After a long weekend of battling tooth and nail against 160 of the toughest PUBG broadcasters, one team has emerged victorious!
Les Krotins has walked away with $250,000 and the Broadcaster Royale Season 1 Championship Belt. THZ_TV and Dahmien7 racked up a combined total of 24 kills and led the pack with a grand total of 956 points to secure the first place win.
The battle for second was even closer, with ASM narrowly beating out 68+1 by a mere 12 points. A big congratulations to all teams for their great performances in the Grand Finals of Broadcaster Royale Season 1. If you missed any of the action, you can check out the VODs on the Broadcaster Royale Twitch Channel.
We may have crowned a champion, but this isn't the end of Broadcaster Royale! Season 2 signups start on September 5th, where you can enter for your chance to play against some of your favorite content creators at TwitchCon 2018 in San Jose, CA. Stay turned to https://broadcasterroyale.com/ for more information and your chance to sign up!
After two exciting days of close matches and surprising upsets, the competition has been narrowed down to just 40 teams!
Day One Finalists
Day Two Finalists
These 80 players will compete in the live Broadcaster Royale Grand Finals tomorrow for their shot at the $300,000 prize pool. If you're at PAX West in Seattle, stop by the Paramount Theater tomorrow from 11am to 5pm PDT to watch all the action in person! Your PAX Badge will grant you access to the venue.
Ghillie Crossing has returned! Stealth is key here as you take to the Erangel countryside with crossbows and ghillie suits. Normal weapons do not spawn in this event, and instead you will only be able to rely on Crossbows, Throwables (minus grenades), and melee weapons. Ghillie suits spawn alongside normal loot and there are no vehicles or care packages. Battle it out against other squads in the ultimate stealth war game, where every bush or field of grass can mean a silent and unexpected death!
EVENT SCHEDULE
STARTS: Aug 30, 7pm PDT / Aug 31, 4am CEST / Aug 31, 11am KST ENDS: Sep 2, 7pm PDT / Sep 3, 4am CEST / Sep 3, 11am KST
Since July, broadcasters from all over the world have paired up and battled it out in regional qualifiers to claim their spot in the Broadcaster Royale Finals, presented by Twitch. Now, the 80 teams of finalists will all compete across the 3-day finals tournament, fighting for their piece of the $300,000 prize pool up for grabs.
The Broadcaster Royale Finals tournament will be held from Friday, August 31st until Sunday, September 2nd and you can tune in live on Twitch or in-person at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, WA.
To attend in person, join us at the Paramount Theater any time after the doors open at 10:00 AM PDT. There will be viewing areas, the PUBG PlayZone, and of course free swag!
Anyone with a PAX West 2018 Badge for that day may attend in person, but seating will be available on a first come, first served basis.
Tournament Schedule:
August 31: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM PDT September 1: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM PDT September 2: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM PDT
As the sun slowly climbs over the horizon, five soldiers stand ready. Armed to the teeth and kitted out for battle, these warriors know things are about to heat up the cool desert morning. Their orders as tall as the shadows cast by the rising sun, the Desert Knights are ready and aim to be the last squad standing.
Desert Knights is back as this week’s event! Join a 5-person squad and drop into Miramar, as you take on War Mode kitted out with level three gear and a crate weapon. Your mission is to eliminate as many of the endless opposition as possible and rack up points for your team. The first team to reach 200 points, or the team with the highest total after 15 minutes, takes the win!
EVENT SCHEDULE
STARTS: Aug 23, 7pm PST / Aug 24, 4am CEST / Aug 24 11am KST ENDS: Aug 26, 7pm PST / Aug 27, 4am CEST / Aug 27 11am KST
AVAILABLE QUEUES
5-man squads on Miramar NA/EU/AS: TPP & FPP KR/JP/SEA/OC/SA: TPP
RULES
War Mode
Ten 5-man squads fight on Miramar
All players spawn with level three gear and a care package weapon
Killed players respawn in planes that fly by every 40 seconds
Taking lethal damage results in instant death, as opposed to being knocked out.
Eliminating an enemy earns your team 3 points.
