Distant Worlds 2 update for 23 August 2022

This major official update includes an engine upgrade, a new Vulkan rendering mode and many, many bug fixes, performance, UI, AI and gameplay improvements. Please read through the changes below to see how to get the best results from DW2 on your system.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE (New Engine and .NET 6.0):

The Core game engine has been upgraded to use the latest version of Stride. (4.1.0.1)

Due to this, .NET 6.0 is now required to run the game (it previously required .NET 4.0). Steam should start to install it automatically. If your Steam client does not start the install, please Exit Steam and try again. This should hopefully refresh the client and force it to do so.

• If the prompt with .NET 6.0.5 doesn't start/appear. Please download dotnet from the link below. Then restart your PC before launching DW2.

Dotnet Download

IMPORTANT NOTE (Vulkan/DXVK Support):

If you still experience crashes with 1.0.6.4 or later, especially crashes in battle, please try the new DXVK rendering option in the game settings. This can be found under "Rendering Mode", which can be switched from DirectX 11 to DXVK. DXVK is only guaranteed to work with the SDR (Standard Definition Rendering) option in your game settings. It may work with some HDR (High Definition Rendering) settings, but we do not advise trying those at this time. The DXVK option will likely resolve many issues caused by driver bugs or incompatibilities. If you try this setting and the game does not launch, please note the command line option in the changes below to switch back to DirectX 11. (To force DirectX on launch, add /use-dx11 as a command-line argument to DistantWorlds2.exe)

Changes in 1.0.6.4 (August 12th, 2022):

ENGINE UPGRADE

• Upgraded engine to Stride 4.1.0.1, which requires .NET 6.0. Please see the important notes above.

RENDERING AND GAME SETTINGS

• added Vulkan/DXVK rendering option in game settings
• integrated new command line option to use DirectX11, which resets any registry settings to use DXVK. To use add /use-dx11 as a command-line argument to DistantWorlds2.exe
• persisted some previously unsaved game settings (Control Center List item size, rendering option toggles)
• Auto-detect and warn when PC is missing a vendor-specific display driver (i.e. when only Available adapter is 'Microsoft Basic Render Driver')

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

• minor performance improvements in some areas
• avoid precaching some models and textures when have low video memory
• added some extra game settings to allow disabling some rendering effects
• extended multi-threading to better utilize CPU cores and provide better performance
• improved texture memory management to improve performance and further minimize crashes
• enabled early exit from many multi-threaded tasks to provide more responsiveness in very large games when exiting to main menu or initiating load or save
• improved performance when calculating construction yard wait times for incoming ships, thus improving responsiveness in very large games
• Improved rendering performance by implementing shader instancing when drawing galaxy map highlights (list items) and empire territory circles/lines. These improvements are especially evident in large games when zoomed out to the galaxy level
• improved performance when opening very large lists in Control Center (e.g. civilian ships)

CRASH AND BUG FIXES

• fixed various crashes relating to Stride rendering
• fixed rare crash when resolving ship mission commands
• fixed rare crash when calculating ship collision avoidance factors
• fixed bug where location effects could sometimes linger for ships, disrupting subsequent movement
• fixed crash when determining threat level for enemy ship
• fixed crash when checking whether research project prerequisites have been researched
• fixed rare crash when escorting target
• fixed rare crash when calculating ship strength including fighters
• fixed rare crash when drawing diplomatic relation details
• fixed crash when click on non-item area of Resource Flow selection list
• fixed rare crash when executing some game events
• fixed crash when signalling docking completion for a ship
• fixed rare crash when use planet destroyer
• fixed crash when ship evaluates nearby threats
• fixed issue where some older savegames could not be loaded
• improved locking to reduce contention and fix crashes
• fixed crash when checking ships within range at a location
• fixed crash when finding shortest docking wait queue at a location
• fixed rare crash when calculating jump path between systems
• fixed crash when reviewing system visibility after ship exits hyperjump
• fixed crash when drawing location badges
• fixed rare crash when creating new colony
• fixed crash when ship reviews its fleet escort
• fixed crash when recording ship revert mission
• fixed crash when checking for abandoned ships at location
• fixed crash when fleet considers whether to retreat
• fixed crash when updating system summary data
• fixed rare crash when loading ship designs
• fixed crash when calculating construction yard wait times
• fixed crash when calculating stock levels
• fixed crash when removing list items
• fixed crash when merging temporary locations
• fixed crash when resolving character location description
• fixed crash when generating message log user interface
• fixed crash when ship evaluates nearby threats
• fixed rare crash when showing research screen
• fixed rare crash while ship is determining system jump path
• fixed a number of multi-threading-related crashes
• fixed rare crash when processing ship movement and energy consumption
• fixed crash when ship identifies nearby threats
• improved context-locking for rendering to further reduce DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED errors
• enabled capture of DirectX Debug information when switched on
• improved error reporting with more detail
• fixed rare crash when a ship refuels

