The latest update for GameGuru Classic is now out, including bug fixes reported since the June update. If you spot any new issues please let us know on our issues board.
Here are all of the items we fixed in this update:
Now the Show(e) and Hide(e) commands ignore light markers, use ShowLight and HideLight instead
Prevents the player from intersecting obstacles if using SPACE to swim upward when underwater
Fixed the issue of custom characters not retaining their color tints
What are you playing at we hear you scream.....only three fixes in three months, one fix per month, are you serious?
It can take years, and in the case of GameGuru Classic, eight years, to get to a point where bugs are few and far between, and right now on our issues board we are down to 6 reports left.
Four of them are marked as fixed awaiting confirmation, and two are awaiting additional information required to successfully reproduce the issue. The rest of the bugs, which once numbered in the thousands, have all been fixed.
We made a commitment two years ago to support GameGuru Classic with fixes for as long as there was a community around it and this is still the case. We hope you continue to enjoy making games with this increasingly classic game maker.
As always, we encourage you to check out the GitHub repository that holds the source code to GameGuru Classic and if you have some C++ skills, and feel inclined, make some additions and let us know. We are always looking for new features to release........and the community will be very happy with you!
For general news and an extended Live Chat with the community, check out the live broadcast on our YouTube channel which goes out on the last Wednesday of every month on YouTube at 7 PM BST.
This update adds significant VRAM optimizations (over 2 GB less VRAM usage!), RAM optimizations, significant GPU performance optimizations, a much better looking dark tree, new fancy shadows for trees, improved sky colors and a generally much improved sky, plus many more improvements, optimizations and bugfixes!
Let's first take a look at the long list of changes, and after that, let's get into more detail for the biggest changes! Btw, are you in the official cyubeVR Discord yet?
Significantly optimized the VRAM usage of the game, it now needs over 2 GB less VRAM!
Replaced the dark tree model with a better looking one
Added "voxel shadows" below trees, making the area below trees darker, without any performance impact
Significantly changed the color of the sky, it's now way more blue during daytime
Changed the color of light shafts from the sun, they are now less blue and a bit less strong
Significantly optimized RAM usage of the near-infinite view distance system. On large view distances, the game needs many GBs less RAM now
When launching the game, there now is a "Stonebrick Studios" logo first before you enter the main menu
Added new SSAO setting in the "Visuals" tab of the settings
Improved visuals of the tree trunks near the ground, they fade to a dark green at the bottom now, so the transition from grass to tree looks much smoother
When using LIV mixed reality, the hands are now invisible in the LIV view
Significant GPU performance optimizations, especially during night
Optimized the speed of loading the existing view distance when loading a world, it's significantly faster now
Significantly optimized GPU performance of foliage
Improved visuals of the sky, clouds look more interesting and more detailed now.
Improved foliage LOD transitions, they are less noticeable now
VoxelAPI mods like cyubePainter can now correctly remove grass and flowers
The strength of the snow on grass/flowers now matches the strength of the snow on ground around them much better, making it look much more correct
CPU performance optimization for tree spawning
Modified the furnace recipe video, it now zooms into the center to make it easier to see that there is a gap there
Until the player has opened the briefcase at least once, there is now a floating hint text above the left hand that explains how to open the briefcase
Slightly improved the grip position of the hand on the stick
When selecting a torch in the hand, the preview on the hand is now translucent instead of opaque, to make it more clear that it's just a preview for placing it
Fixed rainbow flowers not being visible
Adjusted texture streaming settings, it should no longer happen now that the bucket texture often looks blurry for half a second after enabling the bucket
Added a voice saying "Objective Completed" when succeeding an objective
After the "green arrow" animation finished playing in the objective UI on the currently succeeded objective, it now automatically moves forward one page to display the new objective
When starting a new world, the first objective visible is now the first "real" objective (Radial Menu) and not the always-succeeded objective to open the briefcase
The "Objectives" button in the briefcase UI is now called "Interactive Tutorial" until the first 20 objectives are done, to make it more clear to a new player that it makes sense to pay attention to it at the beginning of the game
