Lights (and Camera)!
Hello all!
Thank you for reading this! I’d like to give the third update of the project I am currently working on, ‘Paper Needs Inspiration!’.
Because of the disjointed schedule I’ve kept recently, I’ve had to target my efforts with this project in specific ways to maximize the improvements I wanted to make (given the limited time I had available). As such, I accomplished making targeted changes that I feel improved the game and moved its development forward meaningfully.
The first change I made was to introduce an effective post processing profile that gives the overall look I’m aiming for while allowing for simple changes at runtime as needed. Here is the previous profile I had been using:
And here is the new profile:
And, comparing the two in a gif:
Since this will be the profile I’ll be using going forward, I took the time to optimize the shaders for better performance. A beneficial side effect of this is in the editor loading time (21 seconds for a 126 GB project) and build time (106 seconds to build a 2.66 GB executable). Fine tuning the settings (particularly DOF and Shadows) allows the build to run at a constant 30 fps on the target platform (GTX 1060).
Action!
A couple of notable other improvements were made as well. A blueprint system for learning craftables was finished. It is very flexible, executing both standard item crafting and more complicated crafts like Pocket HUBs (from previous Devlog).
I fine-tuned the characteristics of the animals as well, making them smarter, able to move faster and attack more effectively. They are actually a bit of a threat now:
I also added detail to the HUB area. It’s a relatively simple thing to add birds yet it makes the scene look much more alive:
These were the most prominent changes I made over the last development period. I made several other smaller changes (animations, upgrading more placeholders, etc) that don’t need documentation but add to the progress of the project overall.
I also made a dedicated project for producing better game media. I have the option of adding dxr lights in this project and they add substantially to the quality of created images and videos:
Controls:
WASD – Move
Q and E: Rotate Camera
Mouse Wheel: Zoom In and Out
Mouse L-Click: Move to Click Point
Inventory Single Mouse L-Click: Move Item
Inventory Double Mouse L-Click: Use/Equip Item
How To Play: Go to the right when game first loads, pick up the first Blueprint (the other two are testing objects), then pick up the rest of the resources available. Craft the HUB Alpha item from the crafting menu. To return to the terrain, go to the particle effect in the middle of the HUB area (the chair).
PC Requirements:
i5 CPU
16G RAM
2.23G Hard Drive Space
GTX 1060 or Equivalent
Last Note:
Thanks again for reading this. Be sure to download the demo and let me know what you think!
