Build Update #040: GROUND BRANCH V1033 now officially released!

After a longer-than-usual public testing period to iron out major issues, GROUND BRANCH V1033 is finally hitting the main branch of the game!

Once up-to-date, players on any public branch of the game (whether stable or “beta”) will be on the same exact build of GROUND BRANCH and can play together.

For a fully comprehensive list of changes and additions since V1032, please refer to our Community Test branch patch notes:

Patch #01 • Patch #01 (Hotfix) • Patch #02 • Patch #03 • Patch #04 • Patch #05 • Patch #06 • Patch #06 (Hotfix) • Patch #07 • Patch #08 • Patch #08 (Hotfix) • Patch #09 • Patch #09 (Hotfix) • Patch #10 • Patch #11 • Patch #12 • Patch #13 • Patch #14 • Patch #15 • Patch #16 • Patch #17 • Patch #18 • Patch #19 • Patch #20 • Patch #20 (Hotfix) • Patch #21 • Patch #22

V1033 highlights

Performance, graphics and settings

The complexity of GROUND BRANCH’s systems presents challenges that demand a continuous focus on improvement and optimization.

As detailed in the series of Intel Reports done between June and November (particularly Intel Report #011), the entire audio system was reworked to drastically reduce CPU usage.

Throughout the course of public testing, areas like maps, lighting and assets have also received massive optimization passes, greatly improving performance in maps like Compound.

On top of that, V1033 is not only unleashing new graphics features to make the game look better, but also a lot of video settings to make things adjustable to your specs and preferences. Let’s go over them:

NVIDIA DLSS and Reflex

GROUND BRANCH V1033 is also officially bringing NVIDIA’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), DLAA (Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing) and Reflex technologies to the game, which offer GeForce GPU users an additional performance/fidelity bonus.

These options can be accessed in Settings › Video. Under the “Video” header, you will find:

• NVIDIA® DLSS Super Resolution (requires GeForce RTX 2000-series or newer GPU)
  • Off — Disables DLSS.
  • Auto — Enables optimal image quality for a particular resolution. For resolutions at or under 1440p, sets it to “Quality”; 4K and above sets it to “Performance”.
  • Quality — Renders the game internally at the closest resolution possible to the target resolution, prioritizing visual quality and pixel count over framerates.
  • Performance — Prioritizes framerate over resolution, sometimes resulting in pixelated or blurred visuals but offering the best performance.
  • Balanced — A middle-ground between “Quality” and “Performance”, this mode attempts to find a sweet spot between resolution and framerate.
    Note that enabling DLSS will disable Anti-Aliasing (AA), as DLSS is in itself an AA method.
• NVIDIA® Reflex (requires GeForce 900-series or newer GPU)
  • Off — Disables Reflex.
  • On — Reduces system latency (aka input lag) and may provide a small FPS increase.
  • On + Boost — Increases the GPU’s clock speeds, useful for CPU-intensive games (which GB tends to be).

At the very bottom of the “Advanced” column, you will also find an additional DLSS setting called NVIDIA® DLSS Sharpness. This slider will increase or reduce the visual sharpness of DLSS, and is generally a personal preference with no performance impact.

❓ As mentioned in the past, AMD's FSR (FidelityFX™ Super Resolution) technology is also slated to be added to GROUND BRANCH in a future release.

NVIDIA DLAA

A new anti-aliasing (AA) method has also been added to the “Anti-Aliasing (AA)” drop-down menu in the Graphics section in Settings › Video: DLAA.

As with DLSS, this AA mode is available only for users of the NVIDIA RTX series of GPUs (2000-series or newer).

DLAA provides a sharper, generally higher-quality anti-aliasing than TAA, although players who can use it will likely benefit more from the performance boost provided by DLSS.

TAA settings

Players using Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) can now easily access some of its settings directly in the Video menu: “TAA Current Frame Weight”, “TAA Algorithm” (Gen 4 or the experimental Gen 5), “TAA Samples”, “TAA Sharpness” and “Tonemapper Sharpening”.

