Be
Fly Fly Fly Away
Both Keyboard and VR (smooth locomotion only atm) now support flying.
The mode is entirely *optional*. If you enjoy trying to figure out how to get to places so you can build there, then by all means continue to do that.
Turns out it's also a pretty handy for build outwards (imagine building a plank out into space) since you can now far more easily see the 'face' of the object you're building against. Instead of 'peering over the edge' to see the face of the object, instead fly out, turn around, and begin going backwards as you place objects.
Also in this patch, I've made a start on stats and achievements, with 19 achievements available in this release. Go check out the list on the store page to find out what they are!
My future intention is to begin adding specific items to your inventory based on some of these achievements.
Load/Save System
Say "Hi!" to the new "load/save" system. Excellent!
Use this to roll back if you've made mistake while building. Not only that... you can personalise/name your saves now, giving you more context as to what this save was about. Each 'save' includes a visual preview of what you were looking at the save occured, including the save number and also the number of items in the world for that save.
Access the "load & save" dialog by:
- Opening the main menu (ESC or left menu button in VR)
- Click the "Load..." button
From this new dialog you can load any previous game save, or make a new save. By the way: Clicking "Save" from main menu is exactly the same as the "Save" button in this dialog.
From Neil Clayton (developer of Be):
"While this isn't new content, I think it's really important to improve the game infrastructure so that the overall experience is improved. For me this makes the long term playing of Be more viable, and puts more control into the players hands."
What else?
Well two things really:
- Apologies. I broke multiplayer with some "optimizations". Additional players to the game could not place pieces. fixed.
- VR Keyboards!!!!! I had intended for this to be in the release, but it was broken. Now those playing in VR can both search the items list, and also name new saves. Whew.
Of particular note:
- Loading can take some time if you've over >2000 pieces in the save file, but you can see it loading in realtime. There is a %age text overlaid on the screen.
- Fixed a bunch of missing stuff in VR. Virtual keyboards not showing, weird interactions, weird "back" or "I want to show this now" behaviour in VR. MUCH better now. Please
- do* leave a comment in Discussion if something is still weird!
- Save Previews: These are only available for saves with this version of Be and later. Older saves don't have the preview
Changelog:
- New save dialog. Yay!
- Fixed time not saving properly
- Fixed bug whereby networked players couldn't place items
- "delete mode" is no longer entered if you press backspace/del inside a text field (items search/load & save menu)
- Various UI issues using ESC to "go back" now work more sensibly. This includes items, main, and load/save menus.
- Since beta#1 (of snapshot/load/save): New saves now work (empty games)
- Load/Save now goes away when you press left menu button in VR
- Invite menu now shows correctly over top of main menu (both in start game and in game)
- Main Menu UI size reduced (non VR)
- If you name a save, subsequent auto saves will also take on the same name, assuming you're carrying on your build work and want to keep that name.
- Saving or Quitting the game: only saves the game if something has been modified since the last save. This helps prevent pointless/needless saves that just amount to noise in the "save list"
- Note: the game will auto save on quit. You never have to save yourself unless you want to mark a point in time. If you ALT-F4, or quit, a save will be made for you.
New Items!
New items this week!
- Tiny cubes, in both wood and stone
- Stone 45 degree angled pole
- Stone 45 degree roof
- Stone 45 degree fill wall
- Glass light (vertical)
what items do you want to see next?
Do feel free to leave a comment in the forum.
It turns out I can't read peoples minds. How annoying! But probably for the best :-)
What else? Oh yes: the tools and items buttons now emit slight noises when hovered over/clicked.
Oh, and another thing:
I also added further feedback to the tools panel. Now there's a little square on the left telling you that you're in "build" or "delete" mode. Not only that, AMAZINGLY, delete mode has a RED background! Yes! I know. Unbelievable!
Go check it all out and share some screenshots of new things you can build (nicely)!
Delete Mode Revamped
- The cursor (or beam, in VR) goes RED.
- Use the left mouse button, or right trigger to delete the highlighted item
- Theres text above the item bar to help you get out of delete mode
- Selecting an item from the items bar will also get out of delete mode (so you don't HAVE to push ESC/B)
- For VR: the reticle changes from the round ball (with yellow stick) to just a flat, larger, red ... spot.
Also, if you hide the items bar entirely, all reticles/pointers/rays are hidden. I call this "exploration mode". Gets rid of all UI so you can enjoy the view!
