H-Hour: World's Elite
Hotfix 3.0.16 Released
We will be updating and improving on the new stat framework as part of our next patch so we ask the community not to report on any stat items not recording properly until that release.
Thanks everyone!
Patch 3.0.15 Release
As always, please provide your feedback on features/changes so the dev team can continue improving the game for everyone. Thanks and enjoy!
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New Features:
Melee - Butt Stroke - First Pass
Players can now melee opponents with their primary weapon when close enough and while looking at the enemy combatant (cannot melee while prone, and must have primary weapon equipped)
Updates:
Fixed Server/Client Crash:
Events where a player falls out of the world, and other unhandled errors in relation to player deaths were addressed.
NOTE: This is not related to the crashes being reported when joining a server. These are still under investigation.
Character head movement
Reduced the amount the character's head will "look up" when crosshairs are on objects extremely close to the character
Hostage Action Cue
Improved handling of Hostage actions so easier for players to activate
Guns Hot Logic
Improvements to "guns hot" logic for when it is and is not triggered
Client Log Warnings
Addressed various warning entries seen in client logs to prevent instability
UCR Updates
- UCR Custom Rotation entry selections can now be moved up/down within the map rotation list
- UCR prefix set for all user created rooms
Map Loading Screens
Created new icon for H-Hour Official Maps & added to all Studio map loading screens to help new players identify official vs workshop maps
Bugs:
Bug(433): FIXED Player loses control of character when breaking door open/close animation, such as by reloading
Patch 3.0.14 Release & Server Downtime
Right-click on H-Hour in your Library.
Select Properties.
Select the Local Files tab.
Click on Verify integrity of game cache and let it run until complete.
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Patch 3.0.14
New Features!
First pass introduction of Death Animations
NOTE: Death animations only apply to deaths while on the ground. If the player is in the air, ragdoll animations will play.
Known Issues:
Not Game Breaking – Death animations need to stay in the capsule to respect physics & collisions. On those occasions when they do not, the Character can fall through terrain (slopes) and meshes (stairs, buildings, etc). As the death animation, is a vast improvement over the former ragdoll effect, we are implementing and will address in a future patch. The corrective work is significant.
First pass introduction of new Prone Crawling:
- When in prone, character will now adjust to the slope of the terrain when crawling forwards or backwards.
- This gives a more natural look for characters moving along terrain, and also prevents their legs/arms from going through ground/objects that are uneven
- It will aid in preventing people from sniping behind peaks (such as on rooftops) or being able to half bury their bodies in to sloped surfaces behind them
Known Issues:
Not Game Breaking – Character may not be able to "break over" the top of "steepish" stairs going forward in prone or they may get stuck on irregular shaped stairs. Players should just change stance when this happens. Workshop Mappers may wish to adjust their stairs, adding appropriate blocking volumes to allow freer travel on those that cause issues.
UCR GUI Rotation and Options (first pass)
This feature is not completed, so there are some limitations, but it will ease UCR creation for users
- Players can now customize their map rotation within the UCR GUI
- Players can also set the options for Friendly Fire, Vote To Kick, and Controller Only
Known Issues:
<*>Rotation lists/options are "reset" when returning to the UCR creation screen, and have to be rebuilt, this will be addressed at a later time.
<*>Map lists may contain old entries from maps that are no longer available on the player's system. This is due to the "caching" nature of the engine and will be looked into a better solution later.
WorkAround: When players see map entries that are not valid (such as old workshop maps that are no longer available), they will need to delete their "Game.ini" file from within the H-Hour's "Saved" folder.
- In your Steam Client Library, Right Click on the H-Hour Game and choose Properties
- Go to the "Local Files" tab and click on Browse Local Files
- In the Windows Explorer window that opens, dig in to the following path:
- HHourGame\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
- Select and delete the file named "Game" or "Game.ini"
- If you see a file named "DefaultGame", DO NOT DELETE IT! You are in the wrong location.
Updated Features:
Second pass was completed on Ladder Animations to improve and fix the following along with reported bugs:
- Can look to left without falling off while dismounting
- Increased speed of ladder slide descent
- Hands now wrap around ladder on slide
- Character hand in animations moved closer to ladder
- Bug(403): Hands have been closed on ladder
- Bug(421): getting off ladder no longer goes to the right when dismounting
Networking changes were implemented so the 90 FPS Cap could be removed.