Added new screenshots to community screenshot showcase in the main menu
Adjusted the text for the "Recolor torch" objective to explain how a torch can be recolored
Crafting a copper axe and copper shovel will also unlock the objective for stone axe and stone shovel now
Crafting an iron shovel will also unlock the objective for the stone shovel now
Fixed that the chunk mesh optimization code was disabled
Optimized the general save file format, slightly reducing sizes
At the bottom of the crafting recipe list, the game now tells you how much VRAM in total all the custom blocks use
Fixed block items sometimes incorrectly teleporting up while mining something like coal
Fixed that it was possible that when dying, and then respawning far away, the "dead body inventory" was not being saved
Decreased maximum burn time for all non-fuel block items (e.g. copper) from 25 minutes to 2.5 minutes
When it snows, the ambient sounds during day (birds, wind) are now only 5% the regular volume
Updated C++ compiler to latest version
Small improvement of aurora visuals
Slightly reduced the brightness of the grass side texture
After dying, the red "Respawning..." screen now stays active until the chunk around the respawn location is fully loaded
Fixed that dropping a ghost item from a radial menu slot onto a tool in a regular inventory slot created a ghost tool in the radial menu slot
Fixed that trees would often disappear incorrectly after cutting down more than ~4 trees
Fixed that it's possible to walk into/through the furnace and trees, both with smooth locomotion and teleport
Fixed that trees would sometimes stay on the lowest LOD for way too long when using very high view distances
Fixed crash when teleporting far away while standing close to a cactus
Fixed there being an incorrectly rendered grass below every floating recipe paper
Fixed recipe paper instantly disappearing when releasing it immediately after grabbing it
Fixed a possible crash when unloading a tree before it has become visible
Fixed that it was possible to stick an axe backwards into a tree
Fixed typo in objective (if -> is)
Fixed the main menu background sometimes looking too low res
Fixed that the "Torch Flickering" setting did not have any effect on block items
Some other small CPU and GPU optimizations
Fixed a possible crash
Significantly optimized the VRAM usage of the game, it now needs over 2 GB less VRAM!
This is a big optimization!
This is especially impactful because most players use a GPU with 8 GB VRAM and play the game on a Quest 2. Actually, Windows itself often uses ~2 GB VRAM and the Quest 2 requires much more VRAM than using a native SteamVR headset, due to requiring two compositors running at the same time (Oculus + SteamVR) which combined also easily use ~2 GB VRAM for themselves. So that often just leaves ~4 GB that is left to be used by a game then, which means a 2 GB reduction in how much VRAM the game needs is a major improvement for many players!
The VRAM improvements are also almost independent of the ingame settings, even on the lowest possible settings the game will now use almost 2 GB less VRAM than before, without looking any worse.
Additionally, this update also significantly optimizes the RAM usage of the near-infinite view distance system. On large view distances (100 chunks or more), the game needs many GBs less RAM now!
Those VRAM and RAM improvements together look like this in the case of running the game at high settings (All settings mostly at Max, View Distance 100, Terrain Quality "Ultra"), in a large world, comparing the RAM and VRAM usage between Update 55 and Update 56:
VRAM: 8.6 GB -> 6.2 GB RAM: 14.2 GB -> 12.6 GB
Significant improvements to the sky
This update significantly improves the visuals of the sky in multiple different ways.
First, it significantly changes the color of the sky, making it way more blue during daytime. You might think "just a color change?", but it's actually a really major difference to the "average color" you see in the game, since the sky often fills half your view! This change makes the whole game generally feel a bit more happy and uplifting.
Here you can see a Before / After comparison of the sky color:
Before:
After:
The detail of the clouds has also been much improved with this update: Before, the sky often looked a bit boring and blurry, but now, the clouds look way more detailed (not visible on the screenshots above, they both already have the better details active).
New Dark Tree!
The dark tree in the game has been replaced with a completely new, much more detailed model - the previous dark tree didn't quite fulfill the "everything should be super 8K" requirements any more that cyubeVR puts on all it's visuals ;) I think the old dark tree, which has been added to the game in 2016, really would have won the award for the most ugly object in the whole game, so it absolutely was time to replace it with a tree that looks like a proper 2023 high-resolution tree!
