Update 12 Jun 2018 - the WDC sale has ended, thank you everyone who participated
You saved the underwater world of planet 4546B. Here on Earth, our own oceans need your help. This weekend, we are joining forces with Valve and the ocean charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC). 15% of Unknown Worlds’ profits from the sales of Subnautica will go to WDC.
4546B is a world covered in water. Earth is not so different: 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Startlingly, they contain around 90% of the Earth’s biomass. That means that there is far more life under the water than above it: Out of sight, and often out of mind.
Agricultural runoff, drag-net fishing, deforestation, plastic waste, even acidification via increased carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Earth’s oceans are taking damage from multiple sources. Life below the waves is dying, shrinking, and disappearing.
We made a game that takes you to an alien world, a world that needs your help. You saved that world. This weekend, we ask that you think about ways in which you can help to save the Earth.
About WDC
WDC is a global organisation that works to:
Create healthy seas, including tackling plastic pollution in our oceans
Put an end to hunting and commercial whaling
Tackle bycatch, an accidental entanglement in fishing gear, which kills an estimated 300,000 whales and dolphins every year
End the cruel practice of keeping whales and dolphins in captivity
You can find out more at http://whales.org and follow WDC on twitter at @WHALES_org. In the United States, WDC is registered under charity number 1014705.
Since launch, we have been prototyping potential Subnautica expansions, working on Xbox One launch, and working on tidying up some of the more glaring bugs in the Steam 1.0 release.
Today we released an update that includes a bunch of that tidying up. Here's the list of changes:
Main menu button texts update correctly when switching languages
In-game menu button text colors fixed
F8 panel fully translated
Cyclops flooding leak indicators now clearly outside of the hull
Controller navigation and selection boxes fixed
Builder menu usable with swapped mouse buttons
Lifepod fabricator lighting fixed
Cyclops hatch door collider fixed
Disallow poster placement where wall lockers are disallowed
Non-localized text removed from color customization terminal
Physics bugs with ion cubes and precursor keys fixed
End-game achievements now trigger
Lost river creatures now immune to brine
Player mask now correctly lit
Can not despawn Aurora by building a base next to it anymore
Seamoth hatch animation fixed
Changing quality settings in game reminds player to restart the game
Time capsule UI simplyfied
Pathfinder tool recipe adjusted
Entering exosuit while sprinting fixed
Fixed saved game rocket not being ready for launch
Reduced hitching when rebuilding a base
Fixed moonpool ladders not working properly when cinematics have been skipped
Time capsule fixes for various platforms
Added option to turn off subtitles.
Updated TimeCapsuleTitleFormat
Fixed base interiors looking incorrect when viewed from inside a vehicle or another base
Fixed Cyclops interior not looking correct when viewed from a vehicle
Fixed low LOD of certain base windows
Re-caching of entire world (to help with hitching a little)
Options menu screen resolution fix
Fixed localization of deconstruction errors
Added TimeCapsuleTitleFormat to English.json
Translator credits update
Translation updates
Enjoy!
Historical Factoid
In the early days of Subnautica development, updates did not have names. They had numbers, like Update 8. We eventually switched to names, like Seamoth Update, because they were punchier.
Under the hood the named updates continued to have numbers. Update 84 reverts to the old school: A Subnautica Update with no name.
This post was edited to include additional changes pushed in a small update released just after Update 84. Together the two updates constitute Update 84.
Since launch, we have been prototyping potential Subnautica expansions, working on Xbox One launch, and working on tidying up some of the more glaring bugs in the Steam 1.0 release.
Today we released an update that includes a bunch of that tidying up. Here's the list of changes:
Main menu button texts update correctly when switching languages
In-game menu button text colors fixed
F8 panel fully translated
Cyclops flooding leak indicators now clearly outside of the hull
Controller navigation and selection boxes fixed
Builder menu usable with swapped mouse buttons
Lifepod fabricator lighting fixed
Cyclops hatch door collider fixed
Disallow poster placement where wall lockers are disallowed
Non-localized text removed from color customization terminal
Physics bugs with ion cubes and precursor keys fixed
End-game achievements now trigger
Lost river creatures now immune to brine
Player mask now correctly lit
Can not despawn Aurora by building a base next to it anymore
Seamoth hatch animation fixed
Changing quality settings in game reminds player to restart the game
Time capsule UI simplyfied
Pathfinder tool recipe adjusted
Entering exosuit while sprinting fixed
Fixed saved game rocket not being ready for launch
Reduced hitching when rebuilding a base
Fixed moonpool ladders not working properly when cinematics have been skipped
Time capsule fixes for various platforms
Added option to turn off subtitles.