Modification to Steam Voice system to reduce backlogging of voice packets
Additional MVP selection logic was added to address the event of a score tie
Set GamePad (controller) default Sensitivity and Acceleration values to 50% based on community feedback. This setting is a better “beginning” position for new players to tweak from.
Adjusted all Dance Animations to allow players to cancel during the animation by moving their character
Factory:
- Additional FPS and lighting change tweaks were completed
- Corrected some UV mapping issues on meshes
- Corrected material settings for wood flooring
Other Bug Fixes:
- Bug(410): Character "Stutter" when turning while idle
- Bug () Screen “Stutter” for some players when server is full
- Bug(408): Fixed binding for GamePad (controller) walk button not working in Controller-Only servers
DLC Content:
Updates to:
- Desert Raid by SelflessOne
- Himitsu Temple by Mr_Q_Blaze
- SandGlow by NewyBond
- Sub Rosa by SelflessOne
New!
HarshWoods by Mojoe
H-Hour Community News - 11 July 2017
Posted on Behalf of SOF Studios President, Tom
Hello H-Hour Community!
Around the Studio:
Hot, beautiful sunny days in the forecast! We have hit the summer months and I am encouraging the volunteers on the dev team to make sure they take some time off with their families this summer so they can enjoy the season. These dedicated souls have worked tirelessly on H-Hour in their free time for an extended time now and letting them de-stress with their families this summer is the least that we can do to thank them for the passion and dedication they have brought to H-Hour!
What does this mean for the game? The pace of development may slow and require us to change direction “on the fly”. Most development work at this stage requires multiple team members to collaborate on a feature to get it completed and we will now be juggling not only everyone’s regular job schedules but vacation schedules. Because of this, we may also need to switch direction, shelve one feature’s work part way through and move on to a different feature. Given this reality, we are planning on releasing smaller patches until the summer is over. This will also allow us to get updates to community DLC maps out the door sooner for everyone.
So, what is the team focusing on during this next patch cycle?
- Work required to allow for removal of the FPS cap
- Correct "stuttering when stepping" (turning while at idle)
- A recent bug regarding the mini-map not updating objects until character turns
- Walk button on controllers not working in controller only rooms
- Continuing to test Workshop tools for ladders (this update cannot be released until all coding changes for ladders are complete)
- Continuing to stabilize recent animations added
- Map 5 – continue file management work and conversion of blueprint assets to static meshes
- Map 6 block out work has begun
- Working with community mappers—testing their maps, providing guidance and feedback and loading and releasing their maps
Patch News:
The development team released another large patch this month followed by a hotfix to address the issues stress testing by the public identified post patch.
The release patch included new content such as aimoffsets which enabled much better fluidity for characters, the addition of ladders and the first pass animations needed for this feature, the ability to drop the bomb, allowing players to fire while reloading, updated special effects, in-scope shot block warning and a TK management system. There was also a long list of updates to existing animations and features, optimizations to all official maps to help those with lower end specs and another large pass of bug fixes. For more information on what was in the patch, check our patch notes. For the content in the hotfix, check here.
As always, new features are considered first pass and will likely require additional tweaking in future patches. In other words, no feature is complete until it has been put through its paces very thoroughly by the community.
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From the Development Team – Let’s Talk H-Hour Workshop Maps:
Hi everyone, Rosie here to talk Maps!
Before I start I want to thank all the community mappers out there who have taken the time to create maps for everyone. You guys rock! To show my appreciation for the time you invest, I thought I would share some tips with you. I hope this is a helpful starting place for all our mappers when combined with our Guide as they create and improve on their custom maps.
The move of Workshop maps to a DLC pack has meant changes to the process of how community mappers work with the Studio to have their maps reviewed and in what is expected for a map to be released with H-Hour.
The process has been evolving as we worked with the early adopters of our new Workshop and we believe now is a good time to share the best path to take for our map creators to get their maps approved and into our DLC pack.
The workshop tools provided allow custom mappers to build their map, merge it into your game files and test using Create a Game (UCR). This tool is key for doing a full review of your maps prior to asking for Studio testing.
