Distant Worlds 2 - Official "Hyperspeed" Update v1.1.4.4

[MaximKI]

Hello everyone!

A new official update for Distant Worlds 2, v1.1.4.4, is now live. v1.1.2.4, is now the legacy build for the game. You can download it by clicking HERE

Here's the change list for this new official update:

Changes in 1.1.4.4 (26th May 2023):

Please note that for best results, we recommend starting a new game with 1.1.4.4 due to the number
of fixes and improvements that won't take full effect without a new start.

"Hyperspeed" Performance Update
This update fixes and improves many long-standing issues with gameplay and system compatibility,
but the biggest change is a massive increase in game performance, especially with regard to simulating
the "living galaxy" in Distant Worlds 2. We've been working behind the scenes for many months to try to
fix the most significant performance issues with Distant Worlds 2, which involved making quite a few low
level changes which affected just about every area of the game. These changes required a great deal of
testing and tweaking to work out all the bugs so that we could maintain the stability of the "Aurora" update
combined with the much improved performance of "Hyperspeed". We hope you enjoy these changes and
that your DW2 galaxy feels much more alive as a result.

"Hyperspeed" also includes the first round of improvements and fixes for the Factions: Ikkuro and
Dhayut DLC. We will be making more improvements, especially to the Damazy/Web of Destiny storyline,
in the next round of updates.

CRASH FIXES
• Fixed crash when ship evaluates collision avoidance
• Fixed rare crash when ship is destroyed
• Fixed crash when change camera view from Top Down to Free Form, then to Low/Med/High
Angle
• Fixed crash when base processes its docking queue
• Fixed crash when determining empire fuel resources
• Fixed crash when determining excess resources at a location for bulk cargo transport
• Fixed crash when updating map overlays
• Fixed rare crashes when adding or removing character skills or traits
• Fixed crash when repairing ship or base
• Fixed rare crash when selecting random race
• Fixed crash when calculating construction yard wait time
• Fixed crash when calculating ship retrofit cost
• Fixed crash when rendering system badges
• Fixed crash when determining default display adapter when running on Linux via Proton
• Fixed rare crash when evaluating dominant race for a colony population
• Fixed rare crash when calculating population attack strength at invaded colonies
• Fixed various threading issues causing a variety of strange behavior
• Fixed rare crash when ship reviews fleet escort
• Handle rare exceptions when loading character animations
• Fixed crash when lock view on jumping ship while weapon effects are turned off
• Fixed rare crash when updating territory map
• Fixed rare crash when review fleet escort ships
• Fixed crash in Start New Game screen when a playable race has a null description

CRASH LOGGING
• Improved robustness of session log and exception recording

COMPATIBILITY AND GAME SETTINGS
Please read through all the new in-game settings, which should allow you to tailor game performance
much more to your liking.
• Added System Load Target setting in game settings, allowing you to limit CPU usage
• Added Maximum FPS setting in game settings, allowing you to limit GPU usage
• Added Vsync as a game setting (enabled by default) which means DW2 will try to match your
monitor's refresh rate in terms of actual displayed FPS
• Additional settings to disable texture streaming, particle effects, weapon effects and unit damage
overlay are available for players with ongoing performance issues to test to see which may help
on a given system
• Texture Streaming is now off by default, can reenable in game settings but DW2 generally
performs better with this turned off
• Fixed some display values not being properly remembered in game settings
• Added option for when switch music tracks: when scene changes or when track ends
• Added additional volume settings and fixed an issue which caused problems with the Windows
Volume Mixer on some systems
• Split out sound effect volume controls for User Interface and Nebula Storms
• Added configurable nebula rendering density option in game settings, if you still have any
performance issues in nebulae, turn this setting down
• Added game setting to disable Nebula Storm scene-wide lightning flashes
• Added configurable background star field density level option in game settings to allow each
player to adjust the density of the starfield to their liking
• Added configurable background star field opacity option in game settings to allow each player to
adjust the brightness of the starfield to their liking

INSTALLATION ISSUES
• More gracefully handle missing shiphulls or bundles (models) and warn player about need to fix
installation
• Fixed installation issue with loading DLC models when purchased from different platform to main
game (e.g. Steam vs Matrix), this could cause the DLC factions to not show up in some cases
even when installed