These advanced TAA settings are located in the Advanced video options column, in the Anti-Aliasing section.

Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI)

GROUND BRANCH V1033 is introducing Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI), which aims to create natural-looking lighting by adding dynamic indirect lighting to objects within the screen view (click here to learn more).

While SSGI can drastically improve the quality of a scene, it can also have a considerable performance impact on some systems.

You can enable/disable it in “Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI)” — the last setting in the Graphics section — as well as tweak it further (when enabled) via the “SSGI Quality” and “SSGI Resolution” settings in the Advanced column, in the Post-Processing section.

⚠️ If you are playing on a lower-end PC, you may want to try disabling SSGI, using it at half-resolution and/or reducing its quality setting to maintain a usable framerate.

PiP Scope Resolution Scale

Located in the Textures section (Advanced), the PiP Scope Resolution Scale setting determines the scale of the picture-in-picture rendering when ADS with a scope (i.e. a magnified optic sight).

Setting it to 1.00 will make the scope picture preserve the same resolution as the original scene, and will have the biggest FPS hit. Lowering this value will reduce the performance impact of aiming down scopes, while also reducing the resolution of your sight picture.

Other video options

It is likely that one of these settings may give you a performance boost, depending on whether your computer is CPU-bound or GPU-bound when playing GROUND BRANCH. The downside of is that you may experience a little more latency (mostly noticeable as input lag).

• Finish Current Frame — When set to “Off”, this option essentially tells the GPU not to wait for the CPU to finish what it’s doing before starting to render the next frame.
• One Frame Thread Lag — When set to “On”, this option essentially tells the CPU not to wait for the GPU to finish what it’s doing before starting to generate data for the next frame.

Try different combinations to see how your performance is affected.

Additional settings under the Advanced video options have also been exposed to players, who may benefit from disabling or toning them down to gain performance at the expense of visuals. These include Distance Field Shadows, Reflection Capture Resolution and Volumetric Fog.

Night ops, night vision, lights and infrared (IR)

A definite highlight of V1033 is night ops, which were made more satisfying and viable with a series of improvements.

First and foremost, night vision goggles have received a major overhaul consisting of more realistic visuals (which include authentic auto-gating, noise, contrasts, a new white-phosphor filter option and movement/wobble effects), an optional overlay scale feature (which can fill out your screen while retaining a realistic FOV), flip up/down animations and sound effects, and more.

💡 The NVG overlay scale can be tweaked in Settings › Gameplay › Look › Night Vision. Setting NVG Vertical Screen Extent to 1.00 makes the NVG overlay fill out your screen by the default amount. Lowering the number will make it take up a progressive smaller portion of the screen.

Due to the new sky system — which includes moon phases — nights can also have varied visibility conditions, from the complete darkness of a new moon to decent visibility with a full moon.

These make the IR Illuminator functionality of the AN/PEQ-15 more relevant, as (like in real life) NVG require some degree of lighting to work well. To demonstrate:

✨ The AN/PEQ-15 has also received an update in its lasers and illuminator effects, from the beams themselves to the newly added lens flare when looking at the emitters. It now also has a green LED to indicate when either a laser or illuminator is active.

Also very importantly, enemy AI has been upgraded to be affected by the lighting conditions, meaning they no longer have perfect vision in the dark. They will also zero in on you very fast if you flash a light at them!

Granted, AI can (and will) be improved in various ways still, but this was an important step in making night ops an enjoyable experience.

Lastly, we have added the GPNVG-18 “quad-NODs” to the inventory, which greatly amplify the player’s field of view when compared to binocular NVG. The GPNVG-18 comes in black or FDE skin, and in both filter colors (green and the new white phosphor — also available for the AN/PVS-15).

🔅 As part of the lighting optimization pass, weapon-mounted lights had their illumination range reduced to mitigate the performance impact.

