PLAYER UPDATENew Player ModelWe’ve overhauled the player model from the ground up.This includes improved meshes and materials, more realistic proportions on a new rig, expanded head and hair seeds and a much needed pass over almost everything player-related. The old player model has served us well for almost 10 years, but it’s lagged behind the rest of the game for some time. Visually, it was showing its age, but just as importantly it was holding us back from making bigger improvements to characters, animations and implementing future features. Prior attempts to improve the player model has always ended up feeling like band-aid fix, there was only so much we could do while working around the limitations of the old proportions and skeleton. At some point it became clear that the only real way forward was to rip it out and rebuild it properly.Alongside the new base model, we’ve also:Expanded the number of heads in the game, with each head now having unique materials and additional details such as eyelashes and improved eye lighting.Reworked and expanded hairstyles and beards, using new anisotropic shaders to make hair feel more natural.Updated all clothing to work with the new rig and proportions, giving a lot of older assets a much-needed refresh and fixing some long-standing issues.Modernised the art pipeline behind the player model, making future fixes and improvements much easier to ship.Your face will change, but race and gender seeds have been kept intact, so we’re hoping it won’t be too much of a shock for those of you who have grown attached to your random seed over the years. We’ll be continuing to improve on the player model after release, and we also have a player customisation update planned for the future.It’s been a huge amount of work, especially as we’ve been doing it alongside regular development and monthly updates. Performing open-heart surgery on one of the most interconnected parts of Rust, while continuing to ship patches, has certainly come with its challenges.PerformanceWe know “improved visuals” and “additional details” can be worrying to hear when it comes to performance. It’s something we’ve been watching closely throughout development. Alongside the visual improvements, we’ve also done a deeper pass on our tooling and pipelines, which has allowed us to make optimisations we couldn’t make with the old setup.Our internal metrics are looking positive so far, and we’ll continue to monitor performance closely after release.BALLISTIC ARMOURFor the first time in a very long time, we're adding a new top-tier armour set to Rust.The Ballistic Armour set offers increased protection over existing craftable alternatives, but there's a catch. It cannot be crafted. If you want your hands on it, you'll need to find it. This armour is comparable to existing metal armour with plates. We're also introducing the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). Like the Ballistic Armour, the BDU is loot-only and cannot be crafted. It offers slightly improved protection over existing clothing options, while making a few trade-offs elsewhere.Both sets are intended to expand late-game gear progression and create more valuable loot opportunities. If you're looking for the best equipment available, you'll need to get out there and fight for it.NEW WEAPON: M16A2The M16A2 is a military-grade rifle found through end-end loot and cannot be crafted. Designed around a three-round burst fire mode, it offers excellent accuracy and a high rate of fire, making it particularly effective at medium-range engagements.To help balance the burst damage potential, the M16A2 deals less damage per shot compared to the LR-300.Like the Ballistic Armour and BDU, the M16A2 is another valuable loot-only item you'll need to get out into the world and fight for. You'll see a theme here. PSA: PERFORMANCE ISSUE WITH HIGH POLLING RATEThe Unity 6 update changed how mouse inputs are processed. High polling rate mice (1000Hz+) are now causing significant CPU overhead issues and frame drops.Lower your mouse polling rate to