May 20, 2010
Product Update - Valve
Updates to Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Graphics
* To improve performance near water, dynamic water rippling is disabled on multi-GPU systems. This is a temporary workaround while waiting for driver fixes from ATI and NV.
* Adjusted rendering LOD distance on water rippler distance.
* When rendering in-game wide-screen cameras, max allowed mega-pixels is reduced in order to match rendering size of 4:3 original screen. That way reallocation of rendering buffers is avoided.
* Fixed some models being influenced by fog when they shouldn't be.
* Updated resolution auto-selection to skip the last good resolution for a fallback candidate if it's the same as the current resolution.
* Fixed the inability to start a game in window mode when the .ini file contains the gfx_bFullScreen cvar but without accompanying resolution cvars.
* Added cvar prj_fMinFlameFastLightDistance which specifies the minimum distance between flame fast lights on a single entity. This makes sense only on materials which don't allow flame propagation (most static geometry), as there is already a limit for applying flame hit points on materials on which flames propagate (puppets and trees).
* Cvar 'efx_bStreaksHQ' now defaults to 0, as there's no need for high-quality streaks, as in most cases, "lower" quality is more than enough, while HQ tends to affect frame-rate noticeably.
Sound:
* Upgraded DirectX libraries to the "February 2010" version.
* Fixed possible loopholes that can provoke XAudio2 to crash.
* On the last level, a music started in a secret would wear out without reverting to normal music, thus leaving just silence.
* Fixed problem with weapon sounds sometimes being interrupted in large fights.
* Sound wrapper's report for Xaudio2 now states HW voices (i.e. "mixer voices") correctly. (Mixer HW voices is actually number of output channels in this case.)
* Added 'xad_bInstantUpdates' cvar for controlling whether the changes to XAudio2 API should be commited right away (on a per-function basis) or just once per frame (=0, default).
Menus:
* Fixed problem with particle bias being reset to 1.0, after setting it from GPU custom quality sub-menu.
* Updated difficulty customization menu to display customized settings with a different color from the default settings.
* Text in Game Details and Session Info menus no longer blinks and glows during scrolling.
* Focus changing wasn't working correctly when player uses gamepad to navigate menus with multiple scrollbars.
* Game modes now have more space for the rules in the game mode overlay.
* Enlarged the game overlay buttons for longer strings in non-enu locales.
* Enlarged the area for Netricsa message title and made it wrappable.
* Upon starting new level, user was allowed to exit netricsa before auto-saved game was stored onto disk, which caused application to be blocked for a few seconds.
* Enlarged the area for game rules in game details menu.
* Changed paragraph padding in game details menu to minimize text wrapping.
* Fixed the erroneous level name in session info menu screen.
* Netricsa image was not handled properly for the game modes that use single player levels.
* In game overlay menu, spectators are now flagged with icons, instead of a text label.
* Fixed garbled button names in the game overlay menu before player starts interacting with the menu.
* Fixed problem with "Render LOD Bias" slider being reversed (min setting was infact max and max was min).
* "PlayerCard" (i.e. SteamID) button was not visible on session info menu screen when using only mouse input.
* Added auto jump, fixed crosshair, player list visibility and its size scaler as options in the game options menu.(Previously those were accessible via cvars.)
* Changed sniper rifle and cannon binding to key 7 and serious bomb to key 8.
Levels and gameplay:
* Several pre-recorded demo files are now installed with the game, for easier benchmarking.
* Palenque Demo now has its leaderboards for "SinglePlayer", "Cooperative" and "CooperativeCoinOp" modes.
* Fixed "disco" music on Palenque level not playing on clients.
* Fixed some triggers on Palenque Demo that would not be started in game modes that use warmup.
* Fixed a door on Palenque Demo that wouldn't open in coop.
* Enabled BeastHunt and TeamBeastHunt on Palenque Demo.
* Adjusted visibility distances for Armor and Health items.
* Adjusted melee range for the largest Highlanders to fit their size.
* In some situations puppets would not be deleted after they are dead. This was when they died during the contact with moving brush or bouncer.
* Added sound and particles to destucting floor on Palenque Demo.
* Fixed wrong color on some stones at the start of first level.
* Patched Zumbul spawner on the Palenque Demo level that ended up inside mountains and would fall down into infinity.
* Fixed the huge Highlander Bride in Land of the Damned, so it doesn't walk around and stomp on players.
