All Serious Sam Games Getting Upgraded to Vulcan API

Croteam are still hard at work on Serious Sam 4, with a dedicated team working to make that game the next big adventure in the series. There’s also two smaller VR teams, both working on related Serious Sam VR projects, which we’re eager to see in the near future too.

However, the developers are also working on improvements for all Series Sam games, including ones that have previously been released, stripping them of DirectX 9 and replacing that with the newer Vulkan API. This is a huge deal for fans of the series, or even those that have yet to play them. The new API will support better-multithreaded rendering, split-screen, better physics, texture streaming and more. All of this will come in the Serious Sam Fusion 2017 Update, which will start with updating First Encounter, then work through the series in order. This update will also see people with the normal game able to play against those in the VR experience, so that should be interesting!

• All games now support SteamOS/Linux/OSX!
• Split-screen!
• 64bit executables
• Support for Vulkan API (DirectX9 is now being removed; so long and thanks for all the bugs)
• Multithreaded rendering
• The new “lightweight” savegame system; savegames are now saved much faster, are very small and stored in the Steam cloud, and savegames still work even if a level is changed in a patch, or if a mod is updated
• Full support for all controllers including Steam controller, PS4 gamepads, all older DInput joysticks
• Proper multimonitor support
• Borderless window support
• Customizable sound outputs
• Proper 3D audio using a proprietary sound-mixer (the same approach as used in the old Classics games)
• Improved physics engine with better handling of character movement
• Texture streaming in all games
• Much better modding support with customizable weapons and items, improved scripting (including better support for scripting networked games)
• Lots of other improvements, optimizations and fixes