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What Facepunch is building
A weekly plain-English digest of Facepunch's public Rust work. Branch work can still change before release.
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Livestock ownership rework, building privilege optimisation and a softcore TC limit
2026-W41 · 5 Oct to 11 OctLivestock received the largest set of changes this week: simpler cow ownership, no deaths from old age and a new potential stat that controls sale value. Building privilege checks were rebuilt around a cache, with large frame time savings inside big bases. Softcore servers gained a three TC limit with TCs shown on the map, and the Halloween 2026 event was switched on in development. Rendering, server memory and animal animation also saw extensive optimisation work.
- Commits
- 801
- Developers
- 43
- Branches
- 233
- Merged to main
- 112
Livestock ownership, herds and feeding reworked
Cow ownership was simplified so buying a cow or having it eat at your trough makes it yours, and livestock no longer die of old age. Herd caps, feeding at troughs and the buyer NPC's reaction to genetics were also reworked.
5 changes
main/Livestock_animals
- A cow you buy, or that eats at your trough, is now yours without a bond; bonding is only needed for leading, and unowned cows cannot breed.#710317
- Cows no longer die of old age; crowding is the only cause of death, and starved animals lie at 1 HP until food is available again.#710317
- Herd size is limited to 5, with herd detection distance increased to 40m.#711860
- Livestock now still use the trough when grass is in the pen; they eat less trough food the more grass there is, and grass alone is less filling.#712732
- Recessive genes now affect the buy price, and the buyer NPC comments on hidden bad genes, inbred cows and cows with good recessive genes.#710465
Halloween 2026 event enabled in development
The Halloween event, scarecrow spawns and Halloween dungeons were switched on in development, with collectables swapped to spooky versions. The Frankenstein Table is now craftable by default.
4 changes
main/Halloween_2026_update
- Enabled the Halloween event, scarecrow population and Halloween dungeons, and switched collectables to their spooky versions.#711404
- The Frankenstein Table is now a default craftable.#711404
- Fixed loot crates floating in the Halloween tunnels.#711743
- An alien costume was added to the skin viewer as part of the Halloween store content.#712166
New potential stat sets livestock sale value
Animals now have a potential stat built from their average happiness while young, which is locked in at adulthood and multiplies their sale price. Wild and purchased animals start at zero, so in practice only bred animals can be sold for value.
4 changes
main/livestock_potential
- Potential starts at 0, tracks happiness while the animal is young and locks in at adulthood; animals with 0 potential cannot be sold to the vendor.#710097
- Potential rises from 0 to 100 over 10 minutes at full happiness and falls from 100 to 0 over 15 minutes at zero happiness.#710098
- Animals with no mother (found in the wild or bought) have capped potential, so only the following generation can be sold; server owners can change this with livestock.potentialUnbredCap.#710102
- The sale penalty for bringing the livestock vendor a bought or found animal rose from 0.2 to 0.85.#707918
Building privilege checks rebuilt for big bases
Checks for whether you are inside a TC's building privilege now use a grid cache instead of physics queries, on both client and server. In a large test base the check dropped from 4.6ms to about 0.09ms.
4 changes
main/buildingprivilege_cache
- A global grid of building blocks replaces the previous query; with 575 nearby blocks the check went from 4.60ms to around 0.50ms.#712936
- Further tuning brought the same check in the same base down to around 0.09ms.#713059
- The vitals UI was calling the privilege check about 24 times a second while walking in a base, costing up to 6.5ms a frame; it is now once per second.#711449
- Legacy shelters, vehicles and boat building stations also use the cache, and the vehicle and entity changes can be toggled with buildingmanager.privilegecache.#713396
Softcore limits players to three TCs and shows them on the map
Softcore now caps each player at three Tool Cupboards, using the same counter and limit notice as the sleeping bag limit. When the limit is active, your TCs appear on the map alongside sleeping bags.
4 changes
main/softcore_tc_limit/map_icons
- Players in softcore can place a maximum of 3 TCs; the count shows on the item icon and a notice appears at the limit.#708033
- The limit uses the max_tool_cupboards convar, which is set on softcore but could technically be enabled on any server.#708035
- TCs appear on the map when the limit is on, cluster with sleeping bags and can be hidden with their own toggle button.#708489
- TCs no longer appear on other map views such as the MLRS or vending map.#710444
New render pipeline becomes the default
The new render pipeline was made the default and its toggle removed from the experimental settings tab. Shadows, occlusion culling and image scaling were adjusted alongside it.
5 changes
main/render_pipeline_testing
- The new render pipeline is now the default, and its option was removed from the experimental tab along with the shadow caching toggle it does not support.#709936
- Fixed shadow cascade bias, fading at the last cascade edge and noisy shadows at medium shadow quality.#710016
- Occlusion culling support was added to the new pipeline.#711829
- The default render scale upscaling mode is now Catmull-Rom, and its convar was renamed to renderScaleSampling.#711906
- New hair rendering was added so horse hair and similar surfaces look better.#709902
Server memory and startup time cut
Server memory used for spawn distributions and map data was reduced, and two changes cut startup time. Some of this is merged and some remains in testing.
5 changes
main/optimize_spawn_distribution_simple
- A simplified tile based spawn distribution was merged, using 700MB instead of 780MB.#710346
- A fuller version in testing cuts spawn distribution memory from 780MB to 40MB and samples three times faster.#708060
- The server now clears unused world map data, saving about 175MB on a 4500 map.#708091
- Startup time fell from 230s to 158s by fetching spawnables once rather than for each of 100 spawn populations.#713135
- Entity links are now cached across server restarts, and sockets relink if a prefab has changed since it was saved.#712321
Apples and coconuts start growing on trees
Work began on fruit that spawns on trees, with apples placed on some oak trees and coconuts on some palm trees. Fruit now appears at its exact position on the tree.
