Livestock nears completion, base occlusion testing and a terrain deformation prototype

2026-W38 · 14 Sept to 20 Sept

Work on the livestock update dominated the week, with sheep shearing, wool selling, milk processing and new dairy recipes landing on the feature branch. Elsewhere the room occlusion system moved to large-scale testing, a terrain deformation prototype gained crater shapes and protected areas, and the controller overhaul added haptics and per-vehicle action sets. Smaller fixes reached main, including thrown explosive prediction, quick join and server browser repairs, and cheaper sandbag barricades.

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Branch work is not a promise: some of it ships in the next update, some of it never ships.

Commits
659
Developers
42
Branches
135
Merged to main
55

Cattle and sheep behaviour, breeding and the Ranch vendor

The livestock branch spent the week on herd behaviour, breeding rules and the vendor that buys animals, alongside a long list of fixes to leading, grazing and pregnancy.

Layout of Ranch
5 changes

Livestock_animals

  • Selling an animal at the Ranch now runs as an auction: the vendor offers three items, and rejecting all three stops them talking to you for 15 minutes.#701586
  • Wild cows can no longer breed, age or produce resources, and pregnancy is blocked below 60 per cent condition.#702320
  • Leading livestock now shows a visible rope like horses, and the leading interaction no longer fails intermittently.#702481
  • Bull headbutt damage increased, bulls no longer attack inside safe zones, and animals no longer graze through walls.#702471
  • Lamb and calf corpses give no resources when killed, and cow meat is now named beef throughout.#701294

Sheep shearing and wool

Sheep can now be sheared for a new wool item, and the stables vendor buys wool through the same auction system used for animals.

5 changes

Livestock_animals/livestock_sheep_shearing

  • Any item that is good at harvesting corpses now works as a shearing tool, rather than needing a dedicated shear flag.#702350
  • Wool sells to the stables vendor with rewards scaled to the amount brought, out of 1000, and the same three strike rejection rule.#701875
  • Fleece no longer disappears after a server restart, and shearing no longer counts as a shot hit.#702396
  • Wool counts as a harvest and overflows into the backpack when your inventory is full.#702396
  • Wild sheep can still be approached with a shearing tool, but they run away.#702362

Milk, cream and dairy recipes

Milk can be skimmed into skimmed milk and cream after four hours in a refrigerated container, and cream feeds a new tier of pies, bread and teas.

5 changes

Livestock_animals/milk_processing

  • Skimming milk produces skimmed milk (half calories, 80 per cent hydration, half health) and cream (half calories, 20 per cent hydration, +50 per cent health).#701562
  • Rich versions of every pie require cream, for example Rich Apple Pie at 4 cream for five extra minutes of effect.#702200
  • Creamy and milky versions of all pure teas added: creamy raises the effect and shortens duration, milky extends duration.#701568
  • New brioche bread recipe uses 2 eggs and 4 cream for a 25 per cent stat increase over normal bread.#702192
  • Milk jar world model added with volume preserving slosh and a new item icon.#701423

Room occlusion moves to large base testing

The system that hides rooms a player cannot see was optimised for real bases rather than small test builds, and picked up profiling so its main thread cost can be tracked.

5 changes

base_occlusion

  • Rooms now use a spatial grid so the server does not network every room within 32 metres.#702201
  • Tool cupboards are excluded from room occlusion for now, since hiding one would stop you knowing whether you are authorised on a base.#702381
  • Doors only update occlusion when their open or closed state changes.#702084
  • Base occlusion added to runtime profiling to monitor per frame cost.#702118
  • Disabling occlusion after enabling it now cleans up fully instead of leaving stale data.#702153

Terrain deformation prototype

An early prototype lets explosions deform terrain, with craters shaped in 3D around blocking objects and protected areas that cannot be dug out.

4 changes

terrain_deformation

  • Baseline deformation system added, serialising only tiles with active changes and healing over time.#701180
  • Explosive crater definitions added, with shapes applied in 3D space and respecting blocking objects.#701420
  • Protection added from terrain topology, spawned rocks and building foundations.#702110
  • Three experimental modes for how foliage reacts to deformed ground: replacement, displacement or masking.#701376

Controller bindings and rumble

The controller branch reworked haptic feedback into a mixer with per source intensity sliders and reorganised action sets for vehicles.

5 changes

vcc

  • Haptics refactored with a dedicated rumbler mixer, vehicle rumble driven by vehicle audio, light horse hoof rumble and impact and explosion rumble.#701911
  • Per source haptic intensity convars added with sliders in the gamepad options.#701916
  • Boat and train action sets swap fire mode for horn on RB so tugboat and train horns can be used.#702283
  • Voice added to every action set on R3, and swap seats given a consistent bind on all vehicle action sets.#702037
  • Keyboard only bind glyphs are hidden while a pad is active instead of showing a key hint.#702283

Frogs, squirrels, crabs and sea turtles

The small ambient creatures gained proper animation sets, startle reactions and death states without corpses or ragdolls.

5 changes

Livestock_animals/critter_animals

  • Critters startle and run away when players come too close, and no longer startle each other.#701728
  • First pass on crab swarms, which now move as a group with individual speeds influenced by size.#702343
  • Frog animations integrated with randomised jump types.#701493
  • Roam and flee states now account for water, so squirrels avoid riverside and oceanside areas.#701803
  • Sleeping removed from critters, since most are active at night anyway.#701507

Sandbag barricades get upgrade tiers

Sandbag barricades can be built up in stages using the planner, and the base sandbag recipe was cut on main.

