XBox One status update (Dec. 19th)
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Hey everyone,
I'm getting a ton of e-mail and tweets about the status of the XB1 build, so I wanted to write up something for everyone to see.
Getting the XB1 version of Subnautica running as well as the PC version has been a HUGE amount of work. We vastly underestimated it. Max and Jonas have been working on it pretty much full-time for months and there's still a lot to do. Jonas just did finished a big rewrite of a system that, although it won't improve performance much right now, was necessary in order for us to make more improvements later.
Our goal is to release all of our big game updates both to PC and XB1 at the same time, but that's been a lot harder in practice. But we're quite far behind on the XB1 right now (2-3 months) and we need to fix that sooner rather than later. But every time we try to release, we've added something new to the game that must be handled again on the XB1 to avoid making it even worse.
However, we now have a certification slot reserved for tomorrow, Tuesday December 20th. As you may know, Microsoft must test and approve every build we release to the XB1 - this requires a bit of work from them so these "slots" are our appointments that we have to reserve ahead of time.
Originally this build was going to be the Precursor update, but we've found a new problem with save/load that's going to mean we're going to try to ship the Bones Update instead. But so much has changed there that there's a decent chance that build won't pass certification, which would mean we couldn't ship anything until January.
We'd like to keep this a lot more updated, but this is the best we can do for our small team right now. Thanks for being patient, if you are!
I'm getting a ton of e-mail and tweets about the status of the XB1 build, so I wanted to write up something for everyone to see.
Getting the XB1 version of Subnautica running as well as the PC version has been a HUGE amount of work. We vastly underestimated it. Max and Jonas have been working on it pretty much full-time for months and there's still a lot to do. Jonas just did finished a big rewrite of a system that, although it won't improve performance much right now, was necessary in order for us to make more improvements later.
Our goal is to release all of our big game updates both to PC and XB1 at the same time, but that's been a lot harder in practice. But we're quite far behind on the XB1 right now (2-3 months) and we need to fix that sooner rather than later. But every time we try to release, we've added something new to the game that must be handled again on the XB1 to avoid making it even worse.
However, we now have a certification slot reserved for tomorrow, Tuesday December 20th. As you may know, Microsoft must test and approve every build we release to the XB1 - this requires a bit of work from them so these "slots" are our appointments that we have to reserve ahead of time.
Originally this build was going to be the Precursor update, but we've found a new problem with save/load that's going to mean we're going to try to ship the Bones Update instead. But so much has changed there that there's a decent chance that build won't pass certification, which would mean we couldn't ship anything until January.
We'd like to keep this a lot more updated, but this is the best we can do for our small team right now. Thanks for being patient, if you are!
Comments
Keep up the good work Devs and Engineers, you guys are doing awesome.
And I think that's the problem right there. You need to stop adding new stuff until you get your base game right. When the game first came in GPP, it was much better than it is now because you blotted it before refining it. Now you have to rewrite stuff with stuff laid on top of it.
Please guys, forget the new content for the moment, and make the Xbox port playable with the content it has right now.
UWE will get all their ducks in a row, just not as soon as some would like.
If we separate the two completely then it means we split our development resources and have an "A" and a "B" experience, which we really don't want to do. We've already downsampled a lot of the textures in the XB1 to make it run better but we'll just keep optimizing and eventually the two will be in parity.
i think they are doing what they can and as such they are focusing on our frame rate as well
hey man thanks for the update could you help me with my youtube as im maken videos on your game on XB1 could you try put a stat or a post about me doing your game on xb1 if you could that would be AWESOME an PLEASE take your time with this update
We're going to do a little more sanity checking on it today and schedule it for release HOPEFULLY for tomorrow.
Glad to hear that.
Time to remove my "make subnauticaXbox great" tags.
So it looks like the soonest it's going to go out now is January 3rd. It's possible it will show up before then, but not likely.
Take your time bro and have a happy holiday! i hope others can also understand the amount of effort you are all doing to make a great game! just to give you an update on my end everything in game is amazing minus the frame rate takes me 10-15 min to walk around my base but still well done and still having fun i found out if i dont make a cyclopse i get better frame rate. as of currently i just restart the game over and over again lol. again thanks for all your work on subnautica!
Geesh man, aren't you supposed to test things before you send it to ms for certification instead after it?
People get hyped and hope it passes cert. and then this.
I know you guys do your best but don't get people's hopes up and then turn it down again.
I know this game is in preview but I bought it on day one for the Xbox, it would be nice to be able to actually play it for once.
The current state with the framerate drops etc. makes it impossible to play and it's been this way far to long.
While it is a disappointment that the build was pulled (not going to lie, I checked for the update every day for the past 3 days), I do understand why it was pulled which is why I'm not terribly upset or mad about it. You guys are working hard and I know waiting will pay off in the end so take your time! It is a great game so far, just the frame rate is an issue. Keep up the good work!
Apparently MS should hire UWE to do qc for them, as UWE caught this massive bug and they didn't. Then again, before that happened, it got past UWE the first time, so...
How exactly does the cert process work? I thought bug-testing was before hand, but apparently it's only a quick bug-test?
You'd think MS would cut you some slack, seeing as the buggy version passed their inspection, and if all you're doing is patching that bug, then really, it's just an improved version of the one that they certified for release. but you know, corporations make about as much sense as the federal government with some things.
You already bought it, so it's going to be here when you come back and you will most likely be a much happier camper at that point because the game will be in better shape.
There's no reason to get all morose and blame the Dev's for something that is inherently a problem when dealing with Microsoft, and also when creating new computer-game software.
Just a bit of gratefulness wouldn't hurt either, considering they could have decided from the outset not to have to deal with Microsoft's complicated and annoying approval process.
Of course if they had, then some folks might not have anything to whine/complain about.
Just something to consider for a moment when submitting ones next post.
Remember also, that a lot of folks are having problems playing the game on their PC's as well, so it's not just X-Box players that are bummed.
I was enjoying the game on both platforms and my PC died, so now i can only play it on Xbox and i keep hearing all the hype over the new additions and content they're releasing that we've already been so patiently waiting for, and yet nothing is changing on the console version. No bones update, no traces of the precursors, no progress at all for months.
I know they're working hard on the game and it is clearly in development. I love the game and look forward to (one day) trying all of this content i keep hearing/reading about. The devs are doing a great job on the game thus far, and i appreciate their dedication. But it is also frustrating to think that at this rate, the pc version will likely be completed and released well before the xbox version catches up to where the steam updates currently are.
The best advice given in this thread is to take a few months off and come back to hopefully at least an update or two.
In the meantime, Happy Holidays, hope you've found another game to play in the meantime
The devs are doing a great job? On pc maybe but definitely not on Xbox, for months.
It's a game in development? Content wise maybe but definitely not in functionality, for months.
I regret buying this preview, I've bought others that do develop well, this one?.........no.