Everyone in Rust is getting a new face

Rust’s character customization options have always been a bit unusual in that… well, you don’t get any. Your character’s looks are generated by a random seed and you don’t have any say over them. Whatever you get, you get, from face to race to gender to the size of your dong or boobs.

But your character in Rust is going to look different as of the newest update.

“We’ve overhauled the player model from the ground up,” Facepunch Studios said today. “This includes improved meshes and materials, more realistic proportions on a new rig, expanded head and hair seeds and a much needed pass over almost everything player-related.”

Why now? Well, despite Rust getting updated with new features just about every month, it’s been quite a while since the player models got some attention.

“The old player model has served us well for almost 10 years, but it’s lagged behind the rest of the game for some time,” Facepunch said. “Visually, it was showing its age, but just as importantly it was holding us back from making bigger improvements to characters, animations and implementing future features.”

So, get ready to log in and see the new you. Also be aware: your face is going to look different, but your body’s features (those dongs and boobs I mentioned) won’t.

“Your face will change, but race and gender seeds have been kept intact, so we’re hoping it won’t be too much of a shock for those of you who have grown attached to your random seed over the years,” Facepunch said.

If you’re still not a fan of randomly being assigned a character model in Rust, well, there may be some hope on the horizon, though the details are vague.

“End of the year, we hope to have implemented a player customizer. How exactly this will work is still being discussed internally, but we’ll share details in future blogs.”

In the meantime, hopefully you’ll enjoy your new face. You can also look forward to other changes in the update:

• Expanded the number of heads in the game, with each head now having unique materials and additional details such as eyelashes and improved eye lighting.
• Reworked and expanded hairstyles and beards, using new anisotropic shaders to make hair feel more natural.
• Updated all clothing to work with the new rig and proportions, giving a lot of older assets a much-needed refresh and fixing some long-standing issues.
• Modernised the art pipeline behind the player model, making future fixes and improvements much easier to ship.

Here’s a look at the new player models and animations in action, along with other additions like weapons, armor, and decor.