On the Total War forums , Creative Assembly have announced that Shogun 2 will be updated with DirectX 11 support, alongside extensive fixes. Also included in the update are four new multiplayer maps. According to the patch-notes, DirectX 11 provides "very high quality shadow maps", "high quality depth of field" and "up close to the camera rocky terrain surfaces are visibly more detailed and realistic".
Which is nice.
The full patch notes are below.
Additions
DirectX 11 support, including:
• Advanced Shadows
The DirectX11 pipeline supports very high quality shadow maps, giving softer shadows with significantly less aliasing compared to DirectX 9.
• Support for MSAA 2x,4x,8x.
Requires Shader Model 4.1 or Shader Model 5 support, not available on Shader Model 4.0.
The DirectX11 pipeline supports Full screen multi-sampled anti-aliasing at 2x,4x & 8x resolutions. Shader Model 4.1 cards will support 2x, 4x MSAA. Shader Model 5 cards will support 2x, 4x, and 8x MSAA
• Enhanced Depth of Field
With Shader Model 4.0 & Shader Model 4.1 you will see enhanced depth-of-field with a dedicated pixel/vertex shader pipeline. With Shader Model 5.0 depth-of-field is accelerated with a Compute Shader, offering very high quality depth-of-field.
• Tessellation Support
Tessellated and normal-mapped rocks and rocky-terrain surfaces (requires Shader Model 5 support). Up close to the camera rocky terrain surfaces are visibly more detailed and realistic.
• Anti-aliasing support
Bug fixes
General fixes (includes single player and multiplayer fixes)
• Tweak on Alt-F4 fix
• Fixed firing-arc overlay for blinding grenades to show minimum range
• Slight changes to the intercept for igniting buildings
• Fix for battlefield dominance being awarded to both players
• Fixed triggers for the Elusive Strikeforce and Inspiring Counterattack achievements
• Legendary force achievable in single player
• Fix for stacking effects
• Ninja hiding tweaks
• Change to how victory types are assigned so that Heroic victories are a bit rarer (they're the most common now) and decisive / close are more common. Pyrrhic can be more common than before
• Fixed entities floating outside castle wall when they get knocked down or knocked flying while climbing off the top of walls
• Fixed bug with looping transition animation due to move orders with invalid path locations being spammed by the squad repeatedly
• Capture buildings cache if the building was captured from held before telling the Aide de camp
• Improved torch caching
• Fix for crash in battlefield zone cursor intersection
• Adjustment to AI to make it more difficult for the AI to use cavalry against spearmen
• Fix for drop-in ambushes not starting if the player under ambush presses 'Start Battle' first
• Ship banners are now appearing correctly in replays
• Fix for men staying at the bottom of the walls when they are attacked whilst climbing
• In naval replays, some ships' flags were appearing in the wrong colours, now fixed
• Order to burn down a building now finishes if the building is destroyed by other means
• Fix to rare crash when placing mines in naval battles
• Experience system revision: experience-level thresholds rebalanced to allow for faster overall level-progression. Per-unit-type threshold multiplier introduced that scales the thresholds to compensate for differences in the damage output of different unit types. AI experience levels now fully derived from combat (the AI experience boosting mechanism has been removed).
• Updated pre-battle speeches to take greater advantage of available situational information
• Grass and scrub no longer gets in the way of the camera during pre-battle speeches
• Armies sharing the same deployment zone are no longer deployed on top of each other by default
• Fixed bug in tracking-camera caused by restricted camera behaviour activated by Legendary difficulty mode
• Improved first-person camera and projectile camera: time dilation effect is now relative to projectile speed. Artillery engine crew now trigger the projectile camera when their engine fires. Projectile camera remains stationary at the projectile's terminus to allow the player to see the results
• Pre-battle speeches now distinguish between multiple causes of the gates being forced open at the start of the battle
• Adjustments to morale calculations, dependent on who is in control of an army and in what context. Allows for fine-tuning of morale calculations separately for single-player humans, multiplayer humans and AI armies
• Improved the calculation of unit combat status. This corrects errors in the reporting of a unit's tooltip win/loss state, and also fixes some issues in the unit morale calculations that use this status information
• New weather gameplay effects added: Fog now causes a range penalty to all missile units, and causes non-commanding units to be hidden at a distance of 600m or more, even if they are out of cover
• Fixed issue where the Total War camera sometimes snaps downwards when switching the camera type and/or starting a transition. (This was particularly evident at the end of the pre-battle cinematic)
• Fixed issue in reinforcements system that allows multiple armies to feed more units into one army than is allowed on the battlefield
• Fixed crash-bug caused by placing Yari Ashigaru into pike wall formation, then incrementing/decrementing their formation width and moving the unit before ending the deployment phase
• Fixed issue that allowed siege defenders in 'fight to the death' mode to continue fighting in the end phase of battle after their fort was successfully captured by the attacking force
• Pre-battle speeches are now disabled in custom battles if the player does not field a General
• Fixed crash bug where the Stand and Fight special ability was used in a custom battle on a general unit that had been removed and re-added to the battle setup
• Fixed crash bug resulting from construction of an RTS camera with specified position
• Fixed crash bug that could sometimes occur when the FPS camera's context-entity died
• Cinematic camera movement speed is no longer height-relative. This allows for greater control and adjustment of camera positions in the cinematic editor
• Fixed flaw in unit logic that could cause a crash in the multiplayer lobby when interacting with a veteran unit that has zero men.
