Welcome to Early Access Update 23. The majority of this update is dedicated to the Beta build, and getting assets to preload quicker. When starting the Beta build there was a noticeable pause between the initital splash screen displaying and the startup sequence loading. This was due to material assets preloading in the background. On Steam Deck this would result in a black screen for a few seconds. >>> Now a new screen displays, informing the player exactly what is happening, whilst the materials preload. I still need to draw up a dedicated background for this, but in the meantime there is a shrugging catgirl. The other major change - again for the Beta - is the preloading of asset files when the first level has loaded. Previously there was a noticeable lag when a new asset was loaded for the first time, usually when a new monster spawned. After much searching and trial and error I discovered that for some reason decals were taking far longer to appear than expected. >>> Spawn time of monsters and general dynamic objects should be much faster now. All this and a few other bug fixes, most of which are detailed below. [olist] [*] Update 23: update to v.1.7.8.0 [*] Change: Client materials now load after initial start up to prevent a blank screen displaying for multiple seconds, especially on Steam Deck. [*] New: Client materials preload now has it's own GUI screen informing the player of load progress. [*] Change: Updated DirectX compiler for shaders. [*] Change: AI Monsters now have preloaded shapes in the level for instancing. [*] Change: Shapes and animations are pre-registered on the server to remove spawn lag/stuter on first instance. [*] Change: Relevant decals for FX and monster spawning are now preloaded in the level for instancing. [*] Change: Material brightness for some decals which do not recieve lighting has been lowered so they are less blinding. [*] Change: Some dynamic objects have had their material brightness reduced to make them more legible. [*] Change: Cracked earth decals were not receiving shadows which made them look odd in shadow. [*] Fix: Single Use Item "Lava" was not using an explosion. [*] Fix: Single Use Item "Lava" was not creating a decal. [*] Fix: Single Use Item "Terror Tower" had the wrong decal. [*] Fix: Single Use Item "Brass Monkey" had the wrong decal. [/olist] Merry Christmas - which I am in no way, shape or form ready for, so it's going to be panic stations next week - and a Happy New Year! See you in Space Year 2024.