We are extremely happy to share with you some links for the highly anticipated Onward Invitational, ran by VR League (Oculus and ESL), in collaboration with VRML! The teams competing are the top 4 teams from the Round Robin stage of the ProTubeVR & VR Cover Championship. These teams will be battling across a variety of maps for a prize pool of USD$10,000!

The live event streams for both days will be available on this page.

Parzival (one of the VRML moderators) is also planning on having a 360 livestream available, which can be watched here once live!

For more information on the event, please visit the VRML site!. To get involved in future Onward competitive events, please join our Discord!

We've just reverted the last audio change due to complaints that it was negatively impacting the overall audio quality of the game. This unfortunately means the audio "popping" will have to stay a little longer on live.

We do however have a potential fix available as a publicly available Steam beta branch called audiobeta. Players on this branch will be able to play alongside live so please give it a try and let us know if you have any problems with it! You may have to restart steam to have the branch show up.

• Ammo boxes: Fixed incorrectly only spawning ammo for holstered weapons (was ignoring held weapons)
  
• Gamemode: Fixed competitive lobbies ending prematurely when a downed player quit to tent
  
• Audio: Reverted gunfire audio settings back to v1.2.3 while we investigate different solutions (there will currently be audio popping again)

• Audio: Fixed audio "popping" from guns firing and frag grenade explosions
  We recommend using a 48khz sample rate for Onward
  
• Gamemode: Fixed round incorrectly ending early when a player quit to tent and there were still teammates alive

Stay updated on Onward, converse with the community, test builds, and participate in organized competitive events by joining our Discord!

For additional information, visit our wiki.

Hey guys,

In this hotfix we're bringing back the lighting for Suburbia1 and Downfall1 from v1.1 (since they were drastically changed in v1.2) whilst keeping the newer lighting as new versions (Downfall3 and Suburbia3). We've also included some improvements to the overall visual fidelity of the game, fixed a few of the game's biggest bugs and issues and made some additional changes, based on player feedback.

There is still unfortunately a known issue with throwing objects on Oculus Rifts when running through SteamVR. We'll be pushing out a new hotfix soon to address this. In the meantime we recommend running the game through Oculus SDK. We're also working hard to solve the audio popping problem.

• Oculus: Reverted a change to controller velocity that caused difficulty in throwing objects quickly
  
• Fixed Suburbia3 incorrectly having Escort mode
  
• Removed Escort mode from Cargo

• Downfall and Suburbia now have 3 variants instead of 2.
  
  • Downfall1/Suburbia1: Original daytime lighting from v1.1
    
  • Downfall2/Suburbia2: Nighttime variants
    
  • Downfall3/Suburbia3: Afternoon/dusk variants that were added in v1.2
• Graphics: Added some brightness/contrast post-processing to improve visuals
  
• Player: Lowered the height that the vest starts rotating. Vest should now be less-rotated when in a crouched position
  
• Player: Tweaked player collider slightly to better support players using each other to boost onto scenery objects
  
• Player: Exit button (Vive menu, Oculus B/Y) now only appears when the hand pressing the button has nothing in it (was a problem if holding weapon in non-dominant hand, press exit button to close bolt but it also popped up the exit)
  
• Ammo Holster: now shows secondary mags while no weapons in hand or holster and primary mag holster is empty (previously only showed primary mags even if there were none)
  
• Casting setup: Added speed slider for the flycam movement

• Shotguns: Buckshot falloff adjusted to be more damaging at close range
  
• Shotguns: Fire rate increased

• Player: Fixed networked players bouncing up and down rapidly when on slopes/stairs
  
• Oculus SDK: Fixed an issue which resulted in players not being able to throw objects consistently (soon to be applied to SteamVR version also)
  
• Anti-exploit: Fixed an exploit which allowed players to climb up buildings using external software
  
• Gun Grip: Fixed grip letting go when trigger hand gets too close to front grip
  
• Gun Grip: Fixed proximity grip not releasing correctly when pressing grab button
  
• Gun: Fixed being able to shoot your hand while it was holding the barrel/foregrip
  
• Tablet: Fixed map image not rotating correctly when on a perfectly flat surface
  
• Cargo: Fixed some objects not rendering on scopes
  
• SA80 now correctly labeled as SA80 LSW variant

Stay updated on Onward, converse with the community, test builds, and participate in organized competitive events by joining our Discord!

For additional information, visit our wiki.

Hey guys,

Today we're pushing out a hotfix to solve a few of the problems that have been encountered since the launch of v1.2.

We wanted to let you guys know that we will be using the community's passionate feedback in an upcoming hotfix, which will involve changes with the lighting of some of the maps.

There is still a known issue with some audio clips "popping" during gameplay, which we are actively investigating. We will push out a fix for this as soon as it can be solved. If you are having difficulty launching the game or getting kicked from lobbies shortly after join, please look to our EAC help documentation.

One more thing - Please check that your GPU drivers are up to date!. Especially users with Nvidia cards. We've had multiple reports that an outdated version of the Nvidia GPU driver is causing performance issues, eye strain, headaches and even nausea! Please do check this and update for the best experience.