5 changes

sandbag_barricade_variants

  • Sandbag crafting cost reduced from 100 to 50 stone and 10 to 5 cloth, with craft time down from 30 to 10 seconds.#701949
  • Only the base sandbag is craftable; the taller variants are reached by upgrading.#701693
  • Upgrade placement turns yellow when the current upgrade fits but later ones would be blocked.#701703
  • Upgrading a damaged sandbag keeps its health fraction rather than granting a free repair, behind a server convar.#701600
  • Sandbags are now correctly upgradeable on player built boats.#702300

Monument loot rooms tuned by tier

Loot spawns in several monument interiors were adjusted to match the tier of the monument they sit in, with new rooms built out.

Layout of Train YardLayout of Water Treatment Plant
4 changes

powerlevel_loot_rooms

  • Train Yard, Water Treatment Plant and sewer branch loot tweaked and rebuilt.#701814
  • New Junkyard loot room added.#701514
  • Missile Silo loot room added and a Launch Site room fixed.#701480
  • Loot spawns adjusted to reflect monument tiers, with mesh and collider changes to the large radhouse for its new room.#701705

Thrown explosives predicted on the client

Grenades and thrown explosives are now simulated on the client as they leave your hand, which should make throws look immediate rather than waiting on the server.

4 changes

grenade_client_prediction

  • Grenade prediction merged to main after reverting to a simpler model that simulates physics until the first ground hit.#701467
  • Prediction backs out if the thrown item is obviously clipping through a surface.#701237
  • Support extended to satchel charges and timed explosive charges.#702519
  • Predicted throws can follow bone rotation on deploy, with cleaner hide and show handling.#701718

Biofuel generator

The new biofuel generator got its art finished and a stirring interaction that mounts you in place while you hold the use key.

3 changes

biofuel_generator

  • Stirring the generator mounts you at your current standing position and ends when you release the use key.#702050
  • A status panel shows whether the generator is currently being stirred, and a no electricity status if it is stirred without power.#701982
  • Gibs, LODs and a final item icon added.#702495

Rust render pipeline fixes

Work continued on the experimental render pipeline, fixing visual gaps against the current one and reducing the cost of lighting.

4 changes

render_pipeline_testing

  • Fixed atmosphere fog not working when the game was launched with the new pipeline enabled.#701763
  • Fixed map layers such as train tunnels not rendering.#701699
  • Fixed missing underwater colour grading and black paintballs in third person.#702352
  • Light binning now uses 16 depth bins per screen tile with tighter collision checks to cut lights per bin.#701716

Third person melee and tool animations

Held items are being moved from individual override controllers onto a shared animation subsystem, covering knives, hatchets, the hammer and various one handed items.

4 changes

3p_melee_animsystem_updates

  • Subsystems set up for knives and one handed melee weapons.#702159
  • All hatchets moved onto subsystems for better movement in locomotion.#702135
  • Machete and sword moved across and the old machete hold type controller deleted.#702024
  • Unique subsystems added for the megaphone, mobile phone, compass and water pistol.#702347

Skinnable ladder hatches

Ladder hatches were made skinnable, with open and close handling set up for Workshop items.

3 changes

skinnable_ladder_hatch

  • Ladder hatches made skinnable with an open and close script for Workshop submissions.#701503
  • Gibs added for the standard and armoured ladder hatches.#702097
  • Triangle and armoured ladder hatch rigs updated.#702055

Fruit tree harvesting

Harvesting rules around fruit trees changed so that felling a tree usually destroys unpicked fruit.

3 changes

fruit_trees

  • Apples have a 10 per cent chance of surviving if you fell the tree without picking them first; coconuts will survive far more often.#701537
  • Fruit no longer has a chance to fall when you hit a tree.#701537
  • Fully harvesting a tree with a natural beehive still always spawns honeycomb and the swarm.#701537

Halloween 2026 pack

Early setup work on this year's Halloween items, including wallpapers and store entries with placeholder icons.

3 changes

halloween2026DLC

  • Halloween wallpapers set up.#702044
  • Store ids added for the Halloween items with tweaked descriptions and placeholder icons.#702298
  • Skull wall torch renamed to skull wall lamp.#702064

Also this week

  • Remotely controlled turrets can now hit reactive targets, including with bows. #701955
  • Fixed the quick join menu showing no entries, and results emptying out at random as lookups returned. #702155
  • Fixed server browser game mode filters showing inaccurate player counts and mixing in modes you did not search for. #701309
  • Fixed the boat vendor at floating cities giving the wrong direction for where to collect a purchased boat. #702306
  • Fuseboxes now show the world model of whatever is inserted, including a heavy fuse. #702392
  • Market terminals now read No Power when unpowered, though you can still browse shops. #701315
  • Festive garlands now work on player built boats. #702011
  • Neon signs gained a colour wheel and a largest size option, and ornate frame brush outlines were fixed. #702035
  • Condition removed from items that can never lose it, including the diving mask, sunglasses, geiger counter, metal detector, RF pager and mobile phone. #702520
  • Toggle duck now works as expected in vehicles other than modular cars. #701885
  • Fixed PT boat turrets not showing correctly on the death screen. #701928
  • Apartment complex now counts as a safe zone, so the hostile warning and the too close to build error both work. #701534
  • Distant gunshots no longer spawn a muzzle flash, and faded muzzle flashes stop running lights and particle effects. #702364
  • Item positions are now saved and restored when creating or deploying loadouts. #702378
  • Hunting trophies now support cow, bull and sheep mounts. #701311
  • Fixed the store showing a content failed to load error when your Rust item inventory was completely empty. #702472
How this digest was read

Read from Facepunch's public commit log: 14 Sept to 20 Sept, 659 commits.

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