Massive Vein 0.021 Update Adds New Zombie Behavior, Improved Performance, & More

Today, Ramjet Studios released another relevant update for its 3D zombie survival FPS Vein.

Vein update 0.021 brings numerous new changes, including new zombie behavior, improved lighting, and performance enhancements, as well as several new server browser features and more. Since this update serves as the largest patch for the game yet, saves from previous updates will be incompatible, as it contains numerous future-proofing steps.

You can take a look at the full list of patch notes for Vein 0.021 and the official video below. It is also important to note that Ramjet Studios will be releasing future updates in the form of a dev blog from here on out.

Early Access map progress
Increase heating range for campfires/fireplaces
You can now use grenades outside of the inventory
New skin tone/face presets
Better system node/item networking
Add 5.7x28mm ammo type
Ore, trees etc. now display hover text correctly indicating how to use them
Calendar event system
You can get tetanus if unvaccinated and walking on piles of rubble barefoot
Feet damage/embedded metal and glass for walking on piles of rubble barefoot
.45 ACP, .38 Special textures
Trash bags can now be emptied like garbage cans
Added Allow Pickpocketing setting
Added Hide Code Locks setting (for streamers)
Increase max zoom level for maps
Add search bar to construction menu
Add improved pickaxe item
You can now transfer fluid between containers in your inventory by dragging and dropping onto each other
Increase capacity of workbenches, campfires, etc.
Rewritten save game system
Add UN Fifty-Seven pistol
Barbed wire fences now fuck you up if you try climbing over them
Lower main menu train volume
Telemetry opt-in/out in Vein main menu and game settings
Add seizure warning
Better damaged vehicle engine particle effect
Better smoke effects across the map in general
Better forge smoke effect
Corrected bug at high elevations resulting in incorrect temperatures around fireplaces and fires
Fix fireplaces being called campfires
Refactored flashlight system; added Helmet w/ Headlamp item
Improved cloud shadowing
Add military zombies, clothing
New military backpack art
On-screen damage indicator when you take damage (blood splash)
On-screen hypothermia indicator
Add Offline Raiding setting (prevents base raiding if you are offline)
Zombies are able to go unconscious
Add taser weapon
Rewrite a bunch of fluid tank code, can now wire anything to any fluid provider (wells, generators, whatever stores fluid)
Corrected a lot of visual errors with the sky and lighting
Modified weather seed so day 1 starts off somewhat clear
Fix doors being unlocked backward in some locations (e.g. double doors)
Fix dartboard placement being incorrect
Fix frostbite occurring way more frequently than it should have
Food cutting recipes (ability to slice pizza, bread, vegetables, whatever)
Fix pain not being removed from condition list at zero
If your map is not working, pressing M will give you a specific reason instead of a generic ‘cant open’ reason
Player indicator on the map uses vehicle angle if you’re in one
Fridges are now movable
Fix being able to pour fluids into gas pumps and beer taps somehow
Fix insulin spawning in unrefrigerated cupboards
You can now drink directly from bodies of water (rivers, lakes, swamps if you are so inclined)
Fix tarps having wood break sound when destroyed
Fix trash bags giving you cardboard when destroyed
New server browser tab, servers tell you their settings + can have a description/MOTD
Fox now makes fox sounds and not dog barks
TV can now display camera feeds (not yet in demo)
Add police uniform, police zombies, correctional officer uniform, prison uniform
Add put similar button – if you are looking at an inventory with stuff in it, this will store all the item types already in that inventory
Smoother vehicle camera algorithm
Improve persistent corpse system performance
Fix ice machine not freezing stuff
Thermometers inside fridges and freezers will display the correct temperature now
Restrict max FOV to 105
You can respawn at beds you’ve slept in instantly in singleplayer
Add low poly background landscape so the landscape is never full of holes/unloaded
Add option to submit save file with feedback
AI spawnpoint system – AI should now be able to spawn in interiors easier
Fix warehouse boxes, plastic totes having the wrong search sound
Fix some damage not applying
Add interior soundscapes, reverb settings
Add build info to experimental branch watermark
New impact/bullet impact effects
Add starred items system: mark items as being important to you, they will bubble to the top of inventories (e.g. ammo, weapons, rare things, …)
Add “hand” grenade
Add sounds when bodies impact the floor
New music, thanks Remancer!
Fix item instances not respawning properly
Fix grease cleaner not decaying
Thirst and hunger now show on the HUD if they’re very positive
Fix van deformation popping in
Fix sprint zoom applying when flying
Add some new collectible video discs (just vein devlogs, nothing fun)
Code lock requirements for install/removal reduced to 5 electricity
Add zombies, animals to admin seeall
Slightly better turn animations
Add RemoveAllVehicleParts cheat