• Tent: During map vote, limited the number of maps that will display Escort
  
• Hand: Added hitbox colliders to controller models. Can now damage and heal your own hands
  
• Pickups: Increased grab zone when pickups are free-floating. It is now easier to catch thrown pickups and pickups that are on the ground
  
• Guns: Increased grab zone size on all guns. It is now easier to pick up and grab guns out of your other hand
  
• Foregrip: Adjusted vertical foregrip collision to prevent accidentally letting go
  
• Holster: Moved magazine holster and mags up slightly
  
• Holster: Expanded primary weapon holster size downwards to help with accidental dropping
  
• Cargo: Improved collision on black tarp covered crates
  
• M249: racking the bolt is easier now
  
• LMG Belt: Added audio cues to the belt attaching to the gun and when the belt is released from the hand for being too far away

• Game is now playable offline again when there's no active internet connection
  
• Network: Connection parameters have been tweaked to help with lagging/teleporting players
  
• Player: Fixed problems with local IK body which could cause players to die from "accidents happen" (falling through the map) and bad ragdoll on down/death
  
• Player: Fixed an occurrence which would cause some players to incorrectly be ragdolled (when alive) after a join in progress
  
• Player: Fixed some problems causing players to spawn without any inventory
  
• Compass (both watch and tablet): Fixed degrees flipping 180 degrees when compass raised over the horizon line
  
• Syringe: Fixed healing your own chest not working sometimes
  
• Holster: Fixed magazine holster not correctly holstering 6 mags (was only holding 5)
  
• Holster: Fixed controller incorrectly vibrating when hovering over mag holster while holding weapon fore/barrelgrip
  
• Tent: Fixed pen getting stuck in hand when map vote appears

Stay updated on Onward, converse with the community, test builds, and participate in organized competitive events by joining our Discord!

For additional information, visit our wiki.

We are aware that some Onward players are experiencing difficulties connecting to and staying in lobbies, we've made some tweaks to EAC this morning, and that should fix those issues.

We’ve also been hearing some feedback from players regarding the recent lighting change in Onward along with v1.2 and we wanted to get some feedback directly from the playerbase to help us meet your expectations.

Please vote in the following poll to help us out! - https://www.strawpoll.me/15784252

If you are getting auto kicked from lobbies, you might not have EAC (Easy Anti Cheat) installed. Here are the steps to manually install it.

1) Right click Onward in your steam library, click properties, go to the local files tab, and click browse local files.


2) Open the EasyAntiCheat Folder.


3) Click the EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe.


4) Find Onward in the drop down, and install.

Hey guys,

We’ve been doing a lot of testing and fixing on v1.2, and we’re happy to announce its full release today! We hope you guys enjoy it, and we appreciate your patience and continued support!

Some new additions are included below since our v1.2 test weekend and known issues with v1.2 can be found at the bottom of the patch notes. Go go go!

(Note: If you are getting auto-kicked from lobbies, make sure to restart Steam. You should see an EAC launcher pop up when you click play.)


New Map: Cargo
We used to have a very different version of Tanker in the game, before our re-make of it. A lot of the community felt that the replacement wasn’t true to the original (given that the layout had drastically changed. We heard the feedback, and felt it was a good time bring that layout back with an improved location and lighting, so here’s Cargo!



New Map: Bazaar2
A night-time version of Bazaar, complete with lit up neon signs! It’s terrifying on Operations.



Lighting Improvements

• All maps have had their lighting redone to take advantage of performance improvements and new Unity features. Notable improvements:
  
  • Improved specular lighting: metal objects, especially weapons, have a much more metallic look instead of the previous matte finish
    
  • Interior lighting for Downfall 1 & 2
    
  • Scope glint

Inventory Refactor

• Ambidextrous! All pickups can be picked up, dropped, swapped between hands and shared between players. Dominant hand no longer matters in determining which hand can grab what
  
• Added Hold to Grip option!
  We highly recommend this for players using an Oculus Rift
  
• You can hold two objects at the same time
  Not including primary or secondary weapons
  
• Downed/dead AI and players drop all their pickups, and you can loot their dropped gear
  
• Holstered grenades are now visible on other player vests
  
• Interchangeable magazines: Some magazines can be inserted and fired from multiple weapons. Most Marsoc rifles use STANAG mags and will be interchangeable.
  Full list of mag support at the bottom of the patch notes
  
• Some things you can now do:
  
  • You can grab and throw live smoke grenades
    
  • A teammate gets downed, you can pick up their syringe and revive them with it
    
  • Steal weapons and equipment from downed enemy combatants
    
  • Pull the pin on a grenade but leave the spoon attached, you can pass the grenade to your other hand or another player without the spoon flying off
    
  • You can keep your weapon out with one hand while you use your other hand to check your Tablet
    
  • You can put magazines in your holstered guns, other player’s holstered guns, or other player’s guns they are currently holding
    
  • In Escort, sacrifice your gear to get the VIP better-equipped to survive
    
  • You can have a primary weapon holstered while having a different primary weapon in your hands

Added TAR-21 and weapon remodels

• Replaced M9, M1014, and G36c models with in-house created ones
  
• Added TAR-21 rifle to Volk Specialist loadout

Easy Anti-Cheat
We’ve previously been relatively vulnerable to some advanced methods of editing game code and gameplay. With the inclusion of Easy Anti-Cheat, this will give us the same protection as many of the AAA developer games out there! Some games using EAC include: Squad, Fortnite: Battle Royale, Farcry 5, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Smite and many more!

