We're very happy to announce we've released our first official "major" update to the game for playtesting! [h2]Performers On Stage[/h2] After several months of procrastination, it was time to resolve the issues with Performers not being able to reach their stage positions. There was a bunch of work which had to be done to get Performers integrated into the simulation properly, a lot more than we had thought initially. As performers have to be on stage when their performance starts (the show must go on!), we added teleportation, which allows them to spawn on stage the moment they are supposed to go on. They will also teleport if they can’t find a path to the stage, which allows a bit more flexibility when setting up and fencing off your event site. [h2]Animations[/h2] Once we had the performers being able to walk to their proper performance positions, we wanted to add some animations, to make sure your visitors have something to watch. We’ve also added some basic instruments / backline for them to use during the performance. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41153285/6b61f57e87ed2e99bc53661fc85b4802a000bac1.gif[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41153285/c7bf29de1fb2130c8edb73574f656087c6021ae9.gif[/img] We’ve also added some initial animations to the crew while they are constructing the event site. More improvements will be added later, as we add more roles for Crew, like working at a vendor. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41153285/b9885d177e24c06efc0fc1fb98f4c5aec0582f7b.gif[/img] [h2]Tech[/h2] [h3]Unity Update[/h3] One of the major things which was complicating development has been the Unity version we’ve been stuck using, and the version of Unity’s ECS package which was available. Earlier this year, Unity released some major updates for ECS, which meant we had to make a lot of changes to our code to be able to use this new version, which would make our development process a lot easier. As we speak, Unity is in the process of releasing yet another major update, so more updates will be integrated into the game soon. As we’ve mentioned before, most of the simulation subsystems in the game rely on ECS, so this is a key part of the entire game experience. We have now updated to a recent Unity 2020.3 version, enabling us to make use of many of these changes, and are able to deliver a better game than before. [h3]Rendering & Performance[/h3] One of the hardest parts in developing Festivals - Headliners is performance. As we want to simulate visitors' behavior very accurately, a lot of calculations need to be done, while we also need to keep the framerate up. The second hardest part is keeping the rendering of this simulation light-weight, while making the game look beautiful. Again, we need to keep framerate up. As most of the game is played using a free-orbit camera, Unity’s rendering has to keep up with rapid changes of what should be rendered, and what shouldn’t. This process is called culling. When the simulation isn’t running, culling isn’t an issue, as there’s plenty of time for Unity to figure out what should be shown on screen, while maintaining a decent framerate. But when the simulation is running, and already straining performance, the additional culling operations performed by Unity when rotating or moving the camera causes a noticeable lag (not to mention the overall drop in framerate). Now can this be solved entirely? By tuning down all graphics, we could gain significant performance. But great graphics are, as mentioned, one of the primary goals we wanted to achieve in this game. So we decided to, for now, pick graphics over performance, while allowing certain graphics options to be disabled in an attempt to accommodate players who don’t have a really high-end gaming rig. Let us know how this works out for everyone. We’ve tested extensively using a 3060ti, which runs the game great at 1080p on medium quality. That's it for now! v0.2.0 is already live on Playtest and should be updated in Playtesters' libraries already. Also, check out the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/games/2106100/announcements/detail/3379415101014857720]full changelog[/url], and don't forget to sign up for playtesting if you haven't already!