Updated TimeCapsuleTitleFormat
Fixed base interiors looking incorrect when viewed from inside a vehicle or another base
Fixed Cyclops interior not looking correct when viewed from a vehicle
Fixed low LOD of certain base windows
Re-caching of entire world (to help with hitching a little)
Options menu screen resolution fix
Fixed localization of deconstruction errors
Added TimeCapsuleTitleFormat to English.json
Translator credits update
Translation updates
Enjoy!
Historical Factoid
In the early days of Subnautica development, updates did not have names. They had numbers, like Update 8. We eventually switched to names, like Seamoth Update, because they were punchier.
Under the hood the named updates continued to have numbers. Update 84 reverts to the old school: A Subnautica Update with no name.
This post was edited to include additional changes pushed in a small update released just after Update 84. Together the two updates constitute Update 84.
Subnautica has emerged from Early Access to launch on Steam. To celebrate, we have released a Cinematic Trailer that offers a glimpse of events on Planet 4546B before the crash of the Aurora starship.
Subnautica has emerged from Early Access to launch on Steam. To celebrate, we have released a Cinematic Trailer that offers a glimpse of events on Planet 4546B before the crash of the Aurora starship.
A host of new graphics options are available in the main menu:
Chromatic aberration
Bloom
Lens artefacts
Dithering
Motion blur
Colour grading
Depth of field
All together, these options revolutionise the way Subnautica looks. You can mix and match all the options, and adjust their intensity, to find a look that you like best.
Eye Candy isn’t just a pretty face. This update contains a disgusting quantity of bug fixes – Over 250 at last count. In particular, we think we have solved the perennial and infamous drifting lifepod problem.
Miners among you will be happy to hear that your life just go easier. When piloting the prawn, drilled resources will automatically be placed into your inventory.
One big graphics improvement is actually a bug-fix in disguise. Sun-shafts are now properly hidden by shadows. This used to be a big problem inside bases, particularly ones with long corridors.
Eye Candy is not just candy for your eyes: Your ears are also in for a treat. Abandoned bases now feature voice-overs from new voice actors. Have a listen, and learn about what happened to this underwater world.
Speaking of bases, the Scanner Room user-interface has received some serious TLC. It is much easier to use, and more powerful, and won’t show items that have been picked up.
Who likes stargazing? We do! Problem: When stars shine through planets, stargazing becomes weird. Stargazing in Subnautica is no longer weird: We’ve fixed up a bug that caused stars to shine through orbiting bodies and clouds.
The dive-reel has always been a little bit of an oddball item. The intention is to, like a real dive reel, lay a trail that a diver can use to retrace their path out of a confined space. Unfortunately, the reel hasn’t worked so well in practice. So we’ve replaced the cord with breadcrumbs of light. We’re still working on the final effects, but the gameplay change is here now.
A host of new graphics options are available in the main menu:
Chromatic aberration
Bloom
Lens artefacts
Dithering
Motion blur
Colour grading
Depth of field
All together, these options revolutionise the way Subnautica looks. You can mix and match all the options, and adjust their intensity, to find a look that you like best.
Eye Candy isn’t just a pretty face. This update contains a disgusting quantity of bug fixes – Over 250 at last count. In particular, we think we have solved the perennial and infamous drifting lifepod problem.
Miners among you will be happy to hear that your life just go easier. When piloting the prawn, drilled resources will automatically be placed into your inventory.
One big graphics improvement is actually a bug-fix in disguise. Sun-shafts are now properly hidden by shadows. This used to be a big problem inside bases, particularly ones with long corridors.
Eye Candy is not just candy for your eyes: Your ears are also in for a treat. Abandoned bases now feature voice-overs from new voice actors. Have a listen, and learn about what happened to this underwater world.