If someone snipes you across the map and you think he’s cheating (lookin’ at you MrDeath), I’m afraid they’re probably just a good shot.

Competitive gamemode improvements

• Each class can only be used by one player at a time
  
• Game mode on map vote will only show the currently played one
  
• Objective/Spawn behavior changed. Teams will take turns defending/attacking the same objective before changing to a new objective (ex. Volk defends objective A, Marsoc spawns at a random spawn. The round ends, teams swap factions, and Volk still defends objective A, and Marsoc spawns at a random spawn)
  
• Turned off random weather events
  
• Based on community feedback, suiciding/exiting as the last player on Volk (after the round reset ruling) will give Marsoc 2 points
  
• We’ve replaced the suicide with the ability to destroy the Uplink dish (only as the last alive player left on Volk). This can be done by inputting a code on the tablet and waiting for a progress bar. The further you are from the objective, the longer this will take to send (signal bars will indicate this). While it’s sending, the objective will beep franticly, and once sent it will shutdown, giving Marsoc 1 point.
  
• On both comp and non-comp lobbies (but affecting comp more), the map will be visible with the objective location in the tent prior to spawn, to allow players to plan accordingly

Oculus Improvements

• Added Oculus Dash support. Press the Oculus button (universal menu) on the right Touch Controller to access
  
• Upgraded Oculus Utilities to 1.22
  Oculus users should see a GPU performance improvement

Multiplayer Free Roam

• We’ve extended the Free Roam gamemode to be available in private multiplayer lobbies. This is intended for players to be able to explore and/or learn the maps together, plan strategies and create content. We’re considering making changes to this mode in an upcoming patch to help target it more for our intended usage (instead of it being used as a TDM). However, it’s worth noting that we aren’t ruling out gamemodes with respawns for the future. If introduced, we would be sure to implement it in such a way that it wouldn't take away from what we consider to be the ‘core’ Onward experience.

Casting improvements

• Cameras will be hidden by default until space is held
  
• Loading message added to freecam view between maps
  
• Voice sliders, team names over cams and spectating text are all color coded now
  
• Hotkeys added to jump to and cycle through alive players through team 1 and 2 (hotkeys are - and + respectfully)
  
• Hotkeys added to spectate individual players on each team (if they are alive) - keypad numbers 1 - 5 for team 1, CTRL + keypad numbers for team 2. If no keypad is available, ALT + alpha numbers, or CTRL + ALT + alpha numbers.
  
• Colored dots have been added under the scores to indicate how many players alive/down/dead on each team at a glance. This is useful for knowing which player you want to spectate
  
• Mouse smoothing setting is saved between rounds & sessions
  
• Main menus can now be navigated using keyboard. Can now get into a casting lobby without touching a VR headset or controller.
  
• Chat volume sliders affect lobby voices too
  
• Free roam cam locks mouse into window (no more edge snapping!)
  
• Better scoreboard setup
  
• Potential fix for cams turning white
  
• Added reset cams button which should solve any cam problems if they arise

• Server browser: Added some basic info for each lobby as a pop-up box when hovering over
  
• Additional anti-cheat/exploit behavior
  
• Updated to Unity 2017.3
  
• Removed DirectX9 support. This should not affect any users.
  Support for DX9 willl be officially removed from Unity in the near future and current versions of SteamVR and OVR don't support DX9.
  
• Items
  
  • Radio: Added physical radio object which will drop by your feet when you get downed. This can be seen through any other meshes and allows players to always be able to reach it (as opposed to a ragdolled body, which was inconsistent)
    
  • Player: Added semi-transparent hands when downed, to help with interacting with the aforementioned radio
    
  • Audio: Added audio to grabbing, holstering, and throwing items
    
  • Haptics added to many weapons/pickup interactions (pickup up, dropping, throwing, interacting, fire-mode toggle, drop/insert mag)
    
  • Ammo boxes: Will now contain equipment in addition to mags. The mags will be based on the weapons you currently have holstered and/or held. Only you can see the gear until you pull it out, then it can be shared
    
  • Magazines: with the addition of interchangeable mags, your vest will now sort holstered mags. Magazines that can be inserted into your current held weapon (or holstered weapon, if you are not holding anything) get priority on being shown holstered. Additionally, mags are sorted by their amount of remaining ammo so you always know that the mag closest to the front has the most ammo in it
    
  • Night Vision: Now lights up the surrounding area with an IR light. Will be a lot more useful on dark maps. Nobody else can currently see this light (for performance reasons, though this may change in future)
    
  • Tablet: Added signal bars to indicate when the uplink/destroy code can be send
    
  • Ballistic Shield: Can now stop pickups thrown at it
    
  • Ballistic Shield: Kills caused by grenades bouncing off your shield are attributed to you
• Settings
  
  • Wristwatch hand preference can now be set in the settings menu
    
  • Gun-smoothing options have now been introduced in the settings menu. Stock and/or snap-turn users may want to try these out
    
  • Graphics options added to main menu. Preset options (Low,Medium,High), anti-aliasing, shadow resolution, shadow distance, shadow cascades, texture resolution
    
