The last weeks have been a dive into details, blueprints and test runs for vonBiomes 21. Moreover, there have been adjustments to the integrated Lighting & Weather, I have boosted the sunlight, so there is a little more brightness on the field and fine-tuned the fog levels, so they have a little more impact. Plus, the “Cinematic Contrast” Mod Option is now hooked back in. You can enable it if you prefer a more high-contrast look. It is still experimental, but something to try out if you are curious.
And, since it is the holidays season, if you play some missions between the 23rd and the 27th of December, you may stumble upon some specials. I just hope I did not miss anything, my brain is still quite foggy from the virus infection. If you encounter any issues, please let me know and there will be fixes as usual. But so far, tests look good. Enjoy the holidays, and thanks again for the support!
Also, thanks to the outstanding help of the beta testers on the vonMods Discord, a huge issue has finally been identified and solved. If you had lower performance of vonBiomes when starting a MW5 mission, here is the fix!
This problem did bug many players: the initial FPS of a mission was lower than it should and after a mission restart, everything was getting back to normal. The cause was a left-over camera from the contract negotiation screen, the one looking at the solar system in the background. In the new version, that camera gets removed as soon as you drop into a mission, and by that, Mechwarrior 5's performance levels are back to normal. It was a difficult-to-find thing, and it took many iterations, builds, tests to finally get to the core of the problem.
Big shout-out again to the beta testers on Discord and on the new https://www.vonhq.com/ Forum for the patience in going through mod test builds and reporting back results! With the slow mission start issue fixed now, it is finally time to get back to creating new things. I am excited and relieved that now vonBiomes runs smooth for everyone (hopefully) as expected.
Further adjustments, improvements, and changes are also in the new package, like many optimizations, the random background cloud textures are back and more texture and object upgrades. In its total, the path of getting to identifying the issue also resulted in making everything else a little more fine-tuned, helping players with mid to lower-end PCs. As before, this release also includes the new work in progress biome “Agricultural Fields” as your early access goodie. Enjoy!