* Took new screenshots for all levels in resolution 512x512.
* Fixed the flying Kleers secret.
* Cannons on We Got Skulls'N'Bones Too can now be reused.
* Fixed stretch on particles used for tree destructions.
* Added Step sounds for Ughzan player character.
* Adjusted kamikaze and bull spawning on Icelander.
* Disabled destruction on big head statue on Jump Over. It's important that the head stays intact because players use that model to jump on it in order to get to the Health item.
* Changed position of My Burden item on Hole.
* Changed positions of Serious Damage, MyBurden item and on some jumpers on We Got Skul'N'Bones Too.
* Added more spawn markers on several Versus levels that had too few.
* Fixed multiple collision problems on several Versus levels.
* Fixed being able to get out of the arena on Greenfield.
* Fixed enemies getting stuck when descending the hill on Bear City.
* Added various delays on initial item spawning on Kleer Base to avoid spawning all at the same time that makes one big noisy spawning sound.
* Lowered bump map height on the frozen lake.
* Fixed situation on Hole level where player could jump through grid floor if jumping from below water.
* Fixed control time on bouncer on The Lost Tomb level.
* Adjusted Zorg's skeleton and mesh LOD switching distances.
* Added barrier fields on Yodeller because players could reach blind areas of map with rocket jump.
* Inserted new spawn markers on Yodeller.
* Fixed geometry on windmill wing on Yodeller, so players can now walk on it.
* Serious bomb item will not be picked if player cannot cary any more serious bombs.
* Destroying both Exotech Larva arms now triggers quotes.
* Fixed Mental difficulty not getting unlocked.
* Fixed missing war music on the Exotech Larva boss.
* Fixed "MyBurdenBeginner" achievement not being awarded.
* When fixed crosshair is used, crosshair will always be fixed to the center of the screen with fixed size.
* Fixed Kleer sometimes damaging player even after its attack has finished.
Networking:
* Dedicated server can now run without the Steam client.
* Added prj_bExitOnSessionEnd which makes dedserver exit after all players leave, in order to keep memory usage under control.
* Added timeout that disconnects client for the situation when client was forever waiting in the menu netricsa loop and typing "Waiting for server to start" due to the high packet-loss rates.
* Improved connection robustness to prevent spurious disconnects that happened at high packet loss rates.
* Dedicated server enumeration is now much faster.
Multiplayer
* Player now resets its score when changes team and gets respawned when it changes team during gameplay phase.
* Player is not able to respawn when is dead and round is played in last team standing mode.
* In my burden mode, frag count is not important any more for sorting players.
* Dead players don't show direction arrow any more in small players table of the team survival game.
* Auto cycle maps didn't work for survival game modes.
* Cooperative coinop mode now allows users to turn on auto map cycling.
* Beast hunt, team beast hunt and cooperative coinop modes now display rules while loading and wait for the player to press "Continue".
* Playing time in game mode which uses timer for goals (i.e. survival) is now predicted on client, so it counts smoothly.
* Removed erroneous newline character from the "player joined" notification message.
* Added safeguards against problems which caused achievements not to be awarded sometimes on client machines.
* Fixed "Deathmatch Beginner" achievement which required player to win instead of just awarding it to player which participated with at least one kill.
* Added safeguards against spectating players from the opposing team.
* Updated game modes descriptions.
* Winner would not be printed in team modes if there would be only one player in any team.
* Cooperative and coinop now use Netricsa and don't show game rules during load time.
Crashes and malfunctions:
* Fixed application crashes that happened when loading saved games, if thegame was corrupted on the disk.
* Fixed problems caused by intrusive programs (like F-Secure with DeepGuard enabled) that caused the game to misbehave.
* Fixed inability to start the game if Windows installation is damaged so that the certificate checking APIs malfunction. It will now report error to the console, but still carry on.
* Fixed occasional application crashes when game ends up in netricsa level when trying to load invalid save game.
* Fixed memory corruption that happened at high packet-loss rates, and caused crashes later in the game (usually on exit or level change).
* Fixed cases where force field would teleport player into infinity.
* Fixed a crash that happened when client joined a paused game.
* Fixed wrong fatal error when being unable to load ATI's ADL DLL.
Localizations:
* Knife and colt Netricsa messages were sometimes untranslated (in English), even for other locales.
* Localized text for "Wave #" counting in Survival.
* Fixed various errors in localization.
