This latest hotfix is designed for seamless integration: it will not interfere with your active mods, and all existing save games remain fully compatible.
Following our previous update, the community provided invaluable feedback, particularly regarding unforeseen issues with the game’s lighting system. In response, we have deployed a hotfix to rectify these visual discrepancies and address several other player-reported concerns. Thank you for your diligence in helping us identify these issues.
Visual Updates
- Restored the indirect lighting multiplier to its original, intended parameters.
- Resolved an issue preventing the Global Illumination settings from being correctly toggled.
User Interface
- Camera zoom functionality has been restored while the color customization wheel is active.
- Improved the legibility and contrast of the title text within the Development Tree.
Miscellaneous
- Fixed a persistence bug where Autosave preferences would occasionally reset to their default state.
Technical Post-Mortem
We want to provide transparency regarding the origin of the recent lighting issues.
Our development workflow utilizes “branching” within our version control system. Each new feature or fix is developed in an isolated workspace, ensuring that different elements of the game can be polished independently without causing immediate conflicts with other ongoing work.
During the preparation of the last patch, one specific branch focused on the simulation-driven fog system and atmospheric adjustments for various climates and seasons. Simultaneously, shadow enhancements were being refined in a separate branch. During this process, a temporary development value for indirect lighting was set to an extreme level as a placeholder, intended to be adjusted once the branches were merged. Unfortunately, this placeholder value was accidentally included in the final release build.
The error occurred because the changes were merged in an incorrect sequence. We had already performed our primary visual quality pass before the shadow updates were integrated, allowing this specific oversight to slip through. At that stage, our quality assurance was primarily focused on game stability, balance, and performance. We are currently updating our internal protocols to ensure visual regressions are more effectively caught during the final stages of the development cycle.
We appreciate your patience as we continue to refine the Cities: Skylines II experience. Please keep the feedback coming!