If no team reaches 200 points after 15 minutes, the team with the most point wins.
Gamescom 2018 is in full effect and we’re bringing you awesome PUBG action for a good cause. From August 23rd - 25th, tune in as 32 duos of content creators and their fans battle it out for a $500,000 USD prize pool, split among the charities of their choice.
Earlier this month, we unveiled FIX PUBG, our months long campaign to address the game’s bugs, quality of life needs, and performance issues. Today, we’re excited to add to that campaign with a feature many of you have been fervently asking for; a shooting range. Well, not just a shooting range.
The PUBG Training Mode lets 5-20 players (solo queue with matchmaking) explore a brand new 2x2 km map and practice all aspects of PUBG, from driving the game’s various vehicles around the island’s race tracks, to practicing parachute landings on scattered targets, to mastering the perfect peek shot. There are even areas to practice vaulting, close-quarters combat, and of course, sweet vehicle jumps.
There’s a lot to talk about in this new area, and we’ll go into more detail as we get closer to launching it, but here’s a quick list of some of the things we’re currently working on.
Incremental range targets:
800m Range
400m Range
Special 1k Range target
Free targets:
Standing targets
Moving targets (left, right)
Targets inside a building (stationary / moving)
Parachute practice area Throwables range Melee range Parkour area CQC Course Indoor CQC Range Vehicle tracks:
Long track
Racing track
Off road
Sweet Stunt Ramps
Open water for vehicles:
Sweet Water Ramps
Tables of Equipment:
Melee weapons
Guns
Attachments
Gear
Ammo
Throwables
All of the above is subject to change as the area is still in development, but we wanted to share our vision of some of the training zone features as we work towards getting it ready for launch, which is currently targeting September.
Before we wrap up, we wanted to leave a few words from the PUBG Madison team, who turned the idea of a simple shooting range into what you see here.
From Dave Curd, World Team Lead, PUBG Madison:
When we kicked this project off, our goal was for this map to serve all of our players:
New players should be able to understand the basics of navigation, looting, shooting, driving, and parachuting.
Casual players should have fun experimenting in our expansive playground environment- stunt driving, boat racing, and exploring the island to find all its locations..
More serious players should enjoy learning about deeper gunplay- how the attachments, scopes, recoil, zeroing, and bullet-drop influence their shots.
We’ve had fun building and shooting the targets (my favorite is the “peeking” target, that simulates targets leaning from behind trees), but I’m most proud of all the sweet ramps we’ve added to the environment. Not all vehicles work on all ramps, so you will need to experiment to find the best car (or bike) for the job, and remember- hold spacebar to backflip!
We know the fans have been passionate about a shooting range, but I hope they don’t get too good- I’d still like to win a Chicken Dinner from time to time!
From Dave Osei, Senior Designer, PUBG Madison:
Training Mode was designed from the very beginning to have a living map - with room to introduce new areas as well as ideas players want to see implemented in the future.
We wanted to go beyond what players were asking for, so we didn’t want the map to be just a shooting range, but an open, living map where players can test a variety of skills to their heart’s content. The map is broken up into different sections; short and long range combat, vehicle races, jump skills, vaulting, vehicle ramps…etc. Each one of these sections represent a gameplay situation players may become involved in during normal gameplay. You can freely move around the map to practice whichever skill you like.
We created this map for you and look forward to seeing your new and improved skills on the battlegrounds!
---------------------------------
As always, your feedback is invaluable to us and we’re looking forward to hearing that feedback once we get the first iteration of the Training Mode into your hands next month. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on the plan so far!
CHANGE LOG:
08/22/18 8:13PM: Added clarification on queues. Players will always solo queue and use the matchmaking system to find their session of 5-20 players. You will not need to find any other players yourself to jump in and play Training Mode.
In today’s Dev Letter, we’d like to share some of the progress we’ve made towards significantly improving server performance, as well as additional improvements we’re currently working towards.
Overview:
The version of Unreal Engine that PUBG currently uses is based on a Client-Server model and therefore, the status of each actor (objects placed in levels that represent characters, buildings, backdrops, cameras, etc) has to be updated through the server for each player.
