Hello everyone, 

Thank you for providing useful, actionable feedback on Update 15.1.

This update didn’t meet our expectations and surfaced issues that we’re actively working on addressing.

Despite our best efforts, we don’t always get things right. But we’re learning from these situations and listening to your feedback. 

The Mortain: Operation Lüttich Units DLC reaction has not gone unnoticed – we’re looking into it and will update you when we have more definitive information to share. 

Community sentiment is not ignored, we hear your concerns – and want to assure you that we are committed to Hell Let Loose and this passionate community with plans extending far beyond this year. 

We have incredibly passionate WW2 enthusiasts working on Hell Let Loose; a small team of developers who love the game with the determination to create the best experience possible. We’re continuing to collect mountains of feedback and going through it all with a fine-tooth comb.

We have a lot to work on; a lot to get right. But please bear with us as we do our best to ensure Hell Let Loose is headed in the right direction. 

We really appreciate your support and the constructive feedback you provide. 

We’re aiming to release a hotfix for 15.1 next week. Please stay tuned for more information.

Thank you!

Hello everyone,

Update 15.1 is live on all platforms! This update includes a Night variant for Utah Beach, an Omaha Dusk variant; and new Control Skirmish variants for Carentan and Sainte-Mère-Église.

The team has also worked on player onboarding enhancements to streamline your experience when learning about the inner workings of Hell Let Loose.

We’ve also updated the Practice Range and introduced more Free and Paid DLC.

Please read through our previous PTE blog for more info on the changes in 15.1: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/686810/view/6850618508610524364?l=english

• Utah Beach - New Night Variant
  
• Omaha - New Dusk Variant
  
• Carentan - New Control Skirmish
  
• Sainte-Mère-Église (SME) - New Control Skirmish

Player Onboarding Enhancements

• Updated UI Field Manual
  
• Updated Field Manual Entries
  
• New Field Manual Videos

As we continue to evaluate the UI/UX in Hell Let Loose, for Update 15.1, we've decided to revisit the Field Manual with a focus on enhancing the overall User Experience (UX). Our primary goals were to improve aesthetics, streamline navigation, and increase usability, ensuring that our updates aren't just about looks but about delivering a more engaging and user-friendly gaming experience. We wanted to put a large emphasis on improving player onboarding, making it easier and more enjoyable for new players to get started. By getting new players up to speed faster, we create a more cohesive and dynamic gaming experience for everyone. Stay tuned, as there is much more exciting content to come in future updates!

Old Field Manual




New Field Manual



Updated Barracks & Loadout Screens

• Updated UI

The second area we wanted to revisit on the front-end menu was the Barracks screen, which naturally cascaded to the deployment loadouts. We took the time to understand the complexity of the features at play and decided it wasn't right to uproot an already established mental model well-known to the community. Instead, we focused on enhancing a few key features that lacked an intuitive UI, creating a much more fluid and easy-to-use loadout and appearance system. By revisiting the compositional layout, we addressed some contrasting areas of focus and added a few UX enhancements, like experience bars for loadouts. Now, you'll have a clear view of how close you are to unlocking that next weapon you've been working towards.

Old Barracks




New Barracks

We hope you enjoy the new UX updates and look forward to hearing your feedback. Let us know if there are any other areas you'd like us to address next. Your input is invaluable as we continue to improve the UI/UX in Hell Let Loose!

Updated Practice Range

• New Faction: German Forces with updated theming

• Airborne M1942 Reinforced - US - Available for Infantry & Recon roles

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2475320/Hell_Let_Loose__Airborne_M1942_Reinforced/

❗This Paid DLC is only available for use on Mortain. Operation Lüttich Units are not an option for any other maps. This is to ensure that maps have period-accurate themed DLC attached to them. The same will apply to themed DLC for Elsenborne Ridge and future maps in 2025.

Mortain: Operation Lüttich Units DLC Bundle

• US Armour
  
• US Infantry
  
• US Commander
  
• US Hair
  
• US Head
  
• German Armour
  
• German Infantry
  
• German Commander
  
• German Hair
  
• German Head

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3012950/Hell_Let_Loose__Mortain_Operation_Lttich_Units_DLC_Bundle/


General

Hardware Memory usage improvements across the entire title

Specifically targeting console hardware stability – keeping memory load under a certain threshold to mitigate crashing issues. (This is another step towards resolving the problem and not to be seen as a final solution. We’ll be keeping a close eye on feedback)

• [Basic Training] Unnatural shadows appear on the Practice Range table when changing the video settings
  
• The reload animation of the Webley MkVI shows the player loading far more bullets than the cylinder holds
  
• Ammo drop empty hint shows "Your vehicle is out of supplies" instead
  
• Jeep HUD shows "Cant drop supplies here" when attempting to place ammo in invalid location
  
• Tank Gunner hint is missing Precise Aim instructions
  
• The game is currently showing old key art on launch.
  
