Ambidexterity allows for both hands to use items. Now you can eat twice as fast! Controls now similar to Minecraft, left button attack, right button use. You can also swap between hands.
Picking up items goes to any free hand, with food/tools preferring left and weapons right if available. Dropping and storing items is now on the left hand only to avoid left/right confusion.
The option to keybind a right hand drop/store will be available for advanced players. Also the option to set your dominant weapon hand to left for lefties.
Devlog 30: Splashes, bubbles and leaves. New ultra realistic visuals.
These are the new updates to my river since the last post. The foam blends better with the water now and looks less harsh. The river edges blend in better too. Some 3D offset has been added to areas of high pressure to look less flat. Also the flow has been extended to splashes, bubbles, rain drops, vfx and all other particles for the most immersive river experience. While it might seem non-essential, without these it's just too immersion breaking to have raindrops stationary on a river.
Devlog 29: Rivers with realtime fluid flow physics
I made a river with realtime fluid flow physics. Notice the objects moving following the water flow, even backwards and in circles. The flow can change dynamically with some randomness so you sometimes get big waves pushing the objects along. Also the objects obstruct the flow but also get affected by the obstructed flow giving it a bigger push.
Also simulated underwater current which reduces with depth until zero on the river bed. And googling which fruits float and which don't (it's not immediately obvious).
Can’t wait to make a boat.. whitewater rafting here we come!
Devlog 28: Dynamic soft tissue injury system
I've just made a soft tissue injury system for animals where you can really beat them to the bone. Size is exaggerated for purpose of the video, but it can range from a small bullet hole to large explosion damage. The texture looks really juicy, and it amazingly all comes from a single photo of a pork chop. I plan to have the player harvest different cuts of meat, like rib eye, sirloin, chuck, brisket etc. and then cook your yummy steak from it. More damage means less meat.
Blood splatter is modelled as individual droplets. This is more realistic as getting hit really doesn't generate a big splash of blood. Each droplet will splatter on the ground so it will form a pretty splatter pattern.
Devlog 27: Deer AI
I'm currently working on animal AI. This smart deer knows how to avoid steep falls and deep water. It also reacts to physical stimuli by moving away from it but not to the point of falling off a cliff. But it still can fall off if it reacts too fast and cannot stop in time. Being an active ragdoll means it can lose balance and fall realistically but still manage to get up. In deep water it will drown after a while, RIP deer.
Devlog 26: Volumetric rain, dynamic puddles and droplets
I just added rain and weather effects. The rain is a volumetric effect, probably around 100k drops. The drops collide with structures and objects, so the inside of your house stays dry. Surfaces exposed to rain will get wet, with animated droplets, condensation and evaporation. Puddles are dynamically generated and each one is unique. They too will dry out once the sun comes out.
Devlog 25: Buoyancy and Surface Splashes
Implemented buoyancy and surface splashes that follow the object's size, contour and movement.
Shape is calculated by doing a lot of vector projections and approximations. Buoyancy is voxelized and multithreaded, so should be able to handle hundreds of objects. Water system is KWS water, splashes are my own.
I've spent so much time just doing water stuff. It's no wonder a lot of games just skip water altogether (like Cyberpunk on release).
Devlog 22: Water splashes
[previewyoutube="XoTZFcxstLA;full"]
I made some splashes using baked fluid simulation in Blender coupled with real-time VFX graph particles in Unity. This is a real 3D volumetric splash as compared to flat 2D splashes you get in most other games.
The sounds add to the satisfaction. There are about 30 different splash sounds depending on the water depth and player velocity. The splash sounds different underwater too.
Water slows you down a lot depending on depth. While you can run through shallow water, trying to do so in deep water is near impossible. It's much faster to swim instead.
Devlog 21: Dynamic breaking waves and splashes
[previewyoutube="a8hkz_A25v8;full"]
Switched to a new water system. Really realistic waves and sounds. It's so relaxing just chilling at the beach. Better tuned the underwater lighting so corals look so much better now.
I added some liquid splash and foam simulation while the player is walking and swimming on the surface in addition to the dynamic waves. Wading through water has different sounds depending on the depth as well as slowing you down the deeper it gets.
Devlog 20: Underwater fishes and corals
[previewyoutube="0QV5qvI2Lik;full"]
Added underwater environment with corals, fishes and seaweeds. I wrote the fish AI and flocking behaviour so they swim around realistically and also will swim away from the player. Also, you can eat them! They will struggle when you grab them and also if they're out of the water. Eating half of it will cripple them and they won't be able to swim and just sink down.
I also wrote a waving shader for the seaweeds and corals. They will wave around with some randomness but also sway according to a global wave current. Tall seaweeds have dynamic foliage bending added and will slow your progress if you try to swim through them.