UI IMPROVEMENTS

• added text formatting to various messages
• fixed some minor display issues with text layout
• added further tooltips to Design List screen explaining Retrofit and Status columns
• ensure that accepting a request to help another empire battle the Hive threat also ends any war between you
• fixed sorting in Defensive Bases list for Name and Distance From Spaceport
• added more detailed inline text formatting for markup language
• extended text formatting to messages
• updated Design List screen to more clearly indicate toggling for some items (underlines for Role Design, Auto Retrofit, Is Active columns)
• added extra filter in New Mining Locations list: 'All Resources - No Asteroids'
• improved selectability of fleets and other items at galaxy level
• added popup selection when click multiple items at same point
• selection popup list is ordered by type, with fleets, stars and spaceports first
• ensure player empire territory marked green (friendly) in Diplomacy map overlay
• now include Autosaves for Continue Game button, i.e. if an autosave is the most recent savegame then that game will be resumed
• better selection of default user interface size based on screen resolution (i.e. larger default size for larger screens)
• fixed bug where ships sometimes could not be selected at system level
• fixed Mining Locations list sometimes showing wrong items when filtering by a specific resource
• properly filter out unknown resources in Colonies list
• Adjusted some galaxy map overlays so that properly fade out as zoom in (long range scanners, diplomacy, exploration)
• Adjusted general opacity for some map overlays (long range scanners, diplomacy, exploration)
• added Continue Game button to main menu (load most recent savegame)

FLEET, SHIP AND STARFIGHTER BEHAVIOR

• fixed ships sometimes incorrectly reassigning mission when get too close to planets
• reduced collision avoidance contention when ships are docking at base, thus improving throughput
• further extended logic for ships to avoid exiting hyperjump when mission changes: will now remain in hyperjump when change - mission to move to coordinates (at same location), even though do not have specific target
• fixed fleet ships sometimes getting stuck in deep space unable to jump
• fixed damaged fleet ships that cannot jump to repair location causing repeated fleet repair missions
• improved fleet target selection so that do not upgrade attack against enemy ship to attack against entire fleet unless lead ship of enemy fleet is visible, thus better assessing whether need to refuel or gather before attack
• now ensure ships always get properly refueled by fuel tanker, even when very close to planet
• fighters now better at continuing to escort carriers when supporting ongoing Raid, Capture or Bombard missions (fighters no longer stop idle in space)
• fixed bug where fleets were sometimes calculating fuel range incorrectly and thus taking on missions that were too distant
• fighters now never allow collision avoidance to prevent them from boarding their carrier, thus avoiding holding up the carrier's jump, etc
• ships now remain in hyperjump when assign new mission if target is at same location as previous mission, e.g. thus have all fleet ships continue their jump to threat investigation location after first ship exits jump and upgrades mission to attack threat (no need to exit jump and then restart new jump)
• added new ship mission type: Explore Location - explores all items at a location, useful for manually exploring asteroid fields. Select exploration ship and right-click on an item for popup menu with this mission
• fleets no longer incorrectly refuel when assign prepare and attack mission against target outside a star system
• default designs for medium and large freighters now have more fuel tanks to give greater range than small freighters
• fixed bug where some ship/base retrofits were not completing properly, i.e. some new components were not being added
• improved willingness of construction ships without hyperdrives to build new bases at own location
• carriers no longer launch fighters when exit jumps at transit locations on way to final attack target, thus speeding up transit jumps (only launch fighters when real threats or arrive at final attack target location)
• creating new fleet from multiple selected ships now also properly updates action buttons under Selection Panel to match new fleet

TROOPS AND TROOP TRANSPORTS

• fixed some non-playable race troop sizes (were zero, thus very fast recruitment, etc)
• ensure troop recruitment costs always paid, even when manually recruited
• troops named with proper numeric prefix that relates to number of troop units in empire
• Infantry defense strengths increased
• fixed automated non-fleet troop transports sometimes getting into endless loop of load/unload troops at a colony
• troops at colonies now more likely to be ungarrisoned when not needed to meet defensive requirements or rebellion supression (e.g. shortly after conquest), thus freeing them up for reloading on troop transports
• more careful auto-loading and unloading of troops for automated troop transports that are not part of a fleet. Avoid getting in endless loop of loading/unloading troops