• The Medic's armband is missing from the Oak Leaf DLC uniform
  
• The sizing of videos found in the field manual are not uniform, with some of them differing slightly.
  
• [UW] When inside the deployment appearance/loadout screen in UW, the UI is left justified
  
• [UW] The deployment screen for the practise range on UW is only visible on 1 half of the screen
  
• The new German Oak Leaf uniforms have belt and buckle texture issues on all classes except "Assault" and "Anti-Tank".
  
• IIS will not cover the entire display while booting on a ultrawide-screen monitor
  
• The Half-Tracks section in the Seats & Keybindings page of the Field Manual shows the Accelerate/Reverse keybindings in the wrong order
  
• The Seats & Keybindings page of the Field Manual shows the Left/ Right Keybinds in the wrong order

SME

• [E7] Stone Fence presents extended collision
  
• [D5] Jumping in between the chair and chimney will get the user stuck.
  
• [F6] Wall tiles pop in
  
• Certain cross gravestone has shadows popping in
  
• Outposts can be placed in certain buildings across the map
  
• [E8] Shadows on grass and wall vines pop in at very close range
  
• [E7] Unnaturally bright light inside the house of sector E7.
  
• Player is unable to crouch walk up barn stairs that can be walked up
  
• Wheat field disappears at 400M
  
• House missing collision on some roof wood scraps
  
• Draw distance issue on stone wall
  
• [C4][C5] Buildings shown on the tactical map are missing from the actual map
  
• Incorrect terrain blending and painting across the entire map.
  
• [F5] Bush is present inside a house
  
• [E6] Two benches are overlapping

Utah

• [B3] Bunker ceiling light is on but does not provide any light
  
• One of the lights in the Radio Bunker at B3 does not illuminate the floor under it.
  
• Pre-placed destroyed bunker presents no player and bullet collision
  
• Smoke plumes present sorting issues

Hurtgen

• [GER] [Hurtgen] Axis HQ Spawn #02 floating repair station

Carentan

• [I7] A specific stone pillar asset is corrupted
  
• [I8] Building shown on the tactical map is missing from the game itself
  
• An open gate south of the Town Centre Capture Point leads into an area that can get vehicles stuck.
  
• [F5] Player can get stuck behind a box and cannot get back out
  
• [F5] Destroyed halftrack is missing fire VFX
  
• [G8] Smoke coming from the pre-place bomb crater is misaligned.
  
• [E7] Stone Wall Pillar has reversed Textures
  
• Anti Air Gun presents missing player collision
  
• [D7] Bench clipping through a sandbag wall
  
• The player can clip into a building's rooftop in sector F5 of Carentan map
  
• Performance drop is present in the whole town
  
• Gas and water tanks assets disappear over 20-45m
  
• [J5] Mud asset clipping into building
  
• [D7] Stone fence is clipping through a stone wall

Mortain

• [H6][H7] "Strong Point" UI is showing up when you're not in the strong point
  
• Player can spawn inside locked buildings
  
• [Offensive US/GER] The loading screen shows different weather conditions.
  
• [F6] The player is able to teleport through a fence
  
• [D4] Player locomotion is hindered by assets in this sector
  
• [D8] Terrain in this sector has incorrect painting, blending or positioning
  
• [E7] Assets in this sector are missing textures, polygon faces or are very noticeably misplaced
  
• LargeHouse static mesh enterable building has a toilet in its bathroom that isn't hooked up to anything visually.
  
• Numerous parachutes are scattered around the north of the map with incorrect positioning.
  
• [A3] Terrain in this sector has incorrect painting, blending or positioning
  
• [F6] Terrain in this sector has incorrect painting, blending or positioning
  
• [E6] Slight clipping or misplacement of assets are present in this sector
  
• [A3] Assets in this sector are missing textures, polygon faces or are misplaced
  
• A specific old fallen tree trunk presents LOD issues from 7m
  
• [E5] The sandbags cover asset presents LOD issues from 20m
  
• [E4] Minor clipping issues are present in this sector
  
• [C4] Player can teleport through a fence asset
  
• Missing buildings on tac-map
  
• Window asset is missing player collision.
  
• Grass foliage pops in when player moves closer or aims down sights
  
• [A8] Vehicle locomotion is hindered by multiple assets in this sector

Remagen

• [H6] The player can spawn in building next to outpost and gets stuck

SMDM

• [G6] Player can spawn inside an inaccessible building using an outpost
  
• [G9] LOD issue is present on a bush
  
• [G6] Damage hitbox for a fire effect on a destroyed vehicle in sector G6 is misplaced
  
• [E6] Assets in this sector are missing textures, polygon faces or are very noticeably misplaced
  
• Multiple parts of a wrecked artillery gun are missing bullet collision

Stalingrad

• [I6] Wooden Boxes present LOD issues.
  
