Hello Onward Community, Overall update 1.13 has received great reactions and feedback. From how good the updated PVE feels to fun rounds of Basketball played on FOB Bassett. However, shortly after update 1.13 was launched we started to get a small number of reports related to performance, map bugs, and PCVR load times. We quickly jumped on reviewing the information coming in and resolving these issues. This hotfix addresses a variety of things that were ultimately adding up thus resulting in performance drops and FPS stuttering. It also fixes a range of bugs for maps, including aggressive kill spots, culling/popping, and lighting issues. Additionally, while we were packaging this hotfix we opted to include some fixes that were ready to release such as some additional adjustments to Co-Op, A Caster Mode fix, and others. The details of adjustments in this hotfix are listed in the change log below. [b]Under the Hood[/b] During our QA testing cycles version 1.13 was operating and testing normally and went through the typical process of testing, bug reports, and bug fixes. Testers did not run into any major moments of performance drops or moments that felt like it affected the intended gameplay. Our QA team can’t cover the plethora of devices, connections, and setups that the playerbase could have, so making sure we listen and follow-up with our community is a top priority. When we started to get reports from the community about performance and map bugs, we wanted to address it right away, however, it was difficult to narrow down what the cause might be, so we worked directly with community members affected and also started going through the code to try and identify possible causes. [u]Maps[/u] We were able to find some map issues like skyboxes for all maps being loaded, instead of just the ones that were needed. That has been fixed. We also went through and reviewed maps to find locations that needed improvements to the occlusion culling (“popping”) and lighting. Those adjustments have all been made in addition to some other fixes. [u]Performance[/u] We also identified that memory usage in 1.13 had become significantly higher than it had been previously, we found and addressed several causes for that. An example of this is making optimizations to the code that handles the weapons that bots use, addressing performance dips some players might have been feeling in Co-Op. PCVR has much higher resolution and graphics quality throughout the game. Things such as multiple skyboxes being referenced, amount of shaders loading, and bot weapon handling will have a higher impact on the performance and memory usage for PCVR vs Quest. This caused some PCVR players' load times to increase or be unable to launch the game. As a result, we have made some improvements to launching parameters and cut down on some of the memory being used throughout the game. These adjustments should also additionally help Quest users who might be experiencing some performance issues or longer launching times. We will be continuing to look into this and improve this further in future updates. [i]For Meta Quest players[/i] Meta Quest recently had an update to the Quest OS that was changing some players' default settings to run applications at 120hz. Onward is designed to run at 90hz. If you disable this setting in your OS, this should get you some additional improved performance while playing. [i]For PCVR Players[/i] Some PCVR assets may still be using more memory than intended. We are going to continue to look into further reducing the memory used. If you continue to experience issues launching the game, please contact [url=dpisupport@meta.com]our support team[/url]. [u]Quest - Throwing Utilities[/u] We originally made some adjustments to the Quest throwing dynamics based on information we had received about hardware updates for Quest devices. When testing the adjustments in dev sessions and in our QA process, there didn’t feel to be a difference from the intended functionality. After the update, we again listened to the community and based on the feedback we received, made sure to go back and evaluate if it was the intended experience we wanted the players to have. After review it was determined that it was not the way we wanted the feature to work and we reverted the change. Throwing will now work the same way it did in 1.12.2. [h2]Change Log: [/h2] [h3]System[/h3] [list] [*] Enabled dynamic shader memory management for PC to resolve extremely long load times or crashes some players were experiencing [*] Removed some code that was slowing down update logic for most objects in the game [*] Optimized logic for pickups run to help with performance [*] Removed many shaders from our pre-warmed collections that are no longer in the game and may have been slowing down loading for PC users [*] Lowered overall memory usage[/list] [h3]UI/UX [/h3] [list] [*] Fixed player outlines not appearing when in caster / desktop launch mode[/list] [h3]Co-Op[/h3] [list] [*] Improved performance of cover and pathing behaviors of bots to resolve stuttering and lagging on the host player [*] AI now turn flashlights and lasers off on weapons when they drop the weapon [*] In Hunt, the tablet will now only beep once when the initial scan begins, not repeatedly [*] Fixed high difficulty bots not being affected by flashbangs as much as they should have been[/list] [h3]Maps[/h3] [list] [*] Fixed bugs and memory issues related to skyboxes on all maps [*] Improved occlusion on Downfall (D/N), Snowpeak (D/N), Subway, and the Main Menu improve performance and reduce "popping" [*] Improved the quality of lightmaps on FOB (D/N) Subway, Cargo (D/N) Downfall (D/N) Bazaar (D/N) Quarantine (D/N) Snowpeak (D/N) Shooting Range (D/N) [*] Fixed many locations that were spontaneously killing players that walked into them on Suburbia (D/N), Bazaar (D/N), and Downfall (D/N) [*] Improved terrain quality on Downfall (D/N)[/list] [h3]Workshop & Custom Maps[/h3] [list] [*] Fixed several issues reported by custom content creators with the custom content SDK[/list] [h3]Weapons and Utilities[/h3] [list] [*] Reverted a change that was reducing throwing distance for Quest users by approximately 25%[/list] [h3]Known Issues:[/h3] [list] [*] A small number of buildings on Quarantine Day appear overly bright when the player is at a particular distance from them [*] On PCVR, Lighting inside the tent may appear brighter than intended [/list]