Bastian [the founder of BattlEye] and I have been back and forth about integrating it for absolutely ages, and today I'm very happy to say BattlEye starts a trial run in Unturned! Because of how Unturned cheats work it should be able to completely block them, meaning all servers running BattlEye should become almost cheater free!

The trial run will last a month where we'll be making sure it's effective, fixing any issues related to it and getting an idea of the average traffic to BattlEye's backend servers. Note that pricing is dependant on player population, so fair warning: it might become a Gold Server only feature.

Most of my time this week went into debugging Unturned BattlEye [First Unity/C# game using it!] so there's not much new content, but as a result I'm relatively confident it's stable.

Serverside modules/plugins [e.g. RocketMod] should be compatible, but if you want you can disable BattlEye on your server by setting BattlEye_Secure to false in Config.json. Clientside modules, however, require that you select the alternative launch option in Steam "Play without BattlEye" because clientside modules can be used as cheats.

Note: You might need to restart Steam to get the new launch options!

If you accidentally cancel the BattlEye installation or want to uninstall/reinstall it you can run Install_BattlEye.bat or Uninstall_BattlEye.bat in the Unturned/BattlEye folder.


Additions:

• Added BattlEye Anti-Cheat.
  
• Added new input/output/command window. [Default Tilde]
  
• Added option for player to displace grass, useful when sniping prone.
  
• Added toggle to Modules menu to initialize/shutdown code and disable loading.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked +secure/+insecure startup to instead use +internetserver, moved VAC toggle to Config.json server section beside BattlEye toggle.
  
• Tweaked Log command to take 4th argument to display BattlEye info.

Fixes:

• Fixed Nightvision Scope to have separate skybox reflections.
  
• Fixed parking lot lines visible through apartment floor in Moscow.
  
• Fixed unexpected configs crashing stuck loading workshop assets.
  
• Fixed fog on forward rendering heightblend terrain add pass.
  
• Fixed selection outlines not showing up in forward mode.
  
• Fixed Masterkey skins applying to Hawkhound in-game.
  
• Fixed inspecting Blowtorch/Chainsaw while using.
  
• Fixed respawning on obstructed bedrolls.
  
• Fixed sun/moon/stars intersecting terrain.
  
• Fixed unnecessary windy foliage keyword.
  
• Fixed Mad Scientist Top missing front of gloves.

To start experimenting with the Unity 5 UI system [which I want to use for the editor upgrade] I added a terminal window which can be opened by pressing Tilde [~]. Let me know what you think of this graphics style! Right now the only thing it's really useful for is requesting serverside BattlEye logs with sv.request_battleye_logs, but in the future I want to move all commands/input/output into it. For example, "give eagle" would do this nice popup filtering item names that start with "eagle".

Bastian [the founder of BattlEye] and I have been back and forth about integrating it for absolutely ages, and today I'm very happy to say BattlEye starts a trial run in Unturned! Because of how Unturned cheats work it should be able to completely block them, meaning all servers running BattlEye should become almost cheater free!

The trial run will last a month where we'll be making sure it's effective, fixing any issues related to it and getting an idea of the average traffic to BattlEye's backend servers. Note that pricing is dependant on player population, so fair warning: it might become a Gold Server only feature.

Most of my time this week went into debugging Unturned BattlEye [First Unity/C# game using it!] so there's not much new content, but as a result I'm relatively confident it's stable.

Serverside modules/plugins [e.g. RocketMod] should be compatible, but if you want you can disable BattlEye on your server by setting BattlEye_Secure to false in Config.json. Clientside modules, however, require that you select the alternative launch option in Steam "Play without BattlEye" because clientside modules can be used as cheats.

Note: You might need to restart Steam to get the new launch options!

If you accidentally cancel the BattlEye installation or want to uninstall/reinstall it you can run Install_BattlEye.bat or Uninstall_BattlEye.bat in the Unturned/BattlEye folder.


Additions:

• Added BattlEye Anti-Cheat.
  
• Added new input/output/command window. [Default Tilde]
  
• Added option for player to displace grass, useful when sniping prone.
  
• Added toggle to Modules menu to initialize/shutdown code and disable loading.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked +secure/+insecure startup to instead use +internetserver, moved VAC toggle to Config.json server section beside BattlEye toggle.
  
• Tweaked Log command to take 4th argument to display BattlEye info.

Fixes:

• Fixed Nightvision Scope to have separate skybox reflections.
  
• Fixed parking lot lines visible through apartment floor in Moscow.
  
• Fixed unexpected configs crashing stuck loading workshop assets.
  