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS
• Tweaked appearance of background starfield, which should eliminate a bad flickering visual effect
that was only visible on some kinds of monitors
• Fixed up background starfield fade-out
• Fixed occasional single-frame flash of full-size ship model and engine exhaust on-screen when
ship jumps into currently-viewed location
• Ensure deep space locations still have adequate ambient lighting
• Fixed ship symbol system to no longer periodically blink

GRAPHICAL IMPROVEMENTS
• Fixed index issues causing large models to sometimes not load correctly

SOUNDS
• Fixed star and black hole sounds not honoring sound effect volume

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
• Massive performance improvements in all areas
• Expanded the Shift-Tilde performance overlay to provide much more information about game
performance
• Draw overhead reduced by 75% in worst case scenarios
• Main thread drawing is now rarely or never blocked
• .Net Garbage Collection occurrence on main thread is significantly reduced
• .Net Garbage generation is significantly reduced
• CPU 0 is targeted for drawing, all other work is pushed to other CPU cores except particle effects
• Hitching due to various components of the UI (cashflow, colony approval) are reduced or
eliminated
• Background simulation rate significantly increased, potentially more parallelized on higher core
counts
• Various improvements to multithreading
• Improved performance when freighters assign bulk transport missions
• Optimized nebula rendering to be more performant
• Fixed some items not being processed in background
• Fixed some systems and locations becoming very slow when have very many debris items

MEMORY MANAGEMENT
• Added precautionary checks when saving SpaceItems (debris, etc) and Trade Offers
• Now more active in removing empty temporary locations after ships and creatures leave them
• Reduced memory usage for nebula path finding

SHIP AND FLEET BEHAVIOR
Fleet behavior improvements in this update are focused on refueling and fleet tanker behavior as well
as troop loading and fighter management. You should find far fewer instances of fleets getting stuck
waiting for fighters, getting stuck loading troops, running out of fuel or tankers not doing their jobs. We
found that most of the remaining major issues related to manually controlled fleets or automated fleets
which had manual ships added to them, but the resulting fixes improved fleet behavior across the
board.
• Further reduce likelihood of fleets failing to refuel (e.g taking on new attack mission without first
refuelling)
• Improved fleet troop loading
• Improved fighters boarding carriers when under heavy load, thus improving fleet responsiveness
• Fleets and other ships now more careful about going to dangerous locations (refuelling,
investigating, etc), especially when considering hostile stationary defenses (bases)
• When adding manually-controlled ships to an automated fleet (Role is not Manual) then also
change ship to automated. This is necessary to avoid some edge case issues where reinforcing
manual ships were not behaving properly within automated fleets.
• Improve fleets sometimes taking on miniscule threats (e.g. civilian ships) when could instead
attack major targets (bases & military)
• Further extend threat strength evaluations (now including strength of bases, not just 'mobile'
strength) to systems (in addition to locations)
• Fixed bug where fleets would sometimes attack creatures at distant locations
• Tightened fleet formation when most ships in fleet are set to Core (role within fleet)
• Fixed fleets sometimes repeatedly attempting to move to home base when most ships in fleet are
set to Core (role within fleet)
• Fixed troop transports sometimes failing to find docking point at colony when loading troops
• Carriers will now slow even further if waiting for slow fighters to board while preparing to jump
• Expanded conditions when fighters are considered stranded and are abandoned (e.g. reactor
disabled and thus unable to move fast enough to board moving carrier)

FUEL TANKERS
How should Fuel Tankers work?
• When fuel tankers are low on fuel they will either load fuel from a refueling point or mine fuel from
a nearby fuel source.
• When assigned to a fleet, fuel tankers will monitor and refuel fleet ships as needed, while
attempting to stay clear of any battles.
• When not assigned to a fleet, they will refuel any ship in your empire that needs it, starting with
fleets, then other military ships, exploration ships, and all other ships.
• When fuel tankers are assigned to a fleet: if the fleet detects that it needs to refuel then it will first
check whether it's fuel tankers can completely refuel the fleet. If so, and the tankers are within fuel
range, and the fleet location is not too dangerous, then the fleet will signal the fuel tankers to top
them up. The fleet will wait at it's current location until the tankers finish refueling them.
• Improved fleet usage of Fuel Tankers Automated fleets will now signal their automated Fuel
Tankers to refuel them when closer than travelling to fixed refuelling point. Fleet will then wait until
tankers refuel them. Fuel Tankers must be idle or mining fuel, within range and able to completely
refuel fleet (see further info on Fuel Tankers below)
• Improved fleet refuelling - less willing to take on other mission types when fleet ships have low
fuel, instead more likely to refuel
• Ensure fuel tankers move with fleets even when fleet is travelling to random point in deep space
• Reduced number of fuel tankers built

