Day: March 21, 2024

Hey, everyone!

Thank you for your patience and support while we worked on the latest update for GROUND BRANCH V1034. Though this has been a tough testing and debugging season thanks to major system changes — particularly AI and animations — the official release is now among us!

🗒️ For a detailed list of changes, please see our patch notes for the V1034 Community Test releases over the last few months here.

For the non-masochists among us, keep reading as we have a more readable summary of the main changes to the game since our last main release (V1033). But first:

⛔ IMPORTANT: Clearing your old files is recommended!

If you are coming from V1033 or have not downloaded a Community Test build in a while, you need to delete all contents in the following locations (copy-paste these paths into your File Explorer address bar):

1️⃣ %LOCALAPPDATA%\GroundBranch\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
2️⃣ Documents\GroundBranch

Not doing so may cause various asset and input issues in your game.

Highlights

DX12 mode and DLSS 3 Frame Generation

Once you’ve updated to V1034 and launched GROUND BRANCH, you’ll be greeted with a new pop-up dialog that lets you choose between running the game in either DX11 (the default option we’ve always had) or DX12 mode (previously available only via the -dx12 launch parameter).

DX12 (DirectX 12) mode is required to use the new NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation video setting, which users of GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs will benefit from in terms of framerates. If you’re one such user, here’s how to enable it:

• Launch GROUND BRANCH in DX12 mode
• Go to Settings ► Video
• Under the “Video” section, look for NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation and select “On” from the dropdown menu
• Apply the new settings

💡 Users of different graphics cards may experience improved performance from running GROUND BRANCH in DX12 mode, regardless of the DLSS 3 Frame Generation setting. We recommend everyone to try it out and see how their system reacts.

UI, UX, settings and accessibility

The user interface and general user experience have received a number of updates in V1034, with multiple new options introduced. Here are some of the main changes to look out for:

• Pressing Esc during single player sessions will now pause the game
• Added a headcam-style camera to Spectator Mode, also accessible as a debug camera (Ctrl+↑)
• The portion of the Gameplay settings dedicated to on-screen elements has been split into the new HUD menu
• Colorblindness settings have been added to Settings ► Video (Advanced)
• The Server Browser now features an expanded info box (listing players per team, as well as active mods) when a server is clicked
• The Ops Board in the Ready Room now has a ↻ button to re-randomize objectives and insertion points
• Players can now volunteer for game mode-specific roles — such as the hostage (Hostage Rescue) or flag carrier (DTAS) — by clicking the Volunteer button next to their name in the Session Roster
• Servers can now allow friendly name tags in-game: these only appear when the player is pointing at a teammate from within a certain range; you can disable this feature for yourself in Settings ► HUD
• Callsign patches will now be displayed on the back of Headgear items
• The Mission Editor was updated, and validators now check for collision and navmesh issues
• Skin selection now features standardized swatch-like icons, especially useful for previewing camo patterns

Server administration

• More comprehensive server admin options/settings, including the option to restart a server in-game and to schedule server restarts for particular times of day
• Server admins can now lock (disable) the Ready Room test shooting range

General fixes and improvements

• A plethora of optimizations to various maps and game systems
• Cleaned up various UI elements to improve readability, formatting and consistency
• A load of bug fixes, including not being able to change the enemy count via Ops Board

AI

We have now made the switch to the Kythera AI middleware, replacing the stock Unreal Engine 4 AI system. We had paused AI development in a less-than-ideal state for a few updates in anticipation of this change, but luckily nobody noticed or brought it up ever.

Kythera is not a complete AI solution, but a tool that allows us to implement AI in more flexible and effective ways. We still had to do a whole ton of work behind the scenes to get everything working properly, and a lot of work remains as we’ll explain further.

💡 Thanks in particular to Chris, who has cemented his reputation as our official AI guy, and to Kythera for working closely with us and helping iron out the odd AI wrinkle.

