Patch Notes: Version 1.6.11a

Game has a minor update that increases performance by utilising more threads, and the multiplayer server has been reset. I now have a winter map for you guys to explore and build in!


EDIT1: Patch 1.6.9 hotfixes some lag that was added in 1.6.8
EDIT2: Patch 1.6.10 hotfixes some bugs from yesterday + has some more performance tweaking.
EDIT3: Patch 1.6.11 hotfixes another bug + does a lot more work to remove lag spikes from the client
EDIT3: Patch 1.6.11a - adds the /marks server command to make using /fill and /replace easier



VERSION 1.6.11a - 30/12/2020
==========
- - Added the "marks" system for construction with server commands
- Enable with "/marks on"
- Disable with "/marks off"
- While active, when you place a block the position will be Marked as will the block you placed
- When you use "/fill m" it will fill from Mark1 to Mark2 with the second block placed
- When you use "/replace m" it will replace the first block placed with the second block placed from Mark1 to Mark2
- - Added a threshold for gpu vbo unloading to prevent constant loading/unloading of vbos to the gpu.


VERSION 1.6.11 - 30/12/2020
==========
- - Another world-hole fix
- - /fly speed has been increased 50%
- - ChunkRender thread pool now uses only 2 threads while the game is running. While the game is *loading* it'll still use the full pool. The game was rendering chunks too quickly causing frame drops as they were being uploaded to the GPU.
- - When the client is approaching full GPU memory utilisation, it will more aggressively unloads vbos at a slightly lower threshold than before, but does not cut the draw distance in half until a later threshold is reached.
- - Draw distance increase skydome radius increase animation made more smooth. Makes the yo-yoing of the skydome a lot more comfortable when flying
- - Changed chunk unloading again. Vtclient will unload chunks when a chunk count threshold is reached. Only chunks outside of your draw distance are unloaded. This results in smoother performance than if chunks are checked every frame
- If you have less than 7GB of system memory vtclient will unload out-of-draw-distance chunks if there is more than 800, and will stop unloading when the count is less than 100
- If you have less than 7GB - 15GB, unloading starts at 4000 and stops at 400
- If you have less than 15GB - 30GB, unloading starts at 16000 and stops at 4000
- If you have more than 30GB, unloading starts at 25000 and stops at 4000
- - The client will only request chunks from the server within 160m of the player while it is unloading the above chunks.
- - If the client has its draw distance reduced due to frametimes being too high it will lower the chunk request radius accordingly
- - If the client receives a chunk from the server and the chunk is out of the player's draw distance (because, eg the player has moved significantly between requesting and receiving), the client will store the chunk outside of the main chunk store (thus preventing main thread water/lighting calcs for out of range chunks).
- - Server now reports system mem when you use /status command. Note that this may or may not include pagefile usage depending on platform
- - Slight optimisation of client chunk download from server + netcode optimisation to stop the client getting more laggy over time as more messages are received


VERSION 1.6.10 - 27/12/2020
==========
- - Fixed clientside world holes introduced in previous hotfix
- - Fixed CTD on "Return to Main Menu"
- - Fixed "No Road Access" when using MARK_AS_ROAD lotpack lots


VERSION 1.6.9 - 27/12/2020
==========
- - Client now handles chunk counts better - this greatly reduces lag spikes due to too many chunks being loaded
- - Client unloading of VBOs and chunks is now staggered to prevent an iteration over 10k chunks.
- - Client unloading of VBOs and chunks has been further tuned.

VERSION 1.6.8 - 25/12/2020
==========
- - Chunk polygonisation is now VERY multithreaded. This is the "Rendering Chunks" stage of the loading screen + happens when you move to a new area to load the chunks onto the screen. Expect roughly (nThreads/2)x speedup (for 24 threads a 12x speedup).
This also seems to help the game maintain peak framerates when rendering long draw distances. The game still does stutter when moving quickly when high draw distances are enabled, but it is better now.
- - Added an "Extreme 2" graphics preset that sets the draw distance to 1,000m.
- - The hardcoded max draw distance has been increased to 3,000m. To reach this you have to manually type this in the graphics settings menu
- - Building canals over water will now no longer raise the depth of existing water, only lower it.