[EXPERIMENTAL] v2026.8.2

*NOTE: This version is only available on the EXPERIMENTAL game version/beta. You manually need to switch to it in Steam. Right Click on Fireworks Mania -> Properties -> Game Versions & Betas -> "Experimental". To go back to the normal version, change it to "Default Public Version".*

*Please note that this is work-in-progress stuff. There might be bugs, features might never end up in the real version of the game and things might be a little odd.

However, I share this version as I need your feedback to help me shape the game - thanks for taking your time helping shape the game 🤓*

### Added

• Sounds are now muffled when something is between you and them, and it tells the difference between being inside and outside. Stand behind a house out in the street and the show mostly just gets quieter while keeping its thump; step indoors and it goes dull, like it is coming through the wall. Both can be turned off under Settings -> Audio
• The Workshop has a new "Recently updated" row, so you can spot mods that just got a new version. It replaces the old "Recent" row, and brand new mods still turn up there

### Changed

• Other players' voices now muffle through that same system, so a wall between you finally sounds like it, and a lamp post no longer muffles someone the way a house does
• Voice chat is a bit louder across the board, as it was easy to lose under a show
• On a controller, the menu actions moved off the sticks and onto the face buttons - starting a game is now a button you hold for a moment, and the prompt on it shows you which one. The button row along the bottom is centered now too
• The Dynamic Performance Scaling indicator in the top left corner is now a readable list instead of an icon nobody could read. It names each thing the game can turn down, and what it is turning down right now goes red, so you can see exactly what is being given up to keep your framerate
• The mod list when you create a game has rows twice as tall, so the mod pictures are big enough to actually tell the mods apart
• Mods you have turned on in that list now get a gold marker down the side of the row, so you can see what is on while scrolling instead of hunting for the little checkmark
• That gold marker is now used all over the menus - the character you are using, the blueprint you picked, the server you selected - and everything you can pick out of a list lights up as you move over it, which most of it simply did not do before
• The mod list when you create a game also performs a lot better, especially if you have a lot of mods
• The featured mods at the top of the Workshop take up a lot less room now, so you get to the rest of the mod list without scrolling past them first
• The Workshop is better at getting mod pictures loaded if your connection is shaky, or if something like antivirus or a school or work network sits in between

### Fixed

• Fixed the game slowly losing framerate the longer you play with mods installed. Every modded firework you set off left a little of itself behind and it piled up over a session - this is the one a lot of you have been reporting for years
• Fixed crouching in first person leaving your view up at standing height instead of dropping with you. Holding a tool happened to make it work, which is why it came and went
• Fixed your character's head lying over on its side while flying fast or crouching. There are still some issues with the head when flying, but flying is gonna be replaced by a drone mode, so I'm not gonna spend more time on it
• Fixed your character craning its head right back with its chin buried in its chest while crouching. Your head now only looks as far up as a neck actually goes, and still tilts up to meet someone standing over you
• Fixed characters from mods bumping into things at completely the wrong size - a 0.9m character walked around in a 2.5m collision shape, so it couldn't get under things it obviously fits under
• Fixed a lit fuse getting dragged up into the sky with the rocket it was burning towards. The burning end now stays where it was lit
• Fixed fuse connections burning through way faster than the fuse type you picked whenever the two fireworks moved about - a rocking rack could take a slow fuse down to a fraction of its time, so the timing you built was not the timing you got
• Fixed a firework now and then sitting out its whole fuse time when a fuse connection reached it, instead of going off right away. It only happened when you play with others
• Fixed shells spinning round and round on their way down a mortar tube when you dropped them in turned to one side. They now just straighten up and slide in, easiest to spot on the long ones
• Fixed the green ghost and the shell snapping going away on a mortar tube once you had fired it, so every tube you used went dead for the rest of the map
• Fixed what you are holding - the see-through preview of a firework, or anything picked up with the Physics Tool - not turning with you when you glance to the side without walking
• Fixed a small stutter the first time each firework sound plays in a map, most likely to notice once a big modded show gets going
• Fixed sounds jumping to somewhere else mid-way through during a busy show - a fountain or a whistle could suddenly sound like it came from across the map
• Fixed chat and voice dropping out at the start of a game you host and having to reconnect themselves. That usually covered the first player turning up, so whatever they said on arrival went nowhere
• Fixed the Workshop leaving mod pictures stuck loading forever and mods stuck on "Downloading". A download that fails now gives up straight away and gets another go, instead of that mod staying broken until you restart the game
• Fixed the main menu flashing the still background picture for half a second every time you start the game, before the video cut in over the top of it. It now fades up instead
• Fixed more of the memory the game held onto as you played - going between the menu and a map left about 47 MB behind every single time, and the friends list kept a fresh copy of every friend's picture each time it updated

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• Happy testing, enjoy! 🤓🕺

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/