Here is a Before / After comparison of the old and new tree:
Update 55 Dark Tree:
Update 56 Dark Tree:
And here's one more Before / After comparison, from a bit further away from the tree:
Update 55 Dark Tree:
Update 56 Dark Tree:
And even though this new tree is way more detailed than the old one, it's actually faster to render than the old one as well! So it's a win-win in every possible way :)
There also is a technical reason for this change: The old tree heavily relied on tessellation to look acceptable, and Unreal Engine 5 actually removes the support for tessellation. So relying on tessellation for visuals is no longer an option once cyubeVR will be updated to Unreal Engine 5, so it's good to start now already with making sure everything looks great with no tessellation.
New shadows below trees
This update adds "voxel shadows" below trees, making the area below trees darker. These shadows are "free" on the GPU since they are calculated on the CPU as part of the chunk update, so they significantly improve the visuals of the game without requiring any more GPU performance! And the CPU-side is so well optimized that the time it takes to calculate them is completely insignficant.
Here you can see a before/after comparison of how the game looked like before, and how it looks like now with the new shadows!
Before:
After:
Independently from the new shadows, the grounding of the trees has also been improved by fading them to the grass color near the ground, which is also visible on the screenshots above already, but here's a comparison where the new shadows are active in both cases and only the improved grounding is compared to better illustrate that (Thanks Mika for making this GIF):
Significant GPU performance optimizations
There generally are many GPU performance optimizations in this update, so you should see cyubeVR run as smoothly and nicely as never before, while also looking better than ever :)
Currently, there is a big focus on optimizations because optimizations are also very beneficial for cyubeVR to run ideally on PSVR2, which will be a great platform for the game: It's the first time that a non-PC platform exists that supports VR and can actually run a very beautiful game like cyubeVR. And cyubeVR should be one of the best looking VR games on PSVR2 as well, just like it is on PC, so it's important that it's as optimized as possible so that the graphics can be set as high as possible!
Of course, PC's with RTX 4090s are still far superior in the performance and visuals they can reach, but not everyone wants to buy such overpriced GPUs, so for many players, the PSVR2 will likely be an ideal platform to play cyubeVR on. A PSVR2 release is planned to happen in 2023! After the PSVR2 release is done, the focus of development will shift from optimizations to more gameplay-oriented features again then.
But here's an interesting statistic that shows that adding more optimizations will always remain important on PC as well: Even now, in the years 2023, over 5.5 years after cyubeVR originally was released on Steam, while the min specs for running the game never significantly increased in all those years, the most often picked reason why people refund cyubeVR on Steam, even if it's overall just a small percentage, is still... that their PC can't run the game with good enough performance. So, let's see how much this big optimization update helps to improve that statistic :)
New screenshots in the community screenshot showcase!
These new screenshots of very cool builds have been added to the community screenshot showcase in the main menu of the game:
Observation Tower | Built by: ChibiArcher
Church | Built by: ChibiArcher
Pixel Art | Built by: ChibiArcher
Village | Built by: Backofen
Castle Area | Built by: Talsma & Community World
New video!
Today is not just the release of Update 56, but also the release of a new video on the official Stonebrick Studios YouTube channel! A video showcasing the amazing reactions from streamers playing cyubeVR. Here's a separate announcement post about the video:
A big thanks to everyone for supporting the development of cyubeVR on Patreon! I'm working full-time on cyubeVR, and it's often quite hard to make a living purely off the Steam sales of the game, so any Patreon Supporter is really worth a lot for the continued development of the game. Thanks so much to all the Patreon Supporters (list sorted by total lifetime donation, highest first):
ChibiArcher, Arados, Ethernoctis, @B4nH4mm3r on Discord, Quill, SkgBlaze, Lucanes, ErrorNull, Lynx, Sceptrex, Trevor Berninger, Tom Hörberg, KroyVR, Bhima, Plantmaster, Altair, Al Raw, David R., David O, Albertbz, Eti the Spirit, Shanya / Sabrina, MightyDuck, Saltshine, WillyVR, VenturePopTV, Austin Flores, DiamondHunter_, HeyMika, TallOnTwo, Tiddlez, gunair, Michael Ballard, M1kk3l, WarChi1d, Alphie, Jackerino, Dark Slaughter, Yasha, Talsma, Curzek, Lucas van Leiden, mazzawoollza, wherr, RelativelyQuantum, Netshaman, Dave Pearson, Bucket Codes, Lordoldmanrets, Volpe, Daniel Crawford, texhnobees, TinyMrMan (MB), __mt, AnubisXtreme, Adrian Sawn, Saul2000, joerkig, MurphChops, Connor A, Algiz, nqeron, Solid Hernando, SingingFluffyUK
Patreon rewards are being mentioned in the list of Patreon supporters in the main menu, getting a special colored name in the official cyubeVR discord, and physical items like a sticker, mug, or T-Shirt with cyubeVR designs.