RESOURCE LOGISTICS
We found a number of additional issues withe Resource Logistics which could be improved, resulting
in another jump in private economy performance with regard to getting resources to where they
should be going. This especially improved Caslon distribution. A summary of the key improvements:
1. More accurate updating of some critical values in high contention threading scenarios (particularly
cargo amounts)
2. Reduced static energy usage for shields and thus much-improved flow-on effects for ship designs
(less overall fuel usage, less energy collectors and reactors required, thus more general bays for
fuel cells, thus better fuel range)
3. Better fuel tanker behavior within fleets and better coordination between fleets and fuel tankers
4. Better awareness by all fleet ships of event-created threat locations especially with regard to
refueling
• More accurate calculation of some values under high contention threading scenarios
• Better handling of resource reservations when cancel refueling or transport missions in high
contention threading scenarios
• Now always set default resource stock level values when planet first colonized, regardless of
automation settings
• Fixed bug where reserved cargo would often not be properly utilized
• Tweaked expected Fuel demand level to properly prioritize construction of fuel mining stations
and mining ship fuel seeking
• Tweaked resource mining rate when have many resources at a location (more than 5) so that
mining rate for each resource remains at reasonable level (not too slow)

COLONIZATION AND MIGRATION
We found and fixed some remaining issues which could result in bad automated decision making
regarding suitability for colonization and migration.
• Improved selection of build location for new colony ships - more likely to build at colonies with
desired race for colonization target (but build colony must still have adequate construction
resources)
• Fixed colony migration sometimes using races with suitability below threshold specified in empire
policy (Minimum Suitability)
• Ensure passenger ships load the most suitable race for migration destination from pickup colony
(race at pickup colony must either meet load threshold of 500 million population, or have policy set
to Resettle)

PLANETARY DEFENSE FACILITIES
Defense facilities were not working as intended, partly due to bugs and partly due to data issues.
Both areas received fixes to ensure your planetary defense facilities are worth their maintenance cost.
• Fixed fighters at colonies (Fighter Bay facility) not being built or launched
• Ensure fighters at colonies (Fighter Base facility) are properly removed when empire destroyed
• Fixed weapon planetary facilities not updating properly when reload savegame
• Fixed weapon planetary facilities so that properly have multiple instances of weapon as defined in
PlanetaryFacilityDefinitions.xml. This means most facilities are about 5x more effective than they
were previously.
• Improved visibility of planetary defense weapons

SHIELDS
• Reduced static energy requirements for Shield components as this was causing auto-design and
fuel issues
• Added new ShieldRechargeEnergyUsage values for Shield components to replace previous
increased static energy usage. This will only use energy when the shield is actually recharging.
This helps differentiate the high recharge rate shields (which consume more energy) from the high
strength shields (which consume less).

EXPLORATION
• Fixed bug where could investigate ruins multiple times when 'Suppress All Messages' enabled in
game settings
• Fixed erroneous repeated ruins investigation at colonies when one of the related game events is
disabled

RESEARCH
• Ensure always honor EnabledByDefault setting on research projects when generating tech trees
for each faction, even for pirates
• Properly exclude disabled research projects from various situations: random exploration tech
breakthroughs, etc
• Fixed duplicate research bonuses from research stations at colonies with ruins

DIPLOMACY
• Ensure never get negative tribute income from vassals, there is now a minimum tribute level.