• Fixed fog on forward rendering heightblend terrain add pass.
  
• Fixed selection outlines not showing up in forward mode.
  
• Fixed Masterkey skins applying to Hawkhound in-game.
  
• Fixed inspecting Blowtorch/Chainsaw while using.
  
• Fixed respawning on obstructed bedrolls.
  
• Fixed sun/moon/stars intersecting terrain.
  
• Fixed unnecessary windy foliage keyword.
  
• Fixed Mad Scientist Top missing front of gloves.

To start experimenting with the Unity 5 UI system [which I want to use for the editor upgrade] I added a terminal window which can be opened by pressing Tilde [~]. Let me know what you think of this graphics style! Right now the only thing it's really useful for is requesting serverside BattlEye logs with sv.request_battleye_logs, but in the future I want to move all commands/input/output into it. For example, "give eagle" would do this nice popup filtering item names that start with "eagle".

Aside from fixes this patch also adds an option to enable/disable Skybox Reflections, unfortunately this is lower performance compared to the previous method, but that didn't work outside the editor.

With these updates changing so many core features I think we'll start using the preview branch again soon to avoid breaking the public version.


Additions:

• Added nifty new inventions available from Doc Ernie.
  
• Added settings for chromatic aberration, film grain, TAA and screenspace reflections.
  
• Added settings to disable anisotropic filtering.
  
• Added Coalition rank and quest achievements.
  
• Added config option for Ray_Aggressor_Distance, now default 8 rather than 4.
  
• Added skins for Hawkhound, Schofield and Masterkey.
  
• Added first step of Modules feature.

Improvements:

• Improved rain to form puddles and ripple on the ground.
  
• Improved postprocessing to use new official Unity shaders.
  
• Improved explosions to leave scorch marks in deferred render mode.
  
• Updated to Unity 5.4.2p3 from 5.4.0p4.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked unboxing to show warning if unknown item is opened.
  
• Tweaked aircraft carrier to have a basic navmesh.

Fixes:

• Fixed buildables to better fit incorrectly placed slots.
  
• Fixed quest interactable clientside prediction issues.
  
• Fixed Hawkhound_8, Sportshot_10 and Viper_25 to be skinable.
  
• Fixed bayonet working clientside while reloading.
  
• Fixed mk2 scope off quality.

This week I've started taking the first steps toward a modding API for Unturned! It's going to take a while to refactor, clean up and document everything, but when it's done there'll be the potential for all kinds of awesome mods that would've been impossible before.

In the meantime the biggest change is in relation to RocketMod. Sven, the creator of RocketMod, has been doing an amazing job opening Unturned's serverside up to plugins the past couple years with a wrapper that takes care of all the nitty-gritty, and this week we converted Rocket to use this Modules feature - although this week is a transition period so the main version will still use a patched assembly. This is great if you're a server owner using Rocket because installing is as simple as copying Rocket to the Modules folder, you can still play the game normally with Rocket installed and if nothing breaks you won't necessarily need to download the new version of Rocket after each update.


There are quite a few new graphics options in this update, so I thought it might be helpful to write out exactly what they do so you can make an informed decision on whether to turn them on/off:

• Chromatic Aberration: Slightly separates the RGB color channels near the edges of your screen, it doesn't have much of a performance impact and is more of a personal preference.
  
• Film Grain: Can help with color banding (for example when you see rings around a light), barely noticeable and doesn't have a big performance impact.
  
• Blast Marks: In deferred render mode a black spherical decal will be left after an explosion which has a small performance impact.
  
• Rain Puddles: Spawns splashes of water particles at rain impact points and fades in reflective puddles with ripples. This has a medium performance impact.
  
• Anisotropic Filtering: Reduces texture blur at oblique angles, probably fine to leave on, it's moreso an option for the sake of extra control.
  
• Reflection Quality: Increases the number and accuracy of screenspace reflection steps, but only works in deferred render mode and has a high performance impact.
  
• Skybox Reflection: Captures skybox cubemap so that reflections aren't black, has a medium performance impact.

If you've created custom models for the game you might have noticed reflective materials showed up black, now at the very least the skybox is captured when the lighting is updated. If reflection quality isn't off then screenspace reflections will be visible as well. I've experimented with a variety of reflection settings for the official models but haven't decided yet (Should cars be polished shiny, how does that line up with the apocalyptic environment?), but you can now properly use it too!

Aside from fixes this patch also adds an option to enable/disable Skybox Reflections, unfortunately this is lower performance compared to the previous method, but that didn't work outside the editor.

With these updates changing so many core features I think we'll start using the preview branch again soon to avoid breaking the public version.


