Hack week: an electricity rewrite, a rhythm game and a compost UI

2026-W33 · 10 Aug to 16 Aug

A quiet week by commit count, 169 against the usual 700, and only five merges into main. That shape means hack week: most of the branches here are people building whatever they wanted to build. Some of it, like the composter UI, went on to ship. Some of it never will.

Commits: 169
Developers: 19
Branches: 59
Merged to main: 5

ElectricityExperimentalmain/hackweek_iorewrite

Electricity system rewrite

The most substantial hack week project. The old electricity system pooled collections every tick and looped every circuit to check a flag; the rewrite keeps a dirty set and uses buffers instead.

Evaluation pass uses buffers instead of pooling collections every tick.#614369
Circuit rebuild only touches circuits marked dirty, rather than looping all of them.#614374
Battery drain and charge merged into one loop.#614502
Auto turret and SAM site converted.#614539
Igniters, tesla coils, most lights, fridges and car lifts converted.#614569
Seismic sensors, fuse boxes and door controllers converted.#614587
A test fixture and helpers added so the new system has automated coverage.#614588

Modding and adminIn progressmain/nexus_fixes

Nexus server browsing

Nexus is the system that links several Rust servers into one connected world. This week it got a real place in the new menu: a zone list, a map, and the ability to connect to a nexus server from the connect modal.

Nexuses now show in the new menu without needing a separate tab.#614368
Zone list and nexus map added to the server connect screen.#614441
Connecting to nexus servers from the connect modal implemented.#614445
Maps can be viewed for each zone or server in the nexus.#614466
All player IDs in the nexus library are now numbers rather than strings.#614257
Server boot no longer fails when world.cfg is an empty string.#614291

Quality of lifeExperimentalmain/Hackweek_CompostUI

Composter UI

A hack week idea that shipped two weeks later: show decomposition time in the composter the way cooking and smelting already show progress. It was rebuilt properly on a separate branch and merged on 27 August.

Composter UI shows decomposition time, like the cooking and smelting UI.#614484
A fourth output slot added and UI positions fixed.#614487
A composter-specific icon replaces the reused cooking icon.#614491
Cooking code made to work on both compostable and normal cookable items.#617762

PerformanceMergedmain/network_range_audit

Network range audit

A tool that finds objects networked further than they are ever drawn. Seven batches of entities had their range halved from 256 to 128 metres, which reduces what a full server has to send every tick.

The audit system detects effects being run on a prefab.#614517
Seven batches of objects reduced from 256m to 128m network range.#614538

OtherExperimentalmain/hackweek_arcade_ext

A rhythm game in the arcade machine

Someone spent hack week building a playable note-matching game into the arcade cabinet, complete with lives, difficulty ramping and spectator replication.

Level data and lane setup for a note-matching game.#614417
Lives and basic input added.#614449
Difficulty ramps as you play.#614568
Spectators can watch, with hit feedback, particles and level up toasts.#614575

PerformanceExperimentalmain/hackweek_unsafescriptingaccess

Multithreaded scripting access

Groundwork for running more of the game off the main thread. It works by finding Unity's thread-local scripting slot at runtime, which is exactly as fragile as it sounds, and it is disabled on the client.

An unsafe scripting access scope added, with a helper to switch to multithreading.#614453
Rewritten to search for the thread-local slot dynamically after assemblies load.#614634
Multithreaded scripting disabled on the client.#614937

Quality of lifeMergedmain/hackweek_random_skin_crafting

Random skin on craft

A Random option with a dice icon at the top of the skin list, remembered per item type. Small, and the sort of thing that only gets built when someone has a free week.

A Random option with a dice icon added to the start of the skin list, saved per item type.#614549
Random now includes the default skin.#616178
Repair bench fix and a garbage collection optimisation.#616209

FixesFixesmain/misc_fixes_aug_26

Small world fixes

A handful of monument and prop fixes, including one that makes garage doors behave like every other door.

Unlocked garage doors no longer need building privilege to pick up, matching every other door.#614662
Fixed a barrel spawn clipping inside the recycler at Harbor 1.#614663
Fixed a clipping vehicle parts crate on a junkpile.#614661
Fixed a floating piece of paper in a ghost ship.#614660

FixesFixesmain/train_tracks_not_connecting_fix

Rail junctions

Procedural rail lines sometimes failed to link up at junctions, which strands a train and anyone riding it.

Fixed procedural rail lines sometimes not linking up properly at junctions.#614591
Fixed an old parenting sound error when disconnecting while on a moving train.#614594

Modding and adminExperimentalmain/hackweek_command_palette

Editor command palette

A searchable command palette for the Unity editor toolbar. Developer tooling, invisible to players, but it is the kind of thing that speeds up everything else.

A searchable command palette added for the toolbar dropdowns.#614381
Scene icons shown next to commands that open scenes, and commands can be pinned.#614708

Also this week

Base occlusion work started, cherry-picked from a previous hack week. #614677
Character customisation started as a convar system for swapping player model features. #614573
Automated animation effect test made stricter, finding eight more cases that warn in game. #614190
Fixed swing seats marking attackers hostile. #614191

Read from Facepunch’s public commit log, 169 commits between 10 Aug 2026 and 17 Aug 2026. Branch work is not a promise: some of it ships in the next update, some of it never ships.