You will notice a wide variety of changes in how the AI behaves. Overall, the AI should now be more “life-like” and more challenging in some aspects, but without having as much of an aimbot feel to them. AI senses (sight and hearing) have been continually tweaked, and benefit from improved pathing and more sophisticated actions: AI will return fire and take cover as before, but they may now crouch and go prone in certain contexts (e.g. lack of nearby cover), use suppressive fire to keep players pinned down, form spontaneous squads, hold close to guard points (as close as mission designers specify), react to dead bodies, and use a few more call-outs.

At lower difficulty levels, AI will now also fire tracers — with higher frequency at lower skill levels — and have more frequent muzzle flash effects to help less hardcore players figure out where they’re being shot from.

Stance and movement should also have a greater impact on detection, so be sure to move slowly and keep a low profile if you’re trying to be sneaky.

Missions have also been given a once-over to check specifically for collision and navmesh issues, so the AI should now flow around maps more easily in existing missions.

💡 One important aspect of AI presentation still missing is more varied animations, as the lack of specific motions to convey all the different AI behaviors makes bots retain a lot of their "roboticness". The lack of natural "idle" animations also contributes to this.

We'll of course continue to iterate on that an other aspects of AI as things progress, including providing friendly AI support (that is, AI teammates) as well as more sophisticated and natural-looking enemy AI.

New voice lines are also recorded and waiting to be implemented in a future update cycle.

Prone and animation overhaul

Prone (a.k.a. lying on the ground) has been on our to-do list for a while, but we didn’t want to do it until we could do it right™. After another extensive and necessary under-the-hood overhaul to support the new stance, it is now in and working thanks to the combined efforts of Kris and Mike.

There are still some kinks to work out, but even so, we think we have created a solid base to build upon. Here’s how it currently works:

• To toggle between your current stance and prone, hit the Prone key (default Z)
• Going prone while sprinting will perform a dive
• Pressing Jump while prone will immediately switch to standing, regardless of your stance before going prone
• Once prone, you will not be able to aim beyond a limited horizontal arc, while vertical aiming will be limited by the ground at the bottom and a fairly modest upwards angle
• Pressing any movement key while looking/aiming off to either side will rotate your character in place to align their lower body with their upper body
• You can crawl in all directions by using your movement keys. You can crawl faster by holding the Run key (default Shift)

By assigning keys to the new Stance Up and Stance Down keybinds, you may also use an alternative control scheme that sequences between Standing ↔ Crouched ↔ Prone instead of transitioning directly to/from prone.

Keep in mind!

❌ Going prone will interrupt certain actions, such as reloading — if you hit the dirt while reloading, make sure you have a magazine in the well and a round in the chamber!

❌ Most actions (shooting, reloading, changing items etc.) will interrupt movement while prone, and you cannot start crawling while these actions are being performed.

❌ While prone, you're also unable to perform most world interactions, such as opening doors, deploying breaching charges or interacting with mission objectives.

❌ You will not be able to go prone if there's not enough room for your character's full body length.

Other changes in animations

• Characters now react to weapon recoil against their upper body when firing
• Death animations have been created for crouched and prone stances
• Death animations from the standing position received some polish as well
• Leaning now uses actual poses that look more natural
• The Breaching Charge now has an animation for setting up the charge on doors, as well as for triggering the detonator
• Switching weapons got a polish pass
• Improved animations and hand poses for AK-type rifles
• Hand poses in general — such as how your character holds grenades — were also slightly updated
• Lastly, animations and poses were created for the new and updated weapons (we’ll get to those!)

🐞 Your character's support (left) arm will bend in unnatural ways when moving while holding various primary weapons with no foregrip equipped. This is due to the animation rework and will be fixed in a point release.

Focus Zoom

Another notable addition to gameplay is the Focus Zoom ability. As the name suggests, it allows you to zoom in on your sight picture, giving reticles and targets more pixels to work with on your screen and making ranged shots a better experience.

Focus Zoom is bound to Hold Ctrl by default (same key as Steady Aim) but can be changed in Settings ► Controls.

💡 Keep in mind that the Focus Zoom function will disengage if you move, or if you move your weapon too fast.

Customization and inventory updates

We are very pleased to welcome playable female characters to the Ready Room, in the spirit of the classic Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games that inspired GROUND BRANCH.

