VAST Update 1.0.2 LIVE: Hotfix for ‘Titanium Moth’
VAST Update 1.0.2 is LIVE, featuring a hotfix for the ‘Titanium Moth’ bug that has affected many game developers and games on iOS / tvOS and still remains to be fixed by Apple and Unity’s engineers collaborating on the issue on their end. Because of this, the hotfix currently only works on Apple TV 4K, not Apple TV 4. Once Apple/Unity actually fix ‘Titanium Moth’, VAST should be playable again also on Apple TV 4. This however is great progress, as it restores playability to VAST on at least its current target platform (ATV4K), available now on the tvOS App Store for free to all existing customers and with a Holiday discount price of 50% off at $9.99 US.
Be sure to turn on Automatic App Updates: Settings -> Apps -> Automatically Update Apps (On) & Automatically Install Apps (On)
Existing customers may notice some enhancements that were planned for a future content update but are integrated early now:
- Smooth Motion Blur to Camera
- Lens Curve to Camera
- VAST Original Soundtrack (OST) song ‘Goodmorning Stars’ by Xander Davis added to Episode 1
- Gameplay now runs at 2K on Apple TV to prepare for more advanced visuals in future updates while maintaining a solid smooth 60 fps framerate
- Controls: ‘Switch Weapon’ moved from Y to Right Bumper
- Improved HUD Layout to Make Way for Future UI Features
- Enhanced tvOS Homescreen Banner Art
- New tvOS App Icon featuring an ‘Astrogun Cartridge’
Other fixes:
- Rebuilt Solar Sails with new Solar Sail material as Unity 2018.2 broke Substance support
- Rebuilt Chip Switch Logic, which was corrupted and broken with Unity 2018.2 upgrade
- Once entering vacuum with Yori’s vox, previous waypoints self-destroy to avoid clutter
- With Unity 2018.2 upgrades, Rewired gamepad control had broken upon respawn, now fixed
As this is a hotfix, it was our emergency top priority to restore playability to Episode 1 despite the systemic ‘Titanium Moth’ bug. There are other issues that we are aware of and are working to resolve next:
- Beautify Lens Flares No Longer Work (only on tvOS) and Unity’s Native Post-Processing Bloom Barely Works with White Blobs for Faulty Shader NaN Pixels: no bloom / flares are currently used for the time being.
- Player & Special Object Collisions Aren’t Ignoring: A bug with Unity’s physics matrix has prevented collision ignoring between the Player and enemy ragdolls, items, certain scenery objects.
- All Ally NPCs have Lost Their Poses and Aren’t Accepting Pose Logic
- HUD UI Elements Have Broken Masks (only on tvOS)
- Viewing More than 1 Terminal Hits ‘Titanium Moth’ Memory Wall & Crashes App (this will be fixed naturally & automatically when Apple/Unity fix ‘Titanium Moth’ and is thus not actually a bug but a side-effect of the ‘Titanium Moth’ bug; we may be able to achieve a workaround hotfix by further optimizing graphics assets at even harsher quality compressions) – For now, we recommend only viewing the last terminal at the end of the Episode to teleport out and complete the level
Fixing the remaining bugs will restore VAST 100% to its original launch status in December 2017 and Early 2018. After that, hopefully by early January 2019, Astrogun will be able to continue work on new content and improvements for VAST, available as free updates.
