Multiplayer & Performance Update

Release Date: November 7, 2026

Version: 0.8.1-alpha

Development Stage: Alpha

📋 Overview

This update focuses on improving multiplayer stability, responsiveness, and overall performance, alongside a major internal cleanup of Orbitale's codebase. From smoother interactions between players to faster world processing and stronger save protection, 0.8.1 makes the existing experience more reliable.

✨ Added

• Players can now request to join friends who are playing in solar systems with available space, with interactive notifications and persistent requests.
• Achievement announcements in chat are now clickable, opening the corresponding achievement in the Achievements menu.
• Other players' active mining progress is now visible through block-breaking animations.

🔧 Changed

• Removed the in-game update notification, as the Orbitale Launcher now handles game updates.
• Fence gates now appear in the foreground while visually connecting with background fences.
• Adjusted gathering tool speeds for improved progression.

🐛 Fixed

• Fixed several guest multiplayer mining issues, including delayed breaking, incorrect targets, and blocks failing to break.
• Improved guest block placement and collision synchronization to reduce rubber-banding and blocked interactions.
• Fixed inconsistent item drops and delays when collecting items dropped by other players.
• Improved environmental creature movement synchronization in multiplayer.
• Reduced delays when loading map areas discovered by other players.
• Improved guest respawning to address long delays and visual glitches.
• Improved synchronization when the host changes planets.
• Fixed slow long-distance teleportation and associated freezing.
• Corrected floating Moon decorations and inaccurate hitboxes.

⚡ Performance & Optimization

• Completed a comprehensive repository-wide audit, removing obsolete code, unused configuration, and duplicate files.
• Reduced unnecessary hidden inventory refresh work by approximately 91%.
• Improved chunk snapshot processing by 1.5–4.4× in tested scenarios.
• Reduced multiplayer pose preparation CPU work by approximately 29%.
• Reduced terrain-patch processing CPU work by 51% in benchmarks.
• Improved sprinkler neighborhood queries by 2.85–5.15×.
• Reduced the Windows game-data package size by approximately 43%.
• Improved resource management and reduced unnecessary UI allocations.

🛡️ Stability & Reliability

• Strengthened world-save and player-data protection against corrupted or unreadable files.
• Added safer metadata backups, validation, and recovery controls.
• Fixed cave-generation obstructions caused by rocks spawning in narrow passages.
• Improved project organization and removed outdated settings files and unused actions.
• Modernized automated tests and resolved all 10 previously failing test suites.
• Successfully validated all 55 game test entry points, including 294 multiplayer checks.

*Performance improvements reflect individual benchmarks and do not represent an overall FPS increase.*

📝 Notes

Orbitale remains in alpha development. Multiplayer, planetary generation, and other systems will continue receiving improvements as the game grows.

Every world has a story. 🌎