The addition also encouraged us to finally get some hairstyles implemented, and so we did. Here’s what’s new:

• 7 new characters (Females 01–06 and Male 06), selectable under the APPEARANCE tab
• 4 male hairstyles (Crew Cut A, Crew Cut B, Caesar Cut and Long Cut) under the new HAIR tab
• 4 female hairstyles (Straight Bun, Textured Bun and Buzzcut) under the new HAIR tab
• 1 new beard style (Short Beard) under the FACIAL HAIR tab

💡 Additional hairstyles and customization options (such as hair color) will follow in future updates.

New and updated skins

In addition to a big revision of gear and outfit skins to look more authentic and consistent, a handful of new skins were also created for the following items:

• Tactical Pants
  Coyote Brown
• Ball Cap / Ball Cap (Reverse)
  DCP    AOR-1    M81
• Boonie Hat / Boonie Hat (Folded)
   UCP
• Helmet (HC)
  OCP    AOR-1    AOR-2
• Headset
  Foliage Green

A new version of the Flannel Shirt with the popular “Buffalo plaid” pattern was also added in 8 different colors.

💡 The old pattern shirt is still available — we renamed it Light Flannel Shirt.

🏳️ In case you missed the Intel Report and discussion: most country flag patches have been removed. More details in this post.

New weapons

As is tradition in our main releases, V1034 introduces a few new blasters to the armory:

• SA58 OSW battle rifle (Battle Rifle / DMR / Sniper Rifle category)
  This modernized, highly compact version of the FAL battle rifle features multiple accessory rails. Magazine capacity is 20 rounds of 7.62 mm NATO ammunition. Can be fitted with a suppressor.
• Galil ARM automatic rifle (Machine Gun category)
  A 5.56 mm NATO rifle created for the squad automatic weapon role, the Galil ARM can fit either 35- or 50-round magazines.
• FAL battle rifle (Battle Rifle / DMR / Sniper Rifle category)
  The FAL with wooden furniture (based on the very rare FAL G-series) last seen in V1033 as the FAL (Vintage) is now replaced with a more appropriate and far more common variant fitted with a polymer stock and handguard. It still fires 7.62 mm NATO ammunition from a 20-round magazine.

💡 The MPX 9 mm submachine gun has also been updated with a new model.

Radio (cosmetic)

A radio pouch and PTT (push-to-talk) module are now a fixed part of most Platform items in the game, with the exception of the Ballistic Vest. While mostly a cosmetic addition that helps build up the characters visually and get players more immersed, the radio pouch has taken the place of a customizable pouch slot in some platforms — so keep that in mind when re-creating your builds. The presence of the radio system on your character has otherwise no gameplay effect.

Modding

Official GROUND BRANCH modding is… coming. Callum has put in a lot of work to create an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the game, and a lot of the internals of the game have been rejigged to facilitate the use of third-party mods via Steam Workshop.

We still have some hoops to jump through before we can officially release the SDK, but that should be sorted soon and allow the release in a V1034 point release (patch).

💡 Initial SDK release will include the ability to add new weapons, with further modding coming later.

Map and mission updates

• The classic Small Town map has been extensively overhauled by Will, who returns to the team after a brief hiatus
• The Farm has had cosmetic updates to bring it into consistency with (and indeed proximity to) Small Town — canonically establishing both maps as part of the same training complex in Camp Peary
• City was extended with a fun new bank area and a few other new enterable buildings
• Lots of other maps have had touch-ups and plenty of bug fixes here and there

We are also laying the groundwork for more interactive and interesting maps and missions. For example, Compound now has a call to prayer at (approximately) correct astronomically-based times of day. City is now overseen by a nosey news helicopter that can be scared away with sprays of gunfire. And now that players can crawl underwater in prone, Creek and various other maps have been outfitted with brand new underwater effects.

🐞 The animation for City's helicopter bailing out may not be playing correct. We're looking into it.

Missions have also been tweaked, bug-fixed, and in some cases new missions have been added. Rig now sports a new Hostage Rescue mission set in the accommodation block, for example, and new mission variants for Hostage Rescue and Terrorist Hunt have been created for City.