MESSAGES
• Improved some story messages by highlighting bonuses received from event

CONSTRUCTION
• Fixed inability to build another spaceport at a colony if scrap existing spaceport while under
construction
• Ensure properly acquire all ships in construction queues when take ownership of ship, base or
colony

NEBULAE AND STORMS
• Nebula effects (jump slowdown, damage, etc) no longer apply when a ship is skirting the edge of
a nebula cloud. Must now be deeper into nebula before ship will be slowed or damaged. This is a
temporary measure to improve some edge cases until a better pathfinding solution can be
implemented.

HIVE AND PLANET DESTROYER THREATS
• Improved mission selection for Hive and Planet Destroyer ships - thus more performant and more
able to find place to self-repair any damage

UI IMPROVEMENTS
• Added larger step increments for numeric up/down controls (shift-click, ctrl-click, shift-ctrl-click) in
areas of the interface that support them
• Provide better UI visibility of storm/nebula/location effects (ion damage, direct damage, jump
slowdown, etc...): icon and tooltip in system view summary at bottom-center of screen
• Added horizontal scrolling for Select Your Race step of Start New Game screen to allow for more
than 10 races

GAME EDITOR
• Ensure Game Editor is properly exited when Exit to Menu

MODDING AND GAME EVENTS
• Added new GameEventAction condition type to better support story events: EmpireIsPlayer
• Provided better support for static character and race art in Character screen (fixed distortion and
ensure have background)

GAME DATA AND BUNDLES
• Various data tweaks, improvements and fixes to components and facilities
• Updated Haakonish ship models with some minor fixes

OTHER
• Fixed potential bug with Assault Pods when loading savegames
• Fixed home colony quality sometimes dropping slightly soon after game start when use Republic
or Monarchy government types
• Reduced default victory condition threshold for new games to 60% to ensure most games could
reach a victory end state

FACTIONS: IKKURO AND DHAYUT DLC
• Corrections for typos and issues in various story events
• Corrected Dhayut Infantry troop strength
• Fixed Dhayut Resort Base issue
• Fixed Ikkuro Cruiser issues

[rxnnxs]

I am confused.
Is 1.1.4.4 now the hyperspeed update or
1.1.2.4?

Is 1.1.4.4 any different from the 1.1.4.4 beta?

I thought that there is some hyperspeed in the patch text.
When I now download the latest GOG 1.1.2.4, is the hyperspeed in it?
I was waiting the last days expecting to get something new.

[fruitgnome]

I think 1.1.4.4 is now the hyperspeed update is correct.

[AKicebear]

I thought that there is some hyperspeed in the patch text.
When I now download the latest GOG 1.1.2.4, is the hyperspeed in it?
I was waiting the last days expecting to get something new.

Their approach is to have a closed (small?) beta, open beta for much longer, then main branch official patch. If you're playing the open beta you'll rarely (?) find much to get excited about on the main branch.

I think it's a good approach - those that want bleeding edge take it with some stability risk. Those that don't want the instability can wait.

[rxnnxs]

Ok, thank you both.

I wanted to mod based on the hyperspeed update because I thought that is from now on the legacy version and will last a bit longer.

Because there are so much good additions after the 1.1.2.4, I do not want to miss them.
So I go with the 1.1.4.4 and work with that.

I have still to use the GOG Galaxy and can not download this 1.1.4.4 itself.

Some things can not be modded with a mod folder.
When we work on the german translation,
the whole folder "dialog" and "galactopedia" as well as hints.xml and touritems.xml has to be replaced in the original game main folder because those files are not taken out of the mod folders.


When I then update the game for instance via the gog galaxy program, all of those files have to be saved before and have to be checked for changes.
Thats why I hoped for a download of 1.1.4.4 as a standalone fresh install.

---

Update:

Now 1.1.4.4 ist downloadable on gog.
GOOD!

[Buio]

Is the load game demonstrating the difference between Aurora update and new Hyperspeed update available somewhere? Was just thinkning of testing my PC performance with it. I personally mostly run with smaller systems, but want to check with a bigger one in endgame.

[Ingor]

I've tried lauching the update, it resetted all the settings I want to play with (key bindings for starters).

Is there a mod that fixes that ? I cant' be asked to redo that every patch, it's so boring (and the last time I did that the key mappings stuff didn't work properly half the time and the game had to be restarted between each change, not doint that again thank you).

Otherwise, could the devs fix it ?