Captains,

We might be all hands on deck with Chapter 2 right now, but that doesn’t mean the current Steam version is being left behind! We wouldn’t dare. The BoomStock Sale is about to go live, and that makes it the perfect time to spice the game up once again.

This update isn’t as large as the last major update since we’ve been hard at work on other things (which are even cooler!), but it’s still packed with some good additions, especially on the Quality of Life front, and some much needed fixes. And of course, we’re including a short Chapter 2 tease. By now, that’s tradition.

Let’s dive in.

Added Explosion Ripple Effects

Inspired by early-2000 shader effects, certain actions now trigger a ripple effect! In this specific instance, it adds an additional layer of oomph behind explosions, and we really like having oomph in this game.

You can disable this in the Graphics menu if preferred.

(Also, yes, that trashcan is absolutely dead)

Improved Level Report Information

A common frustration among players (especially completionists) was the difficulty of tracking which past levels still had secrets or collectibles left to find. To make this easier, we’ve added a new Datapad Page that provides clearer information for every single level and helps speed up the hunt!

Added In-game Manual

We want Selaco to feel as standalone as possible. The less players need to rely on external sources to understand the game, the better. To support this, we’ve added an in-game manual page. Think of it like an expanding wiki page.

While it’s still a work in progress, it’s ready enough to be included in this build and will continue to grow over time. New entries will be added to your manual page as more gameplay systems are introduced.

Drastically improved Flashlight Performance

We’ve reworked how local player lights are handled in the engine, so using the flashlight take a significant chunk out of your framerate. Flashlight performance is now significantly improved and we can now, technically, make it as big as we want without performance loss!

Added Gwyn Machine Information

Privacy is a thing of the past! Gwyn now keeps track of your Med-kits, Credits, and Health Points -- and will proudly display them to you right from her vending machine.

Much more convenient, but also kind of alarming.

Improved in-game Patch Notes

Since launch, we’ve updated the game quite a lot, and the in-game patch notes eventually turned into one giant, hard-to-navigate wall of text.

To fix this, we’ve added a redesigned News & Updates menu, where each entry is now separate and easily selectable via headers.

More VRAM Savings!

We’ve added BC1 support to the engine, reducing VRAM usage for brightmapped textures. In our tests, this lowers overall VRAM usage by about 5 to 7.5%.

Added Combat Shouts

Dawn will now shout during key combat moments. For example, when blasting an enemy soldier into gibs with a close-range shotgun shot, or killing an enemy by shooting at a fire extinguisher.

Improved Weapon Switching

We’ve reworked mouse wheel behavior to make weapon switching more responsive and reliable. Scrolling through the Weapon Bar will no longer occasionally get stuck, and highlighted weapons are now registered much faster. This may seem like a minor thing, but switching guns during combat resulted in errors more often than we'd like.

Minor Additions and Improvements

• All explosions now destroy windows, not just grenades

• Starting the game no longer shows a CMD prompt

• Added input buffer for shooting. This makes firing semi-automatic weapons much more responsive. If you accidentally fire your weapon a couple of milliseconds before the weapon was ready, it will now fire when ready

• Increased audio volume for shattered windows.

• Replaced an old, low-quality concrete bullet impact sound that had been lingering in the game for years.

• Added proper bounce sounds for toolbox drawers.

• Slide Kick detection now uses foot position instead of camera position.

• Chemical bottles can now be shot multiple times, even after being destroyed.

• Improved footstep sounds for wooden floors. It now actually sounds like wood!

• The game's file size has been reduced by about 50mb!

• SPECIAL CAMPAIGN: Late-game weapons are now more likely to spawn as you progress further into the campaign.

• SPECIAL CAMPAIGN: Added a small chance for a level to be designated a 'Weapon Jackpot', containing three times as many guns.

• SPECIAL CAMPAIGN: Trait chances are now based on weapon fire rate. For example, shotguns have a much higher chance to trigger an effect compared to SMGs.

Balance

• Squad Leaders: Reduced Projectile Speed for Buffed Allies (150% -> 120%)

• Plasma Troopers: Reduced Plasma Bolt Projectile Speed (26 -> 22)

Bug Fixes

Keep them coming!

