Blog

Major Visual Overhaul Progress

What’s up guys!

It’s been a while since the last update, but behind the scenes, SamuTale hasn’t stood still for a second. Over the past two years, I’ve been rebuilding major parts of the game’s visual foundation, and the results are finally ready to show. This overhaul touches everything from lighting and shaders to world scale and atmosphere.

This upcoming update is a huge step forward visually and technically, and when I look at the current version of SamuTale compared to what I’m working on now… I almost don’t recognize it anymore. In a good way

New Sky System

One of the things I really wanted to upgrade was the skybox. I wasn’t happy with the old sky and the flat, horizontal clouds, so I spent a lot of time researching and experimenting before creating a custom skybox shader paired with a brand new day and night cycle system.

The new system uses a technique called ‘6-way lighting’ to fake volumetric lighting on pre-rendered clouds. Essentially, I rendered clouds from six different directions and packed the light data into RGB textures, where each color channel represents light coming from a specific angle. The shader then blends these channels based on the actual position of the sun or moon in-game.

This results in clouds that look fluffy and have believable shading that changes dynamically throughout the day and night. Most importantly, this new sky fits the stylized art direction of SamuTale much better than the realistic attempts of the past.

Environment Polish

The game world and graphics have been polished further, and I’ve written several custom shaders to compliment the art direction. In the previous blog post you could already spot major differences, but since then, I’ve improved a lot, including:

• Trees (yes… again)

• Terrain textures

• New grass and foliage

• New bushes

• New boulders

I basically moved all environmental assets to custom shaders. I created a unified wind shader shared between grass and trees, allowing the entire world to react to a global wind direction. This creates a cohesive atmosphere where you can see the wind sweeping across the plains.

Alongside this, I added and polished a range of visual effects, including:

• Windtrails

• Atmospheric dust particles

• Falling snow

• Falling leaves

These details make the world feel much more alive and dynamic. The best part is that the wind system isn’t just for visual polish, it serves as a gameplay foundation. Later on, it will allow for dynamic sailing mechanics. Once boats are added, the wind direction will actually dictate your movement speed and sailing angles.

Bigger World

The map is still being tweaked as I write this, but the visual side of the world generation is nearly finalized for the upcoming update. I decided there is enough polish done for now to lock in the style.

The new world generation adds significantly more verticality. Mountains finally feel massive and imposing, while I’ve still maintained enough flat areas for players to settle and build. Striking the balance between interesting, jagged terrain and buildable space was challenging, but I feel I’ve landed on the right middle ground.

Based on my calculations, the new map will be approximately 3× larger than the current map! That is a massive improvement in scale, giving you guys much more room for exploration and claiming territory.

Code Improvements

A huge amount of work went into backend and server optimizations. Much of the codebase is years old, so this required a lot of rewriting and restructuring to be more future-proof and maintainable.

In the game’s previous state, almost everything in the world was handled as a networked object including trees, bushes, gatherables, and buildings. The server would constantly check which objects were near you (interest management) and send updates. This caused unnecessary network traffic and, more annoyingly, meant that trees wouldn’t render until you got close to them.

I realized this 'limited' render distance was hurting the immersion. In the new update, I’ve decoupled static environment objects from the standard network loop. Now, all trees are rendered locally by the client, and the server only sends an update if a tree actually changes state, for example, if it is being chopped down or damaged.

This drastically improves network performance and allows forests to be visible at extreme distances. While it’s possible a tree you see on the horizon might disappear if you get closer (if someone else chopped it down while you were traveling), this approach is far better for immersion than seeing a barren wasteland until the trees 'pop' in.

Characters and Animations

Characters received a lot of love as well! I polished existing animations and added several new ones to make movement feel more fluid. I also introduced a custom hair physics system where hairstyles react to movement. The system uses a lightweight verlet integration approach to wiggle the hair bones, making it a cheap but effective way to simulate hair strand motion without killing the framerate.

This single addition makes characters feel significantly less static and more natural, greatly improving the overall visual quality of the game.

Release Direction & Focus

My aim is to release this update in the spring of 2026.

The main focus of this update will be:

• A brand new game world

• Updated characters with new models, textures, and animations

• Major visual and technical improvements

• Game rebalancing

While it’s largely a visual and technical update, it truly takes SamuTale to the next level and lays the groundwork for much bigger gameplay features in the future.

After this update drops, I will shift my focus to reworking and polishing existing gameplay loops. I plan to redo all animals with improved models and animations, overhaul the UI with controller support and polish existing systems like farming, fishing, building, etc.

Get Involved

I’d love to hear what you think about the changes.
Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts!

If you want to follow development more closely, discuss features, or share feedback with the community, check out the official SamuTale Discord:

Join SamuTale Discord