I am now going to drill down into the areas all community mappers should consider.
Optimization for all content in your map.
Remember the minimum specs for H-Hour are for an Nvidia 660Ti so you need to target allowing players with those specs to reach adequate FPS rates while playing. Keep in mind that what you see for FPS when testing is less than what will be the experience of 16 players shooting, throwing nades and interacting.
Use the tools provided by Epic to optimize your map. This includes:
- Create LODs for large props/buildings to reduce the rendering required on your map for players.
LOD levels reduce the vertices on meshes based on distance. You can do this in your modeling programs yourself and then import the model with the LODs or through the auto-generation feature in UE4.
To auto-generate-- Select each large prop or building static mesh, double click to open. In the Details panel in “LOD Settings” section, select an appropriate LOD group to auto-generate LODs for your mesh type and then Save.
- Use the UE4 Editor View Modes to check out your lighting optimization, shader complexity, etc. Detail on what to look for is available online in numerous tutorials and Epic documentation. To use the optimization tools, dropdown the “Lit” selection and go to Optimization Viewmodes and use the tools.
- While developing, turn the FPS counter on in the Editor so when you play in editor you can move through your map with the player and get a feel of FPS drop objects in your map.
Texturing and Lighting
There is a maximum amount of rendering that can happen within a multiplayer game before players lag. Texturing and lighting are big contributors to this issue if not controlled.
For textures, we recommend you do variations so your map is not boring, no one wants to see 50 buildings all with the same texture without any variation. At the same time, use the tips that follow to reuse wherever possible. The engine will render each texture once so sharing within your texture sets saves performance cost. Reuse specular and normal map sets where possible, just swapping out the base colors. This can also be achieved using Material Instances.
You may want high quality for an object but expecting you can just 4K everything is going to make your map unplayable. Use the size map tool in Editor on your static mesh to get a grasp of its overall size. It might surprise you. To work around this, you should test each texture set in your art program to see how low you can go with the various layers and still achieve the look you want. This includes things like using lower resolution specular maps, and having the highest resolution texture be your normal map. These kinds of tricks will typically play upon your average person's perception of surface detail. Working with our artist, we have found the difference is not that noticeable for most objects with a 1024x1024 normal map, a 512x512 color map (though there are exceptions), a 256x256 specular map and a surface with all 1024x1024 texture maps. You need to test and tweak to define the minimum levels for your surface detail on each object.
Do not scale or stretch textures beyond their intended size as this will produce bad visual results.
For lighting, it is important to have a good grasp of this topic as it is one of the biggest areas of performance cost. You need to understand what each light type does in order to make decisions on use. Spend time learning this using Epic documentation and tutorials as it is a huge subject.
At a high level, you should:
- Limit the use of Stationary point lights inside your map. Only use them when you must have shadows interact with an object during game play. Do not use Moveable.
- Limit the use of Reflection Spheres in your map as they have a high-performance cost. These are intended to assist with reflecting light off metallic objects or reflective surfaces for atmosphere and not as a means to increase lighting in an area of your map. Also, keep these Spheres at a level that they will not reflect light on the top of a character. Players should not be wondering where the heck that light they cannot see that is reflecting off their character came from. Placement is important.
- Use bounce lighting to pull additional light into dark areas of your map without having to up intensity of your lighting source. This is an option in your light source itself and can also be done using soft point lights in strategic locations that are not visible (e.g., tied to a static mesh) and do not cast any shadows.
- We have also noticed with the switch to 4.15, the tonemapper in use is quite different then the one from 4.11 and this requires revisiting your texture and world settings to in many cases, lower roughness and metallic settings.
- Keep your mesh lightmap resolutions low, adjusting using Optimization ViewModes and watching that you do not lose too much of the detail for your mesh. Blue is the happy color and will not only improve performance but reduce light build times!
Take your time and build a quality map that the community will enjoy and want to play.
Typical Studio quality maps take a full time, experienced level artist at least 3 months to develop. This is an indicator of the amount of hours community mappers may need to put in to create high-quality maps. So, if yours is complete with just a few days or weeks of effort, you likely need to revisit to see what could be improved. Focus on one map and perfect it as this should be about quality and not quantity. You want players to want to play your map. This community has the talent to create high quality maps and many have proven this already and their maps are fan favorites. We want all our community mappers to succeed.
