The tropical new island of Sanhok will properly arrive as the third Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds map “near the end of June”, developers PUBG Corp have said ahead of the final public beta test’s launch tonight. If you haven’t dropped on Sanhok yet, you might want to get the download started early today, as it uses a whole separate client.
Stag & hen parties who’d rather not dabble with unknowns get something new this week too, as an update for the main game has arrived with changes including making molotovs and grenades less rubbo. Heck, it’s not a real hen party until you’ve flashbanged the bride. (more…)
Sanhok is coming back to the Experimental Server for one last round of testing before the map goes live later in June.
We’ve shipped a ton of upgrades to the map since the last time we ran the test servers. Please let us know what’s working and what isn’t so we can make this round of testing count.
Yours truly, PUBG Corp.
SANHOK TESTING WINDOW
OPENS: May 31, 7pm PDT / June 1, 4am CEST / June 1, 11am KST
CLOSES: June 4, 4am PDT / June 4, 1pm CEST / June 4, 8pm KST
AVAILABLE QUEUES
Both TPP and FPP are available in all queues
NA, EU, AS : Solo/Duo/Squad
PATCH NOTES
Performance
The performance improvements from PC 1.0 Update #14 have been applied to PUBG: Experimental Server as well.
Gameplay
Improvements have been made to throwables (frag grenades, stun grenades and molotovs)
Vertical grip, angle grip, thumb grip, half grip, and light grip spawn rates increased by more than double.
M24 will no longer appear in care packages. It now spawns in the world (see update #14 notes for more details).
Adjusted bluezone balance.
Decreased moving speed of the last three bluezones in Sanhok
Slightly increased waiting time of the dynamic bluezone
Overall playtime increased by approximately 50 sec
Increased the wait time of the final circle from 30 to 60 seconds
For performance reasons, the waiting area before each match starts will be spread out across three locations
Increased the amount of throwable apples from 10 to 20
Sound
You can now toggle the new HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) sound feature in the options menu (for opponent’s gunshot sounds only). The feature, which simulates fully three dimensional sound even for two-channel stereo headphones, was explained in greater detail in our dev blog last week.
Reduced the volume of the care package airplane.
Visuals
Environmental Set Dressing
Our towns are showing new signs of life! Towns now have been giving a new pass of environmental set dressing.
Cliffs
Thai-style rock walls are now spread across the map. These aren't the final, polished assets, but we wanted to get them in early. Try climbing up them and let us know how you feel about them!
Resort, Cave, and Ruins Improvements
We’ve added additional set dressing and material work to these areas.
Bug fixes
Removed grenade cooking animation and sound when throwing apples in the starting area before match starts.
Fixed an issue where apples in the starting area turned black
Fixed an issue of infinite loading and stuck in black screen when entering the match
Known Issues (Investigating)
Sometimes in FPP, if the player was vaulting at the time when the game starts, the player doesn't get on board in the plane and instead flies straight to the final destination of the plane. (Yes, still, again)
When using the Death Cam, sometimes players disappear or weapons become invisible.
Sometimes in spectate mode or Death Cam, scopes are visible, but scope mesh isn’t.
Sometimes other players appear as zombies.
Sometimes the bluezone indicator on the minimap gets temporarily out of sync.
UPDATE 3 (6/8/18) We've pushed a hotfix to resolve some critical issues with footsteps not being heard properly:
Fixed an issue where footsteps from players not in view weren't heard.
Fixed an issue where player footsteps would continue to be heard, even once the player was outside the normal audible range for footsteps.
____________
UPDATE 2 (6/5/18) We've pushed a small update to make the following changes:
Performance
Optimized character’s movement logic for a small boost in frames.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where grass color was unnatural
Fixed an issue where characters were intermittently invisible in match replays and death cam.
Anti-cheat
Launcher version is updated
First game launch after this update will have security mode automatically enabled, allowing us to gather as much data as possible.
Following launches will allow you to enable/disable this service.
____________
UPDATE 1 (5/30/2018) We removed one performance change that was causing problems with reloading and loot spawn load-in times. ____________
Hi everyone,
This patch we’re overhauling throwables, continuing to tune weapon and attachment balance, and shipping a whole mess of performance improvements.
