My Game Updates

Started by nnodley, Dec 28, 2017, 04:07 PM

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nnodley



Some updates to the newest area I am working on.  Still have to add in the manmade stuff and all that jazz.  I'm focusing more on level design and just playing around with foliage placement and stuff.

Legend

Yeah hows the level design going? Can you play from level to level yet?

nnodley

Yeah hows the level design going? Can you play from level to level yet?
Not quite. It's close, maybe another week or so.  I have a portal system I might try to get running tomorrow.  I built a small version of it, but what I have trouble with is not having a crash when going through and trying to load out 1 level and loading in another.  The portals are a part of the technology in the world so that is the main mode of transportation, but there is also ways i'm trying to connect 2 levels together and then have the other 2 connected as well.  So there will be multiple ways to travel if the player wants to, but will miss collectables not necessary to the overall story, but might miss some background lore.

Also looking into a way to have a recording play automatically as the player gets to certain areas with a trigger box.  It should be pretty simple just setting up an event on trigger to play the recording.   This will get rid of the need of datapad collectables(original idea), but now need someone who has a great voice to record what I write.   I can get a much more natural feel to the story this way, that I noticed when writing it out.  And it keeps the player in the game as they hear the story.

Lately i've been hoping to maybe work towards January or February release(which would be 6-7 months after original date).  i do feel I can hit that since I have a lot of assets now to use.  I just need to develop the overall look for the manmade/technology stuff.  i have an idea of what I want I just need to get some concepts of them from someone I know that I went to school with. 

Feeling good about it all though, so just need to keep the momentum.

Sorry for mini wall of text. lol

nnodley

oh also this other area I was working on is running at 50fps in areas and 60fps in most of it so I have to figure out a way to have some load in and load out to bring the performance back up. 

Legend

Not quite. It's close, maybe another week or so.  I have a portal system I might try to get running tomorrow.  I built a small version of it, but what I have trouble with is not having a crash when going through and trying to load out 1 level and loading in another.  The portals are a part of the technology in the world so that is the main mode of transportation, but there is also ways i'm trying to connect 2 levels together and then have the other 2 connected as well.  So there will be multiple ways to travel if the player wants to, but will miss collectables not necessary to the overall story, but might miss some background lore.

Also looking into a way to have a recording play automatically as the player gets to certain areas with a trigger box.  It should be pretty simple just setting up an event on trigger to play the recording.   This will get rid of the need of datapad collectables(original idea), but now need someone who has a great voice to record what I write.   I can get a much more natural feel to the story this way, that I noticed when writing it out.  And it keeps the player in the game as they hear the story.

Lately i've been hoping to maybe work towards January or February release(which would be 6-7 months after original date).  i do feel I can hit that since I have a lot of assets now to use.  I just need to develop the overall look for the manmade/technology stuff.  i have an idea of what I want I just need to get some concepts of them from someone I know that I went to school with.  

Feeling good about it all though, so just need to keep the momentum.

Sorry for mini wall of text. lol
If you're wanting to have both portals and walking seamlessly around (unless I misunderstand) then you should definitely sort out level streaming. Then portals are as simple as physically moving the player and their is no loading delay.

How many languages are you planning to support? Audio logs are definitely better than text logs if you want them to not affect pace, but it's also more work. Does Unreal have a built in subtitle feature?

Awesome that you feel like you could be releasing soon. Is most of the modeling done or is that still your biggest task?


I always like reading your updates since you have a different perspective on this stuff than I do.

nnodley

Jul 05, 2018, 10:38 PM Last Edit: Jul 05, 2018, 10:50 PM by nnodley
If you're wanting to have both portals and walking seamlessly around (unless I misunderstand) then you should definitely sort out level streaming. Then portals are as simple as physically moving the player and their is no loading delay.

How many languages are you planning to support? Audio logs are definitely better than text logs if you want them to not affect pace, but it's also more work. Does Unreal have a built in subtitle feature?

Awesome that you feel like you could be releasing soon. Is most of the modeling done or is that still your biggest task?


I always like reading your updates since you have a different perspective on this stuff than I do.
Yeah i'm going to have walking and portals. I'm working on how I'm going to split up different areas to stream and how I can do some tricks and hide it with foliage or something. Not all the levels will be connected so it alleviates some of the streaming issues, but I am creating more of a lake with high cliffs/mountains surrounding it with the four areas with the conduits and the actual tech they are powering in the middle of the lake(was not thinking of God of War at the time of wanting to do it ;D ) so all the areas will be seen from most places so I need low res version of all the objects for performance and streaming issues.

I had a couple portals working before, but broke them because of some issues so the basics of it is already built and ready to go.

I do believe it has a subtitle feature built in as far as I'm aware.  I'll have to look into that more.  Different languages was on my mind, but I definitely need to look into it more.   

Most of the foliage is finished.  I might have more I can make, but I may wait for that once I get to polishing and finalizing levels before release.  Most rocks and cliffs I am using megascans 3d assets I got from them and created my own textures in substance and a decent shader for them in engine.  I need some more custom meshes of cliffs and I'm gonna try and make those soon.  I have a portal design which hasn't been shown in here yet.  I'll show it tomorrow maybe.  Other than all that I have mostly man made stuff to build out and texture.  But, i'm not worried so much about that as I can just use placeholder designs for now to get the flow of the game done and get into alpha stage of development soon.  Hopefully by september or so.

