It’s been a while since I talked about The Forest. The last time I played it was a few weeks ago, when I was attempting to play the multiplayer with my sister whom had recently picked up the game. It played like shit, so I stopped rather quickly, and haven’t been back to it. I would like to play it some more, especially now that the game has seen a major graphics overhaul and improvements to the netcode. I will get back to you when I manage to get a multiplayer game in, but I will include some screens of the new graphics engine after the patch notes:

This patch switches The Forest over to Unity 5. Replacing all the old shaders with new PBR materials and textures. We also went and replaced almost all our tree models, implemented a new billboarding system, and put in a first version of our new ocean shader.

Plant shaders now have sub surface scattering, our skin shaders have been rewritten, and many other visual tweaks and improvements have been made to the look of the world, we’re really excited to hear what you think.

For multiplayer we’ve introduced a new network prioritization algorithm to provide more relevant updates of remote entities to players. This means smoother multiplayer gameplay and although the lag isn’t completely removed, we’re confident we can continue to tune in the coming weeks.

Some new graphics options should help those with slower computers get the game running faster, including a new level of detail setting which will allow you to raise or lower the view distance of most elements from Ultra all the way down to Ultra low. Across the board everyone should see some performance improvements.

Sick of dying in a cave and having no idea how you got there? We added a drag away by cannibals system! You’ll now see yourself carried off through world.

New bendable grass means you can see it part slightly as rabbits run through it, making them easier to track.

Some major animal improvements mean geese can now fly from lake to lake, and if you like you can follow them and watch how they spend their days. Plus, Deer now no longer run headfirst into trees!

Player audio has been partially implemented, along with a new take on the female skinny audio.

Due to the massive re-working of some of the environment and terrain we’ve had to wipe save games this patch!

As always, please continue to post your bug reports and feedback in the Discussions area of the Community Hub

Version 0.16 Changelog:
New options menu setting ‘Render Type’ will allow you to switch between new deferred renderer(recommended for modern computers) and Legacy renderer (recommended for older computers)
Full pbr shaders on all items. Reworked most textures to fit new lighting.
Reflection probes added.
New ocean shader (work in progress)
Better bow aiming – sight added to bow. bow tracks better with camera view when aiming up and down. Looks better now when viewed by another player
Animals will now attempt to dodge trees, obstacles and other animals
Fixed rebreather’s air resetting to 0 after loading a saved game
(Multiplayer) Reworked the network prioritization algorithm to provide more relevant updates of remote entities to players (Smoother, less jittery enemies)
Upgrade balance: Inverted bonus curve, it now goes from small (10%) to big (100%)
Fixed booze upgrades still not showing up for some weapons
Added a small outline to chat text to make it visible in bright lighting conditions
Fixed issue preventing to lock floors/roofs on multiple walls on the same height level
Grabber system now turned off when in in inventory/book/pause menu or while placing a building (ie, placing a building near water will no longer trigger drinking)
New snapping grid gizmo to help with manual placing of experimental floors & roofs (tip shows the current lock position and is big enough to be seen from either side of a wall)
Experimental Roofs now snap back to closest edge on current support (ie the wall you’re putting it on)
Goose simulator added. Geese will now fly between lakes and swim around acting like geese
Fixed Bon Fire not lightable
Fixed flying food on rock fire pit
Fixed burn lizard scale
Added generic meat burnt
Fixed drying generic meat
Fixed Treehouse + Treehouse Chalet floor not buildable
Deer will now drink at lakes
Fixed issue where deer would run right through trees!
Dead birds now have a chance of spawning feathers when hit
Revamped cooking to allow eating burnt food but with far lesser gain
Player will now see himself briefly dragged away into a cave when knocked out but not killed.
New art added: Improved airline foodcart
Fixed bug where climbing rope for first time would sometimes cause it to release right after climbing
New trees! New bark and leaf types.
New billboard system with lit billboards and rotation
Unity 5 reflection probe system added
New clouds/sky
All shaders switched to use new unity pbr
Dirtied up and improved regular enemy textures
New pbr skin shader!
In game controls remapping, both in Title & Main scene options
Falling particle leaves now accumulate on ground
Fixed logs flying up into air when trees were cut
Fixed physics on some trees not colliding with terrain when falling
New art added: dead small trunk
Graphics options: added rendering patch selection
Graphics options: added new setting to turn off sunshine occlusion
Graphics options: added new setting to tune Level of Detail
Graphics options: SSAO setting now also changes sample count
Graphics Settings now properly show the saved preset name after restarting the game
Graphics Settings: Renamed “Laptop” level to “Ultra Low”
Fixed survival book entries not clickable on occasion
New art added: new version of plane food! plane tray, styrofoam cups and trays
New bushes- replaced 2 of the worst looking bushes with new type
New lake shader added! reflective and with murkiness
New dead trees! Better textures and models, and now all cuttable!
Better shark ragdoll
Jump animation added to player
New combat move – Flying axe attack. Attack downwards with axe while jumping to perform a powerful ground chop.
When falling from high up, player will briefly stumble to his hands and knees
You can now cook arms and legs (and … eat them – but you probably shouldnt)
Dead trees replaced and now cuttable!
New log type for buildings that matches carried log
(audio) New player sounds!
(audio) New female skinny audio!
New blueberry bushes!
New multiplayer octree based priority calculation
New art: Re-done plane seats
Fish and sharks are now also in multiplayer games!
Touch bending grass added! enemies, rabbits, animals and player will now slightly rustle the grass as they move through it (this is a first pass at this, next version will include better bending)
You can now climb fishing stands
Experimental Walls now block AIs (mutant & animals) from going through it
Fixed fire particles staying up after cutting down a burning tree
New world art: cliff wall variations.
Lighter now stays equipped when exiting/entering ropes
Added some additional optimizations and memory tweaks for 32bit machines that have less than 4gigs of usable ram
Fixed molotov fire never shutting down

The game looks fantastic in the new engine, and does seem to run a bit smoother. I won’t comment on the multiplayer improvements just yet, but here’s some shots of various areas in the game so you can see the improvements to the graphics:

#theforest #patchnotes #unity5