Battle Grounds III has a new update that fixes a bug present since the game launched on the Source engine 20 years ago. The SV_PURE update now verifies that local game assets match the assets on servers, stopping players from swapping in modified files to gain an unfair advantage.

Previously, anyone familiar with the Source engine's asset system could edit files to make brick walls translucent, see enemy players through dense fog, remove musket smoke, or alter uniform textures to expose hitboxes. Those modified-asset tricks are now blocked on servers running the update.

HUD and VGUI assets are excluded from verification, since custom HUDs aren't considered cheating.

The new feature only works when servers are updated, so server hosts need to make sure they're running the latest version.

Players have reported crashes on launch after this update. Deleting the materials and user_custom folders from the game files appears to fix the issue. The reported path is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Grounds III\bg3\materials

The developer says they're monitoring the situation and will consider a rollback if one turns out to be necessary.