Backrooms: Extractions

The voice chat mode setting finally does what it says. Off is really off, Push To Talk really waits for the key, and the volume slider on each player works across its whole range instead of just muting. The Suburbs got their exit gates back too, and the biggest crash of the last update is gone. Voice Chat Input Mode • Off, Open Mic and Push To Talk had no effect once the game was running. Whatever mode was loaded at startup stayed in place and the mic behaved like Open Mic no matter what you picked. The setting now applies the moment you change it. Staying Quiet Actually Works • On Off your voice was not transmitted but still made noise in the world, so a creature could track you through a sentence nobody could hear. It no longer does. Per-Player Volume • The slider had two states, muted at the bottom and full volume everywhere else. It now applies across its whole range. Helmet Voice Meter • The meter could stay lit when you released the key mid-sentence, and it ignored your input mode entirely. Both fixed. Settings Label • The third input mode reused the wrong label. Corrected in every language. The Suburbs Exit Gate Keypads • Pressing keys on a pad often did nothing at all: no s

This build is mostly about performance. A large optimisation pass gave back around 4 ms per frame on the main thread, and our test runs come out about a third faster on the same hardware. Startup failures are fixed as well: a graphics component shipped with the game had drifted out of sync with the engine after its last upgrade, and on some machines it stopped the game from ever reaching the menu. Performance Frame Rate • A large optimisation pass gave back around 4 ms per frame on the main thread, roughly half of what it was spending there. Average frame rate is up about a third across our test runs. Stutter • The hitches that came with it are down by about half. Being chased was one of the heaviest cases, so that is where the difference should show the most. Startup & Stability Startup Failures • The game could close during the intro sequence, or fail to open at all, on machines where a shipped graphics component no longer matched what the engine expects. It is realigned, so the game starts normally again. If you were stuck on this, it is worth another try. Driver Warning • The warning about an out-of-date graphics driver had never actually reached a single player: the window

This one is all stability. The engine upgrade landed, and everything after it went into what was actually cutting sessions short: co-op loading, signal zones, how much data the game sends between players, and gamepad input on the in-world screens. Multiplayer Co-op loading screen • Starting a session with other players left everyone stuck on the loading screen long after the level was ready. The host now confirms readiness as each player arrives, so loading ends when loading is done. Signal zones • Transmitting could be refused from a spot that looked perfectly valid, most often in The Suburbs. Signal zones now line up with what you see, and the Suburbs spots were re-placed where you can actually reach them. Network footprint • Character data and FogHorn recordings sent between players were reworked to put far less on the wire. Sessions hold together better on weaker connections. Controller Terminal screens on gamepad • Confirming on the deployment terminal and the other in-world screens often needed a second press, and D-pad navigation could lock up until it landed. Gamepad confirm now stays a proper key press while a screen is engaged, so the first press always registers and navi

Hey everyone. The last update put a controller in your hands; this one rebuilds the places you use it most. The deployment terminal in the LAB was redesigned from scratch and now handles everything in one place, multiplayer included. The Endless Protocol got a proper identity, from the way it introduces itself down to what happens if the game crashes mid-run. LAB storage was rebuilt to match the tool shop. And nearly every one of these screens was tuned for the Steam Deck: we are working toward full Steam Deck validation, and that work makes the game better on every platform. Your reports keep steering the priorities: the hole in the middle of Level 0, the Partygoer crowds cornering players on Level Fun and the missing jump on gamepad are all fixed below. Keep them coming. Here is everything that changed: Deployment Terminal OverhaulOne board for everything • The LAB deployment terminal was redesigned from scratch: a mission board with your target zone, threat assessment, squad and training in dedicated cards, and your stats in a shop-style header. The old splash screen is gone; you land straight on the board. Multiplayer built in • Browsing, creating and joining squads now happens