• [E5] Framerate drops below 50 FPS in Sector E5

Omaha

• [E3] A floating cart asset on sector E3

El Alamein

• E5 Specific tree presents low textured model

Uniforms

• Legacy Clipping Issues

Hello everyone,

And welcome to the Update 15.1 PTE, this PTE is now LIVE - running throughout the weekend and we’re looking forward to getting your input on some of the content we’ve been working on listed below:

• Carentan Skirmish
  
• SME Skirmish
  
• Updates to the Field Manual
  
• German Practice Range
  
• General UI and user flow changes

• Carentan - Rain - Skirmish
  
• SME - Night - Skirmish

With the Practice Range already being available for the U.S. Forces, the next logical step was to bring this functionality so that players can experience the same mechanics with the German Forces. We have brought this into a variant of the existing Normandy map to keep the experience thematically authentic while providing a safe space for players to hone their skills using the existing German equipment.

Carl Rutter, Senior Level Designer - Expression Games

As part of our UI/UX improvements, we’ve been working towards making features such as the Field Manual a much more intuitive experience for players to access and browse. With a whole new layout, an expandable category interface and a search bar feature, the new and improved Field Manual design allows for a much more streamlined experience for players to learn about the inner workings of Hell Let Loose.

Jack Jenkins, Senior Game Designer - Expression Games

During the development of the previous Sainte-Marie-du-Mont town centre updates, internal discussions mirror the recent community requests for a similar upgrade to the Carentan town centre.

Using a similar process to that undertaken during the Sainte-Marie-du-Mont update, we utilised both internal playtest feedback, and common community sentiment across social media to help guide proposed changes.

The main objective of this update to Carentan was to increase the total playable space while refraining from making the town centre a maze-like experience. These new routes act mainly as side paths and shortcuts, allowing players to either avoid highly contested bottlenecks or give them another avenue to counter these chokepoints. Furthermore, these routes also offer useful areas to place both outposts, garrisons, and forward positions across Warfare/Offensive and the new Carentan Skirmish map.



The above GIF showcases the reduction of invisible walls throughout the area, in turn showing the extent of the new pathways throughout the town. These changes should not only improve navigation but also help drastically reduce instances of being stopped from entering an area because of an invisible wall.

The following images show before and after shots of the key routes that have been implemented throughout the town.

Kienan Southern, Level Designer - Expression Games

North West of Town Centre


North East of Town Centre


East of Town Centre


Town Centre


Town Centre

To help increase the number of urban maps available to play in Skirmish, the fan favourite Carentan will be available as of the release of Patch 15.1.

To make the most use of the extensive urban setting of the map, players will fight over the Town Centre making their way through the streets, alleys and newly opened gardens to take control of the objective. As always, please use the linked forms to share your thoughts and feedback with us.



Kienan Southern, Level Designer - Expression Games

With the want to make more popular urban maps available with Skirmish mode, and to tie in with the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we are proud to announce that Sainte-Mère-Église will be joining the Skirmish roster. Fighting over the town itself, players will have to navigate the variety of narrow streets, open courtyards and enterable buildings to dominate the town.



As you can see from the in-game tactical map, we know that churches are often a dominant structure, however, to mitigate against dominant spawn camping, we have decided not to include the church itself within the hard capture, retaining the church as a viable strategy for planning your teams’ offence/defence but not being the sole focus of the capture point. As ever we are keen to hear your thoughts on the map and the capture point, so feel free to use the feedback forms attached to let us know what you think.

Carl Rutter, Senior Level Designer - Expression Games

These PTE sessions are a way for you as a community to feedback on Hell Let Loose work in progress, which means we can look to implement your feedback before a patch or update is released. Although we can currently only hold public testing sessions on Steam, we encourage everyone to take part to be able to share feedback.

❗Known Issues

For today’s session, there is a list of unfinished items/bugs that we’re aware of, including:

• [Field Manual] UI and layout redesign is currently ongoing and may have some content/functionality issues
  
• [Barracks] UI and layout redesign is currently ongoing and may have some content/functionality issues
  
• [Loadout Screen] UI and layout redesign is currently ongoing and may have some content/functionality issues

You are welcome to both stream and record PTE footage, but as these sessions are showing unfinished work, it’s always good to let your individual communities know that the footage is from a PTE session, where you might encounter unfinished items, bugs and other issues.


Once you have completed a game and are ready to provide feedback, please use the forms below!


Check your Steam Library for the Hell Let Loose (Public Testing) application, or re-download it from the Steam store, you’ll want to boot this version up to take part in the PTE!

Once you’re in and have selected a server, you’ll be able to test out the new game mode!

💬 Submit Feedback: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpUNFBURFpNQ0o5NklKVzRaRFEyVkkwWFIyNi4u

🔨Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpUOEY3RzZLTzlJQzBHVjNROVFHV0tVTEZIQS4u

Please note:
Because PTEs are run on development servers that have logging activated, you will experience a slight decrease in performance. You will also not earn any XP and your progress will not be carried over to the live game.

