Rust — BUILT DIFFERENT

PLAYER UPDATE

New Player Model

We’ve overhauled the player model from the ground up.

This includes improved meshes and materials, more realistic proportions on a new rig, expanded head and hair seeds and a much needed pass over almost everything player-related.

The old player model has served us well for almost 10 years, but it’s lagged behind the rest of the game for some time. Visually, it was showing its age, but just as importantly it was holding us back from making bigger improvements to characters, animations and implementing future features. Prior attempts to improve the player model has always ended up feeling like band-aid fix, there was only so much we could do while working around the limitations of the old proportions and skeleton. At some point it became clear that the only real way forward was to rip it out and rebuild it properly.

Alongside the new base model, we’ve also:

• Expanded the number of heads in the game, with each head now having unique materials and additional details such as eyelashes and improved eye lighting.

• Reworked and expanded hairstyles and beards, using new anisotropic shaders to make hair feel more natural.

• Updated all clothing to work with the new rig and proportions, giving a lot of older assets a much-needed refresh and fixing some long-standing issues.

• Modernised the art pipeline behind the player model, making future fixes and improvements much easier to ship.

Your face will change, but race and gender seeds have been kept intact, so we’re hoping it won’t be too much of a shock for those of you who have grown attached to your random seed over the years. We’ll be continuing to improve on the player model after release, and we also have a player customisation update planned for the future.

It’s been a huge amount of work, especially as we’ve been doing it alongside regular development and monthly updates. Performing open-heart surgery on one of the most interconnected parts of Rust, while continuing to ship patches, has certainly come with its challenges.

Performance

We know “improved visuals” and “additional details” can be worrying to hear when it comes to performance. It’s something we’ve been watching closely throughout development. Alongside the visual improvements, we’ve also done a deeper pass on our tooling and pipelines, which has allowed us to make optimisations we couldn’t make with the old setup.

Our internal metrics are looking positive so far, and we’ll continue to monitor performance closely after release.

BALLISTIC ARMOUR

For the first time in a very long time, we're adding a new top-tier armour set to Rust.

The Ballistic Armour set offers increased protection over existing craftable alternatives, but there's a catch. It cannot be crafted. If you want your hands on it, you'll need to find it. This armour is comparable to existing metal armour with plates.

We're also introducing the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). Like the Ballistic Armour, the BDU is loot-only and cannot be crafted. It offers slightly improved protection over existing clothing options, while making a few trade-offs elsewhere.

Both sets are intended to expand late-game gear progression and create more valuable loot opportunities. If you're looking for the best equipment available, you'll need to get out there and fight for it.

NEW WEAPON: M16A2

The M16A2 is a military-grade rifle found through end-end loot and cannot be crafted. Designed around a three-round burst fire mode, it offers excellent accuracy and a high rate of fire, making it particularly effective at medium-range engagements.

To help balance the burst damage potential, the M16A2 deals less damage per shot compared to the LR-300.

Like the Ballistic Armour and BDU, the M16A2 is another valuable loot-only item you'll need to get out into the world and fight for. You'll see a theme here.

PSA: PERFORMANCE ISSUE WITH HIGH POLLING RATE

The Unity 6 update changed how mouse inputs are processed. High polling rate mice (1000Hz+) are now causing significant CPU overhead issues and frame drops.

**Lower your mouse polling rate **to <1000Hz via your mouse manufacturerer's software. (Logitech G HUB, SteelSeries GG, etc..)

We're looking into a proper fix on our end. Sorry for the hassle.

IMPROVED ANIMATION SYSTEMS

One of the primary goals of the new player model was to give us a better foundation to improve the player animations in Rust. We're now starting to improve our animation systems to allow us to make the player animator feel less robotic and more life like.

One key problem we've faced in the past is that all of the animations that the player uses are in a single monolithic animation state machine. This is over 250+ animations, along with override sets for most weapons. This state machine is painful and error prone to update since every weapon and mountable shares it - changing how an animation transitions could have unpredictable consequences for other situations in the game.

To resolve this we've built a new sub system tool that lets us layer in additional, bespoke animation logic in certain situations in the game. Instead of extending and adding even more animations into our massive animator controller, we can now create small self-contained new animation behaviours and apply them in specific contexts.

That's all a bit dense, so let's look at a real world example - the humble torch. We all start with one, and we've all turned it on at night and immediately been killed. It's suffered from a few animation issues that were challenging to solve in the past. Even though it's only held in the right hand, our animation system could only take over the whole upper body, so the left arm was always stiff and robotic. The upper body animator had no awareness of the players locomotion, so it couldn't react to running, jumping, etc (and even if it was aware, making a whole set of running and jumping animations just for the torch is wasteful).

To solve this we've applied a new sub system that creates a new state machine just applied to the right arm. This preserves the running and moving animations on the left arm. We've also added support to blend in the left arm during animations that require it - lighting the torch for instance.