Time of day (TOD) and sky system

As mentioned above, GROUND BRANCH V1033 features a new sky system with moon phases and stars, as well as latitude and season settings. This means you can now not only set the time of day but also the date of deployment, which will determine the moon phase and sun position for each mission location at the set time/date based on real life data.

Because lighting conditions will vary depending on the date and location, TOD is now selected via labels such as “Early Hours”, “Pre-Sunset” and so on. You can still manually select a TOD, however.

To access the advanced TOD/date settings, simply click the gear icon next to the “Insertion time” setting.

☁️ Unfortunately, clouds and weather had to be removed from the new sky system due to performance issues. We'll be revisiting these features down the road.

Gear, weapons and more customization

A generous amount of items and customization options has been added to the game, from weapons and a new character all the way to headgear and arm patches.

🔴 A much-requested feature — the ability to put micro red dot sights on pistols — has also been implemented for the MK25, G19 Urban and M17 which can now fit the RMR and the new Docter II sights.

Let’s take a look at the new weapons first:

• MK17 CQC and MK17 DMR battle rifles + Suppressor (black and FDE)
• AK-105 carbine
• AK-105 Alpha carbine (replaced AK-74 MI)
• AKS-74U Alpha carbine/PDW (replaced AK-74 MI CQB) + Suppressor
• Wz.88 carbine
• M24 sniper rifle + Suppressor
• PKM* machine gun
• PMM pistol

* The PKM machine gun is a partial implementation, still missing complex recoil and a proper pose.

In the gear and attachments department, we have these new items:

• AN/PVS-15 (WP) — the old dual-tube NVG, but with white phosphor filter
• GPNVG-18 night vision goggles (black and tan skins + green or white phosphor filters)
• Ghillie Hood headgear (bare version)
• Ballistic Vest
• Carry Handle Rear Sight
• ATACR 1–8x LPVO
• MK8 CQBSS 1.1–8x LPVO
• Razor HD 1–6x LPVO
• Docter II micro red dot sight (Flat, Low and High mounts)
• MK46 Suppressor (AAC® MG-SD)
• G3A3 Suppressor (AAC® 762-SD)
• Handstop Grip
• Reverse Grip
• Stubby Grip B
• Stubby Grip C
• Tan/FDE variants for most foregrips
• “Bakelite” AK-74 magazine
• FDE PMAG magazine

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But not all new weapons and attachments are new items per se — a lot of them are new models, remade from scratch. Here’s the list:

Updated weapon models

• AK-74M
• AKS-74U
• M16A4
• SVD
• M1911A1¹ + Suppressor

¹ The new M1911A1 is also fitted with an accessory rail for lights and can use either 8- or 10-round custom magazines.

Updated attachment models

• PMII 5–25x
• AccuPower 1–8x
• Vudu 1–6x
• ACOG 4x
• ACOG 6x
• M68 CCO
• PRO
• Micro T-2
• RMR (all variants)
• PSO-1M2 4x²
• AN/PEQ-15
• Bipod Grip
• Angled Grip
• Scope mount

² The PSO-1M2 4x has also been updated with reticle illumination.

Character customization has also been expanded, with the addition of a new character appearance (Male 05) and 3 new customization slots under the Profile section:

• CALLSIGN — A three-letter/number callsign that will be automatically set when a name is entered, but can also be manually set by the player. If the “Use Standard” box is checked, it will assign a Team Element-based callsign (e.g. A-01 for Alpha etc.). Callsigns display as patches on the left and right arm.
  If you don’t want a callsign patch to be displayed, simply set it to --- (three hyphens) in the text box.
• FACIAL HAIR — Temporarily disabled in V1032, facial hair is back in V1033. At this time, we have a single beard style (Full Beard) available, but more styles are planned.
• PATCHES — This slot will open a more complex menu once clicked, which allows players to set up to 6 patches: 3 on the headgear (left, right and center) and 3 on the body (left arm, right arm and chest). Patches can additionally be configured to display in full color, or a tint (grayscale, green or tan). Please note that patches will only display if the gear/outfit items have slots for them.

