Rust: Console Edition Gets New Update Adding Quality of Life Improvements, Bug Fixes, & More

A new update has just been rolled out for multiplayer survive-’em-up, Rust: Console Edition, and it’s available to download now on PS4 and Xbox One.

Specifically, the new patch – officially dubbed Update 1.20 Devastation Unleashed – adds a bunch of quality of life improvements, bug fixes, and even some new features to the first-person open-world survival experience.

The most meaningful addition is a new Tech tree, which players can use to spend scrap and unlock different branches and abilities without having to rely on random blueprints anymore. All blueprints will be wiped from servers when the new Tech tree is live.

Additionally, there’ll be new gestures, new ways to build, much larger map seeds, improved gun handling, performance optimizations, and even a brand new Combat knife.

The original PC iteration was developed by indie outfit Facepunch Studios, and was released into Steam Early Access back in 2013. Rust then received a port to consoles from UK studio Double Eleven earlier this year, and it’s fast become a popular multiplayer survival title on both PC and console platforms.

For the full breakdown of the latest update’s patch notes, see below:

New additions to the game:

– Tech tree.

– 3KM maps.

– Gestures.

– Building Blocks.

– Map visual changes.

– New Item: Combat Knife.

Changes:

– Power substations no longer irradiate players.

– Reduced chainsaws fuel consumption to be in line with the Steam version.

– Added option to disable blood.

Crash Fixes:

– Fixed a crash that could happen when on standby/sleep resume.

– Fixed a server side recursive call which could cause a server to crash.

– Fixed a hang in the crafting menu.

– Fixed profile switches causing a hang on Xbox.

Bug Fixes: 

– Fixed players not being able to attach a flashlight to the thompson.

– Fixed more splitting issues.

– Fixed the inaccurate upkeep timer.

– Fixed an issue causing players to be able to clip through specific objects.

– Fixed  an issue that could cause the sky to flicker.

– Fixed an issue which would cause projectiles (Such as hatchets, rocks etc) to get deleted when being dropped onto an existing item.

– Fix animals / helicopters being able to target players when in safe zones.

– Fixed camera movement to feel more natural at different frame rates.

– Fixed instances of objects popping into view caused by recent FOV Changes.

– Fixed an issue with the shadows on the lamps.

– Fixed the scale of the trees.

– Fixed  an issue causing players to die right after they respawn, if their previous body fell to the ground from a large height.

– Fixed an issue that could stop players from being able to use a rowboat.

– Potential fix for invisible trees.

– Potential fix for the puzzle related items (Such as fuse boxes) going missing for clients.

– Fixed an issue which would sometimes cause the default crafting view to show up before loading in the current crafting view.

– Fixed missing collision on airfield hangar door.

– Fixed an issue which caused night time to be brighter than usual.

– Fixed an issue causing scientists to fire at each other.

– Fixed scientists from being able to shoot themselves when aiming upwards.

– Fixed the ocean colliders.

– Fixed shadows from clipping.

– Fixed an issue with tables causing clipping.

– Fixed the smoke colour.

– Adjusted the scale of the ‘wounded’ screen for PS4.

– Candles now turn off when underwater, like they should.

– Fixed the locked crate so that shooting the laptop delays the countdown.

– Picking up workbenches will now reduce their durability.

– Fixed an issue which could cause cliffs to spawn on top of some monuments.

– Fixed an issue causing shops/vendors’ UI to be navigatable with the right stick.

– Fixed an issue stopping the red X during tree harvesting from sometimes not moving and subsequently not functioning.

Optimizations:

– Added functionality for reducing the number of visual effects spawned on player models, to prevent frame drops when using scattershot weapons.

– Tuned blood visual effects to improve performance during firefights.

– Switch terrain shadows to be single sided instead of double sided to decrease GPU usage.

– Disable shadow casts under the sea, since they are not visible by players.

– Simplified lighting calculations for the terrain and ocean.

– Optimized distant ocean by not sampling the normal map to reduce draw time.

– Added culling volume to water in the outpost.

– Reduced the lamp particles.

– Remove unused ground colour from shaders, to slightly improve performance.

– Saved a bit of RAM by changing render texture cache settings.

Monument Visual Fixes:

Fixed z-fighting (texture flickering) in airfield.

Skin store Related Changes:

– Fix for the skin store sometimes not loading in certain time zones / locations.

– Fixed low resolution icons in the skin store.

– Added LOD materials to the Doodle Eleven T-Shirt.

– Fixed t-shirts clipping through the trousers.

– Fixed some of the skin previews.

– Fixed skins not loading in at long distances.

For more on Rust, here’s the console reveal trailer, and also some details about how the game smashed records for its concurrent number of players.