We hope you’re enjoying the Steam Lunar New Year Sale, and the 51% off discount on Blade Symphony. This is a pretty great time for us to throw down another patch, especially for those awaiting optimizations!

When we updated the engine that Blade Symphony uses last year, it was a big step forward, but also meant that some performance diminished. We’ve been listening to the community’s feedback, and have made numerous optimizations. We’re happy to see recorded gains of 30 - 50 FPS on various maps, but join our Discord server and give feedback so we can continue to improve!

Additionally, we heard your feedback about emblems, and have implemented a new type of shader to create a “waving flag” effect on the Customization Screen or during a match introduction. Finally, we’ve added some favorite items from the community; the Holo-armor, Infiltrator and Wakizashi attachments for Vanguard.

Changelog since Patch 5

Changes:

• Emblems now have a waving effect when on Customization Screen and during the Intro Camera.
• Added Holo-armor Arm and Leg attachments for Vanguard
• Added Katana Wakizashi Back attachment for Vanguard
• Added Infiltrator Skin and Mask for Vanguard
• Team gameplay modes now have glow for team color and enemies based on distance and visibility.
• Map change will take place if the only match that needs to complete is between bots, so that players no longer need to wait for it to finish.

Optimizations:

[*]Implemented level-of-detail models (“LODs”) for all characters.
[*]Implemented experimental multithreading in queue_mode.
[*]Optimized sound clearing for invisible players.
[*]Optimized player outline system using polymorphism.
[*]Optimized materials on duel_winter and free_winter.
[*]Optimized rendering path for characters by enabling bone-threading.
[*]Optimized static debug variables by removing non-atomic read on them.
[*]Disabled cascade-shadow-mapping (CSM) on all water textures.
[*]Disabled depreciated r_shadows.
[*]Removed depreciated .dx80 models.
[*]Removed rendering of shadow map displacements.
[*]Removed rendering of viewmodels or viewmodel shadows.

Fixes:

[*]Fixed custom weapon sounds being audible everywhere.
[*]Fixed server crash when server map changes from Control Point maps to Duel maps.