[PS] Crossout: Supercharged

Fasten your seat belts — the “Supercharged” update is already available! An updated game engine and lots of graphical improvements, new juicy effects and gameplay changes, a new PvP map and the return of the “Witch hunt” — all this awaits you on the game servers. Pedal to the floor!

Update of the “Targem engine”

Global illumination

Up to this point, our rendering has been using simplified ambient lighting algorithms. They precisely accounted for direct light from light sources, while indirect light was modeled approximately.

The indirect propagation of light is now simulated considering the surrounding geometry, so that in addition to direct light, reflected and diffused light from various surfaces and extended light sources (sky, radiating and reflecting surfaces, shading from massive objects and buildings, etc.) will appear. This improvement noticeably enhances the image quality in low-light and fully shadowed areas — it will become more three-dimensional and textured, and there will be a reflection of incident light (reflex) from surrounding objects.

Contact shadows (SSC) and Local Screen Space Reflections (SSLR)

oth effects work according to similar principles — we launch a ray for each pixel in the screen space and try to find its intersection with objects in the frame, which are described by the “depth” of the scene. And, as a result, It turns into some kind of ray tracing!

In the case of contact shadows, the ray is launched in the direction of the light source for a very short distance near the camera, and for many tens of meters on the horizon. This allows to draw shadows for small objects near the observer (such as stones, grass, etc.) and for giant mountains and rocks in the distance, complementing and improving the classic shadow rendering technique, as well as saving computer resources.

With updated local reflections, we replaced the previously used SSPR (Screen Space Planar Reflections) technique, which required additional calculations on the CPU, and also had a number of limitations, such as: the number of reflective surfaces on the screen, the ability to draw reflections only on plain surfaces, as well as not entirely true reflections for water surfaces. The new SLR technique is completely devoid of these disadvantages, and now you can draw honest reflections for all types of surfaces, in any configurations.

Both techniques work only in conjunction with MSAA temporal anti-aliasing, or the most advanced types of smoothing, such as Nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR 2.0.

Motion Blur, Lens Flare, Bloom and updated post-processing

We have improved the image post-processing stage in our engine and added new effects. In the general case, these effects simulate the imperfection of photo and video equipment, bringing the final image closer to a realistic one with a small expenditure of computer resources.

The Motion Blur effect (motion blur) is designed to make the scene more dynamic and make the gameplay smoother and more enjoyable. We have carefully calibrated the effect to add cinematography and convey the feeling of speed in the best way, while not overshadowing the gaming experience in battles. You can independently adjust the blur intensity in the graphics settings.

The Lens Flare effect simulates the refraction of light rays in the camera lens. This effect is used for a more natural display of bright light sources, creating complex-shaped glare that is characteristic of the lenses of any optical camera.

We have completely redesigned the Bloom effect. Previously, we used a simple technique of scaling the scene image using contrast — this gave a very approximate result of low quality and low resolution, in most cases the bloom effect was generally invisible. Now the image is being prepared taking into account the camera exposure, and then several stages of blur. Thanks to careful optimization and the use of modern techniques, we get very cinematic highlights of different textures (from micro-glare of wet surfaces to bright flashes from explosions) for about the same performance cost.

All of these new features can be enabled / disabled and configured in the “Settings” — “Graphics” section.

Update of the audio-visual component of Crossout

Effects

• Updated effects for armoured car wheels, tracks and augers: slipping, skidding, braking, etc.;
• All weapons have received new firing effects: from small machine guns to huge cannons and howitzers. The effect of a shot directly depends on the rarity of the weapon used and its size;
• Improved car explosion effect;
• The effects of module destruction (generators, engines and fuel barrels) have been reworked. They have become much more noticeable, even at a great distance;
• Improved camera behavior and added a blur effect when moving at high speed;
• Updated weapon destruction effects;
• Reworked the effect of starting the vehicle’s self-destruction.
• Improved the effects for tracks and hovers.