Prevent vehicles interpenetrating in multiplayer – should reduce fatality of car crashes
Fix vehicle keys not appearing in containers if the game has been loaded from a save
More logs for server hosts (player using stuff, etc)
Rewrote moving furniture, should fix issues with moving objects e.g. turning off lights or changing the object
Fix bug when supplying different gas types to a large natural gas tank
Bump up natural gas tank quantities
Fix item icons jittering in inventory in multiplayer
Rewrote backpacked weapons (should prevent pistols on your hip sticking after you unequip the item)
Allow some console commands to be used on the client
Fix description of cooked spaghetti
Add hydraulic tool type (unused in demo)
Disable instanced stereo (should allow some ultra low spec players to launch the game)
Reduce network load from using items, ladders, dropping items, zombies, switches
Fix car keys not spawning in houses in multiplayer
Interior fog should go away when you go inside a building
Prevent long-decaying items (like toothpaste) possibly starting rotten in containers
Fix clothing not reflecting its color immediately when being selected in an inventory
Fix camera sometimes going through the floor when sitting in a chair
Fix some stuff being placed on walls incorrectly
Pillows, tvs should fall to the ground when you destroy the shelves/couches they’re on
Sirens no longer work without a battery
Pet photo update
M620 truck is now recolorable/has colors
Fix other players loading the area around them on your PC
Add PowerAllElectronicSystemNodes cheat
Fix some misc. saving/loading issues
Change “is on” to “switched on” for electronic items in the inventory
Add vein.ItemActorSpawner.MinimumWorldTime cvar
Fix item spawners doing strange respawning behavior
Fix stoves functioning as a generator
Better vehicle networking
Fix join notifications popping up in character creation
Speed up actor partition system
Redo how vehicles save
Fix check ammo animation not playing for weapons with no real check ammo animation
Rewrite how ingame map works – should now work on different UI scales
Tweak turn in place animation to not be too jarring
Fix decals, sprays, blood not always aligning/rendering properly on surfaces
Add RefreshAllDecals cheat
Fix placement of hand grenade
Add barbed wire buildable to secure fences
Fix saves “leaking” between each other when you load another save from ingame
Update map background
Add back sun and moonlight bloom
Fix apples being thrown crazy hard
Fix stars being really low resolution
Fix explosive box mesh not being easily selected
Fix being able to pour past capacity into fluid tanks, losing the fluid you poured
Electronics now break after you’re 80% wet, instead of instantly when you go underwater
Fix building colors not saving
Fix train colors not saving
Better foot/arm item art
Fix some camera positionings for larger vehicles
Spawn tweaks – animals spawn less frequently
Fix animals spawning in caves
Fix shoving animation not playing when hosting a server
Add waterproof headlamp helmet
Fix flashlight, map being weird when you have multiple of the same type equipped (eg. GPS + cell phone equipped causes map inconsistency)
Fix alarms going off every time the door is opened
Add PowerUp cheat (makes whatever you’re looking at a generator)
Fix broken bottles not being able to be made with whisky or gin
Fix desync drastically
Fix bodybag desync
Fix clients on servers not smelling anything
Fix using grenade when not in inventory being silent
Add fire empty sounds to all weapons
Increase scale of tadellini cobra, fix feet through the bottom
Add cameras to school
Add alarms across the entire map
Some experimental indoors zombie spawning
Fix selecting a haircut for someone else and the haircut sticking on them as they run away
Prevent weather from appearing underground
Low shadow quality preset now supports distance field shadowing
Improved zombie pathfinding and navigation significantly
Add rich presence to Steam for both player groups and locations
Fix vehicle crash when flying around/moving at high speed
Firearms are now twice as audible to zombies; add vein.Firearms.AISoundMultiplier in case we were too aggressive
Zombies now get fall damage
Fix zombies getting locked in climb animation loops over fences
Fix memory leak related to item nameplates
Master volume now defaults to 50%
Visual quality now defaults to High instead of Ultra
Renamed ‘RemoveAllItems’ to ‘RemoveAllMyItems’, added ‘RemoveAllItems’ to remove all dropped items
You can now just click on a notification to dismiss it
Kerosene heater now works like any other fluid tank (can drink from it, wire it etc)
Soundscape improvements across the board
Steam rich presence integration
Correct some power desync bugs
Fix fridge, broadcast radio facing away from you when being moved
Seed items now tell you what planter slots they fit into
Fix blinds appearing black/burnt
Make soundscapes blend more smoothly
Increase the car horn radius & zombie attraction radius
Fix big hitch when pinning/unpinning a recipe
If you can’t move/destroy furniture due to a nearby utility cabinet, we now tell you instead of hiding the option
Examine Connections now uses the icon for the type of thing you’re looking at
Fix distant sky fog glowing/being ugly at night/dawn/dusk