Hello everyone,

Today we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy beach landings – one of the most decisive and critical moments in 20th century history. Through sheer ambition and bravery, the Allies placed an immense, immovable force in occupied France. What makes D-Day Normandy Beach Landings impressive is that they were the largest seaborne-based land invasions of history combining various nations coming together under the Allied banner, and that they kept it secret during planning.

In commemoration, we’re going to use today as an opportunity to reveal the next Hell Let Loose map, set in the Ardennes winter months of 1944 – Elsenborn Ridge.

This initial look will also expand on the changeable weather conditions teased in the 2024 roadmap.

We want to show that Elsenborn Ridge is a work in progress, currently planned to ship later this year. We will open Elsenborn Ridge for public testing as development ensues in the months ahead. We can’t wait for you to try it and look forward to reading your feedback!

The team is really excited to finally reveal what we’ve been working on. Please read below for some developer insight into Elsenborn Ridge and its dynamic snow.

It was decided early on that we needed a dynamic snow/blizzard scenario for Elsenborn Ridge, so the Technical Art team started prototyping some ideas to support this. The new tech allows us to blend between different intensities of weather, allowing us to go from gentle snowfall as can be seen currently in Foy to a heavy blizzard.

To transition the weather states, we take the current values and blend them over a transition time to new settings that we pull from a preset data asset containing all the VFX elements for each setting.

In addition to the above, the Technical Art team have been improving the occlusion system for rain and snow whereby render targets will be used to occlude rain and snow instead of having to manually check each level for mesh distance fields on buildings, in turn, this makes the possibility of adding differing weather scenarios a lot more flexible in the future.

The dynamic blizzard VFX tech is still in development and the Technical Art team are working to fine-tune, polish and optimise for when we are ready to ship Elsenborn Ridge.

While the work has been mainly based around snow, we added the functionality to do the same for rain as well, however, these will require further development.

Technical Art - Expression Games

The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge is a less-documented, but important battle nonetheless set in the Büllingen region in the Ardennes. 43 miles away from Foy, the Elsenborn Ridge is but one of many examples of how far the Battle of the Bulge was spread out in 1944.

Set during the winter months of 1944, the 99th U.S. Division who had been stationed at Wirtzfeld were under heavy suppression from the 6th Panzer Army composed of the 12th SS Panzer Division, 12th Volksgrenadier and 277th Volksgrenadier to the east, who had finally broken their lines and forced a retreat to the Elsenborn Ridge.

The U.S. were forced to abandon their supplies en-route to the ridge, and settle in for weeks of bombardment from Wirtzfeld. Having retreated to the ridge and established a network where they had become heavily dug in with makeshift trenches, foxholes, camps and artillery gun positions.

Taking place between 16th-26th December, 1944 winter had fully taken hold in Belgium, the thick snow had settled, the roads were slippery and slushy, combined with the constant fog/blizzards made it impossible for the U.S. bombers and the Luftwaffe alike to battle from the skies without succumbing to the elements.

Carl Rutter, Senior Level Designer - Expression Games

As with any Hell Let Loose map, we had considered which maps were already available to players, this allowed us to decide on which kind of thematic map that we wanted to create next. We had decided as a team that the map could be:

• A map that is different to Foy in aesthetics, but fits in with the existing biome
  
• A map that has a much more interesting topography to avoid the repetition of dull, flat terrain that exists in other territories
  
• A challenge to create a map that’s based on controlling land, rather than buildings
  
• An opportunity to design a map without the safety net of large structures and historical landmarks in mind, while retaining visual interest
  
• A map that works for all playstyles, but will be more suitable for vehicles/armour

Because the Elsenborn Ridge itself is a forested region where the U.S. dug in with defensive positions rather than a historical landmark, this gave us a lot of space to choose from when designing the initial concept. We chose the absolute edge of Wirtzfeld over Rocherath-Krinkelt because it has a much better road network for vehicles, and to minimize the need to create another village.

Carl Rutter, Senior Level Designer - Expression Games

Charity: Wounded Warrior Project 👉 https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/


📆 Saturday, June 8, 2024

• 5:00pm EST Omaha Beach - Warfare Mode
  
• 7:00pm EST Utah Beach - Warfare Mode

Website: https://www.br1gaming.com/road-to-d-day

BR1 invites the Hell Let Loose community to join in a charity event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the WW2 Invasion of Normandy. We invite players to make a minimum donation of $5 dollars to participate. We encourage everyone to give as they can, and will even accept larger donations from our fellow gaming communities. All Donations will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

This is our 4th annual Road to D-Day event -- in the previous years we have raised over $6,600 for the WWP, and so we have set our sites a bit higher this year for a single year goal of $3000.

BR1 is a gaming community founded by Veterans and is dedicated to service and leadership. We welcome mature players interested in joining a fun and engaging community that promotes respect and congeniality, both internally and externally. One of our founding principals is providing social support for our Veteran members, as well as guidance toward professional help, when needed. This makes our partnership with Wounded Warrior Project a natural conclusion. WWP provides too many services to Vets and their families to try to list here, and their work speaks for itself. BR1 is proud to be a partner with WWP and by hosting our annual RtDD event, do our small part to help our Veterans.