💡 We're providing a standard set of country flag, morale, unit/role/team and blood type patches. Though modding is not officially supported yet, patches were implemented with modding in mind: you can place your own files in …\steamapps\common\Ground Branch\GroundBranch\Content\GroundBranch\Patches and any folder created in the directory will show up as its own category in the game.

In the gear and outfit department, we’ve also added tucked-in variants of most shirts, unzipped variants of the Combat Shirt, and a lot of new and updated skins for most items. You should have better looking and much more varied loadouts now.

New and revamped maps

For V1033, maps Depot and Storage Facility have both received major overhauls, with a focus on linking them thematically (as Soviet-era facilities) for future missions. The process was covered in more detail in Intel Reports #011 through #014, but it’s worth noting that the overall layouts were maintained for both maps.

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💡 A version of Depot restricted to the central compound area is of course still available, and it's still a great PvP map.

In addition to the overhauls of existing maps, a new map called Docks is also available for most game modes:

Will has also given Tanker an optimization and detailing pass, remaking most textures and materials on the deck to add a more weathered look to surfaces, as well as rounding off edges, remodeling props, adding a detailed vista/backdrop (including an updated Rig visible at the distance) and some minor interior improvements.

City is another map that has received a considerable visual upgrade, more specifically when played at night:

The Farm has also been updated with a new Target App look, as well as the ability to choose different shoothouse layouts, which adds a lot of variety to training drills.

💡 All maps have received optimization passes and various smaller tweaks for visual and gameplay reasons, with Compound being a highlight in terms of performance increase.

VFX and particles

As detailed in the last few Intel Reports, VFX particles were migrated to the new Niagara system and entirely remade.

In addition to the new particles for nearly all visual effects in GROUND BRANCH, several new features were implemented, including bird flocks, muzzle blast shockwave on surfaces, bullet impact angles, secondary impact debris and more. Check out this playlist with all of our showcased VFX demos:

UI/UX and quality-of-life

V1033 is bringing a much-needed QOL pass to several areas, including item build management and kit restrictions, as well as UI changes and additions to support these new features. Some highlights:

• The new loadout saving system automatically suggests build names based on attached items (the amount of detail can be changed), while reducing the amount of prompts needed for saving/overriding kits.
• The item selection menu now allows builds to be “stacked” (i.e. group all builds of a similar base item) to reduce clutter, and can also be set to only display custom (player-created) builds.
• Kit restrictions can now be more easily set by server admins (when in-server, press Esc › Admin › Show Admin Panel › Kit Restrictions) to restrict skins³ in either Co-Op or per PvP team. Please note that these restrictions aren’t extremely reliable at this time, especially when combined with game modes that have auto-balance (DTAS and Hostage Rescue).
• Added a match system that can set win condition to best-of-X-rounds, first-to-X-rounds, a certain time limit etc. This includes a new board in the Ready Room where players can also vote for the next map at any time. Match information is also accessible via Esc menu.

³ Item restrictions such as “pistols only”, “no frags” etc. can done via the Mutators system, but it is still a work-in-progress and currently prone to issues. We hope to address it in a point release (V1033.1 or later).

Another addition sure to help newcomers are the Ready Room hints, which display short explanations near key areas of the Ready Room (such as lockers and the Ops Board) to guide players in their first deployments.

💡 Various areas of UI have also received varying degrees of style/consistency updates, part of an ongoing process.

Game modes and multiplayer

This release introduces the PvP Hostage Rescue mode to the game (more on it in a minute), and also brings a few updates to existing game modes.

Intel Retrieval

• Enemy AI will now search for players once the intel (laptop) is retrieved.
• Enemies will also attempt to intercept players at the extraction point.

Terrorist Hunt

• Players can now enable “Enemy hot spots” — an area of the map (indicated in red on the Ops Board) where enemy concentration will be highest. These can be enabled/disabled via the Ops Board.
• Enemies will now rush players once down to their last few men.

