Hey Everybody, So I'll try to be brief, which is not my strong suit, at all..
Apologies:
First of all, my apologies about the Trash state of the previous update. Our Internal tests went way better than the actual release. Which is always tricky and something we try to avoid..
With that said, I am so proud to announce that we now have worked out A LOT of things and this version is going to run WAY better. And for the people that weren't able to load the game before, you will very likely be able to do so now!
Explanation (What happened, why it take so long?):
What happened?
So what happened was, when we released the previous version we did a lot testing before releasing, however we were and still are with only a very small group of Playtesters.. Like only 3 or 4 of us, and one of us was on a long vacation. You can imagine it is hard to test everything with so little people especially Hardware-wise, since we all have pretty beafy PCs.
Okay, so what was the issue than?
So what happened is one of our template assets were designed quite badly for memory optimization as well as I made a crucial design mistake, which resulted in the players needing to have at least 32GBs or RAM memory. We got reports of people with 16GB they couldn't load the game, which is ofcourse insane. All playtesters are pretty die hard Gamers so we have 32 or 64GBs of RAM, my PC even has 128GBs of RAM. So we never ran into these issues.
Yeah but how? And what now?
So why this happened is a few different reasons, one of them being the Template not being optimized for memory. Second is I wanted the Game to look really good and utilize the New cool features of the Unreal Engine 5, Lumen, Nanite and Virtual Shadows etc. However Nanite is really cool but I found out that it's not very generous on older systems, meaning you need pretty beafy systems to run that at a good quality. Which lead me to another problem.
So Decision time..
So this was a very hard time for me, I basically had 2 options. Cut out Nanite at least on the Foliage and use the old skool methods of LODs, which boosts Performance A LOT (Which I found out later), but comes with a Visual Downgrade.. Or basically just cut off some people with older machines and try to get it to work well enough on current day Hardware.. So obviously I went with the first option, but it did hurt a lot to make that decision, since I was aiming so much for realism and immersion.
In the meantime my mother died as well, quite unexpectedly, which left me and my sister to take care of everything around the funeral as well as clearing and selling her house. So that cut in my Devtime heavily.
Anyway, this is already a SUPER long post..
What do we got now?
So what we have now is: The game is playable on older hardware and rusn a helluva lot better than it ever did, this again comes with a visual cost. But we'll just have to accept that. We can look into Nanite and more pretty environments once the Unreal Engine gets developed more, and newer versions come out, from what I've seen the newly released version 5.4 has already increased performance with Nanite and VSMs alot so we'll look into that as well.
This release runs >200% better than the one before. Normally I would upload an update this big to an Experimental channel, however given that the current available version does not run at all, I decided to just take a leap. I would like to ask you to report any bugs you find in the Discord Server in the designated Bug reports or in the Steam Forums.
I'll try to highlight some features here:
Large Explorable Open World Map
Dynamic Weather and Seasons (Dynamic Puddles, Snow Trails and more)
Some forageables are only available in certain Seasons
Each turn of the Season you will get a Paycheck
Building your own Cabin
2 types of Wildlife with more to come
Skill/Leveling system to get a chance to get more resources or learn new recipes
Interactive World Map
1 Driveable Vehicle with a realistic Fuel system (more to come)
Farming System, You can farm your own Veggies and fruit to use with cooking or earn money
Controller Support
Way more!
These are some notes on some features just to set realistic expectations:
Farming System needs a lot of Balancing
Vehicle needs to be more fine-tuned, or rather the driving mechanics
Controller Support is had limited testing, please let me know any issues.
There are still some things that are not as pretty as I want it to be, which we can work on next!
What can we expect for the next Content Update?
Of course any Bugs and issues found will be addressed where we can. For Content we have several Options that I want to look into!
New Cinematic Trailer to introduce the Story! (Already Storyboarded in my head)
Add some basic Voice Acting
Reintroduce Story Items
Reintroduce Steam Achievements
Add more Wildlife (including Predators)
Add a new Vehicle
Reintroduce the Letters and Keys etc. for Cabins
Rebuild a better and Newer version of Grandfathers Cabin
Add Radio Station "Mission"/Plot.
