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News & Announcements / Over The Top: WWI fourth Playtest now live!
« on: September 06, 2024, 09:15:42 am »
Hey guys!
We are excited to announce that the fourth public Alpha Playtest for Over The Top: WWI is now live and will last from the 6th till 9th September 2024!
Since the last playtest, we've primarily focused on improving FPS performance. This has been a challenging task, but we hope the optimizations we've made have significantly enhanced the game’s overall performance. Now, we need to test these changes to ensure we're on the right track, enabling us to continue refining the experience.
For this playtest, our main focus will be on tracking player FPS. We've integrated automatic telemetry to monitor FPS during gameplay, allowing us to gather valuable data. After the playtest, we’ll analyze this information to determine the best direction for further development.
To ensure accurate comparisons, we won't be adding any new maps for this playtest. Introducing new environments could skew the performance data, making it less useful. We understand this may be disappointing, but it’s a necessary step in the game's development process, and there’s no way to bypass it.
Despite the focus on performance tracking, we’re still introducing some new and updated content. You'll find balance adjustments, numerous bug fixes, and new uniform unlocks to explore. Even if you participated in the previous test, we encourage you to check out the latest changes and provide your feedback.
Here are some of the key changes in this playtest:
FPS Improvements
The primary focus of this playtest is to test our performance improvements. We have implemented numerous improvements across various systems in the game to deliver a smoother and more responsive experience.
Upscaler
If you're GPU limited, you may want to try out the FSR 3.1 or XeSS upscaling techniques we've integrated, with XeSS being the preferred option due to its superior quality. You can enable upscaling in the Video options. This may provide significant performance boosts at the expense of some graphical fidelity.
Please note that both the upscaler and the new anti-aliasing (AA) are still experimental, which might result in unwanted behavior and ghosting artifacts. XeSS tends to produce fewer artifacts, which is why it is the recommended upscaler in Over The Top: WWI.
New AA techniques
We have enhanced the Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) technique, resulting in noticeably fewer jagged edges. Additionally, you can now enable FSRAA and XeSSAA, which deliver great AA results - especially XeSSAA - while incurring minimal performance costs. We encourage you to try them out!
New Uniforms
The British faction has been outfitted with a variety of new uniforms, including authentic officers' garb, backpacks, and haversacks. Additionally, the Black Watch Highlander uniform is now available for unlock.
Randomly Generated Maps
We have implemented the first version of randomly generated maps into the game. We might randomly switch to them every now and then, but they will not be in the map rotation for now. Still very experimental. It will be interesting to see how they play.
Weapon Accuracy
We have introduced several new systems that impact gunplay, particularly for automatic and semi-automatic rifles and pistols.
Movement Accuracy: Firing weapons while moving will now significantly increase sway and reduce accuracy. This has been fine-tuned on a per-weapon basis, meaning some weapons handle movement better than others. For example, carbines experience only a minor accuracy penalty, whereas Light Machine Guns suffer a more substantial reduction in accuracy.
Burst Firing: Weapons should now be fired in short bursts. Continuously firing full-auto weapons will cause their accuracy to deteriorate over time, while firing in short bursts will prevent this issue.
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The second alpha Playtest for Over The Top: WWI will start on Friday the 6th of September and will end on the 9th of September.
Please keep in mind that the game is still in alpha and a number of features have not yet been implemented. There will be bugs and performance issues as well unfinished gameplay.
If you are interested in participating in the Playtest, you can register for it from our Steam Store Page. Once registered, you will be notified once the Playtest starts.
Thank you! We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield very soon!
/Flying Squirrel Entertainment