Camera

• The camera is now located a little closer to the armoured car. This has a good effect on the perception of the scale of objects in the game world.
• The bigger your armoured car, the more of its lower part is being “cut off”. The effect of the vehicle’s size on the camera distance has been reduced, but still works. This change allows us to retain the scale of the car in relation to the environment as much as possible, and increases the visibility range for detecting enemy vehicles, because now your armoured vehicle takes up a smaller part of the screen. The “Adapting the camera to the size of the armoured car” parameter has been added to the “General” settings. Try this setting if you feel like the camera is located too close to the car.
• We have also returned the point of convergence for the crosshairs to the center of the screen. Although the higher camera position increased the area for close combat, it was uncomfortable and had a big impact on the overall usable screen area.
• We slightly shifted the camera position to the front of the car (relative to its center of mass), which had a good effect on the perception of driving maneuvers.
• To improve the feedback from the control of the vehicle, the camera’s reaction to the impulse created by the movement of the armoured car was enhanced. When you start moving, the camera moves to the rear of the car for a while. When you use the brakes, it moves to the front for a while, and when you make a turn, it is slightly shifted in the direction opposite to the direction of the turn.
• We have implemented a dynamic FOV (field of view) parameter, which significantly enhances the feeling of vehicle speed and slightly improves visibility for small and fast armoured vehicles.
• To improve the convenience during the battle, we’ve reduced the number of “scrolls” (scrolling with the mouse wheel) required to zoom in and out of the camera.

Sound

• Now the appropriate sound effect is played when the wheels slip.
• For a number of weapons with a long reload time, sounds have been added to notify when reloading is complete and the weapon is ready to fire.
• New sounds for vehicle explosions.
• New firing sound for the “Spike-1” crossbow.
• Added a sound of the burning wreckage left after the vehicle has been destoyed.
• Improved sound balance.
• Added a countdown sound before the start of the battle.
• Updated sound effects for victory and defeat in battle.
• Added sounds for notifications of destruction or assistance in destroying the enemy.
• Improved the sound of leveling up.
• Added sounds for making purchases in the in-game store.
• Updated sounds for the “Phoenix” crossbow.

Exhibition and blueprints

• Improving the functionality of the in-game exhibition:
  • Now you have the opportunity to subscribe to certain players and follow the blueprints that they put on the exhibition. By subscribing to a player, you will be notified of the player’s new blueprints on the exhibition in the notification center.
  • Added a table of the most popular authors in the exhibition, which displays the total number of likes, as well as the number of subscribers for each author.
  • Now, for each shared blueprint, the author can choose 3 tags from the list. The tags can also be used to search for specific blueprints on the exhibition.
  • You can now choose with whom you would like to share the blueprint on the exhibition via the in-game chat: with all players, with your friends or with (or only with) your subscribers.
  • A section with players whose updates you are subscribed to has been added to the contact list.
• Now you can only share your blueprint with certain players that you have on your friends list. To do this, you need to find your blueprint, call up the context menu, select “Share the blueprint” and select those with whom you want to share it.

Interface

• Updated the appearance of the garage screen.
• Now incoming damage is additionally displayed as markers around the vehicle, showing the direction the projectile came from. You may enable, disable or make these markers visible only in the aiming mode.
• Now, during the capture of the base, the time remaining until the capture is completed is displayed.
• Now, when destroying explosive modules, the damage from their explosion will be displayed separately with the corresponding icon.
• Updated notifications about events during the battle (destruction of the enemy, assistance in the destruction, etc.).
• Updated the in-game font.
• The colour palette of item rarities and their display in various interface tabs has been updated.
• Updated the starting screen of the game.
• Updated the structure and appearance of windows with information about parts.
• Updated a number of in-game icons (raiders, mines, traps, etc.).
• Changed the item sorting in the “Badge exchange” section.
• Improved the scrolling of items in the in-game store.