More awesome new custom blocks
Recently, new awesome custom blocks were added to the cyubeVR Steam Workshop! Let's mention some of them here:
Great new blocks! You can install every one of them with a single button click, and immediately use them for building in the game. Make sure to regularly browse through the Steam Workshop and subscribe to anything you find useful for building in cyubeVR, or easily create your own custom blocks!
And it's also super easy to create your own custom blocks! Did you know there is a super easy to use GUI tool now for creating cyubeVR custom blocks? Everything you need to know about how to create custom blocks you can find here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/619500/discussions/3/1640917625019543783/
And if you want to create more sophisticated mods for the game, that's possible too! Check out this page that explains all the different types of modding possible with cyubeVR: https://github.com/cyubeVR-Modding
As usual, thanks very much to our great beta testers in the official cyubeVR discord who tested this update as part of 25 separate beta builds! If you want to test new features earlier when they come out in the beta branch, make sure to join the discord and take a look at the #beta-build-patch-notes and #beta-build-discussion channel!
That's all for today! If you like the game, don't forget to tell other people about it and write a review on Steam if you haven't done that already, even if it's simply "good game". Writing a positive review is the easiest way you can support the game because indie devs like me are very dependent on the Steam Algorithm recommending the game to new people to be able to afford to keep working on it!
Thanks for caring about the game and as usual, make sure to report all issues you see and give me as much feedback as possible in the official forums or the official discord server, join it before its full ;) We're over 3800 people there already, come and join us! If you don't like something about the game, please tell me there and I'll try to improve it! I'm available to chat with anyone in Discord :)
There's also the official cyubeVR subreddit on Reddit, if you're active on Reddit, make sure to subscribe to it and maybe post some great screenshots there!
Time for a quick development update! The ‘Architect’ has been hanging out on the experimental branch for a little while now, which gives us a chance to make sure all bugs are hunted out. :) Considering that patch has quite an impact behind-the-scenes, it’ll stay there for a little while longer until we’re confident that everything will run smoothly.
In the meantime, we are neck-deep in research and development, working on adding controller support to the game. We want to make sure it feels right to play on a controller and on the Steamdeck, and it’s also going to help us explore the possibility of bringing Flotsam to other platforms in the future. This is a big feature, which will take a while.
So, what’s next?
Once we've wrapped up the Architect Update, we’ll start testing out the controller support. After that we're turning our attention to an important issue: the absence of a tutorial. While it might not be as flashy as brand-new content, we’re ensuring everyone has a smooth onboarding experience. In the meantime, we're also looking at a simple farming system and fine-tuning the food pipeline.
Welcome to our newest event! The Boost On! FS2 Grand Prix!
Event Period:
2023/08/09 00:00 ~ 08/23 23:59 (PDT)
Event Details:
- Get Item -
- Purchase Nitro Fuel to use Boosters.
**Obtained Booster Fuel will disappear after the event ends. Nitro Fuel:
Small Dashboard
- When you use Boosters, the speed on the small dashboard will be determined randomly from 10 to 80 km. - The speed will be determined at equal probabilities from between 10, 20, 30.... 80 (total of 8 speeds)
Big Dashboard
- The 3 numbers determined on the small dashboard will be added and displayed on the big dashboard. - The grade of rewards to be received will be based on the sum of those speeds. - Obtained rewards will be sent to your Gift Box.
Booster Draw Preview:
Animation On
Booster Draw Preview (Animation Off)
Booster Draw Rewards List
Booster Draw Rewards Table
- Hyper Booster -
- Using Boosters will increase the Hyper Booster gauge. - Using the x10 will increase the gauge a little more than using x1s.