First, let’s share a little context about the changes to throwables:
Frag grenades: In a recent update we removed the frag grenade’s knockback effect, greatly reducing its potential impact. To restore the trusty frag’s killing power we’re buffing its effective range and its damage.
Stun grenades: Stun grenades have never been the most popular pickups, and recent changes to frag grenade audio effects have made them feel a bit redundant. To make stun grenades more rewarding, they’ll now affect stunned players’ vision, hearing, and their ability to shoot accurately. We’re also bumping up the stun grenade’s effective radius and introducing new animations so it’s possible to tell when your grenades have stunned opponents.
Molotovs: These have traditionally been among the least popular items in the game. To make molotovs more useful, we’re increasing their area of effect, introducing new properties that allow fire to spread along walls and wooden surfaces in houses, and imposing new debuffs on players who catch on fire. Molotovs will also now explode when shot mid-air.
One last thing before we jump into the patch notes: we’re nerfing the M24, removing it from care packages, and adding it into the world spawn loot tables. Our goal is to make it a viable alternative to the Kar98k (that players actually get to use). As always, we’ll keep an eye on all of these balance changes and continuously make adjustments and improvements.
Improvements have been made to throwables (frag grenades, stun grenades, and molotovs).
Increased frag grenade damage and effective range
Frags previously had to be within 2.6m of player models to deal lethal damage. They now deal lethal damage within 3.5m, moderate damage from 3.5m through 8.5m, and low damage from 8.5m through 10m.
Stun grenades’ blinding effects have been improved
First, let’s explain some terms. “Direct effect” is defined as stun grenade explosions occurring within a 100˚ angle of the player’s visual field. “Indirect effect” occurs when stun grenades explode outside of that “direct effect” range and players are within 5.5m of the explosion
The maximum effective range of stun grenade has been increased to 20m
Depending on distance from the explosion, the direct effect can blind the player for a maximum of 5.5 seconds, and a minimum of one second (when 20m away).
Depending on distance from the explosion, the indirect effect can blind the player for a maximum of three seconds.
Characters blinded by a stun grenade now cover their faces. This is a new animation.
Spectators are now also blinded when spectating someone hit with a stun grenade
Stun grenades will now briefly blind and deafen the thrower if they explode behind their back when cooked.
You’ll now be unable to ADS while blinded.
Molotov cocktails now have new effects and their damage has been increased.
Molotovs can now deal indirect damage and burn damage (as damage over time), depending on whether or not you're standing directly in the flames. If you're in the flames you'll take both types of damage.
Indirect damage (taken when standing in the flames) has been increased from 10 to 12.5 damage per second.
After catching fire, players will take burn damage as damage over time (10 damage per second) for a total of four seconds.
You’ll now be unable to ADS while taking burn damage.
Flames now spread further along wooden surfaces in houses Flames from Molotovs spread further if another Molotov is thrown on top of the flames.
Molotovs will now explode when shot mid-air.
A new animation has been added for character models who are suffering burn damage. They’ll attempt to pat out the flames using their hands.
Adjusting some weapon and attachment balance:
Reduced vertical and horizontal recoil of the SCAR-L
Decreased basic damage of the M24 from 88 to 79
M24 will no longer dropped in care package. It spawns in the world
The tactical stock and cheek pad are now less effective at improving recoil recovery rate. It now improves ADS speed.
Adjusted light grip
Light grip no longer affects weapon basic recoil control or recoil recovery speed
Light grip now decreases first shot/single shot recoil by about 15%. Animation kick reduction has been changed to 20% (from 30%).
To make the Vector a little easier to find, we’ve increased its spawn rate at the expense of the spawn rate of the UMP-9 (overall SMG spawn rate remains the same).
Increased world spawn rate of DMRs.
UI / UX
Added a UI message showing when healing items can’t be used.
New Anti-Cheat Tech
Note: The new anti-cheat tech is currently only on the test servers, once additional testing is complete, it will be added to live servers.
