OVERHAUL DEVLOG #1

HELLO

I am Akif Akdemir , the solo developer of Caravanners.

I developed the Early Access version of Caravanners over the course of 1.5 years. The game was released in Early Access on October 31, 2025, and it has now been in Early Access for 3.5 months.

Taking your feedback into account, I published 8 updates within the first 1.5 months after release.

After 1.5 years of intense solo development, working day and night, followed by a very busy first 1.5 months of post-release updates, I reached a point where I needed physical and mental rest. Throughout December, I focused solely on resting and reflecting.

Month 1 – November: Released multiple updates. Month 2 – December: Took time to rest. Month 3 – January: Returned to development with full intensity.

What am I working on right now?

I am currently rebuilding Caravanners from the ground up.

MAP REWORK

I am recreating the entire map from scratch. The new map will be more modern, better optimized, higher quality, more detailed, and built with longterm sustainability in mind. The improved optimization of the new map also enhances the multiplayer experience.

Why not just improve the existing map? Why build a new one?

Yes, adding improvements to the existing map would have been easier in the short term. However, due to optimization issues caused by the game engine, rebuilding the map became the only viable long-term solution even though it represents a major loss of time and financial cost for me. The current map was built using Unreal Engine’s World Partition system in order to optimize a large open world. World Partition improves performance by streaming distant objects in and out based on region. However, about two months before Early Access release, serious optimization issues began to appear. I was forced to apply temporary fixes just to keep things playable, but those solutions were not sustainable. At one point, even adding a few trees to the map would cause a 5–10 FPS drop. Due to issues within the World Partition system, the game became CPU bound instead of GPU bound . Even with an RTX 5090, the maximum FPS was around 80. Removing the city and trees entirely did not fix the issue. This problem stems from engine level limitations/bugs. The worst part is that World Partition maps cannot simply be duplicated or converted easily rebuilding from scratch is required.

In short, it became a dead end. While trying to solve World Partition related problems, the project was delayed and player feedback began to increase. It took me over two months to fully understand that the issue was fundamentally unsolvable in a sustainable way. During the time I should have been enriching and expanding the map, I was forced to fight technical limitations instead. Additionally, World Partition created multiple complications in multiplayer gameplay and the save system. This cost me significant development time. After release, I made the decision to rebuild the map entirely. Through this process, I gained major technical experience. The new map will not use the World Partition system, and it will not suffer from the same optimization problems.

I am currently designing a brand new city.

It will have a Beach City atmosphere , with a warm, slightly Miami inspired vibe a more positive, vibrant feeling. The new city will be larger, more detailed, and built with better performance and scalability in mind. The city images below are captured directly from the in game engine. No AI was used.

MODELLING

I am modeling all the buildings and every other asset in the city from scratch. During the modeling process, I am paying close attention to GPU cost and overall performance efficiency.

DETAILED ENVIRONMENT PROPS

While rebuilding the environment design, I am focusing on creating a greater number and wider variety of environmental assets. This allows us to achieve a richer and more immersive world design.

TEXTURE QUALITY

In the new map, I am preparing more diverse and higher resolution environmental textures.

In the previous version, texture resolution and variety were limited due to World Partition related optimization issues. In the new version, higher resolution textures will significantly increase the level of visual detail.

UPSCALING METHODS ADDED

Frame generation and upscaling methods are now supported in Caravanners for both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. With frame generation enabled, I observed performance increases reaching up to 350–500 FPS. With DLSS or FSR, depending on the system specifications, I observed gains of approximately 20–50 FPS. These tests were conducted on five different PC hardware configurations.

For an open world game, this represents a significant performance improvement. However, my priority is still to achieve strong native performance without relying on any upscaling methods.

The current version of the map is being tested periodically on systems equipped with the following GPUs: NVIDIA GTX 1050, AMD RX 570, RTX 3060, RTX 3080, and RTX 5090.

Forest, biome, and foliage rework.

As I mentioned before, I am rebuilding the forests to be more modern, more detailed, and better optimized. Compared to the current map, the forests in the new map are more diverse and richer in detail. With denser trees and vegetation, the natural environment feels more immersive and enjoyable.

Conclusion

I am currently continuing development at full intensity. I have decided to approach Caravanners from the ground up in every aspect. Naturally, this is a time consuming process.

Creating a brand-new map, designing and modeling the city, rebuilding the lighting system, reworking biomes, and fundamentally restructuring the optimization process all require significant effort and time.

And it’s not limited to that. Many other elements will also be renewed, including new caravans, the tutorial system, missions, menus, and the save system .

For this reason, during this intense development period, I am fully focused on improving the game. If I am quiet in the Steam discussions at times, please do not assume that I have abandoned the game or stopped development. On the contrary, I am continuing to work with great determination and dedication.

New devlogs are coming soon.

Thank you for your support!