Hyper Booster Activate -When the Hyper Booster gauge reaches 100%, the Booster will activate automatically.
Obtaining Rewards - You can obtain 5-20 random rewards while Booster is activated.
Hyper Booster Random Rewards Preview
Hyper Booster Rewards List
- If you have Effect OFF, you can claim your rewards from the Claim Rewards pop-up.
- Cumulative Rewards -
- Using Boosters will increase cumulated rewards. - You can obtain rewards when you achieve the accumulated reward value for each section.
Resetting - The Reset button will appear once you've received the rewards from all the sections.
Reset Complete - Once you check the Reset button, all information will be deleted, and you can claim rewards from using Boosters again.
Cumulative Booster Rewards List
- Exchange Shop -
- You can obtain Mileage by using Boosters.
Using Mileage - Exchange earned mileage at the Exchange Shop for various items. - Obtained rewards will be sent to your Gift Box.
There are specific requirements for this event but there's no need to worry.
To participate, make sure to follow the guide and instructions that we'll be preparing below.
What's important is that you'll be able to obtain rewards from each level, and there's a chance to reach the highest level as well.
Event Duration:
2023/09/06 00:00 ~ 09/24 23:59 (PDT)
Event Mechanics:
Devil's Tower Help
1. Purchase Stamina and climb the tower.
2. Climb the tower to randomly obtain the items allocated to the levels. 3. Climb up more levels at once to obtain more 'bonus steps'. - You can climb additional levels depending on the amount of bonus steps. - Moving 1 level does not grant bonus steps. 4. Upon reaching the final level, you will randomly obtain one of the rewards set with the same probabilty. 5. Receive the final level reward to go back to level 1. 6. Upon reaching the final level again, you will randomly obtain one of the remaining rewards. 7. If you obtain all of the level rewards for the first round, the rewards will be replaced with a fixed list of normal items. 8. From the second round, the list of items will be fixed and set with the same probability. (Same items may be obtained again).
Devil's Tower Inventory Help 1. Devil'sTower rewards are sent to the inventory by default. 2. You can select a character and send all items collected in the inventory. 3. If you want to send different rewards by character, you need to change settings so that the items will be 'directly sent to the gift box' before starting the event. 4. Please note that the settings will take effect after they are applied.
How to participate in Devil's Tower: Step 1: Purchase the event resource “Stamina” to challenge the Devil’s Tower. Step 2: Use the purchased stamina to play the gacha and obtain the reward from each level. Step 3: You can draw 1, 10, 30, or 50 times. Step 4: Obtain rewards from each level and reach the highest level!
Bonus Steps - Bonus Steps add a certain amount of stamina. - Additional chances may be granted based on the number of draws. - Bonus Steps may be granted when drawing 1, 30, or 50 times.
Event Reward Distribution Notice - Obtained rewards can be sent to the Adventurer’s Inventory (backpack) or Gift Box directly. - You can set where to send the rewards to from the event page.
[Devil’s Tower Event Reward Distribution Settings Screen]
Obtaining through Backpack - Up to 8 obtained items will be displayed in the Adventurer’s Inventory (backpack). - You can select a character and “send items to inventory”. - If the rewards are left unclaimed until the event ends, the items will be sent to the gift box.
[Devil’s Tower Adventurer’s Inventory Screen – Storing in Backpack]
[Devil’s Tower Adventurer’s Inventory Item Distribution Screen]
Distribution to Gift Box - Obtain items will be sent to the gift box immediately. - You can view up to 8 items obtained through the Adventurer’s Inventory.
[Devil’s Tower Adventurer’s Inventory Screen – Sending to Gift Box]
Devil’s Tower Reward by Level - Up to 5 rewards are placed on each level, and you can randomly obtain one of them. - After you receive the reward on the final level, you will go back to the first level and play again. - After you have claimed all 5 rewards on the final level, “level 0” will be unlocked where you can randomly obtain one of the rewards placed there. - The Card Option Changer item obtainable through the Devil’s Tower event allows you to change the sub attributes of the Allstar Cards (offense/defense).
> When you reach the final level, you will return to level 1 and play again. > Rewards you obtain on the final level cannot be obtained again. > Once you have obtained all rewards on the final level, you will randomly obtain one of the rewards from level 0.