For now I am going to try and print the story as text on screen with triggers so I can work on placement of where recordings may start and not have too many close together to conflict with a recording already playing.


Actually here is the portal design I've been working on.  Essentially it will use dark matter to power.  The DM will come through the tubes  and will be drawn right into the center which will then use the DM to create the portal.  Or something similar to that.  The ideas for how I have it "work" may change down the line.

nnodley




Heres some images of the environment for the game.  Don't be fooled by how big it looks.  Only the areas around the the 3 tall cylinders will be what is playable, plus the thing in the center of the lake.  There is a fourth cylinder, but not allowing the player to go there.  Then there is the starting level which is practically done minus some tweaks and finalizing some assets.  And going to try and work on my last area which is gonna be a surprise for everyone even for you all on here.

Legend

Do you have a little boat to get around in?

nnodley

Do you have a little boat to get around in?
lol no!   ;D

Also every place is visitable by portals now except the center thing.  Still not sure the look I want to go for it.  The scifi/man made stuff is where I'm struggling right now.  But just focusing on world and story for now with more level design as I get other ideas.

nnodley

Finally got my level designed!! Decided against being able to walk between some areas and all can only be accessed through portals which are also all working.  Some areas were running around 50fps and most were 60fps.  I capped it at 30fps for now since it's really smooth at 30fps cause it's literally locked at that in every area.  I think I might look into having a 30fps option with all the foliage pushed to the max for those with powerful rigs and still try and get a solid 60fps with the same settings if I can.

I'm running gtx 1080 with 8gb vram, ryzen 8 core, and 32gb of RAM.  I'll have to boot up my old rig with a gtx 680, intel quad core, and 16gb RAM to see how it runs on that.

I made so much progress these last 2 to 3 weeks.  And i'm so fudgy happy with everything I have which is awesome.  Before I was feeling a bit meh on some of what I was doing, but I'm super stoked to start getting more FX, finalized models, sounds, story, and collectables in.

Legend

Finally got my level designed!! Decided against being able to walk between some areas and all can only be accessed through portals which are also all working.  Some areas were running around 50fps and most were 60fps.  I capped it at 30fps for now since it's really smooth at 30fps cause it's literally locked at that in every area.  I think I might look into having a 30fps option with all the foliage pushed to the max for those with powerful rigs and still try and get a solid 60fps with the same settings if I can.

I'm running gtx 1080 with 8gb vram, ryzen 8 core, and 32gb of RAM.  I'll have to boot up my old rig with a gtx 680, intel quad core, and 16gb RAM to see how it runs on that.
Are you not just going to have various graphics options for people to fiddle with? It can be very hard predicting how different rigs will handle different elements.

nnodley

Are you not just going to have various graphics options for people to fiddle with? It can be very hard predicting how different rigs will handle different elements.
Yeah I am. That's already working in the menu system I bought on the marketplace.  I'm just not sure whether to settle on 30fps or 60fps at ultra settings.   The highest I'll let anyone go is 60fps, just for the sake of not killing myself making every option available. So far 60fps works in most areas, but not all of them are finished in terms of assets so who knows where I will land eventually.  I can at least know a base line based off my old rig to see what and where I need to optimize for the sake of people with less powerful PCs

Legend

Yeah I am. That's already working in the menu system I bought on the marketplace.  I'm just not sure whether to settle on 30fps or 60fps at ultra settings.   The highest I'll let anyone go is 60fps, just for the sake of not killing myself making every option available. So far 60fps works in most areas, but not all of them are finished in terms of assets so who knows where I will land eventually.  I can at least know a base line based off my old rig to see what and where I need to optimize for the sake of people with less powerful PCs
But wouldn't ultra settings by default be everything maxed out?

nnodley

Jul 17, 2018, 11:41 PM Last Edit: Jul 17, 2018, 11:55 PM by nnodley
But wouldn't ultra settings by default be everything maxed out?
Yeah, i'm just looking at whether I want to make a version where at 30fps with specs close to mine the foliage in the distance would be full models and not just flat cards and if people wanted 60fps then there would be flat cards in the distance for trees.  I always hate how shaming things look in the distance so if I can push them to being full models(though still low in poly count) that look good.  Plus I hate how speed tree makes their billboards for the distance.  

But we will see what happens.  For less work i would just do cards in the super far distance and have a certain radius where I have full models for things.

OHH I just played through the whole environment in VR and....WOW!  Freaking love it.  There are some things I'll have to look at for getting it fully playable in VR.  For one my pause menu only shows on 1 eye.   But the sense of scale and everything looks great in VR.  I think since it's just walking around it would be perfect for VR.

Legend

OHH I just played through the whole environment in VR and....WOW!  Freaking love it.  There are some things I'll have to look at for getting it fully playable in VR.  For one my pause menu only shows on 1 eye.   But the sense of scale and everything looks great in VR.  I think since it's just walking around it would be perfect for VR.
@the-Pi-guy  ;)

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