We've just rolling this out in a few small places for now to test it out and make sure it's stable, but these new tools are going to allow us to work faster, produce less animation bugs and get a better looking result going forwards.

ANIMATIONS UPDATE

Animation matching

Where possible, we have taken this opportunity to match 3p animations with what happens in the viewmodel. Many of the old animations were wildly different, both in actions and timing.

More bespoke anims Some weapons shared anims due to time constraints but weren't always a great fit. There are now more bespoke anims created specifically for each weapon.

3/4 stance

The original goal was to move on from forward-facing aiming which, although functional looks awful visually. It also makes clipping of elements like the stock inevitable because the upper body can’t ‘make space’ for the weapon which must aim true.

We've gone with more of a weaver stance in this update, to reduce some of the issues listed above.

It's a more natural looking stance, importantly with more twist in the body and angled hips.

INDUSTRIAL DECOR PACK

Straight from the forge this month is the Industrial Decor Pack, a collection of 20 heavy-duty and machined industrial themed items to galvanize your base. Featuring decorative deployables, utilitarian storage and sturdy tools.

Shipping in the in-game store or from the Rust Steam item store

Industrial Shelving

To go alongside the shelving, we’re also shipping the Industrial Storage Barrels in both horizontal and vertical varieties. Made from steel and probably several hazardous chemicals, they’re sure to keep your precious loot safe, or toxic, and safe. You can change their colour with the Spray Can tool.

Industrial Storage Barrels

To go alongside the shelving, we’re also shipping the Industrial Storage Barrels in both horizontal and vertical varieties. Made from steel and probably several hazardous chemicals, they’re sure to keep your precious loot safe, or toxic, and safe.

Industrial Torch

Light-up the path ahead with this skin for the Torch, featuring an electric filament and unique animations.

Industrial Auto Turret

Light-up the competition with the Industrial Auto Turret. Made from the toughest metal framework, this skin for the Auto Turret is sure to deal with any intruders definitively.

Industrial Large Furnace

Start an industrial revolution with this unique and exclusive skin for the Large Furnace. Go from primitive to the modern era with this one-stop shop to progress.

Industrial Electric Furnace

Seize the means of production with this skin for the Electric Furnace. Looking like a basement nuclear reactor, you’ll be sure to blitz through any safety guidelines in your charge for more ore.

Industrial Garage Door

Roll up the shutters and get to work. Featuring a unique animation and plexiglass windows for extra security, this skin for the Garage Door is sure to get things done.

Painted Concrete Floor Wallpapers

Featuring 6 unique flooring wallpapers, you can create virtually any layout you wish with these floor designs. From production-line to dead-end trap.

Industrial Sprays and Emojis

Theme up your base, or just trash-talk your rivals, these sprays and emojis are sure to put in a shift.

BOWLESS CROSSBOW

This month we’re introducing the Bowless Crossbow which is a unique skin for the Crossbow.

Clearly made by someone with a grudge and a hefty disregard for health and safety. Made from salvaged workshop components and featuring a bowless pulley system, this crossbow is sure to pack a punch.

The Bowless Crossbow can be purchased in-game or from the Rust Steam item store

SKIN VIEWER

The skin viewer got a small upgrade this month. You can now inspect skins in your hand, straight from the store or your Steam inventory menu.

IMPROVED HIT VALIDATION

Often, you can land shots on players in hot air balloons or on boats and you’ll be met with the dreaded ‘projectile invalid’. This is because the server has rejected your hit.

This month, I looked at improving hit validation for parented players. Hit validation now takes into consideration the previous position of parents when validation happens - this should let your shots land and provide a better experience for players all around.

DISCORD X RUST - THE WUMPUS PLUSH

We are excited to announce a very special, first-of-its-kind collaboration with our friends over at Discord. Starting today, you can bring Discord’s iconic mascot, Wumpus, out of your chats and straight into your base!

Say hello to the In-Game Wumpus Plush.

The Wumpus Plush is a one time exception and is exclusive to the Discord Shop.

To grab them, you'll need to purchase him directly through Discord, which will then link up and unlock the item on your Steam account inventory.

The Wumpus Plushie can be placed anywhere inside your base. Stick them on your workbench, line a few up on your roof to confuse raiders, or just keep them next to your sleeping bag for 70% comfort, and good luck before a big Deep Sea run.

Deployable Companion: Fully interactive placement - rotate, stack, and find the perfect spot for your new friend and receive 70% comfort when near them.

Discord Authenticity: Lovingly modeled to bring Discord's signature colours and aesthetic, seamlessly into Rust's universe.

100% Flex: Show the friends and foes you were there for Rust's first-ever Discord store collab.

Head on over to the Rust Game Shop on Discord to get yours!

CORE PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Pool Rewrite

We rely on an internal utility called Pool to recycle objects and avoid allocations - it's vital for avoiding creating pressure on the Garbage Collector. Since it's vital, it's used everywhere thro