Gameplay changes, rework of the physics of movement parts and controls

• Now a burning wreckage remains after the armoured car has been destroyed in battle. The wreckage remains on the battlefield until the battle ends, unless respawning after destruction is enabled in the battle. This carcass is a physical object, i.e. it is an obstacle that cannot be passed through and can be used as a cover in some situations.
• Updated vegetation on all maps. Now certain trees can be destroyed after colliding with an armoured car.
• Reconfigured all physical materials on the in-game locations:
  • Implemented high friction for terrain materials so that cars with low clearance will brake when they come into contact with them.
  • For all objects that appear as vertical obstacles and so-called “invisible walls”, we implemented low friction and minor elasticity. This will prevent the car from “sticking” to the object after colliding with it.
• Changed the control of vehicles on mechanical legs, hovers, augers and the “Omni” chassis (movement parts with a strafing function):
  • Now cars with these movement parts turn in the same direction where the camera is directed.
  • Now strafing on such movement parts (moving right and left) is carried out using the default steering keys. The previous strafe keys are now responsible for turning the car by 45°. In the interface settings, you can change the binding using the “Swap steering and strafing” option.
  • The key that is responsible for setting the vehicle in the center in the assembly mode can now be used on such movement parts to quickly move the camera and turn the weapons in the opposite direction of movement.
  • You can look around without turning the car by holding down the key that blocks the rotation of the weapons .
  • You can go back to the old control scheme using the “Bind turning to the camera” option in the settings.
• Hovers
  • The suspension and animations of hovers have been improved. Now builds on hovers lean more from acceleration and speed.
  • The stabilization of a vehicle with hovers now depends on the shape of the “hover base”: the wider and longer it is, the more stable the build moves. “Hover base” is a rectangle that includes all hovers mounted on a vehicle. Also, the size of the hover base determines the build’s tilt intensity during movement.
  • “Icarus IV” now serves as a basis for a “medium” build: this hover has higher tonnage, durability and stabilization, but lower acceleration and top speed.
  • “Icarus VII” now serves as a basis for a “lightweight” build: it has lower tonnage and durability, lower stabilization but higher acceleration and top speed.
  • We understand that the new parameters are forcing some players to change their hovers in order to keep their vehicles effective. After the update, we will launch a special compensation system — each player will be able to exchange their “Icarus VII” hovers to “Icarus IV” and vice versa as many times as they have had parts on their account. During the exchange, the upgrade of the part you are exchanging will be retained.
• Mechanical legs:
  • Vehicles on mechanical legs have become more resistant to pushing.
  • Now vehicles equipped with mechanical legs can climb steep slopes.
  • The acceleration of the legs on different axes and the rate of turn around its axis are now independent of the current speed of the car. The legs used to be very slow when you started moving, but extremely fast if you started manoeuvring while moving. They now have roughly the same acceleration at any speed, making them similar to hovers.
  • The speed penalties and other parameters responsible for the acceleration and inertia of the legs have been reconfigured. Now super-heavy builds on legs should be just as slow as those on wheels (but they can still turn around relatively quickly and push just about anything).
• Augers and “Omni”
  • Added new perk for “Omni”: Reduces the rate of spread increase by 33% when firing or when turning the weapons. The bonus decreases proportionally with other mounted movement parts.
  • Added new perk for “Meat grinder”: the damage of the augers increases with the increase of the vehicle’s mass. If the vehicle’s mass is less than 5000 kg, then the movement part deals base damage. The multiplier increases linearly up to 200% of the damage dealt at a vehicle’s mass of 15,000 kg.
  • Increase the strafe speed on these movement parts when the car is already going in a straight line.
• Tracks:
  • The turning speed of the tracked vehicles has been reduced.
  • The dependence of the tracked vehicle’s turning speed on its mass has been increased.
  • The turning radius of some tracks has been slightly changed.
  • Fixed a bug due to which the car could abruptly change direction after running into a bump or other obstacle.
• Wheels
  • The turning speed of the wheels was reduced, and the dependence of their turning speed on the mass of the vehicle was increased.
  • Vehicle suspension now tilts when the speed vector changes.
  • The handbrake mechanics were also changed. Now using the handbrake will only block the rear wheels.

Witch Hunt

The traditional Halloween activity of all the survivors of the Wasteland returns in an updated form!

Attention! The event will last from October 25 to November 13 inclusive!

