Beta patch available that adds realtime ambient lights to Bulwark..
2026-09-26A small but visually impactful BETA is now available I had some time this week to lift the lighting system from the Falconeer/shipshaper, improve its technical base so its suitable for Bulwark and that's now available on Beta. Basically if you set the shadows to Ultra (this is not a super heavy feature, be lightweight either). Though the lights add no extra cost for more complex builds.) you gain ambient light probes over your city and for gunfire. This isn't true directional lighting, so no shadows or any raytracing goodness, but point lights for each lantern above a walkway or each tracer round, big highlights on special buildings, even the mast lights on ships now work.
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As part of this I've tuned the night a little darker, this will affect everyone, but not criminally;) I do believe most people will be able to run ultra shadows. Also because I downgraded the ultra shadows to accommodate the lighting, so the performance hit on ultra is lower than before.. GO TO GAME PROPERTIES/BETAS and select the Beta branch and update to try this patch.. without lights: with lights: Can get kinda crazy, but with this system it's not really a performance issue: with lights (in the daytime): without lights( in the daytime): Other Bugfixes • adjusted the waves to not be so oversized and a bit more scale appropriate • improved the floating behavior somewhat • map dragging with the mouse is fixed/improved • you can select a ship and instantly sail it from the map • zooming wasn't framerate independent in any control mode • rejecting mechanics could still cause some splinters to be removed As always this is a beta and report any issues, and performance findings!. How well does this run for you? And just as a reminder the Medieval House DLC is coming is only days away, together with other announcements for Bulwark on other platforms..good tidings. Wishlist to get notified when it arrives: Also do try out shipshaper, it's had some amazing updates last week. Including an item selection/library interface and realtime wakes.. Go check it out its only 9 bucks..
