Two major changes this weekend. First, I've moved all the changes I've been putting in the publicbeta branch for the last few months onto the main branch! I won't try to list it all out again here but the summary is it was about trying to give you more long term goals in Sandbox mode, and I'm still working on that, but it has been in publicbeta long enough.

Next, I took a break from that to work on optimization for a bit recently, and came to a shocking conclusion.. ;) the window in the top right where you can see your character and others talking (which I call the PiP - Picture in Picture) is quite costly to the framerate and would be hard to optimize. Unity just isn't really designed to draw the whole scene twice like that.

As it happens, I've noticed that people often complain about the PiP, or ask why it's necessary. There's even a mod to remove the sidebar. To me, I think it's important because it shows everyone's faces, and hopefully helps establish a bond with the characters. But that doesn't mean it needs to be visible all the time.

So I decided on an experiment. I've re-arranged the HUD, shrinking the minimap and putting it on the bottom left, and only showing the PiP when people are talking, or when you're targeting a person. When I do show the PiP, I just draw the character in a stylized comic-book way, without trying to draw the rest of the world (which was the most expensive part).

So, er, tell me what you think. This experiment is currently in the publicbeta branch, v129. Here's the basic view:



When you highlight stuff now the name is shown at the top of the action menu, so the PiP isn't needed:



When you highlight characters or corpses they are shown in the PiP in stylized form:




Or when someone talks:



I also show it when you target enemies in combat. I'm less sure about this, I like seeing them when I'm at a distance or stealthing around, but when I'm deep in combat I guess some might feel it gets in the way:



Anyway here's the full changelist:

• Removed sidebar! Only show PiP when someone is talking or you're targeting someone. Don't try to draw the whole scene in the PiP, just use the stylised comic look. Moved the minimap to the bottom left.
  
• A bunch of minor optimizations
  
• Fix for radio sometimes not attracting zombies when you're hiding in a building
  
• Reduce number of chops needed to mine trees or rocks
  
• Made it possible to purchase mining rights from looter communities, they will stop shaking you down once you do this. Also changed the formula to make mineral deposits a bit more common.
  

EDIT - released some quick patches to fix bugs in the optimization work. Plus, the Japanese translation is all caught up now!:

v131

• Japanese Update
  
• Fix for crash when throwing something in multiplayer
  
• Fix for crash after pausing and unpausing for a long time
  
• Fix for characters sometimes getting stuck on camping chair props
  

v130

• Fix for crash after someone recovers from being unconscious, related to optimizations in previous patch

What's this publicbeta thing?

v129 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:

• Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  
• If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  
• If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".