Firmament 9+

Firmament now comes with better platform stability, AND support for hardware-accelerated ray traced reflections, now available on Macs with the powerful M3 family of chips.

We’ve upgraded Firmament from using Unreal Engine 4.27+ to Unreal Engine 5.3.2. Doing this has resolved a WIDE number of stability issues related to the game running on various platforms.

Please note that enabling ray tracing will have a performance impact on your machine based on your screen’s resolution and hardware capabilities.

Engine Upgrade Features

- Visual changes/stability: The newer engine has resolved a lot of flickering texture issues we saw come up on lower-end hardware especially. There should also be some slight improvements in lighting, reflections, and more.
- HDR support changes: HDR has better support on all platforms now.
- RHI support changes: Metal 3 RHI support has been added. It is only enabled when on the M3 family of chips at this time. SM5 is the default RHI for all other Macs.
- OS Requirements: We are increasing our MacOS minimum requirement from MacOS 11.5 to MacOS 14.5.

Updated Supersampling Options

- MetalFX is now the default Supersampling option on Mac.
- FSR has been removed as a Supersampling option on Mac.

General Fixes

- Fixed various instances of the crane getting stuck when placed in various positions
- Fixed an instance of the camelus stationing improperly, preventing the player from embarking
- Fixed various fallthroughs that could occur while saving and loading on the planter puzzle, as well as various fallthroughs that could occur while rotating the planters while standing on them
- Fixed the player being able to adjust the track junction in Juleston while a sulfur cart is on it, causing the cart to be unable to move
- Fixed various instances of the adjunct getting stuck in an upgrade machine
- Fixed player potentially getting stuck if they solve a dive suit puzzle, then re-enter the dive area
- Fixed missing localization for “Shutters Opening”
- Fixed menu being inaccessible if you open the menu while the adjunct is locked into a socket, while also listening to the mentor speak to you
- Fixed missing localized image for the irrigation diagram on the camelus
- Fixed mouse input not working after reaching the end-game
- Fixed being able to stand on the edge of the omniwheel
- Fixed some elements of the end-game missing if you save and load your game while in the area
- Fixed the sulfur carts losing collision on save/load in some circumstances
- Fixed a particular mentor speech not playing on an omniwheel ride
- Fixed adjunct UI scale option tooltip not displaying any information