Additions:

• Added nifty new inventions available from Doc Ernie.
  
• Added settings for chromatic aberration, film grain, TAA and screenspace reflections.
  
• Added settings to disable anisotropic filtering.
  
• Added Coalition rank and quest achievements.
  
• Added config option for Ray_Aggressor_Distance, now default 8 rather than 4.
  
• Added skins for Hawkhound, Schofield and Masterkey.
  
• Added first step of Modules feature.

Improvements:

• Improved rain to form puddles and ripple on the ground.
  
• Improved postprocessing to use new official Unity shaders.
  
• Improved explosions to leave scorch marks in deferred render mode.
  
• Updated to Unity 5.4.2p3 from 5.4.0p4.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked unboxing to show warning if unknown item is opened.
  
• Tweaked aircraft carrier to have a basic navmesh.

Fixes:

• Fixed buildables to better fit incorrectly placed slots.
  
• Fixed quest interactable clientside prediction issues.
  
• Fixed Hawkhound_8, Sportshot_10 and Viper_25 to be skinable.
  
• Fixed bayonet working clientside while reloading.
  
• Fixed mk2 scope off quality.

This week I've started taking the first steps toward a modding API for Unturned! It's going to take a while to refactor, clean up and document everything, but when it's done there'll be the potential for all kinds of awesome mods that would've been impossible before.

In the meantime the biggest change is in relation to RocketMod. Sven, the creator of RocketMod, has been doing an amazing job opening Unturned's serverside up to plugins the past couple years with a wrapper that takes care of all the nitty-gritty, and this week we converted Rocket to use this Modules feature - although this week is a transition period so the main version will still use a patched assembly. This is great if you're a server owner using Rocket because installing is as simple as copying Rocket to the Modules folder, you can still play the game normally with Rocket installed and if nothing breaks you won't necessarily need to download the new version of Rocket after each update.


There are quite a few new graphics options in this update, so I thought it might be helpful to write out exactly what they do so you can make an informed decision on whether to turn them on/off:

• Chromatic Aberration: Slightly separates the RGB color channels near the edges of your screen, it doesn't have much of a performance impact and is more of a personal preference.
  
• Film Grain: Can help with color banding (for example when you see rings around a light), barely noticeable and doesn't have a big performance impact.
  
• Blast Marks: In deferred render mode a black spherical decal will be left after an explosion which has a small performance impact.
  
• Rain Puddles: Spawns splashes of water particles at rain impact points and fades in reflective puddles with ripples. This has a medium performance impact.
  
• Anisotropic Filtering: Reduces texture blur at oblique angles, probably fine to leave on, it's moreso an option for the sake of extra control.
  
• Reflection Quality: Increases the number and accuracy of screenspace reflection steps, but only works in deferred render mode and has a high performance impact.
  
• Skybox Reflection: Captures skybox cubemap so that reflections aren't black, has a medium performance impact.

If you've created custom models for the game you might have noticed reflective materials showed up black, now at the very least the skybox is captured when the lighting is updated. If reflection quality isn't off then screenspace reflections will be visible as well. I've experimented with a variety of reflection settings for the official models but haven't decided yet (Should cars be polished shiny, how does that line up with the apocalyptic environment?), but you can now properly use it too!

In celebration of Halloween until the next update you will now get dropped Halloween Gift Presents filled with free costumes, and can visit the Liberator to find the crew all dressed up! The biggest wave yet of mostly spooky curated workshop items was also accepted and now available on the Stockpile if you'd like to take a look:

View Stockpile

The most exciting bit for last however: there's a new secret achievement to solve, much more complex than the first! In my opinion it's a lot fairer (no localchat puzzle), so no hints this time!


Additions:

• Added Mk. II achievement/puzzle/easter egg.
  
• Added new items to Halloween Gift Present.
  
• Accepted a ton of new curated workshop items.

Improvements:

• Decorated the Liberator for Halloween.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked galley to sell snack food items.

Fixes:

• Fixed bug preventing binding keys to mouse buttons 4-7.
  
• Fixed chamber door decal material.
  
• Fixed missing space in scout dialogue.
  
• Fixed using bayonet while sprinting.
  
• Fixed some issues with fog in deferred mode.
  
• Fixed satellite terrain capture in deferred mode.
  
• Fixed decals swapping modes when reloading area.
  
• Fixed terrain reflection to only use basemap.
  
• Fixed radiation splat decal deferred emission.