  • Updated quality presets
    Full list of quality presets at the bottom of the patch notes
• Tent
  
  • Added a drawing board with some pens to uplink, operations & escort! Drawings will only be shared with your current team and will reset at the end of each round
    Drawing board also has a secret pen. We won’t tell you how to get it
    
  • Added military base surroundings
    
  • Changed colors of tent map and VR spectate maps for consistency and reduce confusion. Marsoc players are now always blue, Volk players are always red
    
  • Enemy players are now shown on the map in non-competitive lobbies
    Enemy players could already be seen from flying VR spectate camera
    
  • Dead players now have white noise on spectate screen to indicate loss of signal (to help prevent ghosting in comp lobbies)
    
  • Added cross symbol next to player names to indicate that player has been downed
    
  • Moved Exit button to the back
• Gamemode
  
  • Free Roam: Added ammo boxes
    
  • Shooting range: The ammo boxes on the shooting range can now spawn more gear by closing and re-opening them. Removed the pile of mags
    
  • Shooting Range: Added some screens which will show the last target you hit with weapon fire
    
  • Operations: AI can no longer see through hedges on Suburbia
    
  • Operations: AI can now spawn with lasers (night maps only), holo and red dot sights equipped
    
  • Tutorial: reworded to accommodate new control options

• Downfall: Added lights to interiors to reduce Volk advantage of having black camo inside buildings
  
• Downfall & Quarantine: Fire now causes damage over time. Prevents Volk hiding in crashed heli
  
• Artificial turning: Snap turns will now have a delay (and smooth turning slowed down) based on whether you’re stood, crouching or prone.
  
• AI: Nudged player and AI spawns on Jungle and Quarantine to prevent getting shot at on spawn
  
• M40A5: Increased magazine count from 3 to 6 to balance with the SV-98. SV-98 has 10-round mags and M40A5 only has 5-round mags
  
• Extended grenade blocker time for competitive lobbies to better match up with the Onward Master League’s ruling

• Connection: Increased timeout length for network traffic to help prevent random disconnects for users on WiFi and/or less stable connections
  
• Exploit: Fixed exploit related to running across playspace & snap/smooth turning
  
• Quarantine: Fixed LOD terrain issues
  
• Bazaar & Downfall: Fixed bad collision with white van (large area in front of van and gaps below van were incorrectly blocking bullets)
  
• Tent Fixes
  
  • Fixed VR spectate goggles up/down rotation inverted when held in hand
    
  • Fixed players being unable to hear you until the end of the round if you join while it’s in progress
    
  • Highlighted VR goggles when available, to help highlight to players that they are functional
    
  • Fixed issue with spectating screen going black when someone leaves the lobby
    
  • Fixed death message in back of tent sometimes not displaying correct cause of death
• Gamemode Fixes
  
  • Improved victory/defeat condition code to stop potential issues with round ending problems
    
  • Uplink: Fixed ammo boxes incorrectly being visible sometimes
    
  • Uplink: Fixed being able to play the same objective placement three times in a row
    
  • Uplink: Fixed occurrence where the uplink could be sent without the tablet being fully inside the signal region
    
  • Uplink/Escort: Fixed rare case of playing the same objective 3 times in a row if host left
    
  • AI Game Modes: fixed “dumpster spawn” that occurred when gamemode was changed while spawning
    
  • Shooting Range: Fixed getting stuck when respawning on hills
    
  • Shooting Range: Fixed problem with players not having audible proximity voice
    
  • Escort: fixed players connecting to game in progress not seeing VIP player skin correctly
• Player Fixes
  
  • Fixed vest fidgeting while sprinting
    
  • Radio: Fixed occurrence where one or more players would not be audible on the radio
    
  • Fixed breath particles on cold maps not appearing in correct position for non-local players
    
  • Improved "push back" when putting head through walls to fix improper behavior around complicated geometry
    
  • Snap and smooth turns now rotate you on the spot. This will prevent players rotating into walls/out of the map. Previously rotated around room center, and then attempted to reposition the player
    
  • Fixed vest being visible if quit to lobby and started spectating
    
  • Fixed occurrences which could lead to players falling through the map
    
  • Fixed occurrence which could lead to spawning in with a black screen and flies
    
  • Fixed very close objects clipping through white flashbang and fade to black visual effects
    
  • Fixed being able to move through walls in playspace when downed
    
  • Fixed night vision lenses being very visible through smoke grenade particles
• Inventory Fixes
  
  • Knife: Can no longer deal damage through walls
    
  • Syringe: Can no longer be used on dead or un-wounded players
    
  • Syringe: Fixed incorrectly being able to be used on you while you are not bleeding (syringes only stop bleeding, they do not add health)
    
  • Syringe: Fixed healing sometimes causing a lag spike for all players
    
  • Syringe: Fixed accidental healing when trying to holster syringe
    
  • Ammo Box: Fixed grabbing mags from ammo boxes being difficult
    
  • Ammo Box: Mags taken from ammo box will now be visible to all players
    
  • Gun: Re-grabbing a weapon that is only held by barrel/foregrip is no longer as difficult
    
