As promised this is report is to announce that I came back from GDC and into active development again.
I took a day off to rest, but I still feel that I’m recovering from the jet lag.
Also this report will be divided in two parts, the first is about the development that I manage to make in the last week just before going to the GDC, and the last part is my thoughts about that trip.
The followings are very small changes that have a significant visual impact.
The main one is the tweak of overall aesthetic, now the terrain and overall look have more vibrant colors.
Here is a comparison shot of the old and new version:
The idea was to too advantage of the cel shaded look and have a more distinct bright colors
The other one was on effects; it has been tested before but now has been fully realized; now all missiles and rockets have more noticeable flares.
New explosion effects have been added:
The last change that was added was to improve the aircraft’s visual feedback, especially for units that don’t have an afterburner. This new change makes the engine slightly glow red as the as the throttle increases.
Also as a correlation, the aircrafts no longer instantly afterburn, now each aircraft has a short period where the acceleration gradually increase.
Let’s start off with what was probably my own issue, because I never went to the GDC before, but I was expecting more a games festival, but the business aspect is the main theme of this event, so it was a bit disappointing in that regard.
But this is more of my impression, because I actually spent little time inside GDC.
Besides enjoying a city that I haven’t been before and be able spend a few days without touching the development of the game, something that I wasn’t able to do in ages, which was also great to step a bit back and see things in a different perspective.
But what really mattered and I think it was overall the most valuable experience I gained with this trip, was to be able to hear other developers’ stories.
In the last week, I spend the whole days with other game developers that iceberg is also publishing, namely Start Drive, Star Lords and Star Port Gemini 2. They are all great guys and besides enjoying my stay I used that opportunity to hear everyone own stories.
It ranged from their development priorities, missteps and stories of best and the worst moments and actions of their own community.
I also noticed that I was making a mistake, my priorities was to develop the game, then talk to the community and much later when I had time, talk a little with the press.
They told me that no matter the quality of the game I’m making, if I don’t leave my cave to spread the word no one will know or care what I am doing.
So, learning from what they said, from here on, that the main priority should be to talk to any press whenever I have the chance because, they combined with the community, are the most important factors that will determine if a game relevant or not.
This should not be translated in the time invested, but for example at the start of the day, which should be done first.
But besides all that, I have to say, I was very positively impressed by the Icebergs, I was already grateful for their support, but meeting them in person I saw that they are really great.
So I can say this trip was absolutely positively, made me grow as a person and as a professional, it also inspired me to immediately jump into to the development and make VT even better.
Before closing this report, I took a lot of pictures in this trip, but they were more about hanging out with these guys and probably not very relevant to this report.
But I’ll leave here one picture of me with the Icebergs and Star Lords and Star Port Gemini 2 developers in the last day of my stay.
Stay tuned, more reports will follow.
New graphics are nice but I'm still lobbying for different color engine glows for each plane. Yellow for americans, blue for russians, ect. Actually, maybe you could do have team-colored engine glow/aerobatic smoke.
I personally dont like that idea, much rather prefer that in hud color not the aircraft itself.
Why not allowing people to put custom AB texture effect on separate plane instead (the plane will load a generic AB effect if there isn't any)? I know at least some moddable flight sims did this too.
Yes that is already possible, different AB effects can be set for each unit, but most of the cases this was reserved to aircrafts that have unique shaped engine nozzles, others use more generic effects.
The glow for the dessert seems to be a bit too bright don't you think?
Maybe a little but it makes up for it by being more colorful.
At least it's not too brown.
I think that's because the bloom intensity is increased. Here's hoping a more customizable graphics option to adjust the bloom level.
Oh, and maybe we need a better gun effect too.
There are already been some changes in that department, especially for heavy guns. Now the GAU-8 feels really powerful.
I'd love to see a demonstration of that
Well, any information is good information at this point, and I do absolutely believe that more community inclusion can't hurt the game more than help.
would this post's icon in the news list happen to be an airliner?
If there's one in the final game, i will soooooo remake AC Joint Assault's mission where we must fly it through a canyon with a noisy passenger.
From what I've seen there at least two different airliners have been shown. One of them seems to be a possible SIGINT platform.
MyHat once posted a SS of the same airliner in the respective thread.
Yep, there are currently a few airliners in the game along with some AWACS and AEWS aircraft. Now we're waiting on some cargo jets and gunships (AC-5??????) and we'll be set in terms of logistics aircraft.
Amusingly there's a horrifying challenge mission where you have to shoot (extremely aggressive) airliners out of the sky using bombs.
Nice to know you've reevaluated your community presence.
I think the plane is way too close to the camera. A zoomed in view like that doesn't convey the freedom and high speed of flight for a jet fighter simulator.
Even looking at the screenshots feels claustrophobic. Zoom out man.
I for one am perfectly content with the zoom angle for everyday functions. But, I see the point behind your argument and I too occasionally want to zoom out a bit. Perhaps an player-controlled zoom option could be implmented?
That being said, it's important to remember that VT is not a flight simulator- if you go in expecting something like FSX or Strike Fighters, you ain't gonna get it.
Or DCS, that is.
The camera can be manually adjusted, from what I get.
Plus I recall some custom planes (Wheaton's?) have slightly farther camera than the default.
Something i've been wondering for quite some time, yet never asked clearly: It seems the GUI/HUD can now be recoloured, right?
Is it using presets such as cyan & purple, or are the HUD elements now recoloured using RGB values that we can change in the game's settings?
Yes, at the moment can be configured in a .ini file, but later I probably will make it possible to be adjustable in the options menu.
Nice changes. Really looking forward to it. Will buy this game definatly once it is released even though I'm not a fan of cell shading and comic graphics when it comes down to war stuff.
On a side note since you've been reevaluating stuff and looks you might want to dig a bit deeper and take a closer look at the typography you use through the game. Especially the HUD could use something more technical looking with a mix of light types and bold types for warnings and important informations. As a typography lover and media designer this is one of the major issues I have with thew overall look of the game. The current font type just looks way way too much like something used in an excel sheet. It doesn't deliver any emotions. F.e. fonts like Eurostile just to give you a hint of what I exactly mean.
Speaking of, TS, did the dudes from Gamepires (Gas Guzzlers Extreme) visited GDC too?
No, besides the ones I mentioned I only saw the guys from Amplitude Studios, but it was only in the first day.
Just noticed new gunsight in the screenshot. Yay.