We’ve added a new anti-cheat solution, developed in-house at PUBG Corp. Before we implement this tech on live servers, we’d first like to see how it works out on the test server. For this, we’ll need your help!
Expect to see a new popup when you start the client. To help us refine our anti-cheat service it would be helpful for us if you play with the "Enable Anti-cheat" box checked, if you experience issues you can disable this.
The option to disable the anti-cheat service will not be available when this is moved to live servers.
Performance
In last week’s dev blog we wrote in detail about upcoming work we’ll be doing to increase performance holistically. Many of these fixes will take time to deliver, but we’ve already finished a handful of fixes that should make a positive difference:
We’ve improved the character model rendering process to prevent some small frame drop issues.
We’ve optimized character movement and animation while skydiving to improve framerate when multiple players are nearby.
We’ve made some improvements to our network code to reduce network latency.
We’ve improved some inefficient processes with the way the server updates certain frames on vehicles and character models. This should resolve resolve some abnormal physics affecting vehicles.
Sound
You can now toggle the new HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) sound feature in the options menu (for opponent’s gunshot sounds only). The feature, which simulates fully three dimensional sound even for two-channel stereo headphones, was explained in greater detail in our dev blog last week.
Reduced the volume of the care package airplane.
UI / UX
Average swimming distance has been added to player stats, on the career screen
Leaderboard
The total rating points gained/lost per match has been increased, to better define the skill difference between players.
Bug fixes
Fixed some issues causing abnormal collisions in spots on Erangel and Miramar.
Characters should no longer get stuck while vaulting in particular spots around Erangel.
Fixed an issues allowing characters to pass through objects in certain locations on Miramar.
Improved the accuracy of the throwing trajectory indicator for stun grenades
Fixed a visual glitch in the inventory screen that occurred when attaching a choke to the sawed-off .
Fixed an issue that was resulting in some strange collisions if players ever jumped on top of a vehicle which had players in it.
Scope zeroing on the crossbow is no longer incorrectly enabled and set to an incorrect value by default.
Fixed an issue causing stun grenades to appear to bounce around for while after breaking a window.
Fixed an issue where the cheek pad’s vertical recoil control attribute was excluded in in-game tooltip.
Fixed an issue which prevented the cheek pad from adding 10% vertical recoil recovery when attached to the SLR.
Fixed an issue when hip-firing for an extended duration, the gun would appear to be lowered
Fixed an issue that caused the effect from stun grenades to appear differently depending on graphical settings
UPDATE 4/6/18: PUBG Corp has announced that it will be extending the current testing period for Battlegrounds' new tropical-themed Sanhok map on PC.
Sanhok's fourth and final round of testing was originally scheduled to run from June 1st to June 4th. However, testing will now come to a close on Thursday June 7th, at 4am PDT / 12pm in the UK.
As a reminder, anyone that owns a copy of Battlegrounds on Steam can get involved in Sanhok's testing. To do so, you simply need to launch the PUBG: Experimental Server, which should automatically appear in your Steam Library.
Update: The final round of testing for PUBG's Sanhok map has been extended to Monday, June 4Thursday, June 7 Monday, June 11. Wow, it's tough keeping up with this one.
After uncovering some "interesting performance problems", writes PUBG Corp in this Steam Community update, testing for the battle royale's incoming Sanhok map has been extended for the second time.
"We’ve identified an issue where unnecessary packets are transferred from the client to the server, which causes excess load and dips in server performance," says the developer. "Currently, the distance in which players are rendered is up to a maximum radius of 1km from your current position. As Sanhok is 1/4th the size of Erangel and Miramar, the number of players within this 1km area is generally much higher.
"Some performance issues have arisen due to this, with the direct result being a reduced server frame speed, which leads to early-game server performance issues, including player teleporting or stuttering. According to our internal data, the kill rate at extremely long distances is very low and therefore we’ve decided to reduce the maximum player render distance specifically on Sanhok, which will increase performance."
PUBG Corp says it plans to implement these changes in an upcoming patch—and that it'll update once its patch schedule has been finalised.