  • Gun: Fixed unwanted firing of primary weapon while holstering (if holding weapon in just offhand, holding down trigger button to use radio, let go of offhand, dominant hand would snap back to weapon and begin firing as it was being holstered)
    
  • Gun: Fixed hand getting stuck to weapon bolt if holding onto bolt as you grab the foregrip/barrelgrip
    
  • Gun: Fixed being able to grab foregrip/barrelgrip while a weapon is holstering resulting in an invisible hand
    
  • Gun: Fixed being out of shotgun ammo but shells are still visible on vest
    
  • Gun: Fixed dying with weapon just in offhand causing no visible hands on respawn
    
  • Gun: Fixed getting stuck in hand if you died while it was only in your offhand
    
  • Gun: Fixed AUG laser sight disappearing/reappearing when toggled on/off
    
  • Gun: Fixed PKM bullet belt missing material
    
  • Gun: Fixed bolt action rifles not chambering a round when bolt is cycled after a new mag was inserted
    
  • Gun: Fixed holstered weapons always showing a mag attached regardless of if there really is a mag attached
    
  • Gun: Fixed attachment click on/off audio not playing in correct position on weapon
    
  • Ballistic Shield: Fixed stretching horizontally when revived repeatedly
    
  • Magazine: Fixed mags getting stuck while ejecting if another mag was inserted before the first one finished ejecting
    
  • Magazine: Fixed M40A5 mag incorrectly showing bullets when it is empty
    
  • Grenade: Fixed multiple flash grenades exploding at the same time breaking the flash visual effect
    
  • Grenade: Fixed smoke particles from smoke grenades persisting between rounds
    
  • Grenade: Fixed holding a live smoke grenade until it times-out preventing you from using smokes in the following rounds
    
  • Grenade: Fixed being able to unpin and un-spoon a grenade while inside a wall
    
  • Tablet: Fixed being able to send uplink code while tablet inside a wall
    
  • Hand: Fixed "broken finger" animation resulting from hand attempting to interact with things that are disabled (hand hovering over ammo, holster primary, hand could still attempt to grab ammo)
    
  • Hand: Can no longer use the hand/anything being held further than 1.5m from your player

• Known Issues
  
  • Audio: Popping sounds briefly plays from some audio sources when far away audio plays
    
  • Tutorial: Using syringe on chest is inconsistent (can use syringe on head until fixed)
    
  • Performance: We’re actively investigating potential issues with recent OS and driver updates and will continue to work towards improving performance
    
  • Joining in progress can sometimes result in a problem with some players’ ragdolls in the next round
• Full list of interchangeable mags
  
  • STANAG mags: Mk16, Mk17, Mk18, M16A4, FAMAS, AK5C, TAR-21, SA80
    
  • G3 mags: G3, G3 Auto
    
  • 12 gauge: SPAS12, M1014
    
  • AK banana mags: AK12, AK74
• Updated quality presets
  
  • Lowest - Quarter res textures, 2x MSAA and low res shadows
    
  • Low - Half res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
    
  • Medium - Full res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
    
  • High - Full res textures, 8x MSAA and high res shadows
    The shadow resolution change will only affect realtime lights

Stay updated on Onward, converse with the community, test builds, and participate in organized competitive events by joining our Discord!

For additional information, visit our wiki.

Hey guys,

Thank you so much for testing out the preview of v1.2 this weekend. We've received a lot of feedback on performance, lighting, and gameplay changes and are going to regroup this week to fix a lot of issues. We knew the state of the update wasn't ready for release, but we also knew the community was anxious for a well needed update; so letting you guys test it for a short time while giving us feedback turned out to be a win-win. We are going to be reverting back to v1.1 (the previous, more stable build) in the meantime while we sort out these issues. We've heard feedback that some players are fine with v1.2s current quality, but we know there are many who are having gamebreaking issues, and we don't want to alienate a portion of our playerbase by keeping this preview out longer. Expect v1.2 to be fully released in the very near future. We understand the urgency and demand to play v1.2 and will be working around the clock to get it stable and back out to you guys ASAP. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best,

Dante

(If you'd like the chance to help us test v1.2 in the meantime, join our public Discord, we're always looking for new testers, and pick groups at random)

Hey guys,

We’ve been doing regular and frequent testing during the progress of this patch, and despite its delays we feel incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and really think you guys will enjoy the new content and features, and of course the many, many bug fixes (seriously, scroll down and take a look!). We are aware of a few issues with the new update, and we are actively investigating the causes, but in the meantime we don’t want to keep you guys waiting any longer. We’ve decided to give you the update for the weekend on a preliminary basis, and will revert back to the previous version of the game on Monday. The reason for this is that we want to gauge community feedback and get a consensus on the direction we’re taking the game, and how it performs. In the very near future, we do of course intend on releasing it for good, we just want to tweak some things and improve performance to a state we’re happy with.

If anyone has problems on this build (we’re aware that there are occasional performance issues), they can swap back to v1.1 of the game using the Steam beta key ‘PreviousBuild2018’.

We also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the recent passing away of a beloved member of the Onward community, Austin Aiken (better known in the community as ‘Capptin’). We found out the news early yesterday and that Austin’s fiancé had started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with their finances as a result of his passing. We are absolutely blown away by the generosity of our community on the fundraiser and we’re extremely proud to have such incredible people playing our game. As a tribute to Austin, we’re adding a small commemoration into the game, in the form of dog tags in the loadout tent. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Austin’s friends and family.