Consuming water from a sink/etc. hooked up to a fluid tank will consume from the tank directly
Fireplaces now have an estimated time remaining readout based on the fuel currently loaded in them
Inventory search query persists between opening and closing the UI
Rewrote chair exit algorithm: prevents vehicle from flinging away when exiting it when it’s pressed against a wall
Fix needing a lighter to extinguish a candle
Resynced movement animations to footsteps
Save games now save mostly asynchronously
Added a notification when autosaves occur
Rewrote furniture, buildable placement algorithm to better fit things snugly in tight spaces
Fix basketball hoop being sideways
Fix typoes in foot infection conditions
Add vehicle headlight textures to vehicles
Vehicles are less initially damaged in the world
Add tool ammo: some tools now require ammo like saw blades or drill bits
Add coloration to battery percentages
Car keys can now be used wirelessly (unlocking, locking vehicle, panic button etc.)
Add “Demo” to the watermark if it’s the Vein demo
Add lifetime stats to death screen (zombies killed, steps taken, etc)
Add HTTP API for server owners
Normalize VOIP audio – should fix VOIP being really quiet
Add sandstone items/silica to be smelted into glass
You can now repair glass windows using glass sheets (craftable)
Antibiotics now give you a condition that prevents being infected from bacteria
Increased gas pump health; made them invulnerable to most damage
Redford and Saranac now have items spawn on store shelves
Add recipe list to forges/charcoal kiln UI
Stuff now falls off your vehicle instead of just being blown up if it collides with something
You can shoot through chainlink fences
Add Eighty-Four explosive launcher
Add matches
Add cannabis seeds/cannabis farming
Add cold medicine, prevents/reduces cold duration
Add meth
Vastly improve explosion physics especially against zombies
Fix fortifying double doors vanishing the other door
Add RandomizeTime command, sets the time between 0.0 and 1.0 years from the start date
Fix that one fence changing colors when you run it over
Fix fans not running when first loaded in
Prevent cars from falling through the landscape when first loaded in
High level weapon/ammo spawns are now findable in more containers – they’re just very rare
Reduce time items on your person are considered “newly acquired” to 5 minutes from 30 minutes (e.g. increase the amount you keep when dead)
“W” is always up for ladders, “S” is always down for ladders
Add tire shelf container that can store tires
Fix being able to use anything eg. milk as engine oil
Add some leniancy for truck rear doors to be considered blocked
Fix item requirements in construction UI not updating
Fix stuff attached to vehicles not loading in attached to vehicles
Reduce GPU VRAM usage across the board
Use options for items now display weight and stack
Fix poor performance at dawn and dusk
Main menu now displays news from news.vein.gg
Fix bar (pressure) readout being incorrect
Container size balancing (e.g. large vs small crates, dumpsters, etc.)
Nighttime lighting changes and brightening
Fix compass showing with a turned off phone
Foliage LODs are slightly more aggressive
Motorcycle helmet now uses motorcycle helmet asset instead of towel placeholder
Road texture resolution fixes
Fix snow not appearing on distant landscape
Fix water sounds playing while water is frozen
Fix being able to drive through ice
Add icons/colors to packing up chairs, sleeping bags etc.
Add air conditioner/heater status to vehicle HUD
Fix zombies getting stuck on rugs sometimes
Way better sky lighting performance, especially at dawn/dusk
Dryers now have a UI like washers
Add bone broth
Perk menu close button is just an x now
Fix free look breaking your neck if you go from third to first person
Possibly fix the lock desync on doors
Fix zombies sometimes not playing a death animation on dedicated servers
Explosions no longer ignite things
Add thermometer art
Fix TV volume not applying to disks when you switch over to them
Fix food spawning in at 0 C
Forges & kilns now say ‘ignite’ and ‘extinguish’ instead of ‘turn on’ and ‘turn off’
Fix some weird glass textures in convenience stores
Add new mastered music tracks
Fix broken glass not always sticking to doors on load
Fix logic error blocking you from moving furniture into your UC area when standing outside it
Fix server hosts turning invisible when lockpicking
Streetlights now come on slightly earlier
Increase capacity of specialized containers
Some new loading Vein screens
Performance and networking fixes across the board

Vein is a first-person zombie survival game that came to Steam back in July 2022 and could be considered a fully 3D version of the popular Project Zomboid.

Vein is coming to PC on Steam, and an extensive demo is already playable. It’s constantly updated, and it comes with enough content to be enjoyed and played extensively even before the full release. This is a user-friendly alternative to early access, allowing you to download and enjoy the current build without incurring any costs.

Vein is currently free to play on PC in early access and will also be available on Xbox Series X|S when it is officially released. You can also head over to the official Steam page for the full list of fixes, changes, and improvements coming with the update.