Dev Blog #8: Nitrox 1.8

Hello everyone! We hope you all have been doing well, and that you remember to hydrate in the summer heat. Today we have some big news, and we also want to share some of the things you can look forward to with the upcoming Nitrox 1.8 update, so let’s just dive right in.

The most asked question everyone has is: When will the next Nitrox update come out?!

While we do not have an exact date quite yet. We can however say that it will be released in the next couple of weeks. There is still some bits and pieces left to do, most of it is to make sure that everything works to the degree we feel like is acceptable. This update has been a massive undertaking, and we have been working on this update for around two years now.

We all work on Nitrox in our free time, when we have the extra energy to do so. Nitrox is an open source project, and will always be an open source project where the focus will be on those involved to take care of themselves. This is part of why the Nitrox project might be progressing a bit slower then what you might be used to from other mods. So we are sorry it took so long.

Subnautica 2.0 & Nitrox

As you probably know, Subnautica received a large update, commonly known as “Subnautica 2.0”. This update made incompatible with Nitrox. This update included what you most likely thought was the most interesting, the “Large room”, “Glass dome” and the “Large room divider wall”. For the players that would make it possible to make a more creative way to live together in the game and be able to get more space to decorate and put up as many plant walls as the hull could handle.

For Nitrox however, it was a whole other story. The changes to the engine meant that we essentially had to start from scratch (again). This time however, we were going to do it in a way that would make it much easier to work with in the future. Going over the code, rewriting as well as writing brand new code. While doing so we also created better internal documentation so that we will have a easier time in the future to work with Nitrox. Being able to catch up on a specific subject or function for sure will make it easier to figure things out.

Tens of thousands of lines of codes were added or removed just to make it all work again. Optimizing the code was of the highest priority, making sure we make Nitrox run as smoothly and efficiently as we could while also adding some new features both for the players and for the developers.

Now you know a bit about what has been going on with Nitrox, and why this update has been taking as long as it has. So without any further delays, let us talk about the update, and what we have in store for you with Nitrox 1.8.

Sharing is caring

There sure is a lot of you who have become deeply invested in Subnautica and the Nitrox project. You come from all walks of life, but also from all kinds of different operating systems, be that MacOS, Linux or Windows PC’s. Having the ability to play with your friends across the different operating systems is a request a lot of you have had over the years. And we never really had the chance to prioritize that before now with the massive rewrite. With that said, we are happily announcing that Nitrox 1.8 will launch with compatibility with Linux (.NET 9.0), however this is still a in-progress work, and it might have some issues compared to the full compatibility with Windows (10, 11).

As you probably noticed, MacOS was not included in the list of compatible operating systems. But fear not! We are actively working on it, and it will likely launch with a smaller update after Nitrox 1.8 has been launched.

Of course, it is great that Nitrox works across different OS systems, but would it not be greater still if we also got it working with the different storefronts? Sure would! So we did that too and made Nitrox work with Epic Games, Steam and the Microsoft Store version of Subnautica. This also comes with the benefit of cross-platform compatibility. Meaning you can be on any of those two operating systems and have bought the game on any of those storefronts and still be able to play with all of your friends.

Build’em up, break’em down

Building in Nitrox has always been a bit finicky. It has very much been a Frankenstein’s monster of adding more and more glue, tape and stapling it together as a finish. The more updates Subnautica got over the years, the more we had to tape it together. To say that the building system in the currently released Nitrox 1.7 version is a bit impractical would be kind. It relies on things like the rotation of the places building pieces, so that there is technically a “wrong” way to place them. This is part of what leads to the red “ghost” buildings you might have encountered when loading back into a server.

To fix this issue, we spent a significant amount of time rebuilding it. Doing this made it possible for us to really dig into it to make it more reliable, robust and adaptive to make it a whole lot easier to work with. What it means for you as a player, is that you no longer have to fear that because you built one piece of your base the “wrong” way, that it will leave “ghosts” or in the worse case, corrupt your save making you have to start all over again.

The stories that are told

As you might have noticed, the way Nitrox handles the story is a bit rough. Syncing the story and making sure it is persistent between the players and the game itself has been a tough task. Fixing the issues it has meant that we had to create a new story sync system. This allowed us to sync up the different pieces of the story between the players so that you can now explore the mysterious water world of planet 4546B – Together

The living world

Exploring a watery planet with a friend and building habitats is of course not everything the planet has to offer. It also has plant-life which you can plant and harvest. But it also has aquatic creatures you can capture and create a delicious meals out of. Nitrox 1.7 and previous version has had a bit of a lack of the dangerous variety. Working on these creatures means that you will now be able to encounter some dangerous creatures. Like the Reaper Leviathan, Ghost Leviathan (except the ones that spawn in the void), Sea Dragons and the maybe not quite so dangerous Sea Treader Leviathans. We focused mainly on syncing their behavior related to the player(s), the Seamoth and the Cyclops. This means that you might need to be a bit more aware of where you travel with your Cyclops and where you park it.

Things to look forward to

• Compatibility with the most recent “Subnautica 2.0” update
• Windows & Linux compatibility
• Cross-play between Epic Games, Steam & Windows Store
• Controller support
• A much better building system – Ghost-be-gone
• Leviathan sync
• More animation sync – footsteps, infection, skybox/clouds, Geyser eruptions, radiation leaks and more
• Added server commands to trigger Sunbeam and Aurora events in the Nitrox chat
• Improvements to the Cyclops submarine (No more yeeting into outer space)

There is of course, much, much more that has been worked on. But it is a lot more technical that is more suited for a whole Dev Blog post in itself. All the changes will as usual be listed in the patch notes that comes bundled in Nitrox when you download it.

Don’t forget, we are on Bluesky! And with the release of the update we will be more active there and also announce it there. So make sure to follow us there!

We also have a Discord server, so if you want to hang out with us or have any questions you can head over here: Discord

– The Nitrox Team

A special thanks

We would like to take a bit of time to acknowledge the hard work of the developers. Creating something like Nitrox, a multiplayer mod for a game that is not at all made for multiplayer is a daunting task. But our community of developers have time and time again been pitching in whenever they had time they could have been spending with their family, loved ones or just taken time for themselves. I am sure we are all in agreement that we should all thank them for their work. So, thank you so much for your years of donated free time and your particular skill-set. It has been a long journey, and we hope you all are proud of what you have made together.