Add more Life to the Valley
Add Fishing Mechanics
Add Trapping
And WAY more that I'm forgetting right now..
So again my apologies for taking so long with this update, I hope you guys understand, and I hope future Updates will come more frequently again! <3
And remember PLEASE report any bugs or issues you find so I can try and fix them! <3
Quick Update from Dev | What's going on behind the scenes.
Hey Awesome people, I wanted to update you guys quickly to let you know what is going on.
First of all thank you all for your support and patience through this journey, we have a vision and ambition that needs time to make great.
Sadly I had some family stuff going on a few weeks ago. My mother passed away and we have alot of work to do IRL to make make sure everything is handled properly and right.
That means I have not been working on YFR a lot the past few weeks. And I will not have the amount of time I used to have before this, for a while.
In the mean time we noticed alot of people having issues with their memory and the game somehow hogging all of it and basically choking their PC.
Long story short here is the deal for the upcoming weeks/month(s): The Farming Update is as good as done, I was mostly tweaking some settings, timers and code. However with the memory issues I feel not completely comfortable releasing the farming update in the current state.
I have been doing alot of optimization where I could but this might not be enough.
So.. What I'm going to do is: I'm going to completely check and optimize/replace the code base/foundation we build upon. To make sure it is the best it can be, this will take some time. But will yield great results in the long run. At the same time we are aiming for a Realistic looking game Graphics wise and we use Unreal Engine 5 and their new features which (at least for now) come at a price. UE5 is still being developped and optimized by Epic Games and it will take time for them to see what kind of Specs they can run their features on. This will probably change somewhat in the coming year, meaning lower specs than current might be able to use the newer engine features.
YFR is still not dead, we need some time to make everything work better, we hear your concerns, we appologize. And to make matters worse Real Life is gonna demand more of me as well.
I'll keep you guys updated. Thanks again for your patience.
If you have any questions or Concerns, Please feel free to reach out in the Community Forums here on Steam or in Discord: https://discord.gg/RnTKuJt
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Hotfix 3 | More Performance Optimization
So I will be honest right away guys. I've been pulling my hair out with this. There are so many different things that go on within a Game Development process, usually there is a team of several people behind a game. I'm just 1 guy, solo, with a full time dayjob and a family. I've spent nearly each evening on the issues at hand.
I feel like i got alot of FPS issues and hitches fixed. However it is still hard to make it look great as well as make it perform well as well.
If the game is not running well for you, try tweaking the graphics settings. Also try to lock it at 30 fps to see how that does. The gameplay does not require 60 or 144 fps, if you want that it is a personal choice and I can't garantee pretty looks and 120+ fps at these times. This is also due to the Unreal Engine 5 and their newest technologies not being well optimized yet.
I have chnaged some technical stuff in the backgroudn trying to make the load of the game less heavy as well have a better experience at runtime.
I hope to god this works better than before, I see improvements, I hope you guys do too! :)
Hotfix 2 | Saving Fixed, More Performance Optimizations
Hey Guys, I fixed the Save System in this Hotfix, took me all day to find that one line/one checkbox.. If you know, you know.. xD
Also Hacked down alot in the materials of alot of meshes so that the ShaderComplexity went down. I also changed the amount of LandscapeGrass that is rendered on Epic Settings to make it look more pretty.
You can now ofcourse lower your settings to get Higher FPS, however: If you change your Graphics to Medium or Low and Textures dissapear (Into gray blocks), up the Effects Setting (to High).
I'm not sure why this is happening, Unreal Engine 5.3 is very, very hungry on resources and has some weird behaviours. Hopefully Epic will fix this soon!