In celebration of Halloween until the next update you will now get dropped Halloween Gift Presents filled with free costumes, and can visit the Liberator to find the crew all dressed up! The biggest wave yet of mostly spooky curated workshop items was also accepted and now available on the Stockpile if you'd like to take a look:

View Stockpile

The most exciting bit for last however: there's a new secret achievement to solve, much more complex than the first! In my opinion it's a lot fairer (no localchat puzzle), so no hints this time!


Additions:

• Added Mk. II achievement/puzzle/easter egg.
  
• Added new items to Halloween Gift Present.
  
• Accepted a ton of new curated workshop items.

Improvements:

• Decorated the Liberator for Halloween.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked galley to sell snack food items.

Fixes:

• Fixed bug preventing binding keys to mouse buttons 4-7.
  
• Fixed chamber door decal material.
  
• Fixed missing space in scout dialogue.
  
• Fixed using bayonet while sprinting.
  
• Fixed some issues with fog in deferred mode.
  
• Fixed satellite terrain capture in deferred mode.
  
• Fixed decals swapping modes when reloading area.
  
• Fixed terrain reflection to only use basemap.
  
• Fixed radiation splat decal deferred emission.

To help the lower spec computers I've brought back the option to use forward rendering, but it's not recommended. Decal objects will be converted to a flat plane when swapping between modes.


Additions:

• Added traitor uncovering questline.
  
• Added lightningstrike boss zombie quest for Ensign Cliff.
  
• Added groundpounder boss zombie quest for Peter.
  
• Added flamethrower boss zombie quest for Norbert.
  
• Added config options to include boss zombies in spawns.
  
• Added ability to track a quest in the HUD.
  
• Added Industrial Gas Can. [ID 1440]
  
• Added NPC/dialogue/quest/vendor documentation to workshop documentation.
  
• Added deferred decal support and converted many decal-like objects to use it.

Improvements:

• Improved aggressive actions to mark entire group.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked player buttons to link to Steam profile.
  
• Tweaked armory to sell rangefinder instead of detonator.

Fixes:

• Fixed a variety of bugs with the bayonet.
  
• Fixed to allow scaling NPCs.
  
• Fixed using mannequin while using item.
  
• Fixed nightvision glow after toggling cosmetics.
  
• Fixed missing ceiling collision in one of Mooki's houses.

It was a bit of a nightmare to get everything working with them, but as far as I can tell the only issue now is a slight lighting difference with Use_Skybox_Ambience. Now that we have SMAA I think keeping forward rendering around alongside deferred isn't worth it considering the benefits of deferred, for example these decals or screen-space reflections (which I'll be swapping out for the planar reflections soon since I want to support arbitrary water placement).

Decals are great because there's no gap between the old flat geometry and the surface, and they can "wrap" around curved faces. For modders to allow decals to show on your models you will need to set the least significant bit in the stencil buffer to 1, or use the StandardDecalable shader found in Unturned/Bundles/Sources/Examples. I decided on making the decalable feature opt-in rather than opt-out because objects that shouldn't get decals receiving them look far stranger than not.

To help the lower spec computers I've brought back the option to use forward rendering, but it's not recommended. Decal objects will be converted to a flat plane when swapping between modes.


Additions:

• Added traitor uncovering questline.
  
• Added lightningstrike boss zombie quest for Ensign Cliff.
  
• Added groundpounder boss zombie quest for Peter.
  
• Added flamethrower boss zombie quest for Norbert.
  
• Added config options to include boss zombies in spawns.
  
• Added ability to track a quest in the HUD.
  
• Added Industrial Gas Can. [ID 1440]
  
• Added NPC/dialogue/quest/vendor documentation to workshop documentation.
  
• Added deferred decal support and converted many decal-like objects to use it.

Improvements:

• Improved aggressive actions to mark entire group.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked player buttons to link to Steam profile.
  
• Tweaked armory to sell rangefinder instead of detonator.

Fixes:

• Fixed a variety of bugs with the bayonet.
  
• Fixed to allow scaling NPCs.
  
• Fixed using mannequin while using item.
  
• Fixed nightvision glow after toggling cosmetics.
  
• Fixed missing ceiling collision in one of Mooki's houses.

It was a bit of a nightmare to get everything working with them, but as far as I can tell the only issue now is a slight lighting difference with Use_Skybox_Ambience. Now that we have SMAA I think keeping forward rendering around alongside deferred isn't worth it considering the benefits of deferred, for example these decals or screen-space reflections (which I'll be swapping out for the planar reflections soon since I want to support arbitrary water placement).