Hostage Rescue (PvP)

The new Hostage Rescue adversarial mode is now setup for all maps, with the exception of the small arena-like maps. Here are the rules:

• A random player of the attacking team has been taken hostage in one of the map’s buildings. The hostage player is hooded and cuffed, limiting their vision and movement — they are unable to interact with map objects such as doors or items, and are restricted to walking (no running/sprinting).
• The target building is selected at random by the game mode, and defenders are restricted to within that building unless the hostage escapes it.
• Defenders can lead the hostage around the building or simply hold them in place by holding the Interact key (default F). They can also intimidate the hostage into silence by pointing a gun at them, but 2 defenders are required to both lead/hold and intimidate the hostage at the same time — one for each action.
• Attackers can select any insertion point (including multiple if they decide to split the team) and will have to find the building where the hostage is being held — possibly with the assistance of the hostage making some noise with the Talk (VOIP) key (default V). Attackers must then successfully breach the building and rescue the hostage. If the hostage has their cuffs released by the attackers, they will regain a full range of movement and team communication (i.e. radio and text chat).
• If a hostage picks up a weapon once released, they become a valid target for defenders, who can then win the round by killing the armed hostage.

Win conditions are as follows:

• ATTACKERS — To win the round, at least one attacker must escort the hostage to any of the available extraction points. Alternatively, attackers will win if the defending team is eliminated.
• DEFENDERS — To win the round, the defending team must eliminate all attackers, survive the assault until the time runs out, or kill a hostage that has picked up a weapon.

💡 With the rare exception of a released and armed hostage (mentioned above), any team that kills the hostage will instantly lose the match. Careful with those frags!

Hostage Rescue sub-mode: Building Assault

If there are not enough players to start a Hostage Rescue round, then the stripped-down Building Assault mode will start, in which the defenders are still restricted to a building, but there is no hostage and the teams must simply eliminate each other. The gloves are off in this mode!

• Admins can force the Building Assault mode, similarly to how Fox Hunt can be forced in DTAS.
• An AI opponent will now be spawned as a defender if only one player is on the server and playing on the attacking team.

Hostage Rescue: players and balancing

• We recommend 5–7 players minimum for a more satisfying Hostage Rescue experience.
• Hostage Rescue uses quite aggressive auto-balancing to maintain fair teams, so make sure both your Red and Blue team kits are up to date.
• Auto-balancing can be customized to be less aggressive if you don’t mind uneven teams.

Animations

On top of the animation work required for V1033’s new weapons and in addition to the NVG flip up/down showcased earlier in this post, a few preliminary animations have been created for sight interactions:

🚧 Due to GROUND BRANCH's true first person system and unique weapon positions, these animations will need some extra programming work to make them "fit" all weapons and situations. They currently look best on M16-/M4-pattern weapons.

Another cool addition is the new stun animation to indicate that AI enemies have been hit by a flashbang detonation.

Temporary downgrades

A couple of features have suffered temporary downgrades in V1033 — emphasis on temporary!

One such feature is the blood splatter on surfaces (VFX), which have not yet been hooked up to the new particles system (Niagara) but will be coming back in a “point release” (e.g. V1033.1) or V1034 at the latest. Due to the cosmetic nature of this feature, it was deemed not worthy of holding back the release.

While we’re talking blood, dead bodies are also temporarily missing collision to address doors being blocked by them. This results in body parts clipping and no response to post-death impacts.

Lastly, the vaulting animation is also absent from this release, as it seriously impaired functionality, though vaulting/climbing has been made more responsive. Rest assured that a more visually pleasing implementation of climbing and vaulting will make its way into the game in due time.

This has been Build Update #040!

It’s been a long road to V1033, but it’s now here and we couldn’t be more thankful for all of you in the GROUND BRANCH community — especially our Discord — that joined us in testing and reporting bugs and issues of all types in order to get us to release.

We hope you enjoy this release, and be sure to keep the feedback and reports coming.

Have a great weekend!