Enjoy, let me know if there are any issues! See you in Discord or the Steam Forums! <3 With Warm Regards, Thursten
Hotfix 1 | Performance optimizations
Hey Guys, I'm sorry the launch was a bit rough. I've changed the Landscape Material and some other textures. It seems to be a lot better already. I did notice some Texture artifacts on the LAndscape and the Grass Distances, might require some tweaks. But for now it'll have to do with this. It's 2.20am here, Imma take a nap, and I'll look into the above issues in the morning. If you find any other Bugs, please report them, either through Discord or in the Steam Community Forums. I hope you enjoy! Thank you for your patience. With Warm Regards, Thursten
Reboot is FINALLY Live! Huge Sale AND New Store Page | Yosemite Forest Ranger
Hey everyone!
First of all thak you SO much for your patience and continued support.
The Reboot of Yosemite Forest Ranger took a long time to build. But now we have a great foundation to build upon and expand. With that, feature updates and content updates should be quicker to roll out.
Enjoy the new Reboot of Yosemite Forest Ranger NOW, along with a whopping 65% Sale and all new pictures on the Store Page.
I hope you will enjoy the new Update, or rather new game that is has become. If you have any issues, questions or suggestion. Don't be afraid to reach out. Either through Discord or right here on Steam in the Community Discussions.
We are always open to chat and hang out!
A few of the IndieGoGo campaign rewards can already be found in-game. And I'm working fast to put the rest of them in as well.
Again thank you for your patience and support.
For changes and features, please check the Store Page.
I hope you will enjoy, With warm regards, ThirstyThursten (TT-Studios)
Edit:
NOTE: I've just found out older machines might experience performance issues and framedrops. I'm trying to fix this literally right now. I'll keep you posted! <3
THE TIME IS FINALLY HERE! RELEASE OF THE REBOOT!
Yosemite Forest Ranger COMPLETE Overhaul Update!
It's been over a year in the making. And it's FINALLY here! A complete new game, with the same ideas and story, but better and more beautiful.
Check out the announcement Video below!
In short: This update will basically mark the Reboot of Yosemite Forest Ranger, it's a whole new game. Mechanics you've known from what we call the Legacy Version will be in this, as well as LOADS of new mechanics. Ofcourse we'll keep adding new content along the way. However I had to draw the line at some point for what to include in the first version. When? This Friday (November 17th)! The update launches along with a HUGE Sale!
Check out the Picture at the bottom of the Post to see what you can expect.
Feel free to share this, Stream it, Record videos, whatever! <3
Check it out for yourself NOW! And please let me know what you think!
I could also use some suggestions for POIs and places to explore and go to, so if you have any cool ideas, please let me know! <3
And ofcourse some Pictures:
YFR | TPoC Update v0.2 | Please read.
Yosemite Forest Ranger TPoC v0.2!
Please watch the video below and see some of the Pictures,
In this very short video I tell you a bit about the new version on the TPoC Branch, I'm leaving for Vacation tomorrow. Please check it out if you'd like and I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!
Please keep in mind again, this is a Technical Proof of Concept, not a game, even in this build, some things were somewhat rushed and may not work as expected, ofcourse I'll fix that as soon as I'm back from vacation! <3
Here are some Pictures of what I've been working on:
Thank you guys so much for your continued support and patience, I appreciate you all so much! <3
With warm regards, Thursten Creator and Lead Developer on Yosemite Forest Ranger
YFR | Sharing News about the Reboot and Development Progress. Please read.
No, Yosemite Forest Ranger is NOT Dead, check this out!
First of all, my sincerest appologies for not reaching out on Steam and other Platforms. While Development hasn't stood still, I've mostly posted updates and Pictures on Discord and haven't been around here enough. I appologize if this might have given you guys wrong impressions.
So I've been hella busy workign on Updates and the game in general and I would kindly like to ask you to check the video below where I explain everything and give you guys the opportunity to explore the progress so far.
Here are some Pictures of what the new map looks like:
Thank you guys so much for your continued support and patience, I appreciate you all so much! <3
With warm regards, Thursten Creator and Lead Developer on Yosemite Forest Ranger