Server performance is usually indicated by server tick-rate or Frame Time. As server performance increases, the time per frame will decrease. As time per frame decreases, the Server Response Time improves as well.
The quicker the server responds, the faster your actions actions/movements are updated to other people. For example, how quickly you disappear from your opponent’s screen after ducking behind a wall on yours. If we want to reduce what is commonly known as de-sync, Server Response Time needs to be improved.
Improvements through Update #14
The network process structure before Update #14 and takeaways
Before Update #14, the network was processed on the server in the Unreal Engine as shown below.
Let us first explain the above network process flow. In the “Net Dispatch” stage, the packet received from the client is processed on the server. For example, you have incoming information such as Gunfire, Movement, etc. Things that are processed during this step are usually spread to other clients in two forms: RPC(Remote Procedure Calls) and Replication. After this, game logic like Physics Simulation is processed during the “Simulate & Render” stage and the result is delivered to all clients via “Net Flush”.
However, when RPCs are sent as a result of the Net Dispatch process, they are not sent immediately, but queued in the buffer. The many things stored in the buffer are sent to all clients during the “Net Flush” stage and the buffer is then emptied.
In this structure, the RPC has to go through the “Simulate & Render” stage to be delivered from “Net Dispatch” to “Net Flush” and therefore causes a delay. Perhaps Unreal Engine was structured this way to minimize the number of packets delivered to UDP. Regardless, when the number of packets are minimized, the network works more efficiently.
The new network process structure and improvements
We decided that improving the server response time was more important than decreasing the number of packets for PUBG. Therefore, the team redesigned the structure as shown below in Update #14. The team added a “Net Send Flush” stage before “Simulate & Render” stage.
In the “Net Send Flush” stage, all UDP data stored in the buffer will be sent out and the buffer will be emptied. Through this new flow, the time it used to take for “Simulate & Rendering” is no longer needed, thus decreasing the delay time. During the Net Send Flush phase there are no extensive calculations for actor replication and pending UDP data is flushed.
As there are two network updates, “Net Send Flush” and “Net Flush,” in the new structure, the network update rate doubled after Update #14, which caused some people to assume that the server tick-rate increased. However, it was not the server tick-rate, but the network update rate which had jumped to 60 tick-rate as another network update is delivered during Server Tick processing.
These results can be found in Battle(Non)Sense's Update #14 Netcode Analysis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOVwu517GmI As you can see in the table below, when 40 people are alive, the average delay for gunfire is reduced from 94.5msec to 77msec (18% decrease).
Improvements for Update #19
Profiling results before Update #19 and a new hypothesis
Profile data before PC Update #19, measured when 90 players are alive on June 25, 2018 is as following.
The Net Flush time is 43.2msec, 41% of the total frame time. Much of this time is used for “serializing” in order to replicate each actor to the client. “Serialize” is a process of writing data in an order in memory to deliver actor status to client through the network.
As we were searching for the optimization method based on the above profiling result, we thought “if we are able to reduce the number of replicated actors, especially characters, the total Net Flush time will reduce significantly.”
Unlike other games that use a dedicated server on Unreal Engine, up to 100 players simultaneously play in a game in PUBG, which means the number of actors is significantly higher. The large data size of actors is one issue, but the sheer volume of actors is the bigger problem. While we were thinking of ways to reduce the total number of actors, we thought replicating distant characters at a lower frequency would help. Since far away characters aren’t relevant at that distance, the number of actors that are serialized can be greatly reduced without affecting game play, and as a result, Net Flush time can be reduced.
Development process: Replication Interleaving System
Starting from the above idea, we reached a conclusion to implement a system that skips replication requests to a more appropriate frequency based on client and actor distance. We named this the “Replication Interleaving” system. First, we pulled out the section where actors are replicated, and lowered replication frequencies of far away characters. Then we analyzed the issues and the types of visual changes.
Once we were able to resolve the issues that occured when replication frequency was lowered, we tested how far we could go and reached the conclusion that lowering the replication frequencies to ¼ of the original level still had no impact on gameplay.