Happy exploring!
Quality of Life Update
This weeks focus has been to make it such that the game should do "whats on the can" (i.e: does what you think it should do!)
Various annoying or weird bugs have been fixed, with a focus on graphics and the tools menu.
Graphics
It turns out there were a number of "weird" issues.
Graphics settings not being applied. Sometimes. Squirrels. Settings being applied but conflicting if you were in VR, resulting in blurred views.
I'm happy to say these have been fixed! Graphics settings are now applied consistently.
Secondly, Depth of Field has been fixed and also greatly expanded.
You now have three options:
1) No DoF at all. Everything disabled. No distance blur at all.
2) DoF at a fixed distance. Slight blurring of distant objects, to create a mild DoF view.
3) DoF based on what you are looking at (auto focus).
The *new* default setting is that ALL DoF is disabled. The rationale being that if you want it, you can enable it. If you want MORE DoF (auto focus) then you can enable that as well, as you wish.
DoF auto focus works REALLY WELL on Desktop, but seems less great (tm) in VR. Testing here indicates that in VR you want ALL DoF OFF. It's just distracting.
Tools
There was some odd behaviour in VR. Especially visible when you pressed A to HIDE the tools.
In this case the tool still appeared to be working! Wow. Confusing.
Now, if the tools menu is hidden in VR (toggled via the A button), no building/deleting can take place. It makes for a more SENSIBLE experience.
Head Turn in Smooth Locomotion
Regarding head turning, the original idea had been to make object placement have top priority.
The original release was setup so you could pan/zoom around the map when in smooth locomotion mode (VR) using the right stick; the left stick defaulting to rotating the build piece.
But that meant that head rotation in smooth mode wasn't obvious. It *is* doable (just hold the right grip trigger), but not obvious.
The bigger question is: should the controls be split so that creation mode has a different set of controls than movement mode?
At this stage I'm unsure. It could introduce additional cognitive load that means you have to know what mode you're in. That's why I made the choice outlined above initially.
For now I've added a switch (see Controls, in game) to put head turning directly onto the left stick. So now left stick is ALWAYS used for both piece rotation and head rotation.
The switch under 'Controls' just sets which of those two actions requires that the left grip also be held down.
The default is off. There's a description in the UI as well, so you can read/learn about this directly in game.
Changes
- Fixed incorrect application of graphics settings. DoF (and others) were not being applied correctly. Graphics settings now do what they say they will.
- Added an option to allow DoF auto focus to be disabled. If disabled, a small fixed amount of DoF is applied in the distance. DoF now defaults to off (entirely).
- Fixed up the tools menu still showing the item to be created in VR, even when the tools menu was hidden (by pressing A). Now when hidden; no creation/deletion is shown or allowed.
- The "placement bauble" (red indicator) no longer shows when the tools menu is hidden in VR.
- Added an option to allow rotation of your head using the left stick. That means "piece" rotation requires the use of the left "grip" trigger. This more or less reverses the current behaviour, making movement "primary" and piece rotation "secondary". You can choose what method you prefer in settings.
- Fixed the ocean disappearing in "low quality" mode.
The unusual and annoying 'levitating objects' have been fixed!
The truth however is that I broke it by adding "an enhancement". The GOOD news is that it's now fixed!
Stairs no longer hover menacingly (annoyingly) in the air! Walls and other objects now actually snap together! Hooray!
Oh; and you can teleport again as well.
- Fixed object placement (stairs and other objects snap much better now and no longer float in mid air).
- Fixed dithering so that objects become somewhat transparent if you're really close to them (when placing new objects).
- Default 'depth of field' to off.
- Fixed teleport. Sorry about that.
Hurry up and relax: Be enters early Access
I'm pleased to announce the release of Be into Early Access today.
Astute readers (those with eyeballs) will notice the 10% discount, which is valid for one week.
I trust you'll enjoy this relaxing experience, and have a go at building something. If building isn't your thing, can you find the rubby ducky?
I look forward to meeting players and continuing the games development :)
Happy "Be-ing"!
Go Networking Go!
What else comes to mind:
- Mostly I'm working on fixing little things (making the app appear correctly in Steam VR, that kind of thing).
- New graphics setting of "medium" has far far better performance than "high" while retaining almost all the visual fidelity. Still working on why "High" is having such an impact. It should be called "Insanity" right now :)
Enjoy!