Hi everyone, in the run-up to our Trails from Zero release we detailed a lot of the improvements we made to our version of that game, across three Steam community posts. The [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1668510/view/3361388019335519328]first one[/url] focused on arbitrary aspect ratio support, UI, various quality of life features, and graphics settings. In [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1668510/view/5138061328894182485]the second post[/url] I went into some detail on how we improved the assets of the game, including sprites and map textures. And in [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1668510/view/3355764861429706188]the third and final part[/url] I went into some extra platform features, optimization, the music information UI, and various bug fixes. After the release of Trails from Zero, we continued to expand the feature-set in response to player feedback, in particular with the introductions of [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1668510/view/3484126564850753513]shader-based water rendering and an automatic text advance feature[/url]. [b]I'm happy to announce that Trails to Azure includes every single one of these enhancements from the get-go![/b] So, if you want a lot of background information on and illustrations of these features, you can consult the links above. However, that's a lot of reading, so I've summarized things in a handy list of categorized bullet points: [u][b]Graphic Assets[/b][/u][list][*][b]Sprites[/b]: use the highest-quality available baseline available, and further improve them by de-dithering them with an artificial neural network. [*][b]UI textures[/b]: source from various versions to get the best one; completely redraw several of them. [*][b]Map textures[/b]: Use a combined multi-AI / manual selection / redrawing approach with human supervision on every single one of them. [*][b]3D assets[/b]: fix a huge number of smaller graphical inconsistencies or missing geometry throughout the game. [/list] [u][b]Graphics (non-assets)[/b][/u][list][*]Add [b]dynamic character shadows[/b] for lights in night scenes and dungeons. [*]Add [b]dynamic water shaders[/b] with refraction for water surfaces. [*]Increased [b]draw distance[/b] (practically unlimited). [*]Support for [b]high/variable framerate[/b]. [*]Support for [b]anti-aliasing[/b] (both MSAA up to 8x and FXAA options) and anisotropic filtering. [*]Support for [b]arbitrary resolutions and aspect ratios[/b]. [/list] [u][b]Input[/b][/u][list][*]Full [b]mouse menu[/b] navigation. [*]An optional [b]mouse movement[/b] system with a lot of options for fine-tuning. [*]Extra direct keybinding options for common actions. [*][b]Full rebinding[/b] support with dynamic button prompts for both controller and mouse/KB input. [/list] [u][b]User Interface and QoL[/b][/u][list][*]Added a [b]message log[/b] feature. [*]Added a feature to show the name of each song and which OST it can be found on when it starts playing. [*]Added an [b]auto text advance[/b] feature. [*]A [b]UI scaling[/b] option, to better support both monitor and other (e.g. Steam Deck) setups. [*]Various options to hide status display elements dynamically. [*][b]Save game compression[/b], save compatibility with prior releases, timed autosaves, and "resume from latest save" feature. [/list] [u][b]Other[/b][/u][list][*]Add optional "rich presence" support for platforms where it is available. [*]Fixed a large number of legacy bugs, reaching from the more obvious to the extremely obscure. [*]Performance optimization to reduce power consumption on the Steam Deck. [/list] Sadly, there is one small issue related to importing Zero saves on the Steam Deck which we currently can't work around due to the limitations of the Proton layer. [expand]When playing on the Steam Deck through Proton, you cannot directly import save games from "Trails from Zero". To circumvent this problem, you can either start your game on a Windows PC and import the saves there, and then cloud sync your initial Azure save to the Deck, or you can manually copy the save files. We will provide a guide for the latter in the troubleshooting forum.[/expand] As always, none of this would have been possible without the great people at NISA and Falcom, our fantastic beta testers, and of course the team at PH3. I hope you'll enjoy Trails to Azure, we absolutely put our all into making a great version of it! - Peter "Durante" Thoman, CTO, PH3