New Map: Cargo
We used to have a very different version of Tanker in the game, before our re-make of it. A lot of the community felt that the replacement wasn’t true to the original (given that the layout had drastically changed. We heard the feedback, and felt it was a good time bring that layout back with an improved location and lighting, so here’s Cargo!



New Map: Bazaar2
A night-time version of Bazaar, complete with lit up neon signs! It’s terrifying on Operations.



Lighting Improvements

• All maps have had their lighting redone to take advantage of performance improvements and new Unity features. Notable improvements:
  
  • Improved specular lighting: metal objects, especially weapons, have a much more metallic look instead of the previous matte finish
    
  • Interior lighting for Downfall 1 & 2
    
  • Scope glint

Inventory Refactor

• Ambidextrous! All pickups can be pickup up, dropped, swapped between hands and shared between players. Dominant hand no longer matters in determining which hand can grab what
  
• Added Hold to Grip option!
  We highly recommend this for players using an Oculus Rift
  
• You can hold two objects at the same time
  Not including primary or secondary weapons
  
• Downed/dead AI and players drop all their pickups, and you can loot their dropped gear
  
• Holstered grenades are now visible on other player vests
  
• Interchangeable magazines: Some magazines can be inserted and fired from multiple weapons. Most Marsoc rifles use STANAG mags and will be interchangeable.
  Full list of mag support at the bottom of the patch notes
  
• Some things you can now do:
  
  • You can grab and throw live smoke grenades
    
  • A teammate gets downed, you can pick up their syringe and revive them with it
    
  • Steal weapons and equipment from downed enemy combatants
    
  • Pull the pin on a grenade but leave the spoon attached, you can pass the grenade to your other hand or another player without the spoon flying off
    
  • You can keep your weapon out with one hand while you use your other hand to check your Tablet
    
  • You can put magazines in your holstered guns, other player’s holstered guns, or other player’s guns they are currently holding
    
  • In Escort, sacrifice your gear to get the VIP better-equipped to survive
    
  • You can have a primary weapon holstered while having a different primary weapon in your hands

Added TAR-21 and weapon remodels

• Replaced M9, M1014, and G36c models with in-house created ones
  
• Added TAR-21 rifle to Volk Specialist loadout

Easy Anti-Cheat delayed

• Unfortunately we encountered some very last minute issues with EAC which could have prevented a large portion of our playerbase from being able to play the game. On that note we’ve had to delay the release of EAC until a later date. This will be introduced in the final update.

Competitive gamemode improvements

• Each class can only be used by one player at a time
  
• Game mode on map vote will only show the currently played one
  
• Objective/Spawn behavior changed. Teams will take turns defending/attacking the same objective before changing to a new objective (ex. Volk defends objective A, Marsoc spawns at a random spawn. The round ends, teams swap factions, and Volk still defends objective A, and Marsoc spawns at a random spawn)
  
• Turned off random weather events
  
• Based on community feedback, suiciding/exiting as the last player on Volk (after the round reset ruling) will give Marsoc 2 points
  
• We’ve replaced the suicide with the ability to destroy the Uplink dish (only as the last alive player left on Volk). This can be done by inputting a code on the tablet and waiting for a progress bar. The further you are from the objective, the longer this will take to send (signal bars will indicate this). While it’s sending, the objective will beep franticly, and once sent it will shutdown, giving Marsoc 1 point.
  
• On both comp and non-comp lobbies (but affecting comp more), the map will be visible with the objective location in the tent prior to spawn, to allow players to plan accordingly

Upgraded Oculus Utilities to 1.22

• Oculus users should see a GPU performance improvement

Multiplayer Free Roam

• We’ve extended the Free Roam gamemode to be available in private multiplayer lobbies. This is intended for players to be able to explore and/or learn the maps together, plan strategies and create content. We’re considering making changes to this mode in an upcoming patch to help target it more for our intended usage (instead of it being used as a TDM). However, it’s worth noting that we aren’t ruling out gamemodes with respawns for the future. If introduced, we would be sure to implement it in such a way that it wouldn't take away from what we consider to be the ‘core’ Onward experience.

Casting improvements

• Cameras will be hidden by default until space is held
  
• Loading message added to freecam view between maps
  
• Voice sliders, team names over cams and spectating text are all color coded now
  
• Hotkeys added to jump to and cycle through alive players through team 1 and 2 (hotkeys are - and + respectfully)
  
• Hotkeys added to spectate individual players on each team (if they are alive) - keypad numbers 1 - 5 for team 1, CTRL + keypad numbers for team 2. If no keypad is available, ALT + alpha numbers, or CTRL + ALT + alpha numbers.
  
• Colored dots have been added under the scores to indicate how many players alive/down/dead on each team at a glance. This is useful for knowing which player you want to spectate
  
• Mouse smoothing setting is saved between rounds & sessions
  
• Main menus can now be navigated using keyboard. Can now get into a casting lobby without touching a VR headset or controller.
  
• Chat volume sliders affect lobby voices too
  
• Free roam cam locks mouse into window (no more edge snapping!)
  