• Fixed a whole heap of crashes

• Intel ARC: Fixed an error where Textures appeared more blurry than intended,

• Intel ARC: Fixed numerous crashing issues with Vulkan

• Added missing 'Tiered Progression' description in the Special Campaign menu

• Fixed Railgun Weapon Icon not being shown as 'Empty' when fully depleted

• Fixed Invert Mouse option also inverting mouse in the Weapon Wheel

• Fixed Item Pickups not updating stats correctly

• Fixed crash caused by Bipod DMR

• Fixed Slide Kicks being able to deal Headshots and Legshots, resulting in no knockback animation being played

• Fixed issue where graffiti sprites got cullied earlier than intended

• Fixed naming inconsistencies where Combat Chests were called Encounter Chests in certain places

• Fixed an error where Dirt Decals would never spawn. They were in the game all along, but nobody could see them!

• Milestones no longer progress in levels prior to receiving

• Fixed an error where 'Reduced Light Flickering' was not behaving as intended. If you used this setting, you may have to re-activate it!

• Combat Chests can now be pushed

• Fixed an error where soldiers would crouch and immediately stand back up despite having a clear line of sight

• Combat Chests are no longer solid when completed

• Fixed crash caused by Gunners when shielding a non-existent ally

• Fixed error where crouching would not make a crouching sound

• Fixed a very immersion breaking bug where Plant Cloning Facility briefly played very loud music when the Loading Screen appeared

• Fixed an error where pushing objects against walls would cause it to replay the collision sound over and over

• Fixed numerous errors with the new Particle System

• Fixed errors where Gravity Manipulation was pick up objects that are meant to stay on the floor

• Fist Attacks now show a melee animation in mirrors

• Melee Attacks no longer snap onto Crawler Mines and Sentry Guns

• Added Shimmer and Brightmap effects to Keycards

• Shooting Range targets can no longer be shocked

• The 'Overkill' upgrade for the Plasma Rifle now only applies to shockable targets

• Attempted fix for bug where Disabled Sentry Guns could not be destroyed by gunfire

• Fixed numerous occasions where text strings didn't utilize Localization strings, making them impossible to translate for fan translations

• Fixed error caused by running the game with the -savedir parameter

• Explosion Sprites are now properly brightmapped

Progress is going well, and private playtests began three weeks ago!

One major improvement we want to highlight is the new baked-lighting system that every level will use in this update. It's the best kind of optimization: it dramatically improves visual fidelity by adding detailed shadows to almost every surface while also providing better performance than before. Essentially, the more lights an area used to have, the more noticeable the positive difference in performance. Depending on how you look at it, lights are now “free” in terms of performance.

The result is something that truly oozes atmosphere, exactly as we’ve always envisioned for the game, but weren’t able to achieve due to engine limitations. GZDoom has matured a lot as an engine, and the team behind it has been able to create some impressive features. It's been quite a challenging endeavor, but we’ve optimized their light baking system to suit Selaco's needs and added benefits of our own, like the ability to manipulate lights even after they’re fully baked, add integration with our editor and more. We didn’t want to make any compromises when it comes to world interaction.

If you want to play a game that uses a very similar lighting system on the same engine, give Disdain a shot (it has a free demo)! It's a great game that we personally recommend to fans of Quake, and we own a lot to the developer who worked on it. A fantastic showcase of what this lighting system is capable of.

[These comparisons are from a WIP build and are subject to change]

And sun shadows are also possible, adding more volume to exterior sections of the game.

And a big gun. Not very lighting related, but still awesome!

Chapter 2 is turning out to be quite an endeavor, and it’s already shaping up to include more stuff than we initially planned. Ideas just keep flowing! There’s more here than in the average paid expansion, and that’s something we’re very proud of. We’ll start showcasing some of the new Chapter 2 environments soon.

This free, massive update still needs time to cook, and we’re working hard to get it right. There is an internal release date, and we’ll share it once we’re confident we can hit it. In the meantime, we’ll continue to be transparent and show random bits of progress along the way. Like we always have!

If you haven’t joined our Discord yet but want to stay up-to-date, feel free to hop in! We're very active there, and have a tendency to "leak" chapter 2 stuff by "accident".

Or, if you’d like more in-depth development blogs and want to provide additional support, consider signing up on Patreon.

Thank you for sticking with us, it means a lot <3