General information:

• The brawl “Witch hunt” is available from level 4 of the “Engineers” faction.
• This year, the brawl is held on maps redesigned specifically for this mode. For each game, the map is selected randomly from the following list:
  • “Abandoned town”;
  • “Ravagers foothold”;
  • “Valley of the Dead”.
• The brawl offers pre-assembled blueprints with boosters.
• Victory in the brawl goes to the person who can keep festive balloons on his armoured vehicle longer than others and earn 100 points.
• There are festive skulls on the map, and by breaking them the player can get additional advantages in the brawl.
• Be careful: festive cauldrons can also attach a bomb to your armoured car or slow it down. Hurry up and touch the enemy’s armoured car to pass the bomb to it, otherwise your car is going to explode!
• To take the holiday balloons from the enemy, you only need to crash into his car. And remember: a high-speed chase is not the only way out. Show your cunning and ingenuity!
• The maps in this mode have jump pads that can help you escape from pursuit.

Workbench “Witch cauldron”

On the special event workbench “Witch cauldron” you can exchange your accumulated treats, as well as other resources and parts, for themed cosmetic items and upgraded parts with pre-determined upgrades or the “Dead man’s chest” container, from which you can take any of the offered epic parts of your choice.

“Catalina” pack (Deluxe edition)

• Armoured car: “Furia”;
• New epic cabin: “Catalina”;
  • A light cabin;
  • PS: 1800;
  • Max. cabin speed: 95 km /h.
  • Tonnage: 4400 kg;
  • Mass limit: 8650 kg;
  • Adds energy: 12 pts;
  • Durability: 250 pts.
  • Mass: 680 kg;
  • Perk: reduces the damage of all mounted weapons by 15%. As you deal damage with any weapon, the weapon’s maximum damage increases by 8% until the player’s armoured car is destroyed. Stacks up to 10 times, but no more than once every 3 sec. The higher the rarity of the weapon, the more damage you need to deal to accumulate the bonus (from 667 pts. only for rare weapons up to 1000 pts. only for relic weapons). The bonus accumulation rate is reduced for leviathans. The perk only charges from damage dealt by your weapon. Ram damage, module explosion damage, etc. are not taken into account.
• New module: signal jammer “Daze”;
  • PS: 825;
  • Durability: 174 pts;
  • Energy drain: 3 pts;
  • Mass: 184 kg.
  • Perk: When activated, disables enemy weapons within 35 m for 2 sec. The module operates for 6 sec., repeating the disabling effect every 3 sec. While active, it reduces the power and speed of the armoured car and becomes explosive. Does not affect drones (except for the autonomous drones). The module also does not disable explosive spears.
• Character portrait: “Jonathan”;
• Paint cans: “Burn” and “Lipstick”;
• Unique decor: “Tailfin” (2 pcs.);
• Unique hologram: “Retribution fire”;
• A set of stickers;
• Background and logo for profile customization;
• Early access to structural parts of the armoured car;
• Maximum number of parts increased to 40.
• 4000 in-game coins.

No one in the Engineers camp believed Jones that his car came to life and took out the raiders on its own. Most likely the armoured car was stolen by some maniac, who then destroyed those bandits. But the main thing is that the car is still seen in the Valley. And “Furia” is usually the last thing that the gaping survivors get to see at all.

“Catalina” pack

• Unique armoured car: “Beauty”;
• New epic cabin: “Catalina”;
• New module: signal jammer “Daze”;
• Character portrait: “Jonathan”;
• Paint can: “Lipstick”;
• Early access to structural parts of the armoured car;
• Maximum number of parts increased to 40.
• 1500 in-game coins.

It’s amazing what love does to people. But even more amazing is what it does to cars. A few weeks in the garage and no one could laugh at Jones’ armoured car anymore. The effort he put into repairing Catalina has greatly transformed it. Now it has become not only his “faithful companion” but also his “reliable protector”.

“Catalina” pack (Lite edition)

• Unique armoured car: “Beloved”;
• New epic cabin: “Catalina”;
• New module: signal jammer “Daze”;
• Unique paint can: “White dune”;
• Early access to structural parts of the armoured car;
• Maximum number of parts increased to 35.

When Jones had just bought this armoured car, everyone though he had lost his mind, telling him that the first pack of raiders would dismantle the car along with its driver. But the young man saw the car’s potential and knew that no one would dare raise a hand or a weapon against his new beloved one.