• Better scoreboard setup
  
• Potential fix for cams turning white
  
• Added reset cams button which should solve any cam problems if they arise

• Radio: Added physical radio object which will drop by your feet when you get downed. This can be seen through any other meshes and allows players to always be able to reach it (as opposed to a ragdolled body, which was inconsistent)
  
• Added semi-transparent hands when downed, to help with interacting with the aforementioned radio
  
• Settings: Wristwatch hand preference can now be set in the settings menu
  
• Settings: Gun-smoothing options have now been introduced in the settings menu. Stock and/or snap-turn users may want to try these out
  
• Tent: Added a drawing board with some pens to uplink, operations & escort! Drawings will only be shared with your current team and will reset at the end of each round
  Drawing board also has a secret pen. We won’t tell you how to get it
  
• Tent: Added military base surroundings
  
• Tent: Enemy players are now shown on the map in non-competitive lobbies
  Enemy players could already be seen from flying VR spectate camera
  
• Tent: Dead players now have white noise on spectate screen to indicate loss of signal (to help prevent ghosting in comp lobbies)
  
• Tent: Added cross symbol next to player names to indicate that player has been downed
  
• Tent: Moved Exit button to the back
  
• Haptics added to many weapons/pickup interactions (pickup up, dropping, throwing, interacting, fire-mode toggle, drop/insert mag)
  
• Audio: Added audio to grabbing, holstering, and throwing items
  
• AI: AI can now spawn with lasers (night maps only), holo and red dot sights equipped
  
• Ammo boxes: Will now contain equipment in addition to mags. The mags will be based on the weapons you currently have holstered and/or held. Only you can see the gear until you pull it out, then it can be shared
  
• Free Roam: Added ammo boxes
  
• Shooting range: The ammo boxes on the shooting range can now spawn more gear by closing and re-opening them. Removed the pile of mags
  
• Shooting Range: Added some screens which will show the last target you hit with weapon fire
  
• Server browser: Added some basic info for each lobby as a pop-up box when hovering over
  
• Night Vision: Now lights up the surrounding area with an IR light. Will be a lot more useful on dark maps. Nobody else can currently see this light (for performance reasons, though this may change in future)
  
• Tablet: Added signal bars to indicate when the uplink/destroy code can be send
  
• Ballistic Shield: Can now stop pickups thrown at it
  
• Ballistic Shield: Kills caused by grenades bouncing off your shield are attributed to you
  
• Additional anti-cheat/exploit behavior
  
• Tutorial: reworded to accommodate new control options
  
• Operations: AI can no longer see through hedges on Suburbia
  
• Updated to Unity 2017.3
  
• Removed DirectX9 support. This should not affect any users.
  Support for DX9 willl be officially removed from Unity in the near future and current versions of SteamVR and OVR don't support DX9.
  Updated Quality settings
  
  • Lowest - Quarter res textures, 2x MSAA and low res shadows
    
  • Low - Half res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
    
  • Medium - Full res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
    
  • High - Full res textures, 8x MSAA and high res shadows
    The shadow resolution change will only affect realtime lights

• Downfall: Added lights to interiors to reduce Volk advantage of having black camo inside buildings
  
• Downfall & Quarantine: Fire now causes damage over time. Prevents Volk hiding in crashed heli
  
• Artificial turning: Snap turns will now have a delay (and smooth turning slowed down) based on whether you’re stood, crouching or prone.
  
• AI: Nudged player and AI spawns on Jungle and Quarantine to prevent getting shot at on spawn
  
• M40A5: Increased magazine count from 3 to 6 to balance with the SV-98. SV-98 has 10-round mags and M40A5 only has 5-round mags
  
• Extended grenade blocker time for competitive lobbies to better match up with the Onward Master League’s ruling

• Improved victory/defeat condition code to stop potential issues with round ending problems
  
• Fixed issue where leftover smoke from smoke grenades would persist between rounds
  
• Uplink: Fixed being able to play the same objective placement three times in a row
  
• Uplink: Fixed occurrence where the uplink could be sent without the tablet being fully inside the signal region
  
• AI Game Modes: fixed “dumpster spawn” that occurred when gamemode was changed while spawning
  
• Connection: Increased timeout length for network traffic to help prevent random disconnects for users on WiFi and/or less stable connections
  
• Player: Fixed vest fidgeting while sprinting
  
• Player: Improved "push back" when putting head through walls to fix improper behavior around complicated geometry
  
• Player: Snap and smooth turns now rotate you on the spot. This will prevent players rotating into walls/out of the map. Previously rotated around room center, and then attempted to reposition the player
  
• Player: Fixed vest being visible if quit to lobby and started spectating
  
• Player: Fixed occurrences which could lead to players falling through the map
  
• Player: Fixed occurrence which could lead to spawning in with a black screen and flies
  
• Player: Fixed very close objects clipping through white flashbang and fade to black visual effects
  
• Player: Fixed being able to move through walls in playspace when downed
  
• Player: Fixed night vision lenses being very visible through smoke grenade particles
  
• Radio: Fixed occurrence where one or more players would not be audible on the radio
  
• Shooting Range: Fixed getting stuck when respawning on hills
  
• Shooting Range: Fixed problem with players not having audible proximity voice
  
• Tent: Fixed players being unable to hear you until the end of the round if you join while it’s in progress
  
• Tent: Highlighted VR goggles when available, to help highlight to players that they are functional
  
• Tent: Fixed issue with spectating screen going black when someone leaves the lobby
  
• Fixed breath particles on cold maps not appearing in correct position for non-local players
  
• Fixed rare case of playing the same objective 3 times in a row if host left
  
• Fixed ammo boxes incorrectly being visible in some Uplink lobbies
  
• Weapon: Fixed weapons not firing the same direction across all clients. This was not affecting how damage was dealt or hits determined, but bullet holes and impact effects will now be in the same position for all clients.
  
