What is ☵ HIRAETH Steam Playtest and how to join?
About Steam Playtest
The ☵ HIRAETH GAME Steam Playtest started on December 7, 2023 and was initially a closed test, until December 2024 open and closed again. You can send your willingness to participate at the bottom of this page, it is required to read the information posted and accept it. Active testers who make a significant contribution to the testing and development of the game have a chance to receive a key to the game once it is released in Early Access. We invite you!
Who is the Playtest for?
- To all players who want to help develop HIRAETH and learn its basics
- For streamers and YouTubers who want to create content related to the game. On YouTube, please tag it as HIRAETH and you can send it – I will place it in the appropriate playlist on our channel
- For the press and media – we invite you to also check out our mini PressKit
Is the Playtest Early Access, a full game or a demo?
Absolutely not!As the name suggests, it is only a test that serves to refine the game. Although it contains most of the features developed for the prepared Early Access version, it lacks proper gameplay, graphical refinement, the test Nesoi Island butler is constantly changing, access to weapons and resources is practically unlimited, which makes crafting, which is ready and very rich, somewhat pointless.
However, you can get a foretaste of the game, because practically most of the survival features work: oxygen management, damage and its healing, time, sleeping, dynamic weather and many others.
Target Platforms
According to the description on the Steam game page, the game will eventually support Windows, Linux/Steam OS, and macOS. Currently, playtest only supports Windows.
Playtest Hardware Minimum Requirements
Playtest has much higher requirements than the full game or Early Access will have. Recommended are those that are listed not as minimum but recommended or even above for the full game on Steam. Recommended:
- OS: Windows 10/11 with updates 64-bit version
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
- DirectX: Version 12
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 70 GB available space
- Sound Card: Surround capabilities
- Additional Notes: SSD
Future, target game optimization
Before the game is released, there will be a complete optimization. Currently it is only partial, for example I cannot group multiple objects as an instance, because it makes them harder to edit and extends the work time unnecessarily at this stage. Many textures – where it will not affect their display will be reduced – at the moment many are unnecessarily 8K. The display distance will be set optimally. At the moment, the playtest is also a stress test and I am collecting data sent by you, the playtest participants.
I realize that lower requirements mean a wider audience, but the game uses the latest Unreal Engine solutions such as nanites, World Partition, Ray Tracing and others. First of all, the game is being developed for the next few years and I assume that today’s recommended requirements will soon become available to everyone.
The information on this page will be updated
What problems can you encounter while playing Playtest?
Since the beginning of the playtest, I have had many reports from players – all of them are of course noted and gradually improved. However, some are waiting for their turn, because they require system solutions or are already planned for the next stages of work.
- User Interface:Currently, the UI is temporary, although fully functional. Ultimately, for example, the HUD will be different depending on the EVA Suit used (currently, there is one, the simplest EVA Suit Pilot in the playtest). The same applies to certain button errors, etc. – this will be changed systemically before Early Access;
- FPS Drop in UI:when entering the inventory, you may experience a drop in fps. There are a few reasons – unlike many other games, such as FALLOUT, when entering the menu, the game does not pause. The world continues to work, all calculations run in the background – time, player status – also your oxygen consumption, battery life or health and fatigue, item status, AI or weather. Currently, all UI tabs are also loaded immediately – inventory, crafting, player status and some disabled items, such as statistics. Pause will probably not be disabled, because it is a gameplay plan, but I am optimizing what I can and the problem should disappear soon;
- FPS drop after multiple browsing of chests or inventory: during this time, many widgets with calculations are created and although their cleaning is a task, the engine does not always cope with it. I am working on it, and currently the simple solution is to save the game, go to the main menu and load in the same place – the problem magically disappears! Of course, this is only a solution for now;
- Head Bobbing & Motion Sickness: not everyone is bothered by this, personally not by me, but I understand the problem perfectly! ☵ HIRAETH uses full body awareness, which causes this problem. I am currently working on reducing this problem. I may add a version without Full Body Awareness later, but it will be associated with visual limitations;
- Save / Load: full player and world save has been working for some time, but there are bugs that were not present in previous versions of playtest. For example, after saving, restarting at a selected location may have important items deleted. Current solution – delete the starting save (name is a string of characters) in your saves folder (
C:\Users\YOUR-USER-NAME\AppData\Local\Hiraeth\Saved\SaveGames). I am working on the final solution, many games when you want to start the game again delete all previous entries, which I want to avoid. In addition, in subsequent versions of playtest, previous saves may not be compatible, everything is constantly changing, new data is included in the save, new items appear. Generally, however, it works and helps in exploring areas further from the start. Save does not work in the Training Center, which is heavily scripted and still being developed; In addition, the service is not yet as intuitive as planned and it is better to ask here or on the game’s Discord.
Application form for participation in the ☵ HIRAETH game Steam Playtest
- Participation in Steam Playtest ☵ HIRAETH game is free, we do not charge any fees
- Your data is not shared with other entities
- Sending a request does not guarantee granting access to the playtest
- You will be informed about granting access to the playtest, we will not inform about not granting access. You can ask additional questions on the game’s Discord
- We do not specify a date when access will be granted
- Granted access can be revoked, this does not apply to supporters of the project, for example on Indiegogo, who have VIP Access (they also do not need to report their data here, they receive access automatically)