💡 With the new AI and prone capability, even existing missions may play quite differently from V1033 — give them a try!

New game mode: Defuse (Lone Wolf / Online Co-Op)

V1034 launches with the return of the Defuse game mode, now also available in co-op.

In Defuse, you’ll race against the clock to defuse a number of explosives around the mission area, guarded of course by AI enemies.

• The default amount of explosives to defuse is 2, with the default timer at 15 minutes and a default defuse time of 10 seconds per bomb. These can all be customized via Ops Board before deploying.
• To defuse a bomb, look at the LED display and hold Use/Interact (default F) when the prompt appears. You should see a progress bar filling up in LED display.
• Throw a careless grenade or shoot wildly at the bombs and you may find yourself making a lot of new friends.

💡 The Extraction game mode — essentially a PvE version of Hostage Rescue — is slated for a V1034 point release (a small update or patch), building on the new AI and animation work. Stay tuned for updates on this as well.

A small change to Intel Retrieval

While we’re talking game modes, the laptop in Intel Retrieval is now automatically grabbed and put away after finishing the search — just a little streamlining to make things less redundant and frustrating.

🐞 Due to changes in underlying systems, Hostage Rescue is in a work-in-progress (WIP) state, with some bugs remaining in relation to leading and restrained behaviors. However, the core gameplay should still work (including the new Volunteer function).

Audio updates

In addition to all of the sound work done to support prone movement, the new weapons and female voice lines (via Comms Menu), audio was also updated in these areas:

Soundtrack

As announced in Intel Report #017, we have partnered up with composer and sound designer Venus Theory, who is authoring the soundtrack for GROUND BRANCH. This release already features a few of his tracks in the main menu, transition screens, and the Ready Room. We’re excited to hear your thoughts on them!

Environmental audio

• Optimized audio occlusion and diffraction when inside buildings
• Indoor audio now reacts to whether a door is open or closed (this can now be expanded to account for the material of the room/building)
• Fixed missing ambient sounds for all maps
• Updated attenuation for various distances to provide more spatial awareness and distance for varying sounds

🐞 When playing online, The Farm does not play audio for various actions. We have been unable to fix this so far, but are working on it.

Event SFX

• Power boxes now have a distinctive electric “hum” when active, and will also play a sound when switching the lever on/off

🐞 In some cases, the hum will not play at the start of an online round.

• Added localized beeping and explosion SFX for Defuse’s bombs, as well as sound effects for closing and putting away Intel Retrieval’s laptop
• Implemented and fine-tuned news helicopter audio and attenuation (City)

Mixing

Updated overall mix for gunshots, reloads, character foley and environment:

• Character movement (e.g. footsteps) now sounds quieter and more balanced in the mix
• Reloads are less sharp and overpowering compared to other sounds
• Gunshots are slightly less loud in general, with suppressed gunshots now also being slightly quieter than their unsuppressed counterparts
• Weapon sounds now have more room reverb compared to the environmental audio and character movement

VFX

Visual effects have been generally reworked in V1034:

• Blood splatter on surfaces has been re-introduced, with new decals created
• Grenade effects and bullet impacts
  • New particles for smokescreen and frag explosions were created
  • New material-based bullet impacts were added
  • Various props and materials not displaying correct bullet impacts were fixed
• Muzzle and weapon effects
  • Muzzle flash and smoke have all been updated, and a shockwave effect was added
  • Ejection ports now also generate smoke when shooting
• Light fixture effects
  • Outdoor light fixtures now attract bugs at night
  • Shooting out lights now generates sparkle particles
  • Most light fixtures now have a proper “destroyed” version when shot out

This has been Build Update #047!

By the time you’re done reading this, we’re already fixing pending issues and on the lookout for reports like a pack of airport security dogs.

We’ll most likely push the first patch (V1034.1) in about a week, so give this build a good kick in the tires and let us know if you find any bugs we haven’t mentioned.

As always, thank you for reading and continuing to play, follow and support GROUND BRANCH. See you on the next one!