Weekly Report - 20
Another week, another update for Vizaris. This time it’s pretty big, just like last time, with many new features added to the game. With the possible exception of a week where one or more of us are hit by a toilet seat which fell off the international space station, these early weeks are still pretty much the slowest and least impressive the weekly updates will ever be… but I’m still pretty happy with the amount of content making it into the game each week.
The above image is an aerial shot of the landscape, showing roughly a half of the current play area – keeping in mind that a player is roughly the size of a single pixel. That area spans several kilometers.
- Update to Unreal Engine 4.9 - In one of the more fundamental changes to the game, Vizaris is now operating on the latest version of the Unreal Engine. We always keep up to date with the latest versions, so we’re upgrading from 4.8 to 4.9. For you, this should mean better performance, as some significant optimizations were done to the lighting engine. Unfortunately, engine updates are so comprehensive, that they require the entire game to be redownloaded when they occur.
- Distant Land LOD - This means that the landscape further away will be loaded into memory at a detail reduced state. This means that you can see the landscape from much further away. This also means that we can reduce the distance at which the game is rendered at full detail, meaning better performance, AND less loading hitches. The landscape currently in Vizaris is only a small fraction of what will eventually be in the game, with only a quarter of the Qaris’da’te basin being shipped with the game (including the parts currently inaccessible)
- First Person View Mode - We’ve implemented a rough version of the First Person View Mode into the game, accessible by double tapping the camera focus key. This mode is still fairly rough, and receive some additional improvements in the next update, to clean up the camera. This new view mode gives you a whole new perspective on the game and your character.
- Combat Strafing - We added strafing movement to the game, which is currently used when the player is in a combat ready stance, in camera focus mode, or in first person view mode. This helps make combat easier to control, and also improves the dodge functionality (Double tap the movement key in any direction)
- New Area: Salis’da’coro Pass (Upper) - Massively updated and improved the area (previously unnamed) above the Salis’da’coro Pass. There’s plenty of new area to explore now, stretching nearly a mile in length.
- Refill your water containers - All those water skins and water packs you have? Well now you can fill them back up with a new water vase next to Ka’tro. Simply activate the water container with the E key, and it will fill up all of your water skins and water packs.
- Harvesting Saving - Plants that you harvest are now saved when the world is saved. Which means it’s no longer possible to harvest items, save, reload, and harvest again. At the moment most plants respawn withing 48 to 72 hours after they were last harvested.
- Harvesting Cleanup - There were some minor improvements to the text that is displayed when you harvest an item, making it a little easier to read.
- AM / PM Now displayed on the clocks - Now you can tell exactly what time it is without staring directly at the sun and waiting for it to move
- Bandits now hold weapons - They held weapons before, but that was just faked. Now they actually take their combat information from the weapon directly (Damage, animations, appearance, etc.). We plan to expand this in the future by allowing NPCs to drop weapons when killed, and allowing the player to loot the weapons.
- Fixed: Animation Playing - A small bug was fixed that was preventing a system which ensured the same combat attack animation never played twice from working. This system now works properly, preventing you from seeing the same animation twice.
- Backend: Improved Activator Functionality - Activators now have the ability to modify player Vitals (Health, Stamina, Hunger, etc.), and also have the ability to change their own names now; so you can expect this kind of functionality to be integrated into the game in the future.
With the upcoming week, I’m hoping to start working on the foundations for a proper questing system that will allow content creators (Me) to make a variety of interactive quests in the game. This should hopefully add a little more ‘game’ to the gameplay. There are also some exiting developments behind the scenes for work on the new character customization system, which is going to be very robust and allow you to create a variety of different characters. It’s still a few weeks out, but when it’s added to the game, it will explosively increase character creation options.
–Luke
You can play Vizaris right now for just $4.99 a month, by going to www.VizarisGame.com/play - get your friends to sign up with your referral code for a discount and even make money! Free press access available to anyone who can prove they have a following!