Check out some fun and informative videos from our War Correspondents to help you on the frontlines!







Thank you for reading! Next up for Hell Let Loose is Update 15.1 - we will be hosting a PTE for this in the weeks ahead.

Have a great day.

Hello everyone,

We've just deployed Hotfix 3 to all platforms.

• [15.0] Some skirmish achievements do not progress/unlock despite meeting the criteria after the new 15.0 update
  
  
• [RCON] Admin message pop-up doesn't register the changed keyboard input
  
  We have addressed this by exposing the keybind to the Keybindings Menu:
  
  
• Dialog Ok
  
• Dialog Cancel
  
• Dialog Ignore
  
  These by default will be bound to the Y, N & I keys however can be changed to any preference.
  
  
• [Mortain][D6] Walls presents collision issues and physics
  
• [Mortain] Birch Tree asset has no bullet collision
  
• [Mortain] Birch Tree Asset presents bullet collision on its branches
  
• [Mortain] Light tank can become stuck on rubble
  
• [Mortain][E5] Player can get stuck if they try to vault over a pile of stones
  
• [Mortain] Assets created along a spline are different between the Editor & the client
  
• [Mortain] [B3] Player locomotion is hindered by collision on the following assets & locations
  - - This should generally fix any instances where you can get hindered / stuck when navigating rubble found across the map.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback. Next up, 15.1 - more details coming soon!

Hello,

This post is specifically for players in the region of China.

We are happy to tell you to communicate better with you we have specially created a QQ group to bring you a better game experience. You can also talk about your game experiences in the group and meet more friends who play HLL!

Our QQ group number is: 828842864

See you on the battlefield!

Good morning everyone,

We’ve pushed Hotfix 2 on all platforms. This addresses the missing hedgerows in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and the Admin message pop-up issue:

• [SMDM] Hedges are missing on the map after Update 15
  
• [RCON] Message player pop-up doesn't register required keyboard input

U15 on PC comprised some night maps that still need further preparation for release. We have removed:

• Utah Beach Warfare Night
  
• Omaha Beach Warfare Night
  
• Hill 400 Warfare Night

These maps will launch in future content updates on all platforms when completed.

Thank you!

Hello everyone,

We hope you're enjoying Update 15 and Mortain! An unintended issue surfaced with last week's update, removing hedgerows from Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. You may have noticed...

The hedges will be reinstated in Hotfix 2, which is due ASAP, alongside a fix for the admin message pop-ups.

For now, please see the changes that have been pushed live in Hotfix 1:

• [Offensive] Attackers are able to spawn vehicles in inactive HQs
  
• [Offensive] Defending commander can not spawn vehicles on two of the Headquarters of the map
  
• [XR-064] Unable to send invites to other users
  
• [15.0][Mortain] Changing the Texture Quality will crash the game
  
• The server name in the top right corner of the Scoreboard will show up as "HLL Server" instead of the actual name on Win10
  
• [Offensive] Attackers are able to spawn vehicles in inactive HQs when there is a player in the enemy team
  
• [Mortain] All instances of the thin white tree asset are missing collision
  
• [Mortain] Collision issue when attempting to enter certain houses while crouched/prone.

We'll update you when Hotfix 2 is ready!

Hello everyone,


This update brings Mortain to Hell Let Loose – a new map and exciting environment to experience for all modes, based on the US defence of the French town of Mortain.

Mortain is our first map release; a significant milestone for us, created and refined with your feedback. Your dedication to Hell Let Loose helps us deliver content that serves an authentic WW2 experience. We’re delighted to see you all jump in and play today!

We’ve also updated Sainte-Marie-du-Mont – increasing overall playable space around the town to produce a better gameplay experience. Delving into these changes below, you can see how we’ve provided more routes in and out of the capture point, creating more viable outpost/garrison options and flanking opportunities.

Two new Skirmish mode maps are now available to play: Mortain and SMdM

Please scroll down for the full changelog and U15 information, including a look at the new German “Oak Leaf” Paid DLC.

Mortain sits in a shallow valley – where the US rallied against German troops amid Operation Lüttich. The battle took place in August 1944, in Normandy, France.

Units from the 30th Division, including the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry, and two tank destroyer platoons, were dispatched to relieve the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry. Their directive was to defend the town of Mortain, strategically utilising Hill 314 (also known as MontJoie) as a tactical defensive and overlook position.

During Operation Lüttich the town was destroyed, left in ruins with only a few buildings standing. The destroyed version of the town will be featured in the map.

Offering a plethora of notable locations – both historical and natural – Mortain features themes of contrasting areas throughout. Rock formations permeate the map alongside hilly areas of countryside and farmland.

Mortain - Environment Art

It brings the team great pleasure to finally release Update 15 and our new map, Mortain.