The completed Replication Interleaving system was implemented as following:
Step 1: Skip 1 frame on the characters that are located further than 70m
Step 2: Skip 2 frames on the characters that are located further than 400m
(Note: This is the status as of today, and this value may change in the future for better server performance and smoother movements)
Result of Improvement
Server performance increased by 20% after the new system was implemented. In the below diagram, we tracked the frame rate of an NA region server when 85 players were alive. After the update, the server tick-rate increased by 22% from 18.5 to 22.9. Other regions also showed over an average of 20% frame rate increase.
What's even better is the change that occurred in response time. Please refer to the Update #19 related YouTuber Battle(non)Sense’s video.
In the above table, you can see that when 85 players are alive, the average delay time for gunfire dropped by 58%, from 149.4msec to 61.6msec, which indicates that the issue known as de-sync significantly improved.
Through other improvements, in addition to the Replication Interleaving, the server tick-rate increased by 20% and network delay dropped by 50% when more than 80 players are alive.
In conclusion
Improving the server tick-rate since the launch of PUBG has been an ongoing priority for the team. In addition to solving software issues, improvements have also been made to hardware. However, we know that there have not been clearly noticeable improvements to players for the past few months preceding Update #19. During FIX PUBG, we doubled down on server performance improvement, and continue to research and experiment on various ideas, but this is a time consuming process. In order to implement a single function, preliminary research must be done, and after the function is implemented, a large volume of analysis, verification, and testing is required. It is difficult to solve all the problems in a short period of time because effort and time must be constantly invested in each problem. Wrong implementation of new features can cause bigger problems. Therefore, new features must be implemented and applied as carefully as possible.
That said, after applying the improvements we’ve already talked about, we’re now working on optimizing the "Net Dispatch" stage of the process. According to our analysis, most of the time is consumed on character move processing, and we have pinpointed some opportunities for optimizing it. The movement of characters has a high impact on PUBG game play. Therefore, this task requires a lot of careful attention to ensure that any improvements made do not affect how characters move in an abnormal way, such as the jittering we described above.
We are experimenting with some ideas already and we’re anticipating the time required for the "Net Dispatch" stage to drop more than 50% from the current 41.8msec if these ideas do not have to be modified by what we find during the testing process. Stabilizing the feature after implementing new ideas is expected to take more than a month, but we will continue to work quickly and implement this as soon as possible.
The ultimate goal is to always keep the server tick-rate at 30, from 100 players to the very last bullet. We’ll keep working hard to achieve this goal so we that can continue to provide the very best Battle Royale experience possible for you all.
Thank you, Sang-kyun Kim Head of Development, PUBG Amsterdam
PUBG Seoul HQ, Amsterdam, and Wisconsin offices are looking for new engineers to work with the PUBG Dev team. If you have experience with the Unreal Engine and are passionate about PUBG, visit link below to apply for one of our open positions!
Take a trip down memory lane with this week’s event mode, Early Access Memories! This event borrows from the days of Early Access to bring back older PUBG loot, rules, and nostalgia. Read on to learn more!
EVENT SCHEDULE
STARTS: Aug 16, 7pm PST / Aug 17, 4am CEST / Aug 17 11am KST ENDS: Aug 19, 7pm PST / Aug 20, 4am CEST / Aug 20 11am KST
AVAILABLE QUEUES
4-man squads on Erangel NA/EU/AS: TPP & FPP KR/JP/SEA/OC/SA: TPP
RULES
Game settings mimic the settings used during the Early Access period.
100 Players across 25 teams on Erangel.
Lvl 3 Helmets spawn in world, while the Tommy Gun and Kar98k can also be found in care packages.
Camo-patterned jackets, as well as Ghillie suits, can be found in care packages.
Blue Zone damage is not amplified by distance from the safe zone.
Aquarails will not spawn
Weapon stats and vaulting mechanisms are the same as the current.
Additional items will spawn on the "Starting Island".
