The TF2 Spring Cleaning Update

PERFORMANCE

We've been working hard on the engine, tightening a lot of nuts and bolts and making lots of small fixes that should make the game run smoother and more efficiently, eliminating many cases of stutters and low framerates. We've also improved the experience for lower-end machines, giving players more options to control quality, without resorting to configs or lowering DirectX levels.

Upgraded Team Fortress 2 to SSE2. This will take advantage of new computer technology introduced in the last decade. Nifty!

Improved backend math, particle and animation systems with more modern code.

Fixed overhead of econ and cosmetics on gameplay.

Completely overhauled the performance of the 3D player model. It now has a near zero impact on performance.

Greatly optimized VGUI game HUD code.

Fixed cases of stutters encountered when moving between different sections of the map.

Greatly improved game startup and map load time.

Significantly reduced input latency.

Optimized overhead of networking, on both the server and client.

Fixed fps_max not efficiently nor accurately limiting FPS.

Shader Quality option now controls usage of lower quality options previously only available on DirectX 8.

Added option to reduce water bullet impact effects.

Added option to reduce particle complexity with DirectX 8 versions.

Fixed reduced framerate when using high pollrate gaming mice.

Improved thread prioritization on modern systems.

Many other minor performance and stability improvements.

Overall, we've found these improvements to introduce a 30-50% framerate increase on most machines.

GAMEPLAY

It's no secret that Team Fortress 2 is a perfect, bug-free game. But if you were to somehow find a bug, you'd be able to report it to us via our bug tracker. And if you were to somehow find a second bug, you'd be able to report that one too! And if you were to somehow find a third bug... well, you get the idea. As it turns out, there were a few bug reports. Well, hundreds of them. So we've been listening to your feedback, and have made changes and fixes to the game based on what we've heard.

CORE GAMEPLAY

Fixed many bugs involving Pyro's Compression Blast reflection.

Fixed various reflected projectiles applying incorrect self-damage.
Fixed various reflected projectiles not reversing team color.
Fixed reflected rockets not having the correct properties of the original Rocket Launcher, like blast radius, particles, spells, speed, etc.
Fixed reflected Sandman balls not dealing damage.
Fixed reflected Wrap Assassin ornaments not dealing damage or bleed properly.
Fixed reflected Rescue Ranger bolts not healing friendly buildings.
Fixed reflected flares not exhibiting their specific Flare Gun's properties.
Fixed many cases of incorrect application of Strange and Killstreak effects for reflected projectiles.
Fixed reflected Huntsman arrows not applying the correct knockback force.
Fixed enemy Snipers receiving extinguish bonus from reflected Jarate.
Fixed reflected Loose Cannon cannonballs not applying Double Donk.
Fixed and restored various kill icons for many projectiles.
Fixed reflecting Sentry Gun rockets resulting in the Flamethrower primary fire sound to play.
Fixed reflected projectiles not having correct lifetimes.

Fixed switch speed bonuses not being used for applying a holster speed bonus. For example, The Degreaser's holster bonus was only applied after it has been deployed for the base deploy time (0.5 seconds), rather using the deploy time with its switch bonus (0.33 seconds). This caused an awkward situation where you had to wait longer than expected to benefit from The Degreaser's holster bonus.
Fixed holster speed penalties, such as on The Fists of Steel, being bypassable.
Fixed holster speed bonuses being able to be accidentally cancelled by switching through multiple weapons.
Fixed movement speed slows not being applied consistently from weapons like from the Natascha and the Sandman.
Fixed the Baby Face's Blaster not properly applying boost when slowed.
Added lag compensation for teammates, to fix issues with players unexpectedly blocking bullets and The Sydney Sleeper extinguish not applying as expected.
Players under the effect of a Quick-Fix Übercharge can now block captures.
Fixed The Winger providing a Jump Height bonus before being fully deployed.
Fixed The Eureka Effect providing teleport functionality before being fully deployed.
Fixed Medics having an accelerated Übercharge build-rate when healing a Heavy who is using The Fists of Steel.
Fixed The Phlogistinator MMPH! taunt cancelling early if the player was knocked off of a surface.
Fixed Scout balls computing random critical hits incorrectly.
Fixed servers hosted on Windows providing 41 metal with small ammo packs, instead of 40.
Fixed the Detonator and The Scorch Shot blast jumps not working during knockback immunity, like as applied by a Quick-Fix Übercharge.
Fixed The Enforcer ignoring bullet damage vulnerability, like on The Pain Train.
Fixed The Enforcer not piercing through The Battalion's Backup crit resistance buff.
Fixed The Jag dealing less damage than intended to enemy Engineer buildings.
Fixed damage to buildings rounding down instead of up like damage to players.
Fixed The Ullapool Caber damage being affected inconsistently by falloff.
Fixed The Ullapool Caber not receiving the Mini-Crit buff from charging.
Fixed The Buffalo Steak Sandvich reducing speed when the Heavy already has a greater speed boost.
Fixed The Gunslinger successive hits Crit hitreg not being lag compensated.
Fixed the Sniper Rifle's laser dot not following the Sniper's view point accurately.

