Dear Stormworkers,
Today we release the multiplayer bandwidth and vehicle desync update!
Bandwith and Sync Improvements
Players have told us the multiplayer experience needs to be improved, and we have been hard at work for a long time. We have made 3 major changes – we have reduced the overhead of our network protocol, vehicles now use a new technique to replicate, and we have created a proprietary compression algorithm that works specifically for Stormworks vehicle data.
This means that bandwidth usage has reduced by 60% to 80%, and the issue where vehicles would sometimes appear delayed is resolved.
This isn’t the first multiplayer update we have released, and multiplayer has been a long-standing challenge for us. In Stormworks, vehicles can often have hundreds of individually moving physics bodies, as well as hundreds of complex logical components, all of which have lots of data that needs to be replicated between server and client. Stormworks is probably the most complex vehicle builder game, with the smallest block size, and the most data to sync up. This is simply a problem that other games have not had to solve and so requires a lot of engineering.
This new update solves a lot of these issues, and the new bandwidth reduction and netcode dramatically improves the multiplayer experience for a lot of players.
What About Slow Down / Slow Motion?
Some players experience slow-motion. This is caused by playing on a server with too much stuff spawned in, or the computer being below min-spec. When too many physics objects are spawned in and interacting with each other, the game will slow down. This is true for all physics sandbox games.
If you check the comments, I am sure you will find a few multi-threading and optimization arm chair experts who think the game just needs to run faster. However, the reality is that the physics calculations are complex, we have already optimized a lot, and there are no shortcuts if you want the detailed physics, robotics, ocean physics, and other mechanic that Stormworks has. It is the nature and the core of Stormworks to be a detailed physics sim.
So, if we can’t magically make the same game run faster, what are the solutions? We are putting a lot of thought into this and welcome players to let us know your thoughts and ideas!
This isn’t the only change and we have been also working hard clearing out the bug backlog. Please see below for the full list of fixes and improvements.
We hope this new update improves your multiplayer experience and we look forward to seeing you in-game!
Much love <3,
The Stormworks Developers
Patch Notes
v1.4.15
Feature – Improved crash dump reporting system
Feature – #5247 #6364 #6221 Multiplayer time dilation algorithm overhaul
Feature – Multiplayer bandwidth optimization
Fix – #6770 #6862 Two sided buttons now use the correct color zones and are paintable on both sides
Fix – #6765 Door color changes after saving and reloading vehicle
Fix – #6777 Window inverse pyramid 2x2x2 mesh offset
Fix – #6764 Instrument panel bar and radial indicators are now unpaintable
Fix – #6757 Door frame edge and corner component coloring not working
Fix – #6465 #7029 Gamepad sensitivity issues on varied framerates
Fix – Controller Axis settings getting reset
Fix – Small inputs on controllers when leaving the dead-zone not registering correctly
Fix – #369 Menu Audio Glitching
Fix – #106 Clients moving while in workbench
Fix – #1365 Rotor blades don’t snap off
Fix – #3920 Small Engine sound inaudibly quiet
Fix – #2797 Mirrored barrel extensions for rotary canon rotate incorrectly
Fix – #2762 Editor tooltip sometimes get stuck
Fix – #4885 Wind sounds when submerged
Fix – #5140 #6673 #7044 Environment sounds no longer play in editor
Fix – #5098 Laser beacon not rendering glass/additive mesh
Fix – #5527 Character deforming when emoting in photo mode
Fix – Tornado wind affecting enclosed compartments
Fix – #5235 Meteors show in editor
Fix – #5699 Autocannon belt naming inconsistencies
Fix – #5862 Visual glitches on HUDs
Fix – #6082 Fuel stations pumping slowly (Updated default gantry plumbing)
Fix – #6100 Very tall tornadoes
Fix – #6199 Engine temperatures below absolute 0
Fix – #6210 3×3 and 5×5 Fluid Heat Radiator (electric) missing faces
Fix – #6211 Cost calculation is not reduced when in mirror mode and parts are deleted
Fix – Kraken sometimes refusing to let a ship go
Fix – Host not waiting for tiles to simulate correctly (falling through map on teleport)
Fix – #6354 Tank wheel mesh issue
Fix – #6571 Weather and Time of day overriding when a player joins a server
Rework – Updated default path nodes to match the new iceberg tiles
Addon Lua:
Fix – setGameSetting can now correctly set weather_override
Fix – #6150 onVehicleDespawn happens twice
https://steamcommunity.com/games/573090/announcements/detail/3225148427589344585
