Friday, May 15, 2020

Space Engineers for Xbox: First Update

SUMMARY:
  • What’s new: 
    • New planets 
    • Increased player counts in multiplayer 
    • Increased PCU limits
  • What’s next:
    • Frostbite DLC for Xbox 
    • Dedicated servers 
    • Continued support


Hello, Engineers!

After the Space Engineers Xbox Release on April 15th, we have received a ton of positive feedback from you. There were also a lot of suggestions and comments, so first of all, let me thank you for that.

With today’s release, we are addressing the most pressing issues and suggestions from you. I hope you’ll enjoy all the changes we are bringing to our Space Engineers Xbox version.

What’s this release bringing you

This release includes a host of new changes and fixes:
  • Improved stability and implemented a number of critical bug fixes. Many of the listed items are community suggestions! See the Space Engineers Support website.
  • New planets: Europa, Triton, Alien, Titan & Variants of the Star System Scenario with even deadlier meteor showers!

  • Experimental Mode bringing an increase in player counts & PCU limits
    • Player counts in multiplayer: Xbox One player will now be able to play in a four person multiplayer (previously 2) and Xbox X players will be able to play in a 6 person multiplayer (previously 4) 
    • PCU limits: single player limit moved from 100k to 200k. Multiplayer is changing from 50k to 100k




  • Increased Graphical options for the Xbox One and Xbox One S: Grass, Antialiasing, Greater visibility, and improved shading.



Performance Notes

The performance depends on the complexity of your world and which type of Xbox you’re playing on. Simple worlds run smoothly on Xbox One and Xbox One S, but a more complex world with rich object interactions could present some performance issues even on the Xbox One X.

What’s next?

We plan to keep updating, developing and supporting the Xbox One version of Space Engineers, just like we have been doing for the PC version for the past 6+ years.

The next step is the Frostbite DLC which is currently being finalized for the Xbox version.

After Frostbite release we want to bring the following features to the Xbox One version of Space Engineers:

  • Dedicated servers
  • Limited scripting support


Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will I be able to play Frostbite DLC on Xbox?
We do plan to release the Frostbite DLC for Xbox in the near future. Frostbite DLC was released on PC in March 2020.

2. Why is there no scripting / mod support?
On consoles, there are strict rules regarding any code being executed on the console. For example, there is no support for JIT compilation. In other words, we can not execute any code which is not pre-compiled in the game’s binary and certified by Microsoft.
We will be looking into ways for limited scripts support in the game..

3. Will you implement Dedicated Servers, add more planet types, etc.?
Our main focus right now is to make sure the game is stable and reliable. In the long term, we will be looking into ways how to improve the game even further. It is vital for us to listen to the community and act accordingly. Please use our support site’s the Xbox section to give us feedback and vote:  https://support.keenswh.com/

4. Is there an Xbox Beta program available?
Yes, Beta is available to all owners of the game. Just head to the link below to read details on how to get onboard.
https://forums.keenswh.com/threads/xbox-community-beta.7403905/


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If you want to let me know your feedback, please get in touch via my personal email address marek.rosa@keenswh.com, or use our Keen Software House support site. I welcome all of the feedback we receive and we will use it to learn and provide better services to our players.

Thank you for reading this blog!

Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

For more news:
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
Medieval Engineers: www.MedievalEngineers.com
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com
General AI Challenge: www.General-AI-Challenge.org


Personal bio:
Marek Rosa is the CEO and CTO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and the CEO and founder of Keen Software House, an independent game development studio best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (4 million copies sold). Both companies are based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Marek has been interested in artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer but later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of the Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to personally fund GoodAI, his new general AI research company building human-level artificial intelligence.

GoodAI started in January 2014 and has over 30 research scientists, engineers, and consultants working across its Research and Applied teams.

At this time, Marek is developing Space Engineers, as well as leading daily research and development on recursive self-improvement based general AI architecture - Badger.