COMPETITIVE

Fixed Übercharge building during server pauses.
Added a ConVar tf_pipebomb_disable_random_launch to disable randomness on Demoman projectiles.
Fixed class limit being bypassable if two or more players switched to that class during a respawn wave.
Added the ConVar tf_taunt_first_person_always to force taunts from first-person.
Fixed a gameplay information exploit related to an old LCD keyboard system.
Fixed a gameplay information exploit related to VGUI commands.
Fixed The Force-A-Nature fixed spread pattern being biased to the right side.

MANN VS MACHINE

Restored missing Mann vs Machine voicelines and responses.
Fixed damage to Tank not giving Critical Hit bonus chance.
Non-giants can now be tickled by The Holiday Punch.
Fixed money getting stuck in robot spawn areas. This money will be automatically collected, similar to money in death pits.
Fixed Sniper Rifle reload upgrade not fully applying without auto rezoom.
Fixed Sniper Rifle Explosive Headshot upgrade ignoring resistances. Now applies bullet damage.
Fixed revives on players in between waves affecting revive speed penalty.
Fixed Strength powerup not affecting damage dealt to Tanks (community request).
Fixed the Destroy Entity Task being non-functional in func_nav_prerequisite.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Turns out when a game has been around for over 15 years, it can get a little dusty. So we've been busy polishing up TF2, and generally making things better. These are small but important fixes that should improve your overall experience.

VISUAL

Added ConVar tf_viewmodels_offset_override to adjust the position (within limits!) of your viewmodel on screen beyond min viewmodels.
Added a live player model preview to the main menu.
Fixed Sniper Rifle scope being hidable with mods.
Fixed texture streaming blur lingering for too long (especially noticeable on Engineer blueprints).
Fixed camera roll getting stuck when observing.
Fixed sun glow being incorrect at some angles.
Added force_show to game_text_tf (community mapper request).

NETWORKING

Upgraded the networking rates to be in sync with game update rates.
Networking update rates now automatically align as best as possible to tick rate.
Fixed an issue with update rate being limited to 100 for community servers with higher than default tick rates.
Updated the client interp limit to 200ms instead of 500ms.
Fixed case of worse than expected packet loss on unreliable connections.
Fixed a case where prediction could be out of date from server data.
Decreased the lag compensation window from 1 second to 500ms, which reduces the impact of exploits.
Fixed many desync issues and exploits.

GENERAL

Fixed Demo Support automatically recording Casual matches when selecting Competitive matches.
Fixed Demo Support not being able to log every kill.
Fixed Demo Support recording pre and post-game by default.
Added additional demo file name customization to Demo Support.
Added functionality to automatically verify game status in Demo Support (for competitive games, similar to other demo recording addons).
Fixed Noisemakers being able to be spammed.
Fixed bomb carrier voiceline playing during normal Capture the Flag with bots.
Fixed crashes on maps with large lightmaps.
Fixed decals still spawning when disabled by player config.
Fixed an invalid Steam ID being sent to clients in some cases during game server connection challenge and handshake.
Fixed some sounds unintentionally having no cooldown between plays, including the crit received sound.
Fixed a crash when there are no observable entities.
Fixed a crash related to a TF damage filter and PASS Time ball when it hasn't been thrown yet.
Fixed env_tonemap_controller rate not being replicated (community mapper request).
Fixed tips being changed multiple times during start of map load.
Fixed local servers experiencing incorrect game tick rates when the framerate is over 1000.
Fixed cvarlist command not printing float values of ConVars.
Added tf_dingaling_lasthit_repeat_delay to prevent playback of duplicate sounds when killing multiple players at once.
Added a ConVar demo_readinitialcommands to allow players to skip applying settings from the demo recorder's config.
Fixed tf_parachute_maxspeed_onfire_z ConVar not working with the B.A.S.E Jumper (community request).
Added a ConVar tf_skip_equip_action_hint to disable reminders to equip the relevant action item.

SPRING CLEANING