Hello, dear Pixelians! 👋
Over the past few months, our main focus has been improving the overall stability especially for players who reported crashes and some of you may remember that we recently opened a separate Crash Reduction Test Branch containing a large number of memory optimizations.
And now, with v1.1.28, those improvements are finally being brought into the public/default version of the game!
But alongside that, we’ve spent time going through several systems in the game, improving save/load reliability, reducing unnecessary CPU work, fixing bugs and addressing a number of smaller edge cases, which I will share all very detailedly below.
Major Performance Improvements
I've already shared some of those details in the previous test branch update log, but below are the details for the record.
Under the same gameplay conditions, internal profiling showed the following results:
Texture Memory: approximately 1.53 GB => 0.68 GB
Graphics Driver Memory: approximately 1.40 GB => 0.55 GB
Total Used Memory: approximately 2.80 GB => 1.93 GB
Overall Runtime Memory Savings: approximately 850–870 MB
This represents approximately:
56% lower texture memory usage
61% lower graphics driver memory usage
31% lower total memory usage
These improvements should be especially useful for laptops and systems using Intel integrated graphics, where the GPU shares the same system memory used by Windows and other applications.
Because of this much lower memory usage, the chances of memory pressure building up during longer sessions should also be significantly reduced.
The main goal here is to improve:
Long-session stability
Performance on lower-memory systems
Stuttering caused by memory pressure
Note: Your system should support at least DirectX 11 in order to properly benefit from these optimizations.
🗺️ NPC & Pathfinding Improvements
There are also additional improvements to NPC movement and pathfinding, which include;
Reduced unnecessary pathfinding work
Improved handling of invalid pathfinding requests
Faster checks for already-open pathfinding nodes
Improved protection against invalid or out of bounds grid positions
Safer handling when required grid data is unavailable
These changes should help reduce unnecessary CPU work, especially during busier simulation periods where multiple NPCs may be moving at the same time.
💾 Save & Load Stability Improvements
Several edge cases were found where failed or interrupted save operations could potentially behave incorrectly.
The system has now been improved with safer file-writing behavior, additional validation, and better error handling.
Among the improvements:
Save files are handled more safely during writes
Backup files are no longer unnecessarily removed before a replacement is ready
Cloud Save state files now use a safer temporary-file workflow
Failed saves are no longer incorrectly reported as successful
Invalid save data is checked before being applied to the game world
Failed load attempts no longer continue through the normal successful-load flow
Additional protections were added for duplicate or invalid saveable objects
These should make saving and loading much more reliable overall.
🐛 Bug Fixes & Tweaks
And of course, there are also plenty of bug fixes in this update! 🐞🛠️
Fixed an issue where negative grid coordinates could cause errors during pathfinding.
Added safer handling for pathfinding requests with invalid starting or destination positions.
Prevented pathfinding from continuing when required grid information is missing or invalid.
Optimized the NPC pathfinding system by reducing unnecessary list sorting during route calculations.
Improved open-node checks in the pathfinding system to reduce unnecessary CPU work.
Fixed an inventory issue that could cause incorrect slot indexes to be accessed on the second and later inventory pages.
Added additional validation for negative or otherwise invalid inventory slot indexes.
Fixed an issue where rapidly interacting with the Jackpot Machine could trigger multiple rounds before the interaction lock was applied.
Fixed an issue where the final image in the Jackpot Machine’s startup animation could never be selected.
Fixed invalid performance percentage calculations when the Concert system attempted to calculate a score before any notes had been processed.
Fixed incorrect score calculations in the Piano minigame when no notes had been played yet.
Fixed several sprite animation issues that could occur when sprite lists were empty or missing.
Added additional protection against invalid sprite indexes in NPC UI animations.
Fixed an event subscription issue that could cause the Academy system to continue receiving day-change events after being disabled.
Fixed potential input errors when using the gamepad cursor on systems without a physical mouse connected.
Fixed incorrect virtual cursor starting positions on certain Canvas configurations and UI scaling setups.
Fixed an issue where previously stored mouse or button states could remain active after the gamepad cursor was re-enabled.
Improved Cloud Save slot-state writes by using a safer temporary-file workflow instead of directly overwriting the existing state file.
Fixed an issue where the game could display a successful save notification even when the save operation had failed.
Improved save and backup file handling to reduce the chance of losing the previous valid save if a write operation fails.
Added additional protection against collection changes, duplicate saveable registrations, and duplicate save GUIDs during save/load operations.
Added additional validation before applying loaded save data to the game world, and prevented failed load attempts from incorrectly continuing through the normal successful-load flow.
Added additional save restrictions during unsafe states such as scene transitions and combat.
Also a Staff Routine Fix :
A smaller but important issue was also found in the Player's Home.
In certain unfurnished homes, a missing tag in our design prevented Household Staff movement from being triggered correctly.
Because of this, Staff members could stop following their expected routine.
This has now been fixed, and Staff movement should properly trigger even when the home does not contain furniture.
What Should You Notice?
The biggest focus has been on making To Pixelia lighter, more stable, and more reliable during longer sessions.
However, the reason I've called this "Behind the Scenes" is because some of these fixes might have been something you have not come across in your playing or have not affected you at all, but might have affected so many others, as these were edge cases.
Also some performance issues were related to devices with specific hardwares, so for those that have been affected will now have smoother gameplay. I believe these optimization improvements should fix the issues for the majority of players who have been experiencing them, if not completely eliminate them in some cases.
And even for those who may still encounter occasional performance problems, this update should at the very least provide a smoother and more stable experience overall.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped test the crash reduction branch, reported crashes, shared logs, provided details about their hardware, or simply took the time to explain what was happening during longer play sessions.
All of that feedback genuinely helped me narrow down the main causes behind these issues and better understand where the biggest problems were coming from.
It has been 6 years since I started this journey, and throughout that time, I’ve continued learning, growing, and improving every day alongside all of you.
As a solo developer, your reports and feedback are incredibly valuable, especially when dealing with technical issues that may only appear on certain hardware configurations or under very specific gameplay conditions.
And there may be still some bugs lurking in the game which I have not come across yet, so your bug reports are crucial to identify them. Once they are identified, you can rest assured that they'll be gone in next few updates. 🤝
I’m hopeful that this update will make the game noticeably more stable and perform better for many of you. 🙌
What's In The Future
Lately, I’ve been focusing primarily on performance improvements and bug fixes. As you may have noticed, updates have been less frequent because I’ve had to dive into some deeper technical issues behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, this has slowed down the development of new features that I had originally hoped to introduce sooner.
My next priorities are improving the Steam Deck experience and bringing the game to additional platforms, as previously promised to the community.
The recent performance work was also an important step toward making that possible, since some platforms require a much higher level of optimization before the game can be properly ported.
And this is the end of our Update Log! 🙂
⭐ If you’re enjoying the game, leaving a review on Steam truly means a lot to us. We read every single one, and it really helps To Pixelia reach more players 😊
Thank you all for your continued patience, feedback, and support, it truly means the world. 💖
We’ll keep the updates coming! 🙌
Join Our Discord ːespressoː
If you do not use Discord, you can check out our Steam Forums for anything that you'd like to share. 😊
-Kaan. ːtabbycatː