Since joining the project, the team at Expression Games have worked with our partners to deliver a map that offers a new and exciting world to experience in Hell Let Loose, while honouring the legacy that Black Matter had left for us.

Being our first map release, we wanted to gather feedback from the community early on, and as previously mentioned in other briefings, we cannot thank you all enough for supporting the PTEs that helped shape this map. Hell Let Loose has one of the most dedicated fanbases within online gaming, and although there have been some challenges bringing it to the standard previous Normandy maps have set, you have been instrumental towards its development and have made us accountable in creating quality gameplay and visuals.

Since the last PTE, the Environment Art team have been focused on fixing as many bugs and visual issues as possible for release, as well as incorporating some new dressing and polish. We have also supported Technical Art in producing some crucial optimisations, within Mortain and in particular textures across the game. We hope that these efforts mean you’ll enjoy the varied terrain and vast forestry of Mortain at its best performance yet.

To read the developer briefing from the PTE, which has additional details about Mortain Environment Art, Level Design and Front End Updates, click here.

During the last Mortain PTE, there was a known issue where aiming down sights caused noticeable discrepancies between LODs across the map, with foliage, in particular, losing shadows or changing silhouette significantly. This is an issue that is present across the game, however, due to the high contrast lighting used in Mortain, this was much more noticeable to the point where this was impacting gameplay, particularly with longer-range weaponry. There was a collaboration between Code, Technical Art and Environment Art to look into this issue, and a fix was finally found and implemented by Gage Griffiths - Senior Programmer at Expression Games.

The fix consists of two console commands that are run when you join a game within Mortain. To keep performance across Xbox Series S/X, PS5 and PC consistent, different values for these commands are set based on the platform.

Firstly, the density of foliage was scaled down slightly across the map. This was fine-tuned to ensure there is not a noticeable loss in visual quality, but enough to where we retain performance. The commands and values we used for this are:

PC - foliage.DensityScale 0.8
Console - foliage.DensityScale 0.65

Secondly, Unreal Engine uses a calculation based on how much of the screen a particular asset takes up, to determine what level of detail that asset renders. When you aim down sight, a tree appears larger on the screen so the game renders a high-detail version of it, but when you stop looking down sights the tree takes up less of the screen so a lower-detail version is rendered instead.

The fix essentially alters the distance from the player where the higher detail foliage would swap to a lower detail asset. These are not exact figures, but as an example, previously a tree may have been 10,000 triangles at 10 metres away, swapping to 5000 triangles at 20 metres. This has shifted so that the tree would still be 10000 triangles at 20 metres away, with the swap to 5000 triangles happening at 40 metres, meaning a tree has to be much further away before the lower detail asset is rendered.

The exact values we set are:

PC - foliage.LODDistanceScale 2
Console - foliage.LODDistanceScale 1.3

The results of our testing are extremely positive, and we hope that if you managed to play Mortain during a previous PTE you will notice that this is a huge improvement from before.

As this is an issue that has been in the game for a long time across all maps, and the results have been promising on Mortain, I can confirm that this is a fix that we are looking to implement across the entire game, which should improve foliage LOD issues on all maps. We are also confident that this would bring huge improvements to some urban maps, in particular, Stalingrad, as a large portion of the map including buildings are technically rendered as foliage, which was a performance-saving technique used by Black Matter.

Due to this being a game-wide change, we want to ensure there is adequate testing and feedback before it’s live across all maps, so Mortain will be the only map in Update 15 to support this change. However, if feedback is positive and the consensus is that assets are ‘popping’ less for players without performance impact, this is something we are eager to implement in a future update for all maps.

We have made every effort to ensure Mortain is ready for release, but if you experience any issues while playing, please don’t hesitate to give feedback through the appropriate discord channels or social media. The team frequently reads comments and shares videos with each other, so if there are any comments or issues you have surrounding the map we want to hear them.

Lastly, I’m pleased to share and hope you enjoy some final renders of Mortain. I’m incredibly proud of what the team has produced, and I hope these images showcase a new benchmark for content in Hell Let Loose going forward.

Ryan Thomason-Jones - Senior Environment Artist, Expression Games

Mortain - Technical Art

The Technical Art team have been fine-tuning the performance around the Mortain town area to accommodate the additional enterable buildings. This was a combination of LOD merging, forced distance culling and removing shadow casters on any object already in shadow. This was to ensure we retained the detail and storytelling of the interiors while reducing the cost of the extra detail.

Throughout the town, the Environment Art team made a wonderful set of modular destroyed building assets, creating a wide variety whilst keeping material and texture costs to a minimum. This, in turn, meant that we had smaller assets, however, this also increased the mesh draw calls, especially with shadow and occlusion checks. To address this as we did not want to create combined render meshes driving up the memory cost and with that texture cost, we created a series of shadow proxy assets that were lower in complexity and limited to one simple shader meaning a single shadow and occlusion call.