DIPLOMACY

• empires now properly decide whether to honor Defense Treaties, will consider whether to declare war on aggressors against their allies. Declining to honor treaty negatively impacts relations and reputation, whereas honoring the treaty (declaring war on aggressor) improves relations and reputation. When war diplomacy is not automated, player will be prompted with modal message window where they must choose whether to honor treaty or not
• value of offer to end war with 3rd party in diplomacy trade deal screen now valued much lower. Other empire also has to be interested in an end to your war with 3rd party, i.e. they are friends with 3rd party and concerned about the war
• Non Aggression treaties no longer offered when diplomatic strategy for a faction is set to Conquer
• altered acceptance levels for diplomatic trade deals with other empires: angry empires require much higher value offered, friendly empires no longer offer very favourable deals
• increased negative diplomatic incident amount from invading colonies, whether the colony is independent or owned by another faction. Negative incident amount now also scales with colony size, i.e. larger colonies generate stronger incident. However when at war with faction then incident is much lower, as is negative reputation impact
• increased negative diplomatic incident amount from colony bombardment. Note that this is not just a constant value, but rather is tied to actual amount of population loss
• fixed bug where special locations could be traded repeatedly in Diplomacy trade screen
• fixed bug where could not refuel ships at pirate bases when have Military Refuelling agreement
• ending a War or signing a Non Aggression treaty now clears any dangerous locations for other empire, thus preventing automated fleets from unnecessarily investigating locations that are no longer a threat

SHIP DESIGN

• ensure Upgrade Design button properly accounts for components that have matching category but not the necessary capabilities, e.g. Star Marine Barracks that are crew quarters category but are used differently

COLONIZATION AND SUITABILITY

• ensure some story planets have proper quality levels to eventually become colonized by specified race
• fixed automated colonization sometimes colonizing targets slightly below suitability threshold in empire policy
• improved loading colonists for new colony targets so that load most suitable race even when is not dominant race at load colony
• tweaked independent colony suitability for some races so that always have suitability of at least +20 (economically viable)
• colony ships now less likely to retrofit and more likely to colonize any targets within range before refuelling (i.e. do not refuel if already have colonization target within range)
• improved willingness of automated Colony Ships to colonize queued colonization targets that are independent colonies but are unsuitable for empire races (does not matter because bulk of population is pre-existing well-suited native race)
• fixed bug where too many colony ships were sometimes being built
• fixed bug where colony ships could sometimes load the wrong race of colonists for queued colonization targets
• when Colonization Automation is manual, automated colony ships no longer load colonists except for queued colonization targets

CHARACTERS

• better handling of imprisoned characters when reconquer colony (ensure properly removed from prisoners of previous empire)
• properly exclude imprisoned characters when determining defensive bonuses at colony (as shown in Troop Report screen)
• added extra tooltip descriptions for character traits Corrupt (Scientist) and Double Agent

MANUAL PLAY IMPROVEMENTS

• added action buttons for multi-selected ships: scrap and retire selected ships
• added new right-click mission for multi-selected ships: capture (when ships have capability)

AI IMPROVEMENTS

• now properly handle situation when empire was planning to build expensive planetary facility at a colony, but lost colony while saving up construction funds

GENERAL BUG FIXES

• now properly exclude ShipHulls_Art.xml file when not in art mode
• fixed occasional error messages relating to regional settings on non-English PCs
• fixed incorrect URL for .Net 6.0 installation

SOUND EFFECTS

• limit number of simultaneous sound effects of same type to avoid very high effect volume, especially when first zooming into a location
• further reduced simultaneous sound effects that can sometimes create loud bursts of sound
• added Assault Pod sound effect
• added shield strike and construction sound effects
• fixed weapon firing sound effects not playing unless weapon also had accompanying particle effect

MODDING IMPROVEMENTS

• added new Game Event features for story team
• now allow loading multiple XML data files per type to better support modding
• enabled IsPlayable flag in Races.xml file to better support modding. Note that races list in Start New Game screen does not scroll horizontally, so can currently only add 3-4 more races before disappear off right side of screen, but will add scroll support in future
• added better support for custom mod-loading through command-line arguments
• added extra checks with multi-file loading for mods, giving better feedback on data errors
• implemented better approach for resetting static base data (loaded from XML files) when start a new game in same session (no longer reload from files), thus better supporting modding

OTHER

• remove HighDPI aware registry flag for current user (no need for this as DW2 now handles this itself)
• ensure correct infantry image always used in research screen for troop research projects
• fixed scuttle button sometimes not working for single ships or bases
• fixed story events sometimes being generated in the wrong location (e.g. ancient debris fields at homeworld)
• fixed minor text formatting issues
• ensure creatures move away from stars if too close
• improved error reporting
• improved profiling to enable frame capture using RenderDoc
• improved error reporting in some situations
• properly clear room background when speak with independent colony for non-playable race
• capped maximum number of user-defined starting empires in Start New Game screen to 20
• fixed a typo regarding the Technocracy government
• Military Academy facilities are now 1 per Empire as originally intended
• refresh 'Continue Game' button tooltip with latest savegame when exit to main menu
• properly refresh empire territory path lines after load game
• fixed shift key sometimes not working when editing text
• reduced volume for construction sound effects
• fixed empires using independent flags
• fixed reputation increase from destroying pirate ships and bases
• fixed minor typo in game start text when have single additional colony
• corrected Kiadian typo in diplomatic research projects
• ensured proper game icon is shown in taskbar
• Added extra error reporting for some rendering-related crashes