With the new DLC process, it is not as easy to get fixes you may make in the hands of the players when they are unhappy about something. So, we strongly recommend you take the time up front and make sure your map’s first impression is a good one!
Glitches are not something you want in your map. Make sure there are no places players can get outside of the map. Make sure there are no objects players can get caught on. Make sure players cannot hide behind bulletproof items that should not be bulletproof—e.g., a bush. Check that there are no areas players can gain access to that they shouldn’t, especially things that allow them to get under your map. If you use water that players could hide under, use the Water Volume blueprint provided in the H-Hour Workshop Tools and make sure players cannot find areas to submerge themselves.
The Process when you deem your map ready:
- Use the Workshop Uploader to upload your approved version of the map to the Workshop Depot.
- Contact me on forums or send an email to office@sofstudios.com and let them know the name of your map and that it is ready for testing. This process takes volunteers away from game development so make sure your map is bug free before contacting us.
- Your map will be tested on a UCR first and if it passes, go for server testing by the development team.
- The team will provide feedback if they find things that need fixes.
- Once approved, it will be added to H-Hour content to await the next patch. Depending on when your map is approved, this wait might be 3-4 weeks.
Hotfix 3.0.10.3 Incoming
- Improved validation logic for objects during damaging events that were found to be the cause of at least one server crash.
- Made a small change to weapon reloading logic that is hoped to resolve the cause of some players experiencing reloads that they did not initiate when rapidly spamming their fire button. This will require further monitoring to confirm.
- Returned the ability for players to fire weapons when they are blocked by objects (Grey Crosshairs), as the feedback revealed a negative impact when in gun fights and accidental blocks disrupted their ability to return fire effectively.
- Client Dump files fixes implemented
- Updated Grenade Arcs to not be affected by the AimOffset system - Grenade arcs should display and follow arc like before
- Set the default Player VOIP volume to 200% (max)
- Modified the Action system to eliminate and unexpected bug with dropping the bomb in the bomb plant area that had severe consequences
- Update to Sub Rosa to improve FPS
Patch 28 June 2017 - Release 3.0.9.8
The team released a large patch late yesterday for everyone. As always, many new features are first pass so we expect there will be a need for future tweaks and ask the communities support to report or make suggestions so we can continue to improve these features.
With a large patch such as this, we need to get more online playing to truly see what might break. We will be releasing hotfixes to address crashes that may happen so you can expect updates will be coming We really appreciate everyone helping us make H-Hour better!
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New Features:
Ladders:
H-Hour now has ladders! Climb up to key spots using auto-mount, climb down using the action key or slide down (s+f). This is first pass of this logic. We will be evaluating impact on game play and the ladder locations using feedback from the community to determine next steps for this feature.
Ladders have been added to the following locations:
- Factory: Ter Silos & SOF ShowRoom to Roof
- WolfRun: SOF Spawn building & Broken Barn
- Sismis: Apothecary, Church, Windmill and TER Broken building
Ladder models, Textures and construction system created to allow for wood and metal ladders that can fit a variety of building/site heights.
Ladder animations incorporated for mount, climb, descend, slide, dismount
- Ladders can only be mounted while in crouch or standing
- Ladders can be mounted from below by moving or jumping directly on to them while faced towards the ladder
- Players can "Slide" down the ladder by holding the Action Key (F by default) while using the down/backwards key
- Players are displayed an available Action to mount ladders from above (for climbing down). This is to prevent accidental mounting of ladders when not intended while moving around on the above surface
- Players can "look around" (within a reasonable amount) while mounted to a ladder
- Footstep sounds for all ladder types created and added
- Ladder blueprint developed for workshop mappers
AimOffsets & Natural Character Movements:
The Animation Core framework was amended to add AimOffsets for all stances and gun positions. Additional animation work was done to characters for twisting, looking up or down. This allows for a more natural fluid looking character when looking around or playing.
- Feet will move now when body is twisted
- Players can look up or down while idle, walking or running.
- Player head follows direction of input (mouse/controller) and body turns when turn radius level reached.