Many combinations of walls and buildings benefited from a Hierarchical Instanced Static Meshes pass, similar to that done with buildings in El Alamein (HISM is an instancing method that allows for better memory performance, supports LODs with good asset culling which results in better rendering performance).

On this map, we also limited the use of HLODs (Hierarchical LODs). One of the drawbacks to using HLODs extensively was increased memory overheads. This was limited to the town area and only used for medium-sized buildings.

In addition, the Technical Art team ensured that there were no unnecessary occlusion checks and unique assets, which were not adding to storytelling to save on mesh and texture memory.

To create a believable atmosphere for the destroyed part of town, we had to take into account the amount of dust that would be present in the air. However, adding a large number of dust particle effects can negatively impact performance due to overlapping translucent sprites creating overdraw.

To achieve the desired effect, we decided to create a fog to simulate the presence of thick dust around the buildings. Since using volumetric fog would cover the entire map, we opted for shader-based localized fog volumes instead. By placing a single volume over the destroyed area and adjusting the shader controls, we were able to control the fog's height, density, and colour. This approach helped to achieve the desired effect without the need for a large number of particles.

Although the fog worked well, it lacked movement. To fix this issue, we added a few variations of dust particles. However, we kept these fairly limited and added a couple of shader tricks to improve performance. The main shader trick we used was to scale the sprites down based on the player's distance from the effect, which reduced overdraw. Scaling the sprites down to nothing eliminated any render cost.

We also had to be mindful of when the player walks through the dust particles. Lots of large translucent sprites filling the screen could significantly impact performance. To tackle this problem, we used a similar method as the distance from the player. Only in this instance, we faded the alpha and scaled the particles as you moved through them, reducing the chance of frame drops. Having long sightlines with lots of particles could be costly. However, a combination of optimized VFX with a few shader tricks allowed us to create an area that looked heavy in dust with minimal impact on performance.

Technical Art team, Expression Games

Sainte-Marie-du-Mont - Map Updates

To coincide with the release of a Control Skirmish mode for Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, we looked into issues commonly brought up about the map as a whole across various community forums. Keeping in mind that the map is a fan favourite we chose to focus solely on the most impactful changes, those being to address the lack of enterable areas within the town and the inaccessible Brécourt Manor courtyard.

When tackling the updates to the town centre in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, we started by focusing internal playtests on just that space. Utilising feedback from these playtests, along with community sentiment derived from various social media platforms, we were able to help find and improve the key problems on just those areas of the map.

Our biggest focus was on increasing the overall playable space around the town, helping to provide more routes into and out of the capture point. This increase in playable space also lends itself to creating more viable outpost/garrison placement options, and more flanking opportunities for attackers and defenders alike. Within these newly opened spaces, additional enterable buildings were placed to further increase the opportunities for attackers and defenders to seize the capture area around the church.

Sainte-Marie-du-Mont Updates - Before and after, newly opened up spaces

The above GIF showcases the reduction in blocking volumes throughout the town centre, in turn showing the extent of the newly opened space. These changes should not only improve navigation throughout the town but also help drastically reduce instances of being stopped from entering an area because of an invisible wall.

The following images show before and after shots of the four main quadrants of the town, North West, North East, South East and South West. The areas captured highlight the largest scale changes to the playable space, with new routes that lead directly into the town.

Kienan Southern - Junior Level Designer, Expression Games

The set-up for this Control Skirmish mode is focused around the Cattlesheds capture point from Warfare and Offensive, allowing us to capture a nice balance of spaces that should make both infantry and vehicle combat intense.

The bocages surrounding the Cattlesheds provide cover and routes into the capture point and the space within it provides engineers ample opportunity to bolster your team’s defences.

For tanks, the nearby open fields afford the space to bombard the opposition from a distance, or to act as support for the infantry pushing the objective.

Kienan Southern, Junior Level Designer - Expression Games

Sainte-Marie-du-Mont Updates - Town Area, North West


Sainte-Marie-du-Mont Updates - Town Area, North East


Sainte-Marie-du-Mont Updates - Town Area, South East


Sainte-Marie-du-Mont Updates - Town Area, South West

Also known as Eichenlaubmuster, this was one of the many types of camouflage patterns used by several divisions within the German forces. Often worn in the autumn, it is unique with its distinct colourisation.

For players, wishing to combine this uniform and match it with headwear of the same pattern, we would recommend using the Leopard Covered M42 helmet, already available, in-game.

Matt White - Creative Director, Expression Games.

• New Map Mortain - day & overcast variants (This supports Warfare, Offensive & Control Skirmish)
  
• New Control Skirmish - Sainte-Marie-du-Mont Skirmish - day, night & rain variants
  
• Sainte-Marie-du-Mont Warfare - night variant
  
• Mortain Themed Front End Menu
  
• German “Oak Leaf” - Paid DLC
  
• Muzzle Flash Improvements
  - - - Added multiple light sources resulting in a more dynamic muzzle flash and physically accurate reflections
  
• Additional Nameplate Occlusion Settings
  - - - A player-requested feature whereby the user can toggle nameplate occlusion on friendly players in their team and/or squad
  
• In-Game Store Improvements
  - - - Implemented a “Purchased” label on any DLC item that has already been redeemed on the player’s account.

