Update 26.04.01

A new update has been released, you can view the full changes on our blog post.https://sbox.game/news/update-26-04-01Here's some highlights from the blog.Sandbox: Vehicle CameraWe overhauled the third person camera to be a lot smoother, so being in a vehicle feels great.Sandbox: HoverballsYou can now stick hoverballs on your contraptions to fly around!Sandbox: SavesThere are now Saves in Sandbox so you can save and load entire play sessions. These work in singleplayer or multiplayer, and will keep track of the map, players, all props and entities, ect.Shadow Quality SettingsWe had no ways to configure the performance settings of shadows, now we have a shit ton of convars to control max shadows, max number of cascades, shadow filter quality, max resolutions, and more.. These are globally configured in the graphics settings menu now too.Non-QWERTY SupportWe've made our input system use scan codes now, which standardizes input keys based on position instead of name. Meaning when a game binds something to the W key, if you're an AZERTY keyboard that will be bound to the Z key automatically.SummaryEverything is continuing to come together, we've been playing Sandbox everyday, it's starting to feel very well rounded. Building contraptions, messing around, taking screenshots for our Steam page.We tried to quietly announce our release date — 28th April, but it seems everyone has got excited.Before then we'll be revoking anyone who hasn't played a lot recently, developed games or bought skins.And we'll then go on sale for $20. It's April  — we've got the month left to really beat out the worst of the rough edges. Don't expect too much fanfare in the upcoming updates, we're doing the boring stuff before we can get to the fun stuff again.Changelog???? AddedNew C# shadow mapper, fully replacing Source 2's native shadow mapperBindless per-light shadow mapsDirectional light configurable cascade countsPer-light shadow hardnessUser quality settings for shadowsModelDoc hulls from meshes now supports per-mesh and per-element hull generation, allowing better collision when saving map meshes with mixed hull and mesh collision typesHtmlPanel now supports ordered and unordered listsFootstep sounds for glass surfacesMesh element selection now supports undo/redo in the editorNew hub page layout with smarter game cards showing upvotes/downvotes and active players, condensed friend activity grouped by game, and achievements sorted by completion percentageMovie recordings can now be imported from any game into a blank project, and games can disable demo recording on clients???? ImprovedInput system now uses scan codes for gameplay input, making the game usable on non-QWERTY keyboard layouts (e.g. AZERTY) without rebinding — key glyphs are translated to local key namesVulkan per-thread data rewritten with a dynamic slot pool that bounds memory usage and eliminates potential out-of-bounds access from unbounded thread indicesPixel shaders are now stripped for opaque objects during shadow and depth passes, reducing GPU workPhysics hull creation is more robust, routing through CQuickHullBuilder to avoid potential infinite loops with coplanar points and adding support for planar geometryNetwork broadcast now encodes the wire payload once instead of per-connection, and large messages are compressed before chunking — client decompression is ~3.4x fasterNetwork serialization omits null values, reducing JSON processing overhead and improving compression/decompression speedSprite system optimized to perform a single GPU upload instead of one per group, eliminating upload overheadRadiusDamage batches and parallelizes LOS traces with reduced allocations, improving heavy explosion processing from ~10s to ~2sHeartbeat ping/pong switched to unreliable channel, eliminating head-of-line blocking under packet lossMovie recording performance improved by avoiding reflection in hot paths, reducing per-frame recording cost???? FixedPotential infinite loop in PolygonMesh.Rebuild with fractional/coplanar vertex positionsMemory leak in DeltaSnapshotSystem where pooled snapshot IDs were not cleared before returning to the poolOutOfRangeException in Rigidbody when Bodies and BodyTransforms sync lists arrive independently"Lobby Disbanded" spam, lingering socket, and stuck loading screen when host disconnects mid-joinModals not closing when joining a game, server, or lobbyLingering error toast popups not dismissing across game/menu context switchesAtmosphere sky shader not using the new single sunlight pathIgnoreGameObjectHierarchy not applying to child objectsClient hotload not clearing reflection type cache, causing errors after server-side code changesDamage falloff being inverted in RadiusDamageMovie recording of TextRenderer, NaN rotations, and target creation edge cases???? RemovedDeprecated OnDirty, MakeDirty, and OnPropertyDirty in favor of field-backed properties

Apr 2, 2026 - 08:12
 0
Update 26.04.01

A new update has been released, you can view the full changes on our blog post.

https://sbox.game/news/update-26-04-01

Here's some highlights from the blog.