Attention! Both Deluxe and Lite packs will be available till November 27 inclusive!

New map “Marble quarry”

The map features a new location — a white marble quarry. There is a lot of special equipment located here, and its central part is occupied by buildings designed to process the mined marble.

“Quarry” is a fairly compact map that allows you to quickly start a firefight at long distances. In terms of height, it is split into two main levels: the upper level forms firing positions for long-range vehicles, while the lower level is a great location for melee fighters and sneak attackers. There will be plenty of cover on the lower level to help defend against “snipers” and capture the base in relative safety.

The map is intended for the “Encounter” mode.

“Bridge” map update

Now you can destroy the bridge at the location:

• 2 explosive devices are attached to the bottom of the spans of the bridge. Destroying both devices will cause part of the bridge to collapse.
• Destroying a span can be used not only to prevent enemies from advancing across the bridge, but also to bring down the structure on those standing under it. The fall of debris on the armoured car leads to their destruction.

“Ashen ring” map update

Due to the fact that some of the trees on the map are now destructible objects, we updated the map and replaced such trees with other environmental objects in order to preserve the gameplay idea of individual parts of the location.

Other

Updated the models of rocks at the “Blood rocks” location.

Brawls

• The brawl schedule has been changed. Now, every weekday, 4 brawls will be available to you, which will replace each other every 30 minutes. On weekends, 2 brawls will be available to you and they will replace each other the same way.
• You can find out which brawls are active on a given day on our official website or directly in the game.

Miscellaneous

• Updated blueprints for raiders that are found in the starting battles for beginners.
• Updated faction blueprints of the “Engineers” faction.

“Base” parts

Cabin “Guerilla”

• The number of energy has been increased from 7 to 8.
• PS increased from 160 to 300.
• Durability increased from 250 to 260 pts.

Machine gun “SM Hornet”

• PS increased from 100 to 140.
• Cooldown time increased by 32%.

“Common” parts

All “common” cabins

• The amount of energy is increased by 1 pts.
• PS increased by 100.

Cannon “Avenger 57mm”

• Energy drain reduced from 5 to 4 pts.
• Mass reduced from 468 to 370 kg.
• PS reduced from 425 to 340.
• Projectile hit damage (bullet damage) increased by 11%.
• Ammo increased from 12 to 35 pts.
• Projectile speed reduced by 9%.

“Legendary” parts

“Spark III”

• One-time power reduction reduced from 9% to 7.5%.
• The maximum negative effect is now 60%, instead of 72%.

“Relic” parts

Shotgun “Breaker”

If during 0.8 sec. the weapon doesn’t fire and is not overheated, the next shot will have a significantly increased range, decreased spread and increased damage. The more radiators there are, the higher the bonus.

“Flash I”

• One-time power reduction and recharge time increase reduced from 6% to 5%.
• The maximum negative effect is now 60%, instead of 72%.

General

Now the production time for legendary parts on factional workbenches is 12 hours (instead of 21 hours), and for relic parts — 21 hours (instead of 5 days).

• The model of the “Reinforced track” part has been reworked.
• The model of the “CK Tinbe” has been improved.

• Improved display of the “Autocatapult” model in the parameters window.
• Improved the display of several containers on the garage screen at once, waiting for actions from the player.
• Fixed a bug due to which the Steppenwolf raiders didn’t move off the hill on the “Dead highway” map (“Gone in two minutes” raid).
• Now the following parts don’t take up space in the storage:
  • Short pink lamp;
  • Pink lamp;
  • Long pink lamp;
  • Diamond shine;
  • Crosshairs.
• Fixed the bugs where, in some cases, combat bots could not enter the arena in the garages of the Engineers, Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Assault force.
• Fixed the display of green lights on the “Argument” nailgun model.
• Fixed the display of the news window.
• Fixed a bug with the incorrectly directed side guard of the “Big wheel”.
• Fixed a bug where using the “Back” key in the part production window on the workbench would take you to the main faction page, and not to the previous window.
• Fixed a bug where leviathans could suddenly appear/disappear when leaving/going over an obstacle.
• Improved a number of texts, descriptions and icons.