• Pre-battle speeches now allow for minor clans to be playable.
Naval combat
• Fixed intercepting with surrendered ships
• Fixed ships getting stuck on the edge of the battlefield
• Fixed sail-configuration not fully working when using speed-up
• Fixed enemy naval mines being visible in deployment
• Hull-damage indicators now consistent across campaign and naval battles
Audio
• Audio rebalancing
• Added projectile injury sounds
• Added special ability UI sounds
• Added new unit melee sounds (male/female units, swords/spears, mixed)
• UI sound when unit ordered to climb wall
• Naval mines trigger launch sound
• Front-end seasonal sounds to match scene
• Fixed problem with music not playing on custom battle screen
• Music volume now defaults to 75%
• Fixed rare issue with sounds not triggering after extended gameplay
• Separate sounds for female units
• Added reverb for distance sounds
• Fix for host being able to hear UI sounds for units that have been gifted to another player
• Fixed move-UI sound being played instead of attack-UI sound when choosing artillery bombardment location
• Added new sound when buildings selected in campaign map
• Aide de camp now supported during pre-battle speech
User interface
• Fix for some effect-bundle tooltips being cut off
• Fixed finance summary profit totals
• Fixed radar map image not updating when new clan discovered, and fixed rebel-owned region tooltip
• Fixed front-end camera transition
• Fixed mpc win movies showing same faction for both allies
• Fixed radar flee- icon crash bug
• Changed public-order display on finance panel to show current factors (rather than predicted)
• Re-enabled slider for mission-event text
• Fix to block co-op tax exemption exploit
• Fixed assassination-movie location bug with garrisoned generals
• Fixed bribe/move options panel text
• Fixed mpc multi-turn move diplomacy panel exploit
• Added extra update for diplomacy 3D model view
• Fixed avatar snapshot uploading so that it only occurs when avatar changes
• Made regions with imminent rebellion flash red on public order maps
• Changed 'become shogun' event message into a movie popup
• Mousing-over factions in diplomatic relations now previews faction details
• Fixed avatars with bow-skill not loading customised model into battles
• Added display of convalescing characters into radar list
• Fixed agent options crash bug
• Customised avatar of opposing player in MP battles now loading correctly
• Fix for saving replays in results screen
• Battle-regroup flag now has tooltip and is shown on radar
• Fix for cards getting stuck to cursor
• Enabled right-click on multiplayer units to show encyclopedia
• Made selected cards more recognisable
• Minor chat fixes and polish
• Fixed toggling of group-behaviour
• Text input improvements
• Added timer to special-ability buttons to display cooldown in minutes/seconds when mousing over
• Morale and charge bonus icons now show correct images on unit-information panel, and now show in campaign
• Weather/Waiting panel in battle now gives details on effects current weather will have on battle
• Added extra guarding for accessing model to prevent potential crashes
• Modified drag-out behaviour so if user holds CTRL while dragging out units, they will walk to destination
Battle camera
• Fixed bug in historic battles where the camera would be left in cinematic mode after the end of the intro cutscene (particularly in Okehazama where it never returned to normal)
• Sekigahara and Okehazama historic battle in-game cutscenes are now skippable
• Heat haze in Nagashino historic battle reduced
Campaign map (some singleplayer, some multiplayer)
• Katana cavalry is no longer immune to attrition
• Wako trade ships upkeep cost reduced (to match other trade ships)
• Various fixes in general's retainers
• Increased chance of critical success for successful actions
• Slightly increased the value of resources not traded away
• Changed general skill 'strategist' to award the movement extension instantly (not just in the beginning of a new turn)
• Fixed issue where rebellion in regions could happen without prior warning of unrest
• Fixed issue where rebellion could happen in region on the turn after it was captured
• Finances map now shows regions that will rebel next turn as flashing. Tax-exempt regions with negative public-order value also flash
• Movement-distance display now updated when skills applied
• Random first-level art picked for research in first turn if researching nothing
• Accuracy mod bonus applied correctly
• Fix for issue where double-click on character skills could make skill points get lost
• Added preferences variable to control campaign-camera edge-scroll delay
• Re-added 'trade route raided' messages
• Fixed navies being deregistered from trade nodes when the commander dies
• Trade-route raiding now updates when war declared
• Fixed predicted number of turns for replenishment
• Fixed issue that wouldn't always allow navy-merging very close to trade nodes.
• Fixed rare lockup with agent acting against garrisoned settlement
• Fixed Namban trade port not updating number of available trade routes correctly
• Fixed path-finding state bug which could leave armies unable to move for a turn.
• Fixed inability to disembark army from navy in port which is under blockade.