OTHER EVENT RULES
4-person squads only. Auto-matching can be set on/off
These patch notes have been updated. Update 1 - 08/21/2018 Update 2 - 08/28/2018 Read the changes at the bottom of this post. ________________________
Hey everyone,
Last week, we announced FIX PUBG, an initiative to tackle some of the game’s long-standing bugs and quality of life requests. Update 19 addressed a slew of those already and for Update 20, we’re adding a section to the patch notes to specifically cover FIX PUBG issues. These patch notes will show up in their normal sections as well.
As usual, these updates will be implemented to the test server first and will be applied to the live server at a later date. Here’s what’s coming to the test server today:
We’re implementing FIX PUBG related improvements and new content
Adding a new AR, the Beryl M762, to all maps for wider weapon diversity and strategy.
Adding a new Sanhok exclusive vehicle, the scooter!
Both the scooter and 2-seater motorbike can be found on Sanhok
Also we’re introducing more new functions such as TPP camera position setting and reporting system improvements.
Decreased the minimum required players for starting a custom match from 10 to 8
Please note there may be additional changes made before this patch comes to live servers
An update on the Tukshai: The Tukshai is an upcoming Sanhok exclusive three-wheeled vehicle which we'd originally planned to release in the month after Sanhok came to live servers. Due to higher priority development tasks and the extra fine tuning required to make driving experience of the three-wheeled Tukshai feel just right, it will now be released in September.
FIX PUBG Update Section
Quality of Life
[LOADING SCREEN] Added a key guide to the loading screen tips
[UI/UX #01] Targeted interactive objects are now more easily distinguishable by the highlighted outline
[DEATH CAM REPORTING] Players can now report a player even if the deathcam’s target wasn’t shown properly
[KILL FEED DISPLAY #01] You can now adjust your killfeed display options
For war mode/observer screen, the amount is fixed to 5 lines
You can adjust the normal killfeed results to show 5 to a maximum 10 lines
[FIXED-PERSPECTIVE OPTION] Added TPP Aim Camera Position to options.
[TEAMMATE REPORTING] You can now report teammates.
Bug Fixes
[MIRAMAR FIX #04] Fixed an issue where a dead player's loot box is sometimes buried in certain locations in Miramar.
[ITEM MESH] Fixed an issue where items were difficult to distinguish from the floor in the police station in El Azahar on Miramar.
[REPLAY #02] Fixed an issue in replays where a player appears to be in an unarmed state even though the character is armed with a weapon.
[REPLAY #03] Fixed the issue where a character sometimes vaults the opposite direction while you’re time-jumping through a replay.
[REPLAY #04] Fixed the issue where the bolt-action animation doesn't always occur during replays.
[REPLAY #05] Fixed the issue where certain sounds are not playing during replays.
[CHARACTER MOVEMENT #04] Fixed the issue where a prone player is shown to be moving very fast while on a sloped area.
[SPECTATING] Fixed an issue where when spectating a teammate, a teammate's kill feed will be displayed in white instead of blue.
[GETTING STUCK #02] Fixed an issue where characters can sometimes get stuck between a wall and vehicle while exiting the passenger seat when the vehicle is touching a wall.
[LOOT EFFECTS] Fixed the issue where the looting sound and visual effects play, even though the item is not looted, if the character moves away while looting.
[BLOOD EFFECTS] Fixed an issue where the blood effect sometimes shows up randomly when moving in replay
[FUEL GAUGE] Fixed an issue where sometimes the fuel gauge of vehicles wasn't in sync with the visual display on the dashboard
Added a new two-seat vehicle, the Scooter, which is exclusive to Sanhok
Both the scooter and 2-seater motorbike can be found on Sanhok
Compared to the current motorbike, the Scooter has lower speed and an increased turning circle, but the same HP.
