For those following the ebb and flow of development on GitHub and our quarterly update announcements, you'll know we've been assigning bug fixing as top priority. Indeed, it's been our top 3 priorities, much to the chagrin of some users who want us to go much faster. The good news is that single-mindedness has now paid off, and with this update, only 10 bugs remain outstanding on our issues board. Here is a summary of the last 3 months of development, now part of today's release:

• HUD & UI Enhancements

  • New alternative in-game HUD system and logic for enabling/disabling shooting during live HUD.

  • Improved HUD screen management: duplicating/renaming screens, selector dropdowns for various scripts.

  • Expanded “Active HUD” and “HUD Zone” behaviors for more dynamic overlays and controls.

  • Added assorted and interactive icons (drink, climb, carry, break, push, etc.) for better visual feedback.

• AI & Gameplay Logic

  • Improved soldier AI for melee combat with new block, counter, leap attack, and stun/ground logic.

  • Added new master interpreter commands for enhanced combat logic.

  • Better patrol logic for AI and fixes for quest-giver and NPC control behaviors.

  • Added new Lua commands for explosions, entity properties, and HUD interaction.

• Materials & Graphics

  • Improved custom materials system, material settings fixes, and restored custom material tick function.

  • Added support for custom shaders, delayed point shadows, and new particle system controls (including the ability to disable particles).

  • Performance optimizations for raycasts, sound modes, and texture handling.

• Editor & Project Management

  • Enhanced deployment and build automation scripts.

  • Improved handling of standalone game packaging (DDS handler, memory optimizations).

  • “Completely Empty Level” mode for faster scene setup/testing and space levels.

• Scripting & Behavior Updates

  • Numerous updates to Lua scripts for spells, items, and zones—especially for user global selection, HUD, and sound handling.

  • Added water zone behavior and associated sample models.

• Editor and Level Stability

  • Fixed corrupt references in editor lock list, crash scenarios in matrix math, and rare crashes from model files or physics.

  • Fixed issues with player speed, entity duplication, and improper material settings carrying over.

  • Autosave for storyboard modifications and improved error trapping for old levels.

• Gameplay and AI

  • Fixed quest-giver always being active, improved handling of player/NPC states, and rogue sound issues.

  • Fixed various issues in melee combat, attachments, and sound playback (notably XAudio2 bugs and volume reset issues).

• Scripting and Logic

  • Fixed problems with multiple global lists, bug in workshop subscriptions, particle system behaviors, and sound system edge cases.

  • Fixed array overruns, premature blood loads, and issues with entity spawning and navmesh toggling.

• Visuals & UI

  • Fixed image references, HUD screen selection, and icon updates for a more consistent UI experience.

  • Unified workshop scripts into the core for improved compatibility.

• Performance and Optimization

  • Added more logging, error trapping, and performance metrics (OPTICK events).

  • Improved handling of large-scale levels and standalone performance.

• Automation

  • Enhanced scripts for automated build, deployment, and changelog generation (pulls live from GitHub).

It's been a very active period with a mix of major features, usability improvements, and a strong focus on stability. Continuous improvement to both user-facing features (HUD, icons, AI) and backend/editor tools (build automation, error handling) has been made, and ongoing cleanup, deprecation of old behaviors, and streamlining of the codebase have put the engine in a good place.

With the last of the bugs being rounded up, MAX enters a new phase of development, and exactly what shape that takes will be discussed extensively by our amazing community. To find out what comes next, the best place to hang out is our Discord channel, where you can learn about official developments and also what the community is creating right now with MAX.