v1.38.6.0 - ParticleDetail/ParticleDensity options; many fixes, improvements

Another update is here for BlastZone 2! (v.1.38.6.0)  This update adds New ParticleDetail/ParticleDensity detail options, along with other technical improvements to the underlying engine.  Full details are below:

• Converted the existing "Particle Detail" setting to "Particle Density"

  • The setting controls the same particle behavior, just under a new name

• Added a new "Particle Detail" setting

  • This controls the rendering detail for individual particles, instead of the number of particles spawned for each effect

    • Controls how many particle effects use a 2-pass rendering approach, improving color quality of particles

    • Most particle effects not using the 2-pass approach use additive blending instead

      • Makes them appear washed out in some circumstances, but has better performance

  • The "Low" setting eliminates all 2-pass particle renders, maximizing performance

  • The "Normal" setting only uses 2-pass particle rendering for enemy explosions to improve color quality

  • The "High" setting uses 2-pass particle rendering for all applicable particle effects

    • Looks and performs identically to before this update

• Added a new "ParticleCycleRatio" parameter to bz2config.cfg

  • Using a value higher than 1.0 dynamically throttles the particle update rate under heavy loads

  • Defaults to a value of 1.0, which maintains the same behavior as previous versions

  • This option is not accessible in game, only tweakable directly in the bz2config.cfg file

• Added new subsystem cycle rate displays in the debug frame stats display

  • Main update

  • Particle System

  • Sound update

  • Steam update

  • DirectIP update

• Disabled autofire for fire1 and fire2 when using mouse controls for Classic A or Classic B game modes

• Fixed crash when changing the terrain detail setting in the demo version

• Migrated the OpenAL sound system from the legacy Creative Labs library to the modern OpenAL Soft library

  • Eliminates the need for a discrete OpenAL installer for the game to function

  • The OpenAL32.dll file now runs locally along side the game executable, not from the system directory

  • Allows for more advanced audio effects in the future to run in software

• Migrated all leaderboard data retrieval and submissions to use HTTPS; encrypting all communication

• Migrated to cURL 8.22.0 and added HTTPS support to the cURL DLL

• Reduced the Steam integration thread from 60hz to 20hz when not playing a Steam Multiplayer game

  • Raises this back to 60hz when starting a Steam Multiplayer game

  • Reduces CPU usage when not playing a Steam Multiplayer game while maintaining all Steam integration functionality

• Added support for generated shader variants

  • Reduces the number of shader files on disk

  • Generates additional shaders on launch that are equivalent to the shaders that no longer need to be stored on disk

• Added real alpha channel rendering to the mouse cursor, boss health meter box, and classic training laser sights; improves visibility consistency across all backgrounds from the previous additive blending approach

• Adjusted coloring values of the the mouse cursor, boss health meter box, and classic training laser sights to work better with the new alpha channel

• Added an alpha channel to the cursor.bzt and meterbox.bzt texture assets

• Optimized the shader loading from disk operation

• Fixed a few silent shader compiler errors on launch

• Improved robustness of shader loading operations to prevent potential issues with some platforms

• Refactored much of the Steam integration, UDP threading, TCP threading, and leaderboard threading code

• Updated the external config program to support the new ParticleDetail/ParticleDensity and ParticleCycleRatio options

As usual, to make sure you have the latest update, launch the game and check the lower left corner for “v1.38.6.0” or higher.  Enjoy!