Gameplay
Added ‘TPP Aim Camera Position’ to options
Reset to Right Shoulder (default setting)
Camera will always be positioned above the character’s right shoulder
Reset to Left Shoulder
Camera will always be positioned above the character’s left shoulder
Latest Peek Shoulder
Camera position automatically moves to the direction you last leaned
Latest Aim Shoulder
Camera remains in the last ADS direction
In this setting, the camera position won’t be changed by leaning while not in ADS or scoping
[Right shoulder camera / Left shoulder camera]
UI/UX
Added a key guide to the loading screen tips
Targeted objects are now more easily distinguishable by the highlighted outline
When a player is not in a group, the default team mode is set to Squad mode in the lobby
After playing any other modes, the setting will be saved to the latest one.
Improved the design of the map markers
This is thanks to feedback that some players were confusing the previous marker design with the player icon
Replay
Replays from previous updates are incompatible with Update #20. Unfortunately, these older replays are unable to be played.
Anti-cheat & Reporting
Added a report feedback system so players can receive an update when their reports have resulted in action.
It will show the report description, player’s name and report status.
Added the ability to report teammates in the team management window
Added 2 new report options to the report window
Custom Match
Players will now be able to access custom match settings, even if they are not the owner of the session
Added two more custom game presets
War mode
Bomb kit (Dodgebomb): a game mode which only uses throwables
VSS kit: a game mode which only uses the VSS
Decreased the minimum required players for starting a custom match from 10 to 8
Skin & Items
PGI Team Hoodies sale has been extended.
Sale of these items will end on Aug 21 at 7pm PDT / Aug 22 4am CEST / Aug 22 11am KST
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where tooltips for the stun grenade did not accurately reflect its in-game effects
Fixed an issue where characters were seen moving fast while prone when moving on slopes a certain way
Fixed an issue in replays where a character appears to be unarmed even though the character is armed
Fixed the issue where a character sometimes vaults the opposite direction while you’re time-jumping through a replay
Fixed the issue where the bolt-action animation doesn't always occur during replays
Fixed the issue where certain sounds were not playing during replays
Fixed an issue where a dead player's loot box is sometimes buried in certain locations in Miramar
Fixed an issue where item mesh is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the floor in the police station in El Azahar in Miramar
Fixed an issue where characters can sometimes get stuck between the wall and vehicle while leaving the passenger seat when the vehicle is touching a wall
Fixed an issue where the blood effect sometimes shows up randomly when moving in replay
Fixed an issue where in some situations in FPP, players could see through walls
Fixed an issue where the sawed-off wasn't listed in the attachable weapon list tooltip of the shotgun choke
Fixed an issue where sometimes players would not get transferred to the starting plane, and instead start the match from the initial spawn location
Fixed an issue where when crouching was set as "hold" and the hotkey was used multiple times in quick succession, the action would act as if set to the "toggle" setting
Fixed an issue where the under certain conditions, character models could appear stuck in the crouch position
Fixed an issue where in rare instances, players could be teleported to an entirely different location while on Sanhok
Fixed an issue where sometimes the fuel gauge of vehicles wasn't in sync with the visual display on the dashboard
Thanks for playing :) - The PUBG Team
-
These patch notes have been updated:
________________________ Update 1 - 08/21/2018
FIX PUBG Update Section
Bug Fixes
[FUEL GAUGE] Fixed an issue where sometimes the fuel gauge of vehicles wasn't in sync with the visual display on the dashboard
________________________
New Sanhok-Exclusive Vehicle: Scooter
Both the scooter and 2-seater motorbike can be found on Sanhok
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where in some situations in FPP, players could see through walls
Fixed an issue where the sawed-off wasn't listed in the attachable weapon list tooltip of the shotgun choke
Fixed an issue where sometimes players would not get transferred to the starting plane, and instead start the match from the initial spawn location
Fixed an issue where when crouching was set as "hold" and the hotkey was used multiple times in quick succession, the action would act as if set to the "toggle" setting
Fixed an issue where the under certain conditions, character models could appear stuck in the crouch position
Fixed an issue where in rare instances, players could be teleported to an entirely different location while on Sanhok
Fixed an issue where sometimes the fuel gauge of vehicles wasn't in sync with the visual display on the dashboard
________________________ Update 2 - 08/28/2018
Replay
Replays from previous updates are incompatible with Update #20. Unfortunately, these older replays are unable to be played.