- Players can now "Look Around" even when not being allowed to "turn" such as when on Ladders or Planting/Defusing the bomb
NOTE: It is known that planting items (satchel, pmn, claymore) will ignore the character's "aimoffset" rotation, and instead use their "true" direction. This is planned to be addressed later
NOTE: If you do not see your feet move when rotating in idle, try putting VSynch on in Video options so your rendering and monitor speeds match.
Players can "drop" bomb on demand:
If a player with the satchel looks down at the ground while standing or in crouch, they will be presented with an action icon allowing them to drop the bomb.
Firing while Reloading:
Weapon reloading will now cancel if the player has 1 or more round remaining in the clip and fires during the reload process
Updated Effects:
Updated Water Explosion effects for Grenades, PMNs, & Claymores
In-Scope Shot Blocked:
Players in scope sometimes are unaware their rifle muzzle is close to an object that will prevent them from hitting their target. To address, the shot block logic was expanded to include:
- Displays a Text warning when in scope and weapon muzzle is obstructed within 1M
Team Kill Manager:
An automated process was developed to handle potential in game abuse of friendly fire while allowing for the unintended occasional team kills that may happen. If you are warned, be more careful!
- TK Mirror: Player death when teamkill numbers warrant a warning
- Player kick: Repeat offenders are kicked
- Added Player Death to Kill Feed
Updated Game Features:
- Migrated Game and Workshop Project to 4.15.3 Engine due to a critical engine fix for crashes being experienced by players (as seen in provided dump files)
- Animations - Stand to crouch and crouch to stand animations have been shortened and sped up.
- Animations - Guns have been raised while in relaxed position to allow for faster transition to guns hot.
- Animations - Relaxed rifle stand and crouch blendspaces have been updated.
- Guns "hot" for character now replicates properly to all other players
- Shot "blocked" for character now replicates properly to all other players
- Players can now access the "Unicorn Roof" in Temple via the previous skill jump
- Improved Weapon Direction validation logic for hit registration
- Fixes to weapon muzzle fire particle effects
- Updated Key Mapping customization to also include the new 6th inventory slot binding
Graphics:
- Added new bomb action graphic tiles for Planting, Defusing, and Pickup/Drop
- Removed Headgear & Eyewear Armory Tiles as there are currently no customization options available
- M4A1 and M4A1-SD textures upgraded
- Ak74m textures upgraded
- M16 textures upgraded
- Rpk textures upgraded
- Sr25 textures upgraded
- White smoke model textures upgraded
- Grenade model textures upgraded
- Pinzgauer truck textures upgraded
- New Pinzgauer truck with Desert Camo textures added
- Re-worked Claymore "Pickup" model and properly textured
- Syrian character texture upgrade for scarf
- Some tweaks to character hair for hostages
Official Map Level Updates:
An optimization sweep was completed on all official maps (WolfRun, Temple, Sismis and Factory). This is not final polish and more optimizations will follow in the future, i.e., Factory requires more intense review. However, this should help many running minimum spec systems.