Sandbox: Vehicle Camera

We overhauled the third person camera to be a lot smoother, so being in a vehicle feels great.

Sandbox: Hoverballs

You can now stick hoverballs on your contraptions to fly around!

Sandbox: Saves

There are now Saves in Sandbox so you can save and load entire play sessions. These work in singleplayer or multiplayer, and will keep track of the map, players, all props and entities, ect.

Shadow Quality Settings

We had no ways to configure the performance settings of shadows, now we have a shit ton of convars to control max shadows, max number of cascades, shadow filter quality, max resolutions, and more.. These are globally configured in the graphics settings menu now too.

Non-QWERTY Support

We've made our input system use scan codes now, which standardizes input keys based on position instead of name. Meaning when a game binds something to the W key, if you're an AZERTY keyboard that will be bound to the Z key automatically.

Summary

Everything is continuing to come together, we've been playing Sandbox everyday, it's starting to feel very well rounded. Building contraptions, messing around, taking screenshots for our Steam page.

We tried to quietly announce our release date — 28th April, but it seems everyone has got excited.

Before then we'll be revoking anyone who hasn't played a lot recently, developed games or bought skins.
And we'll then go on sale for $20

It's April  — we've got the month left to really beat out the worst of the rough edges. Don't expect too much fanfare in the upcoming updates, we're doing the boring stuff before we can get to the fun stuff again.

Changelog

???? Added

  • New C# shadow mapper, fully replacing Source 2's native shadow mapper

  • Bindless per-light shadow maps

  • Directional light configurable cascade counts

  • Per-light shadow hardness

  • User quality settings for shadows

  • ModelDoc hulls from meshes now supports per-mesh and per-element hull generation, allowing better collision when saving map meshes with mixed hull and mesh collision types

  • HtmlPanel now supports ordered and unordered lists

  • Footstep sounds for glass surfaces

  • Mesh element selection now supports undo/redo in the editor

  • New hub page layout with smarter game cards showing upvotes/downvotes and active players, condensed friend activity grouped by game, and achievements sorted by completion percentage

  • Movie recordings can now be imported from any game into a blank project, and games can disable demo recording on clients

???? Improved

  • Input system now uses scan codes for gameplay input, making the game usable on non-QWERTY keyboard layouts (e.g. AZERTY) without rebinding — key glyphs are translated to local key names

  • Vulkan per-thread data rewritten with a dynamic slot pool that bounds memory usage and eliminates potential out-of-bounds access from unbounded thread indices

  • Pixel shaders are now stripped for opaque objects during shadow and depth passes, reducing GPU work

  • Physics hull creation is more robust, routing through CQuickHullBuilder to avoid potential infinite loops with coplanar points and adding support for planar geometry

  • Network broadcast now encodes the wire payload once instead of per-connection, and large messages are compressed before chunking — client decompression is ~3.4x faster

  • Network serialization omits null values, reducing JSON processing overhead and improving compression/decompression speed

  • Sprite system optimized to perform a single GPU upload instead of one per group, eliminating upload overhead

  • RadiusDamage batches and parallelizes LOS traces with reduced allocations, improving heavy explosion processing from ~10s to ~2s

  • Heartbeat ping/pong switched to unreliable channel, eliminating head-of-line blocking under packet loss

  • Movie recording performance improved by avoiding reflection in hot paths, reducing per-frame recording cost

???? Fixed

  • Potential infinite loop in PolygonMesh.Rebuild with fractional/coplanar vertex positions

  • Memory leak in DeltaSnapshotSystem where pooled snapshot IDs were not cleared before returning to the pool

  • OutOfRangeException in Rigidbody when Bodies and BodyTransforms sync lists arrive independently

  • "Lobby Disbanded" spam, lingering socket, and stuck loading screen when host disconnects mid-join

  • Modals not closing when joining a game, server, or lobby

  • Lingering error toast popups not dismissing across game/menu context switches

  • Atmosphere sky shader not using the new single sunlight path

  • IgnoreGameObjectHierarchy not applying to child objects

  • Client hotload not clearing reflection type cache, causing errors after server-side code changes

  • Damage falloff being inverted in RadiusDamage

  • Movie recording of TextRenderer, NaN rotations, and target creation edge cases

???? Removed

  • Deprecated OnDirty, MakeDirty, and OnPropertyDirty in favor of field-backed properties

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