Alright, so Saurian has released a new patch this week. This patch didn't introduced fundamental gameplay mechanics or anything, but it did work around with reworking the atmosphere and the water graphics.
There's not much to say about this patch, but I tried to play a little bit of it to try and see how it works. In my experience, the game runs much better than previous times, which is amazing. The lag is minimal and the game runs very well over the long gameplay time.
The water graphics have changed, but to be honest, I don't much care. The splashes in the earlier patches looked more interesting to look, than just the simple water ripples we have now (but maybe this way the performance is better?). Its a shame the camera can't dive underwater now. I don't know if this is a temporary or permanent decision, but I do miss wetting my camera while crossing a river.
The weather system is incredible. The skyline looks great. The clouds really look good and smooth even on very low graphics, and the night sky is also good. The nocturnal ambience is very good, you really feel like you're in the dark. There is an option to turn on camera noise as a result of the low luminosity, and I think it gives a very convincing effect of what it feels to be in the dark, where things just can't be seen as clear as they would, normally. I wish the capacity to see in the dark was changed from animal to animal, though, considering that I imagine Dakotaraptor would excel at seeing in the dark of the night.
Rain now occurs more often and it can be quite strong and cause strong flooding visibly. Rain drops the performance a little bit, but its nothing detrimental to the gameplay at all. I was quite thrilled to see my Triceratops character just peacefully grazing in a fluvial island, and see the water slowly rising during a rainstorm until the island was completely submerged, forcing me to swim to higher shores.
Even though this patch was relatively short in content, I do think its a great step in the right direction, not only making the game run much smoother and with less performance issues, but also making the environment feel much more palpable. I can't wait for future environmental overhauls that improve this... even though it might be time to insert another playable animal eventually lol.