• Fixed negative bonus-value modifiers for looting
• Fixed instance of trade route removal not cancelling existing raids
• Fixed rare disembark-at-port problem
• Reordered code on becoming Shogun to prevent inappropriate messages being issued
• In Diplomacy, probability of acceptance is now reported as high for gifts
• Fixed crash in family-system after adopting uncle back into family
• Workaround for bad path-finding data in starting position
• Fixed rare lockup where army disembarks from navy into zone-of-control in player settlement, the navy is too close to a third party neutral navy, and the player declines to attack the disembarking army
• Fixed rare load-crash when loading a pre-battle save game during an AI turn when that AI had previously issued a multi-turn order that involved an army disembarking from the navy in a future turn
• Agents will no longer play multi-turn action animations if the player cannot afford the action
• Autoresolve battle visual fix: army cannot drop to zero soldiers before the last round
• Night battle support for pending battle power-bar. Will update if night battle is selected (and if the UI queries the value again)
• Autoresolver will destroy or capture ships that are too weak to be used in battle
• Repairing a ship in a port no longer invalidates its hull panel information.
• Fixed a glow under the shroud when a castle is under siege
• Kyoto has an additional defence bonus in the autoresolver
• Improved defensive behaviour of single-region clans when building up forces to attack
• Improved force conglomeration when pulling in defensive forces from distant regions
• Fixed Bribe and Demoralise action-usage
• Fixed naval-repair behaviour
• Fixed minor clan alliance-breaking behaviour
• Fixed a number of issues that may lead to corrupted save games
• Fixed a number of AI-recoverable lockup issues
• Fixed number of AI/model positional inconsistencies
• Some efficiency improvements
• Fixed case where ninjas could end up standing on top of each other
• Fixed issue with not being able to back out of a sally-out attack
• Fixed issue with not being able to withdraw from an attack against an army that is standing very close to a castle (but not besieging) when the attacking army is inside that castle
• Fixed various issues with agents remaining in castles or armies they shouldn't be in after creating a vassal or bribing an army or castle
• Fixed AI lockup involving agents attempting to join a force that already contains three characters
• Fixed not being able to issue an order to blockade a port when the cursor was over a navy inside that port
• Fixed rare crash in recruitment system where armies could end up with the wrong unit leading the force
• Fixed issue with being unable to issue orders to agents inside a castle
• Improved recruit-to-general performance, especially when clan has a very large number of regions
• Sabotage Building action now applies a varying amount of damage linked to the ninja's skill
• Fixed rare bug of a new Daimyo spawning a castle where a battle had just occurred, forcing the battle to be fought again
• Fixed spawned Ashikaga clan armies appearing on top of Ninjas
• Agents can no longer be recruited within besieged settlements
• Reinstated missing realm-divide event-log entry
• Fixed generals defecting to Wako or European Traders
• Fixed issue with AI not correctly issuing Demoralise and Bribe orders
• Fixed rare crash bug where merge-cursor would appear when the cursor was over a farm or special building, when the user had a navy with an agent onboard selected
• Fixed night battles being able to exclude a human player from participating in a battle
• Fixed lockup when carrying out a bribe action when another character is moving
• Building Sabotage events now show region name
• Fixed rare crash involving ambushers standing on top of each other
• Fixed Generals enlisted statistic so it takes into account generals acquired via dilemmas
• All newly recruited Geishas will be between 18 and 25 years of age
• Agent options dialogue no longer appears if the target army is in the same clan but already contains the maximum number of agents
• Removed gap in Agent Indicator flag on enemy army which signified Ninja presence
• Fixed bribed armies not ending their siege
• Fixed armies created via Incite Revolt appearing on top of the monk that incited the revolt
• Fixed rare crash in matched animations on campaign map
Units
• Removed passive 'encourage friendly morale' bonus from General's units
• Increased flanking morale-penalties
• Changed casualty morale-penalties to be smaller at low casualty levels, and higher at large casualty levels
• Reduced siege-unit accuracy
• Increased detonation-radius on fire rockets
• Inspire ability bonus to morale reduced to 10 from 12
• Inspire ability bonus to accuracy reduced to 15 from 40
• Inspire ability bonus to reload reduced from 50 to 20
• Inspire ability bonus to melee attack reduced from 7 to 3
• Rapid Volley reload-rate bonus reduced from 70 to 30
• Whistling Arrow penalties to units reduced
• Fixed Hattori Daimyo's portrait in campaign
• Tweaked AI recruitment-priorities so more clan-specific units are recruited
• Added in missing bridge map from Iwami province
• Fixed errors with some Yari Ashigaru unit morale values, so clan specific versions now always have higher morale than generic versions
• Increased multiplayer costs of Cannon Bune and Nihon Maru to 4000 and 5000
• Morale for multiplayer Warrior Monks reduced by 2
• Multiplayer Naginata Warrior Monks melee attack reduced by 3
• Bow Cavalry multiplayer cost reduced to 650
• Katana Cavalry multiplayer cost reduced to 800
• Yari Cavalry multiplayer cost increased to 850
• Fire Projecting Mangonels multiplayer cost increased to 1500
• Fire Rockets multiplayer cost increased to 1800
• European Cannons cost increased to 1500
Bonus extras
4 new multiplayer maps:
• Aki
• Hida Mountain
• Flood Plains
• Sanriku Ria