• Exploit: Fixed exploit related to running across playspace & snap/smooth turning
  
• Bazaar: Improved white van collision near center of map (large area in front of van and gaps below van were incorrectly blocking bullets)
  
• Quarantine: Fixed LOD terrain issues
  
• Bazaar & Downfall: Fixed bad collision with white van
  
• Inventory Fixes
  
  • Knife: Can no longer deal damage through walls
    
  • Syringe: Can no longer be used on dead or un-wounded players
    
  • Syringe: Fixed incorrectly being able to be used on you while you are not bleeding (syringes only stop bleeding, they do not add health)
    
  • Syringe: Fixed healing sometimes causing a lag spike for all players
    
  • Syringe: Fixed accidental healing when trying to holster syringe
    
  • Ammo Box: Fixed grabbing mags from ammo boxes being difficult
    
  • Ammo Box: Mags taken from ammo box will now be visible to all players
    
  • Gun: Re-grabbing a weapon that is only held by barrel/foregrip is no longer as difficult
    
  • Gun: Fixed unwanted firing of primary weapon while holstering (if holding weapon in just offhand, holding down trigger button to use radio, let go of offhand, dominant hand would snap back to weapon and begin firing as it was being holstered)
    
  • Gun: Fixed hand getting stuck to weapon bolt if holding onto bolt as you grab the foregrip/barrelgrip
    
  • Gun: Fixed being able to grab foregrip/barrelgrip while a weapon is holstering resulting in an invisible hand
    
  • Gun: Fixed being out of shotgun ammo but shells are still visible on vest
    
  • Gun: Fixed dying with weapon just in offhand causing no visible hands on respawn
    
  • Gun: Fixed getting stuck in hand if you died while it was only in your offhand
    
  • Gun: Fixed AUG laser sight disappearing/reappearing when toggled on/off
    
  • Gun: Fixed PKM bullet belt missing material
    
  • Gun: Fixed bolt action rifles not chambering a round when bolt is cycled after a new mag was inserted
    
  • Gun: Fixed holstered weapons always showing a mag attached regardless of if there really is a mag attached
    
  • Gun: Fixed attachment click on/off audio not playing in correct position on weapon
    
  • Ballistic Shield: Fixed stretching horizontally when revived repeatedly
    
  • Magazine: Fixed mags getting stuck while ejecting if another mag was inserted before the first one finished ejecting
    
  • Magazine: Fixed M40A5 mag incorrectly showing bullets when it is empty
    
  • Grenade: Fixed holding a live smoke grenade until it times-out preventing you from using smokes in the following rounds
    
  • Grenade: Fixed being able to unpin and un-spoon a grenade while inside a wall
    
  • Tablet: Fixed being able to send uplink code while tablet inside a wall
    
  • Hand: Fixed "broken finger" animation resulting from hand attempting to interact with things that are disabled (hand hovering over ammo, holster primary, hand could still attempt to grab ammo)
    
  • Hand: Can no longer use the hand/anything being held if it’s further than 1.5m from your player

• Full list of interchangeable mags
  
  • STANAG mags: Mk16, Mk17, Mk18, M16A4, FAMAS, AK5C, TAR-21, SA80
    
  • G3 mags: G3, G3 Auto
    
  • 12 gauge: SPAS12, M1014
    
  • AK banana mags: AK12, AK74

Stay updated on Onward, converse with the community, test builds, and participate in organized competitive events by joining our Discord!

For additional information, visit our wiki.

Hey guys,

We’ve been pretty heads down, but we have more news to share on the upcoming update! First things first, the release date is May 11th (2018)! Here’s a snippet of the new content:

• Updated lighting and shadows on all maps
  
• Re-done inventory system. All items are ambidextrous, droppable, and shareable between players
  
• Some new weapon models and added TAR-21 rifle
  
• Upgraded night vision, now with an IR light!
  
• Bazaar night map
  
• The return of a fan favorite map, now called Cargo
  
• Interchangeable mags between guns (STANAG support)
  
• EAC implementation
  
• So many bug fixes
  
• And a lot more!

Downpour Interactive is hiring! We're looking for a Software Engineer and a Community Manager. If you think you've got what it takes, and want to work on Onward and other VR titles, sign up here - http://www.downpourinteractive.com/join-the-team/

We appreciate your patience and continued support. This update is going to be epic, and we hope you guys enjoy it!

Here’s some eye candy -








Stay updated on Onward, converse with the community, test builds, and participate in organized competitive events by joining our Discord!

For additional information, visit our wiki.