Update 8.1 Now Available! 50+ new items, major performance & visual improvements

Update 8.1 is finally out and ready to play!

The biggest addition is more than 50 items, many of which were created by players in the workshop:

This includes a brand new category of cosmetic item: ball reskins!

Additionally a ton of improvements and fixes were made. The game will look better and play more smoothly than ever. Download the update and check out all the changes!

Features

• Misc option added to enable / disable custom ball skins

• Added link to official Discord server (Community / Discord Lobby)

• Added new Misc option: Show Online Chat (on, off, or ‘default only’ like kudos, gg)

• Players are announced when they join the room

• Added safe mode & safe preset (all video settings off or as low as possible). Hit spacebar within 2 seconds of main menu launching to activate. Will show ‘Safe Mode Activated”. Good if you’re having technical issues or need to enter photosensitive mode

• The Kudos key can be used to thank the player who assisted your last KO

• Audio lowpass filter added to music while in spawn area, to make it seem like you’re standing outside a dance club

Performance Improvements

• Many changes to ‘pool’ objects like player bots and explosions to reduce any stutter when players explode or respawn

• Materials are smartly cached, shared, and re-used to increase overall performance

• Better performance around powerup pickup spawning / collect

• Fixed physics bug that was reducing effective framerate while moving & looking around, so players at > 120 fps will now have a dramatically smoother experience

• Networked player movement is now much smoother

• Dramatically improved performance of Aquarium level

• Increased network message send rate for smoother movement and less lag for throws and KOs

• Dodgeball physics are interpolated, meaning their movement is no longer capped at 120 fps and is overall less jumpy

Visual Improvements

• Improved performance and appearance of ‘stun’ spark gibs

• Added glowing rim around ball when it’s available to collect / catch

• Improved ball visibility

• New bot explode gibs FX

• Death Spiral updates to match player color

• Improved LightBike effect

• Improved BlueFire effect

• Improved Energy Shot effect

• Improved box explosion effects

• Made arena lighting more consistent

• Default items show an icon in garage panel

Fixes / Adjustments

• Prevented BBCode from being used in text chat (could be used for spoofing)

• Removed extreme reflection glare in Reactor

• Room Info button stays enabled after selecting a room and going back to the match search panel

• Fixed back button on Workshop Dashboard bringing you to wrong options menu

• Renamed Mouth category to Face

• Rearranged customization category list

• Removed mid-match level up notification

• Added more AI pathways in Nexus into center pit

• Default spawn shield duration increased from 3 sec to 4 sec

• Video Replay quality defaults to ‘Off’ in the Low and Medium presets

• Photosensitive preset also lowers brightness

• Video Preset value will only change to ‘custom’ if you change a video setting that is determined by the preset

• Fixed missing volumetric lights in Trifecta

• Fixed typo: “Vote Passsed”

• Rearranged 'Workshop' menu button under new 'Community' button, containing Follow / Forums / Discord link buttons as well

• Fixed custom songs (from workshop or custom folder) not playing twice - and if your playlist consisted of only custom songs, having it very rapidly switch lighting programs

• Light animations now work during custom songs

• Fixed an increasingly CPU-taxing loop from occuring when consecutively playing many custom songs

• Music player handles ‘all songs disabled’ situation better - doesn’t try to play a new song every udpate. And enabling one song will begin playback again

• Remoted unused Trophy category from inventory panel

• Thrown balls have a bit of angular velocity

• Added more ceiling lights to Nexus

• Held dodgeballs are always at normal size, even if you have the big ball powerup

• Stopped Arcade from replace completed missions between levels, which was creating the impression that completed missions weren’t getting completion credit

• Fixed bug where ending an Arcade match in a level without getting any kills wasn’t giving any credit for Arcade levels completed

• Renamed ‘Force Drop’ mission to ‘Disarm KO’

• Arcade boss shows ‘Stunned’ text when stunned

• Fixed Quick Play matches having blank match settings menu