Horses, animals and effects cost less frame time
Horse leg animation, wild animal footsteps, rain and industrial conveyors were optimised. Several related bugs, including animals with four left feet, were fixed along the way.
5 changes
main/horse_optims
- Server hip calculation for 50 moving horses went from 2.2ms to 0.09ms per frame.#709863
- Wild animals no longer cast footstep rays regardless of distance; this was costing 0.5ms a frame for four animals.#710086
- Fixed boars, bulls, cows and wolves having four left feet in their footstep animation.#710221
- Rain particle cost at Missile Silo dropped from 0.42ms to 0.06ms per frame, and rain no longer falls under some roofs.#710512
- Distant industrial conveyor hum sounds are now culled; 30 conveyors 150m away went from 9ms to 2.3ms to spawn.#708397
PT Boat turrets rewritten
PT Boat turrets were rebuilt on the same system as the Ballista, with the Cannon and Mortar moved to a shared mounted weapon base. Follow-up fixes covered reloading and ammo, and turret viewmodels are in progress to stop stuttery movement.
4 changes
main/pt_boat_turret_rewrite
- PT Boat turrets now use the same mounted weapon system as the Ballista and Cannon.#710035
- Fixed turrets being impossible to reload after the rewrite.#710229
- Fixed turret ammo refilling on server restart and reload animations playing after dismounting mid reload.#710315
- Initial turret viewmodel support is intended to stop stuttery movement and glitchy rendering on PT Boat turrets.#710083
Flare, molotov and firecracker throws reworked
Flares, molotovs and firecrackers were moved onto the shared grenade animation system with new drop animations. The flare also received new visual effects and lighting.
4 changes
main/grenade_drop_animations
- Flare and molotov third person animations now use the grenade animation system, and the flare gained a drop state.#709972
- Firecrackers gained drop animations and an increased throw velocity; the exact value is not stated.#709720
- Fixed viewmodel drop animations not playing for spectators.#709948
- The flare received final first and third person effects and lighting.#711711
Wool armour insert, Uzi and tattoos in development
Several new items are in early development, including a wool armour insert with placeholder stats, an Uzi and a flail. Tattoos are working again in development, alongside a new tattoo gun.
5 changes
main/WoolArmorInsert
- Wool Armour Insert set up with work in progress values: 20 wool to craft, 3 cold, 2 melee and 1 projectile protection, tier 1 tech tree.#708399
- Effects for an Uzi were added alongside viewmodel animation work.#712034
- Tattoos work again, including face tattoos, and now save correctly between client and server.#708412
- A tattoo gun item was added.#708258
- A flail melee weapon reached the blockout stage.#708150
Character creator redesigned
The character creator moved to a new vertical layout with an underwear category and fewer skin tone variants per skin colour. Clicking a body part now focuses on it, and nudity is no longer allowed in the creator.
4 changes
main/character_customisation
- New layout with an underwear category added and the eyebrows category removed.#707973
- Fewer skin tones are offered per skin colour, and the character no longer teleports back when the menu first opens.#708247
- Clicking a part of the character focuses on it, and new convars can skip body type restrictions.#709807
- Nudity is no longer allowed in the character creator.#709808
Controller support continues
Gamepad support is now enabled by default in development, with per-axis sensitivity and control layout changes. Sprint toggling and stick deadzones were also adjusted.
Underground train network rooms built out
Work continued on an update to the underground train network, with a break room, kitchen area and several random room variants. Elevators and a forklift variation were also added.
Console aliases, autocomplete and map switching for servers
The console gained an alias command, multiline input and better autocomplete. Modders also have a new way for servers to tell clients which map to load.
4 changes
- New alias command works like input.bind but with a custom command name, and aliases appear in autocomplete.#709856
- Autocomplete now suggests the shortest or exact match first.#710212
- Multiline input returns to the console.#708013
- ServerMgr.ChangeLevelFor lets servers dictate the map a client loads.#709858
Also this week
- Explosive splash damage no longer passes through walls to hit triangle floors, frames and foundations in some cases. #710321
- Rockets no longer explode mid air when fired near a dead body. #710247
- The Boomerang now deals proper damage to the newer NPCs. #710270
- Vehicles can no longer be driven through the Graveyard Fence. #711791
- The first person wounded sound now plays in normal builds, at half its previous volume. #709941
- Boars now flee below 30% health instead of 75%. #708229
- Old animals such as bears and stags no longer sleep, flee when shot from a distance, and bears no longer roam at high speed. #710361
- Fixed Mortar desync. #710079
- Vending machine 'add sell order' can no longer exceed stack size. #710305
- The biofuel generator now only uses electricity while actively generating fuel. #708030
- Ridden animals dismount at the closest point to you, check for obstructions, and show a notice when mounting or dismounting is blocked. #710071
- Milky and creamy teas can now be bulk crafted at the Mixing Table, with the same cost and time. #708504
- The Ferry Terminal rope ladder is easier to climb. #708388
- Players no longer autocrouch when overlapping a closing door. #710213
- Bee Grenades no longer appear white with throw prediction enabled. #708201
- NPC phone conversations can now happen across the map, with a test conversation behind an admin convar. #711899
How this digest was read
Read from Facepunch's public commit log: 5 Oct to 11 Oct, 801 commits.
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