As reported in our original story below, developer PUBG Corp plans to launch the Thailand-inspired arena on live servers "near the end of June." This round of testing—this map's fourth—kicked off last week, has been extended twice, and will now run till June 11 at 4am PST / 12 noon BST. Full patch notes can be found in this direction.
Here's a trailer to mark Sanhok's latest test period:
Original story:PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Sanhok map returns to its 'Experimental Server' this week. Once known as Codename Savage, the tropical 4x4km arena enters test servers on May 31 at 7pm PST / June 1 at 3am BST, and wraps up on June 4 at 4am PST/ 12 noon BST.
"As before, everyone who owns a copy of PUBG will be able to play simply by downloading the updated version of the 'PUBG: Experimental Server' found in your Steam library," explains this Steam Community update post. Developer PUBG Corp notes that this phase of testing will likely be the map's last. All going to plan, this means Sanhok will hit live servers "near the end of June".
The post adds: "Even after it launches, we’ll continue making changes based on the feedback we get from you guys"—which ties into PUBG Corp's planned performance improvements statement last week.
As reported by our Sam Horti, the developer underscored its commitment to "making literally every inch of Sanhok perfect for players, whether it’s the texture on a rock wall or little unique trimmings around each of the islands houses." It will also target player movement, animations and character models, in its bid to boost framerates across all platforms.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Siege - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (John Walker)
Please sit down. Make sure you have a friend with you, or available on the telephone. Plunkbat isn’t at number one. Somehow, it’s something even more boring. But the rest of the charts are a splendid sight! No GTA, no CS:GO, no Witcher 3, no Skyrim! (more…)
As discussed in last week’s dev letter, we’ve been hard at work improving all the fine details of our newest map, Sanhok. This week, Sanhok is coming back once again for a fourth round of testing on the Experimental Server.
As before, everyone who owns a copy of PUBG will be able to play simply by downloading the updated version of the “PUBG: Experimental Server” found in your Steam library.
Full testing schedule below:
TESTING BEGINS: May 31, 7pm PDT / June 1, 4am CEST / June 1, 11am KST
TESTING ENDS: June 7, 4am PDT / June 7, 1pm CEST / June 7, 8pm KST
This will likely be the final Sanhok test on the Experimental Server. If everything goes according to schedule, Sanhok will come to live servers near the end of June. Even after it launches, we’ll continue making changes based on the feedback we get from you guys.
It's no secret that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has performance problems—it's something that has rightly irked players since its release. In a Steam post yesterday, PUBG Corp admitted it has "fallen short" in this regard, and that it has failed to properly address player complaints about the game's performance issues. It also outlined a road map for how that will change in the future.
Its three priorities going forward will be "performance, server-side optimization, and cheating", it said. To improve performance, it will first address the way lighting effects are processed as well as the way vehicles move across different ground surfaces, both of which are causing players' GPUs to overload.
Next, it will focus on player movement, animations and character models, with the aim being to boost framerate across the board. It will also address the way the game handles vehicles that are far away from the player as well as parked vehicles, which are currently too demanding on players' systems. Finally, it will focus on server-side optimisation, reducing network latency, eliminating inefficient network code and tweaking item spawns.
There are too many changes to list in full here, but if you're interested, check out the blog post. In future, performance updates will arrive as and when they're ready, rather than being bundled into major updates as they have been in the past, PUBG Corp said. "Obviously these are a lot of changes. Even once we implement every single one of the optimization opportunities listed above, we will keep looking for more chances to improve the game."
The team also talked about the level of detail they're adding to Sanhok, PUBG's upcoming 4x4km map. "The team is focused on making literally every inch of Sanhok perfect for players, whether it’s the texture on a rock wall or little unique trimmings around each of the islands houses," it said. The map is currently in testing.
This morning, the PUBG dev team put out an elaborate letter to update the community about coming changes, priorities, plans for what comes next for the game, and how they plan to make their plans better known. You know, plans for planning plans. Some of this is probably related to recent server crashes, but there’s also an extensive list of upcoming changes for Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds that need to be taken into account and I’ll try to break down everything of note. We’ve already covered Ghillie Crossing and Sanhok previously. Oh, and those real world arrests for cheating.
