Big Bad Pharma V1.2.0 patch notes — Big Bad Pharma News

This is the big one I promised on the crash thread. V1.1.7 helped smaller machines get further; this patch is built around actually getting an 8 GB laptop with integrated graphics from the desktop to the shop floor and keeping it there, plus the two things I have been putting off for weeks: custom key bindings and a proper Steam Deck pass. I have also owned up below to the bits that still need your reports.

🌱 The game no longer loads the whole shop behind the title screen. This was the real cause of the 8 GB crashes. Before, the title menu sat on top of the entire pharmacy, all 12,792 items and 682 sections, already loaded at the engine's default Epic settings, and only then dropped to your chosen quality. On my machine that was 4.9 GB committed before you had pressed a button. The game now starts on a tiny menu level: the title screen appears in about four seconds and sits at roughly 2.8 GB, and nothing about the shop exists until you press CONTINUE or NEW GAME. QUIT TO MENU and the end of a shift go back to that small level too, so memory drops again between runs. Settings work fully on the boot screen, presets and the Advanced rows included.

🌱 The shop went on a diet. Low really is Low now. Virtual shadow maps were still running at Low and Medium because a project setting outranked the scalability file (about 600 MB); the Nanite streaming pool is halved; 107 dispensary label textures were stored uncompressed with no mipmaps (690 MB on their own) and are now compressed and streamed; the 682 shelf-label widgets stop ticking when you cannot see them; the autosave and the lost-item sweep are spread over several frames instead of stalling one, so the periodic hitch every two minutes should be gone. Measured on a fresh install at 1280x720, Low: shop floor about 3.9 GB committed after five minutes, down from about 5 GB.

🌱 DirectX 11 launch option. In DX11 the game has no Nanite, no Lumen and no virtual shadows, and it runs at about a third of the memory: 1.1 GB on the shop floor against 3.9 GB in DX12. If you are on an 8 GB machine or integrated graphics, this is the mode to use. It is now a proper launch option in Steam (right-click the game, Play, "DirectX 11 compatibility"), so you no longer need to type -dx11 yourself. Fresh installs also start at Low instead of Epic.

🌱 Custom key bindings. Settings, Controls: every gameplay action now has a keyboard/mouse button and a controller button you can click and rebind: pick up, drop/throw, cycle held items both ways, held list, catalogue, the four abilities, crouch and pause. Press ESC or B while it is waiting to cancel. If you bind a key that another action already uses, that action gives it up and shows UNBOUND in amber so you can see what you broke. RESET TO DEFAULTS puts everything back. Bindings are saved alongside your other settings, and the on-screen hints read your bindings rather than assuming defaults. Move, look and jump stay on WASD / Space / the sticks and A.

🌱 Steam Deck. The game now detects a handheld (Deck, or any 1280x800 screen) and, on first boot only, picks a DECK preset: Low with readable labels, 1280x800 borderless, 60 fps cap with a new 40 fps button for battery, 85% resolution scale, v-sync on, motion blur off. There is a DECK button in the Graphics tab so you can get back to it after experimenting. The Settings window is shorter so it fits inside 800 pixels; the end-of-shift screen scales itself to fit a 16:10 screen instead of losing its right-hand column; the smallest text in the upgrade computer, the SoundBox, the HUD and the catalogue has been enlarged; menus trap pad focus so pressing Down at the bottom of Settings no longer falls through to the menu behind it; and the game pauses itself when the Deck goes to sleep or you switch away, then hands focus back to the menu when you return.

🌱 Crash reports arrive now. The crash window in V1.1.6 and V1.1.7 had nowhere to send to, so its Send button failed. It now goes to a real collection service. If you crash, please press Send: I get the report with the call stack, and that is worth more than any amount of guessing.

🌱 Small things you asked for. The Sort Items ability's upgrades now actually do something: from tier 2 the shelf your item belongs on lights up as well as the arrow. Magnet Grab's reach grows 1.5 m per tier and the upgrade computer says so. The upgrade text saying "-5 s per tier" now says the real -12 s. The lost-item sweep that reset everything on the floor when 50 items were left (and scattered people's sorting piles) only does that unconditional reset at three items or fewer; otherwise it only rescues items that are genuinely lost.

🟠 What still needs you. I can measure memory but I do not own an 8 GB laptop or a Deck, so the numbers above are mine and the verdict is yours. If it still crashes: Low, then the DirectX 11 launch option, then send the crash report when the window appears. The text size at 1280x800 is better but some captions are still small; that is a design pass for a later patch. The rebinding screen was tested with keyboard and mouse; the controller column should behave the same but I want to hear from pad players. Deck-specific glyphs (ABXY pictures rather than letters) are not in yet.

Known issues still being worked on

🟠 Button glyph pictures (Xbox / Deck artwork) instead of letters in the Controls tab.
🟠 A few design-size-12 captions are still under 10 px tall on a Deck screen.
🟠 The Steam Input default profile on the store side must be "Gamepad" for a pad to reach the game as a pad; I have set it but tell me if the Deck still treats it as a keyboard.

This announcement was written and published by the developers/publisher of Big Bad Pharma on Steam; it is mirrored here unedited for readability, with full credit and a link to the original above. © the respective rights holders. Rights holder and want it removed? Email us — we take it down promptly.