Stratum v16-indev.4 is out

Stratum v16-indev.4 is now available.

This is still an indev build, so please treat it like one: test it first, keep backups, and do not throw it onto an important server without knowing how to roll back. That said, this is a pretty meaningful update. It includes install/release cleanup, more performance work, a handful of compatibility fixes, and some nice quality-of-life additions for server owners.

Download v16-indev.4

Thanks

A big thank you to everyone who worked on this release:

• @Zaldaryon
• @tehtelev
• @trevorftp

This release has a lot of small but important work in it, and it is genuinely nice seeing Stratum become less of a one-person pile of patches and more of an actual project people are helping shape.

For server owners

The biggest thing to know is that Stratum’s install/release flow has been reworked.

Release zips now contain the Stratum launcher and patched managed files, instead of packaging a full official Vintage Story server folder. The bootstrap scripts now resolve official archives through Anego’s manifest and verify checksums as part of setup.

There are also a few fixes that should make real servers behave better:

• Sidecar configs now load correctly even when starting from a fresh stratum.json.
• Mod-owned Harmony patches can now be logged at startup, which should make compatibility issues easier to track down.
• Entity tick throttling now excludes configured mod domains, with vsvillage excluded by default.
• Scheduled chat announcements were added, giving servers a simple built-in way to rotate messages.

Performance work

There is more optimization work in this build too.

Some of it is small allocation cleanup, some of it is worldgen-related, and some of it is focused on keeping server behavior smoother under heavier loads.

Notable pieces include:

• Improved multithreaded performance for chunk generation.
• Reduced allocations in container stack lookups.
• A faster prospecting pick ore-bearing check by avoiding unnecessary HashSet rebuilding.
• Microblock storage memory optimization.
• Fixes around Windows tick timing and fallback sleep behavior.

That kind of work is not always flashy, but it adds up. Stratum is very much still in the phase where a lot of wins come from removing the weird little costs Vanilla servers pay thousands of times.

Developer and debugging notes

This release also adds better visibility around Harmony patching from other mods.

That does not block or police mods. It just gives server owners and contributors a clearer view of which mods are patching what, especially when a compatibility issue only shows up after Stratum changes the shape of a vanilla method.

For an indev project that touches a lot of game internals, this kind of boring diagnostic work matters a lot.

Full changelog

What’s changed

• Pool container content-stacks lists instead of allocating per call by @Zaldaryon in #154
• Exclude mod-domain entities from tick throttling by @Zaldaryon in #156
• Fixed issue with Windows timer overshooting with Sleep() by @trevorftp in #155
• Add scheduled chat announcements by @Zaldaryon in #157
• Fix physics worker thread kept alive by @trevorftp in #158
• Load sidecar configs even on a fresh stratum.json by @Zaldaryon in #159
• Improved multithreaded performance of the chunk generator by @tehtelev in #161
• Skip HashSet rebuild in prospecting pick ore-bearing check by @Zaldaryon in #160
• Log mod-owned Harmony patches at startup by @Zaldaryon in #162
• Minor changes to StratumPregenManager by @tehtelev in #163
• Restore BlockPatch.cs.patch dropped in dfe165b by @Zaldaryon in #164
• Refactored and rewrote how Stratum installs by @trevorftp in #165
• Optimization of the microblock storage structure in memory by @tehtelev in #166

Full changelog: v1.22.3-stratum.16-indev.3…v1.22.3-stratum.16-indev.4