General

• [In Game Store] The UI will lose focus if entering and leaving the ‘Featured’ tab
  
• [Barracks] Character previews in the ‘Select Your Role’ menu appear too large when playing in ultrawide
  
• [Uniforms] The German Africa Corps DAK Uniform has an incorrect belt buckle
  
• [Vehicles] The Churchill MkIII gun will clip into the body of the tank if the gun is rotated 180° backwards and depressed to its lowest level while zoomed in
  
• [Skirmish] The map key may not be present for certain players
  
• [Weapons] The German Satchel placed on the back of the tracks on Stuart M3 ‘Honey’ is not defusable
  
• [Field Manual] In the Equipment > Watch tab there is no mention of the Forward Positions.
  
• [Field Manual] Incorrect information regarding Recon Vehicles is present in the Vehicles section
  
• [Field Manual] In the Equipment > Ammo Boxes tab in the explosive ammo section the rifleman is not mentioned
  
• [Field Manual] Small grammatical error present in the Field Manual > Deployment > Spawn Locations
  
• [Field Manual] The Forward Position description in the Field Manual says it can't be placed if too close to another Garrison
  
• [Field Manual] The summary at the top of the Outpost, Garrison & Forward Position Field Manual page does not mention Forward Positions
  
• [Weapons] Weapons that are held with two hands become misaligned with the player's hands in TPP whilst leaning
  
• [Locomotion] Dive to prone is playing multiple instances of footsteps during the transition
  
• [Weapons] Commonwealth faction weapons have no audio feedback when reloading
  
• [Weapons] Animations were not playing correctly when the user performed certain sequences of firing and reloading with the Webley Mk VI Revolver
  
• [Console] The 'Skirmish' activity does not appear in 'History of completed activities' following a network disconnection
  
• [RCON] Restarting a server also resets the map shuffle option to ‘TRUE’
  
• [Vehicles] Destroying a T-70 tank does not award any combat points
  
• [Skirmish] "Enemy Forward Position" & "Place Forward Position" tac map markers are only visible to the user that places it
  
• [In Game Store] Selected DLC shifts onto the featured DLC by itself when entering
  
• [In Game Store] The Uniforms tab is missing localisation in all supported languages
  
• [Equipment] TPP Animation for using the Watch is broken on all Factions
  
• [Weapons] TPP M1A1 Thompson reload animation causes the character's elbow to twist unnaturally
  
• [Console] In-game store does not populate after a suspended user change.
  
• [UI] The Back button loses functionality if the menu and the scoreboard are opened at the same time
  
• [Uniforms] British helmet names in the Barracks & Loadout screens have historically inaccurate formatting
  
• [UI] Grammatical error in the loading screen tip regarding the Ammo Carrier loadout
  
• [UI] Kick player prompt remains on screen for the Officer if a player leaves its unit
  
• [UI] The Enlist Screen is only showing up to 100 servers

Practice Range

• The map is unaligned to the out-of-bounds parameters of the tactical map by 10m
  
• Garrison cannot be placed in the Practice Range
  
• The Half-Track tactical map icon always appears at the far top-left of the map
  
• Missing grass foliage in the Practice Range
  
• Tank turrets have no audio when moved
  
• The scarecrow on the shooting range at the 75-metre mark has its feet sunk into the ground

Driel

• The Driel Skirmish - Day loading screen shows a different game mode name than the other variants

El-Alamein

• [Skirmish] The setup time blocking volume is in the wrong position
  
• [E4] Players can use an Airhead to spawn into an inaccessible area

Foy

• Metal SFX and PFX encountered when shooting the dead cows

Utah

• Metal SFX and PFX encountered when shooting the dead cows

Purple Heart Lane

• [C2] Players can drown when crouched in a small body of water

SMDM

• A blocking volume extends into the playable area on the north side of Saint Marie du Mont updates
  
• Trees render as large blocks in the distance
  
• A specific plane asset is missing player collision
  
• The grass is culling at around 40 metres

Utah

• [G6] The player drowns near a hedge

https://store.steampowered.com/app/686810/Hell_Let_Loose/

Update 15 deploys a fresh experience to Hell Let Loose with Mortain, a new map for all modes! Created and refined with help from the community, Mortain sits in a shallow valley – where the US rallied against German troops amid Operation Lüttich. The battle took place in August 1944, in Normandy, France.

During Operation Lüttich the town was destroyed, left in ruins with only a few buildings standing – which features in Mortain.

Offering a plethora of notable locations – both historical and natural – Mortain features themes of contrasting areas throughout. Rock formations permeate the map alongside hilly areas of countryside and farmland.




https://store.steampowered.com/app/686810/Hell_Let_Loose/