Factory Updates:
- Updated Factory Bridge replication so late joiners (applies mostly to respawn) would see the bridge in its proper state
- Made Optimizations with the rain system within Factory to hopefully improve FPS on that map for most players
- Replaced Windows in Factory "Show Room" 2nd Floor to make the location more usable and less of a hideout
- Removed the railing blocks within Factory "Assembly" (middle) building loft
- Add soft lights up above I-beams to prevent chaos with players completely hidden up there (rebuilding lighting to test)
- Changed Factory Lightning system to have varying Lightning/Thunder effect intensity
WolfRun Updates:
- Flowers resized
- Wheel barrow resized to match characters
- Fix under SOF side bridge to bring ground up to abutment
Sismis Updates:
- Added bounce lights to improve some light situations for buildings caused by the environment lighting
- Added bounce lights to area around memorial in church to improve visibility of plaque
- Removed all shadow casting from Ivy as it overlapped numerous times and caused excessive black shadows
Bug Fixes/Closures:
- Bug(080) - Camera clipping (in doorways) for certain buildings in Wolfrun/Sismis
- Bug(090) - Bullets blocked in the center of blown breaches (where C4 is placed)
- Bug(096) - Missing Camera collision on boarded windows in Sismis Hostage Building
- Bug(094) - Soft spot in Large WolfRun Bridge
- Bug(098) - Water Explosion effects disrupted by the water body
- Bug(099) - Bullet decals do not move with the hit object, example: doors
- Bug(125) - WIP : Factory Mesh Gaps
- Addressed Mesh Gaps in Railings on Factory
- Bug not closed due to other unaddressed building gaps still existing
- Bug(131) - Glass Electric Meter in Factory doesn't block camera and can obscure view
- Bug(133) - Characters can get stuck in Factory when running up the stairs to buildings (SOF Spawn, TER Spawn, and Ter Bomb Plant Building)
- Bug(135) - Factory : Soft Spots in railings
- Bug(227) - Reported Grenade Soft Spots in Sismis Apothecary & Hostage Building
- Bug(235) - Camera Soft Spot in 2nd level Temple Stairs from bath
- Bug(321) - Double tracers created when firing weapons
- Bug(338) - GamePlayer Debugger is accessible
- Bug(342) - Long or Multi-Line UCR Names can interfere with Server Browser Display
- Names are now limited to 38 characters and will not accept multiple lines
- Bug(343) - Living/Dead teammates should be able talk during Round/Match cool-down time
- Bug(375) - Temple Soft Spot allows for planting claymores inside certain objects/walls
- Bug(377) - Reduce Claymore arming time (is now 1 second)
NOTE: The delay is to prevent players from accidentally detonating their claymore immediately if they desire to rapidly plant another
- Bug(374) - Unable to plant PMNs/Claymores on stairs/terrain with reasonable slope
- Bug(378) - Claymore display when changing Loadout in Armory appears "cut off"
- Bug(379) - Significant FPS drops during sustained Gun fire
- Steps were taken to reduce the burden of weapon impact effects on systems. There will always be added overhead to displaying these effects, but we hope that this impact will be significantly reduced for many players
NOTE: Higher end graphic cards are expected to see smaller differences in FPS vs lower end cards
- Bug(380) - Reticule is still visible when option is set to hide
- Bug(382) - Key Bindings interface in the Options UI do not show the Inventory_6 binding
- Bug(383) - Unable to turn while planting (Addressed by a new feature)
- Bug(): - Character's camera moves in to his head when in deep enough water volumes
Community Map DLC additions:
- Himitsu Temple by Mr_Q_Blaze
- Kazbah by PoisonCobra
- Sub Rosa by SelflessOne
Steam Download Issues due to Summer Sale / Patch Delay as a result
Given this download issue, we have been unable to get our testers into our test builds to approve our planned game and DLC patch. Given how bad it is (one tester's download says it will be complete in 4 years) we will be delaying our patch until Valve resolves their issues.
If you are one of the unfortunate ones waiting on a download that is stuck, the only options available seem to be:
- Understanding there is a large load on Steam's download servers and patiently, waiting it out.
- If the download time showing is outrageous, restart Steam and try again.
- If you are seeing actual error messages about your download being corrupt, go to top menu-Steam/Settings/Downloads and click on the "Clear download cache..." button.
- Wait a few days for Steam to get their download servers sorted.
- Send a ticket to Steam support.
Our apologies to anyone affected by this. Based on past large sales, this may be the norm for the next few days.
Patch Released to add DLC Content
- Fixed version of Desert Raid
- Lockdown
- Rainforest
- SandGlow
Make sure you get the DLC download by restarting Steam.
RECOMMENDED:
I highly recommend everyone run a Verify of their game files to ensure they do not have issues.
- Right-click on H-Hour in your Library.
- Select Properties.
- Select the Local Files tab.
- Click on Verify integrity of game cache and let it run until complete.
Community Map DLC Pack-- Patch Released
To verify:
Right click on H-Hour in Steam Console
Select Properties
Click on Local Files tab
Click on Verify integrity of game cache and let it run until complete.
Workshop DLC Patch
Approved for release were Black Vein by Harry62 and Offshore by Hype. Make sure you grab your download (restart Steam or use Verify of game cache) as these are on the servers now.
If you find Workshop DLC map specific issues, please report to the mappers in the Workshop forums. Enjoy!