Speaking of bases, the Scanner Room user-interface has received some serious TLC. It is much easier to use, and more powerful, and won’t show items that have been picked up.
Who likes stargazing? We do! Problem: When stars shine through planets, stargazing becomes weird. Stargazing in Subnautica is no longer weird: We’ve fixed up a bug that caused stars to shine through orbiting bodies and clouds.
The dive-reel has always been a little bit of an oddball item. The intention is to, like a real dive reel, lay a trail that a diver can use to retrace their path out of a confined space. Unfortunately, the reel hasn’t worked so well in practice. So we’ve replaced the cord with breadcrumbs of light. We’re still working on the final effects, but the gameplay change is here now.
The Cuddle Fish is an adorable companion creature. You may find Cuddle Fish eggs hidden around the world. Those eggs can be incubated in an Alien Containment module, and will eventually hatch into a Cuddle Fish.
Right click on the Cuddle Fish to tell it to follow you on your adventures. Right click again to tell it to stay in one place. Left click to interact with the Cuddle Fish in various ways – It loves snacks!
The Cuddle Fish Update also includes upgrades to vehicle Head-Up-Displays (HUDs). The Seamoth, Prawn, and remotely operated cameras on both Cyclops and Scanner Room all have new HUDs.
The Cuddle Fish is an adorable companion creature. You may find Cuddle Fish eggs hidden around the world. Those eggs can be incubated in an Alien Containment module, and will eventually hatch into a Cuddle Fish.
Right click on the Cuddle Fish to tell it to follow you on your adventures. Right click again to tell it to stay in one place. Left click to interact with the Cuddle Fish in various ways – It loves snacks!
The Cuddle Fish Update also includes upgrades to vehicle Head-Up-Displays (HUDs). The Seamoth, Prawn, and remotely operated cameras on both Cyclops and Scanner Room all have new HUDs.
The Ghost Update has been released on Steam! Cure the Infection, disable the Precursor Array, command an upgraded Cyclops, and escape Ghost Leviathans! See the update in action on the Ghost Update site.
Baby emperor leviathans aren’t just adorable. They’re serving up dollops of infection cure: Go ahead and grab one!
Array Deactivation
Now that you are cured, it is possible to deactivate the mighty Precursor Array.
Ghost Leviathan
Cures, Array deactivations… It can’t be all good news, can it? Nope. Ghost Leviathans now prowl the deep: Lost River, Grand Reef, and the Void are their hunting grounds. We do not recommend a close encounter with these immense, aggressive creatures.
Lifepod Exit
Subnauts will experience fancy new exit animations when leaving the life pod for the first time.
Power Transmitter
Since the dawn of time, simple grey polygons have represented power transmission. No longer! The humble Power Transmitter now has its very own model. Hooray!
Reaper Graphics Upgrades
Reapers like to get up close and personal. They want to look their best when they are munching on your face. Experience horrific drowning by way of vicious alien life form: Now with added texture detail!
Poop
The feature you have been waiting for. Sea Treaders now leave real poop trails behind them!
New Biomes
Explore the brand new “Mesas” biome, as well as extensive new tunnels between Lost River and Lava Zone.
Cyclops 4.0
The 4th Cyclops iteration is here. Now with:
Immunity against medium sized creature attach (Lava Lizards, Bonesharks, Stalkers)
6 upgrade slots (up from 4)
No cooldown on Silent Running or Shields
More powerful exterior lighting
Larva larvae displayed on damage hologram
PDA Enhancements
New animations, visual cues, and tooltips have been added to the PDA.
Performance
Our automated performance testing indicates that you may experience approximately 9% faster frame rates in Ghost. We don’t want to make too much fuss over this: We have a long way to go. But we wanted you to know that we are working very hard on performance, and seeing measurable gains.
A Note on Saved Games
For technical reasons, we have had to reset the entire Emperor Leviathan sequence across all saved games. We always work hard to preserve saved games and are sorry to have to do this. If you saved your game inside the Prison, and now find all the doors have re-locked, you can escape by approaching the doors from the inside. They will open for you.