* Fixed "The Second Encounter" label in French locale.
Graphics
* To improve performance near water, dynamic water rippling is disabled on multi-GPU systems. This is a temporary workaround while waiting for driver fixes from ATI and NV.
* Adjusted rendering LOD distance on water rippler distance.
* When rendering in-game wide-screen cameras, max allowed mega-pixels is reduced in order to match rendering size of 4:3 original screen. That way reallocation of rendering buffers is avoided.
* Fixed some models being influenced by fog when they shouldn't be.
* Updated resolution auto-selection to skip the last good resolution for a fallback candidate if it's the same as the current resolution.
* Fixed the inability to start a game in window mode when the .ini file contains the gfx_bFullScreen cvar but without accompanying resolution cvars.
* Added cvar prj_fMinFlameFastLightDistance which specifies the minimum distance between flame fast lights on a single entity. This makes sense only on materials which don't allow flame propagation (most static geometry), as there is already a limit for applying flame hit points on materials on which flames propagate (puppets and trees).
* Cvar 'efx_bStreaksHQ' now defaults to 0, as there's no need for high-quality streaks, as in most cases, "lower" quality is more than enough, while HQ tends to affect frame-rate noticeably.
Sound:
* Upgraded DirectX libraries to the "February 2010" version.
* Fixed possible loopholes that can provoke XAudio2 to crash.
* On the last level, a music started in a secret would wear out without reverting to normal music, thus leaving just silence.
* Fixed problem with weapon sounds sometimes being interrupted in large fights.
* Sound wrapper's report for Xaudio2 now states HW voices (i.e. "mixer voices") correctly. (Mixer HW voices is actually number of output channels in this case.)
* Added 'xad_bInstantUpdates' cvar for controlling whether the changes to XAudio2 API should be commited right away (on a per-function basis) or just once per frame (=0, default).
Menus:
* Fixed problem with particle bias being reset to 1.0, after setting it from GPU custom quality sub-menu.
* Updated difficulty customization menu to display customized settings with a different color from the default settings.
* Text in Game Details and Session Info menus no longer blinks and glows during scrolling.
* Focus changing wasn't working correctly when player uses gamepad to navigate menus with multiple scrollbars.
* Game modes now have more space for the rules in the game mode overlay.
* Enlarged the game overlay buttons for longer strings in non-enu locales.
* Enlarged the area for Netricsa message title and made it wrappable.
* Upon starting new level, user was allowed to exit netricsa before auto-saved game was stored onto disk, which caused application to be blocked for a few seconds.
* Enlarged the area for game rules in game details menu.
* Changed paragraph padding in game details menu to minimize text wrapping.
* Fixed the erroneous level name in session info menu screen.
* Netricsa image was not handled properly for the game modes that use single player levels.
* In game overlay menu, spectators are now flagged with icons, instead of a text label.
* Fixed garbled button names in the game overlay menu before player starts interacting with the menu.
* Fixed problem with "Render LOD Bias" slider being reversed (min setting was infact max and max was min).
* "PlayerCard" (i.e. SteamID) button was not visible on session info menu screen when using only mouse input.
* Added auto jump, fixed crosshair, player list visibility and its size scaler as options in the game options menu.(Previously those were accessible via cvars.)
* Changed sniper rifle and cannon binding to key 7 and serious bomb to key 8.
Levels and gameplay:
* Several pre-recorded demo files are now installed with the game, for easier benchmarking.
* Palenque Demo now has its leaderboards for "SinglePlayer", "Cooperative" and "CooperativeCoinOp" modes.
* Fixed "disco" music on Palenque level not playing on clients.
* Fixed some triggers on Palenque Demo that would not be started in game modes that use warmup.
* Fixed a door on Palenque Demo that wouldn't open in coop.
* Enabled BeastHunt and TeamBeastHunt on Palenque Demo.
* Adjusted visibility distances for Armor and Health items.
* Adjusted melee range for the largest Highlanders to fit their size.
* In some situations puppets would not be deleted after they are dead. This was when they died during the contact with moving brush or bouncer.
* Added sound and particles to destucting floor on Palenque Demo.
* Fixed wrong color on some stones at the start of first level.
* Patched Zumbul spawner on the Palenque Demo level that ended up inside mountains and would fall down into infinity.
* Fixed the huge Highlander Bride in Land of the Damned, so it doesn't walk around and stomp on players.
* Took new screenshots for all levels in resolution 512x512.