Decals are great because there's no gap between the old flat geometry and the surface, and they can "wrap" around curved faces. For modders to allow decals to show on your models you will need to set the least significant bit in the stencil buffer to 1, or use the StandardDecalable shader found in Unturned/Bundles/Sources/Examples. I decided on making the decalable feature opt-in rather than opt-out because objects that shouldn't get decals receiving them look far stranger than not.

Additions:

• Added Lieutenant Oswald in charge of scouting the area.
  
• Added Doc Ernie blueprint unlocks/dialogue.
  
• Added Mechanic's engine repair quest.
  
• Added Medic's research recovery quest.
  
• Added Ensign Franklin to buy replacement uniforms from.
  
• Added Nautical Nuisance quest for Rusty.
  
• Added assorted filler NPCs with dialogue.
  
• Added Quadbarrel. [ID 1436]
  
• Added Bayonet. [ID 1438]

Improvements:

• Improved missing a shot/swing that travelled within 4 meters of a player to mark you as an aggressor if not under attack.
  
• Improved using lockpick/detonator/grenade to mark you as an aggressor if not under attack.
  
• Improved vendor menu to show how many of a buyable item you already have.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked to show warning message when building in safezone.
  
• Tweaked quest menu to better expand vertically and added return button.
  
• Tweaked gunshot audio rolloff to make more sense.
  
• Tweaked quest interactables to play effect when used.
  
• Tweaked scaled buildables in editor to reset when deselected to avoid confusion.

Fixes:

• Fixed using carjack/lockpick in safezone.
  
• Fixed to allow suicide in non-arena safezones.
  
• Fixed cleaning up last chat icon.
  
• Fixed vendor item description applying rich text in wrong order.
  
• Fixed fertilizer applying before animation.
  
• Fixed using ladders to cancel animations.
  
• Fixed Russia map pizza/doughnut stores using wrong spawn tables.
  
• Fixed nearby item obstruction to ignore triggers.

In the next NPC update I'll be working on a quest tracking feature so you can view quest goals outside of the info screen, the traitor uncovering/rescue questline, looking into "bossbattle" zombies e.g. go to a specific area to defeat electric megazombie and putting up documentation on all the NPC features.

For mod creators I forgot to mention in the last post: You can press the End key in the appearance menu to copy your character details to the clipboard for creating NPCs, and the same in-game to view all active flags and values. There's also a "Flag" command to set a key/value for testing.

Bit of a heads up: for the first time in I can't even remember how long there won't be any sort of update next week - I'll be away at the "Steam Dev Days" conference!

Additions:

• Added Lieutenant Oswald in charge of scouting the area.
  
• Added Doc Ernie blueprint unlocks/dialogue.
  
• Added Mechanic's engine repair quest.
  
• Added Medic's research recovery quest.
  
• Added Ensign Franklin to buy replacement uniforms from.
  
• Added Nautical Nuisance quest for Rusty.
  
• Added assorted filler NPCs with dialogue.
  
• Added Quadbarrel. [ID 1436]
  
• Added Bayonet. [ID 1438]

Improvements:

• Improved missing a shot/swing that travelled within 4 meters of a player to mark you as an aggressor if not under attack.
  
• Improved using lockpick/detonator/grenade to mark you as an aggressor if not under attack.
  
• Improved vendor menu to show how many of a buyable item you already have.

Tweaks:

• Tweaked to show warning message when building in safezone.
  
• Tweaked quest menu to better expand vertically and added return button.
  
• Tweaked gunshot audio rolloff to make more sense.
  
• Tweaked quest interactables to play effect when used.
  
• Tweaked scaled buildables in editor to reset when deselected to avoid confusion.

Fixes:

• Fixed using carjack/lockpick in safezone.
  
• Fixed to allow suicide in non-arena safezones.
  
• Fixed cleaning up last chat icon.
  
• Fixed vendor item description applying rich text in wrong order.
  
• Fixed fertilizer applying before animation.
  
• Fixed using ladders to cancel animations.
  
• Fixed Russia map pizza/doughnut stores using wrong spawn tables.
  
• Fixed nearby item obstruction to ignore triggers.

In the next NPC update I'll be working on a quest tracking feature so you can view quest goals outside of the info screen, the traitor uncovering/rescue questline, looking into "bossbattle" zombies e.g. go to a specific area to defeat electric megazombie and putting up documentation on all the NPC features.

For mod creators I forgot to mention in the last post: You can press the End key in the appearance menu to copy your character details to the clipboard for creating NPCs, and the same in-game to view all active flags and values. There's also a "Flag" command to set a key/value for testing.

Bit of a heads up: for the first time in I can't even remember how long there won't be any sort of update next week - I'll be away at the "Steam Dev Days" conference!