flash rate throughout storms

• Improved lightning rendering from a distance

• Improved lighting and volumetrics quality to get a much better sense of depth in the storms

• Improved tornado blending with rain and volumetrics

• Refactored tornado damage system to be more precise and accurate

• Refactored tornado pathing to no longer be linear

• Decreased thick post storm fog within a certain radius to prevent bad visual issues

• Decreased visual cloud steps for the majority of cloud formations

• Significantly reduced visibility in rain heavy rain to be more realistic

PERFORMANCE

• Added cloud quality presets (ultra performance, performance, balanced, quality, ultra quality)

• Added a check for Steam Deck to lower graphics settings by default to improve performance

• Refactored weather data to improve RAM usage & stability

• Refactored weather rendering to improve performance

• Optimized main menu navigation & resource usage

• Optimized tree loading & world textures to improve performance

• Optimized the minimap to improve performance while driving

• Optimized server performance by removing unnecessary server tasks

• Disabled shadows on headlights to improve performance

GAMEPLAY & CUSTOMIZATTION

• Added a fully immersive free-look system, allowing natural head movement

  • Removed the look-back action in the vehicle

  

• Added car dashboard lighting after turning on engine

• Added brand new Tripod & updated Pson Probe

  

• Added a new light casting system to improve brightness & distance casted on headlights

• Added Yuki the dog bobblehead model

• Added 12 new decals (W.H.I.R.L.E.X, LucyPancakes, Syn_Fritz, Dom_in8tor, OptimusKale, AutumnicDuckie, Roll force, TheButteredDad, Skywarn, Mike2Eight, InfamousPandaaa, Dozers, ZCheyenne)

  

• Added 20+ new scenarios to the scenario pool

• Updated the passenger camera FOV to match the driving FOV setting

UI ENHANCEMENTS

• Added vehicle occupancy UI indicator to display occupied seats in the vehicle

• Added brand new vehicle icons to the product maps

• Added indicators in text chat for when a player dies or disconnects

• Added a key bind to toggle name tag visibility of vehicle passengers

• Added the OZEF radar icon to the reflectivity map

• Added web socket for streaming UI

• Decreased car & player name tag rendering limit to prevent seeing name tags from far distances

• Removed sliders for step size & down sampling

• Removed F9 visibility while in settings menu

• Removed outdated keyboard control loading screen

• Removed background fade on loading screens

• Removed spotter dot on map when riding as a passenger

• Removed OZEF radar icon from advanced product maps

QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES

• Added support for Spanish & German languages toggleable in settings menu

• Added support to select microphone input in settings menu

• Refactored controllability system to allow passengers to exit vehicle with camera or phone open, and to prevent UI from getting in a stuck state.

• Enabled text chat while viewing radar maps to allow streamlined communication

• Updated towing system to prevent players from being towed to gas stations under a tornado warning

• Updated the enter vehicle indicator to display the vehicle owner's name prior to entering

• Updated upscaling plugin to provide more quality presets for DLSS & FSR

• Updated 10% multiplayer bonus to default to 0 when no positive balance is earned from chase

MAJOR FIXES

• Fixed blue lines on all geography & props caused by down sampling

• Fixed line appearing on ocean water plane

• Fixed visual glitches and inability to see when driving through volumetric fog

• Fixed sudden death issues when exiting a vehicle near gas pumps or close objects

• Fixed the game appearing pixelated and low quality on high-end display screens

• Fixed large misalignments in the settings menu for displays outside of 16:9

• Fixed cars and destructible objects from getting stuck in the air upon impact

• Fixed passengers being immune to death if a vehicle is thrown without a driver

• Fixed gas station hitbox blocking tornados from being reported at some angles

• Fixed S014 from crashing halfway through the chase

• Fixed UI disabling when performing various actions while a photo is in progress

• Fixed UI conflict with product menu and radio

• Fixed text chat messages from covering the radio

MINOR FIXES

• Fixed DOM3 animation not playing for local player after exiting the vehicle

• Fixed start engine and turn off engine icons from overlaying the map

• Fixed long player names being cut off on all maps, giving the impression of multiple users

• Fixed players unable to kick passengers out of the car in rare circumstances

• Fixed probes not displaying stats when leaving a match without picking up the probe

• Fixed hair glowing in the dark

• Fixed text chat not resetting to bottom left corner after exiting vehicle with radio open

• Fixed screen flashing while toggling UI during an F9 report or with the product map open

• Fixed UI conflict with product map and radio

• Fixed text chat from obstructing ability to tow vehicle

• Fixed shadows on bull bars preventing light to shine

• Fixed upscaling settings not properly updating or saving over time

• Fixed text chat being stuck open, while on game menu after losing connection to the game

• Fixed advanced products missing data in a scenario

• Fixed text chat messages from covering the radio

• Fixed enter/exit button not deactivating with product map open

• Fixed enter vehicle prompt appearing when when driving around other cars

• Fixed mesonets floating after equipping mobile weather station

• Fixed mesonets briefly displaying 9999 windspeeds when entering vehicle for the first time

• Fixed mesonets from clipping into the Hammerhead vehicle

• Fixed Eastern Falls tornado siren sounding after tornado warning expiry

• Fixed S076 tornado not going through the funnel stage

• Fixed car gas station icon exponentially growing when on low fuel

• Fixed several clipped weather stations & lightbars on vehicles

• Fixed visual bugs while toggling UI visibility with the F9 menu open

• Fixed cosmetic only warning not displaying on some cosmetics in the garage

• Fixed the Hammerhead driver vehicle camera being slightly off centered

• Fixed main menu scene shifting to the right after exiting garage

• Fixed minor background fading in splash screen

TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHT: Performance Optim

The journey to achieve better performance was no easy feat, considering no game has attempted to do what OUTBRK is achieving before with our cloud's technology. Our VFX team refactored all scenario data to improve performance and spent countless hours removing down sampling blue artifacts, to allow us to use higher down sampling for performance. Catalyst also introduced new techniques to help reduce cloud stepping artifacts on high step size to allow us to gain even more performance, without sacrificing visual quality. In the end months of research and development allowed us to provide a smoother user experience without sacrificing visuals.

What’s Next?

As always, we’re listening to your feedback. Let us know what you think about the 0.3.0 update. See you in the chase!