* Fixed the flying Kleers secret.
* Cannons on We Got Skulls'N'Bones Too can now be reused.
* Fixed stretch on particles used for tree destructions.
* Added Step sounds for Ughzan player character.
* Adjusted kamikaze and bull spawning on Icelander.
* Disabled destruction on big head statue on Jump Over. It's important that the head stays intact because players use that model to jump on it in order to get to the Health item.
* Changed position of My Burden item on Hole.
* Changed positions of Serious Damage, MyBurden item and on some jumpers on We Got Skul'N'Bones Too.
* Added more spawn markers on several Versus levels that had too few.
* Fixed multiple collision problems on several Versus levels.
* Fixed being able to get out of the arena on Greenfield.
* Fixed enemies getting stuck when descending the hill on Bear City.
* Added various delays on initial item spawning on Kleer Base to avoid spawning all at the same time that makes one big noisy spawning sound.
* Lowered bump map height on the frozen lake.
* Fixed situation on Hole level where player could jump through grid floor if jumping from below water.
* Fixed control time on bouncer on The Lost Tomb level.
* Adjusted Zorg's skeleton and mesh LOD switching distances.
* Added barrier fields on Yodeller because players could reach blind areas of map with rocket jump.
* Inserted new spawn markers on Yodeller.
* Fixed geometry on windmill wing on Yodeller, so players can now walk on it.
* Serious bomb item will not be picked if player cannot cary any more serious bombs.
* Destroying both Exotech Larva arms now triggers quotes.
* Fixed Mental difficulty not getting unlocked.
* Fixed missing war music on the Exotech Larva boss.
* Fixed "MyBurdenBeginner" achievement not being awarded.
* When fixed crosshair is used, crosshair will always be fixed to the center of the screen with fixed size.
* Fixed Kleer sometimes damaging player even after its attack has finished.
Networking:
* Dedicated server can now run without the Steam client.
* Added prj_bExitOnSessionEnd which makes dedserver exit after all players leave, in order to keep memory usage under control.
* Added timeout that disconnects client for the situation when client was forever waiting in the menu netricsa loop and typing "Waiting for server to start" due to the high packet-loss rates.
* Improved connection robustness to prevent spurious disconnects that happened at high packet loss rates.
* Dedicated server enumeration is now much faster.
Multiplayer
* Player now resets its score when changes team and gets respawned when it changes team during gameplay phase.
* Player is not able to respawn when is dead and round is played in last team standing mode.
* In my burden mode, frag count is not important any more for sorting players.
* Dead players don't show direction arrow any more in small players table of the team survival game.
* Auto cycle maps didn't work for survival game modes.
* Cooperative coinop mode now allows users to turn on auto map cycling.
* Beast hunt, team beast hunt and cooperative coinop modes now display rules while loading and wait for the player to press "Continue".
* Playing time in game mode which uses timer for goals (i.e. survival) is now predicted on client, so it counts smoothly.
* Removed erroneous newline character from the "player joined" notification message.
* Added safeguards against problems which caused achievements not to be awarded sometimes on client machines.
* Fixed "Deathmatch Beginner" achievement which required player to win instead of just awarding it to player which participated with at least one kill.
* Added safeguards against spectating players from the opposing team.
* Updated game modes descriptions.
* Winner would not be printed in team modes if there would be only one player in any team.
* Cooperative and coinop now use Netricsa and don't show game rules during load time.
Crashes and malfunctions:
* Fixed application crashes that happened when loading saved games, if thegame was corrupted on the disk.
* Fixed problems caused by intrusive programs (like F-Secure with DeepGuard enabled) that caused the game to misbehave.
* Fixed inability to start the game if Windows installation is damaged so that the certificate checking APIs malfunction. It will now report error to the console, but still carry on.
* Fixed occasional application crashes when game ends up in netricsa level when trying to load invalid save game.
* Fixed memory corruption that happened at high packet-loss rates, and caused crashes later in the game (usually on exit or level change).
* Fixed cases where force field would teleport player into infinity.
* Fixed a crash that happened when client joined a paused game.
* Fixed wrong fatal error when being unable to load ATI's ADL DLL.
Localizations:
* Knife and colt Netricsa messages were sometimes untranslated (in English), even for other locales.
* Localized text for "Wave #" counting in Survival.
* Fixed various errors in localization.
* Fixed "The Second Encounter" label in French locale.
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