Medusa Frontier
Update 0.3.3.4
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This update contains a revision to core game textures and removes normal maps so that art production and visual style experiments can remain organized during development.
The new game scenario now has a working Camp Generator at location 300,400 along with a few ships and a collection of barrels used for texture testing.
Fans and Settlers of Medusa Frontier can find randomly textured barrels this summer as part of the Summer Texture Splash tradition. There are no extra game features or mechanics for the Summer Texture Splash other than the random barrels used for testing and art production.
Update 0.3.3.2
The 2x terrain scale offers a fantastic baseline for continued development and improves performance with a consistent visual quality that works well for the intended game experience on most modern graphics hardware.
This patch also revises players gravity or downward velocity when standing on a platform or terrain. The new resting velocity provides enough force to allow smooth walking down hills without subtle falling skips and jitters experienced in previous builds. This resting velocity tweak also works well with collision on platforms and smooths the motion of walking off a platform and falling.
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Changes and Additions.
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*Revision: Terrain Scale adjusted to 2x
*Revision: Player resting gravity velocity adjusted to -0.1
What to expect from update 0.3.3.2
After careful consideration, I realized a 2x terrain scale makes better use of limited development resources and strikes a balance that is ideal for the intended game experience and target graphics performance. Using a 2x terrain scale increases explorable game world and surface area by 4x and creates a nice balance of intended visuals, improved open world gameplay, good graphics performance and a better overall immersive experience as players explore the game environment.
To be blunt, 2x terrain scale also makes the most of limited game engine features while securing a better open world game experience and exploration scenarios involving large travel distances.
Update 0.3.3.1 - Night Cycle Revision
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This update features a rework of the day and night cycle along with adjustments to environment damage and survival stats that improve Player vs Environment game elements.
This update also improves quality of life with revised Ambient lighting adjusted for a stable and immersive visual experience during night cycles.
Additions and Changes
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*Added: Cold terrain depletes suit battery.
*Added: Colder temperatures deplete suit battery faster.
*Added: Sky color changes based on day & night cycle.
*Added: Improved ambient lighting during night.
*Revision: Health decreases if suit battery is dead.
*Revision: Day&Night lasts 100 minutes. 50mins daytime.
*Revision: Day&Night cycle is now 360 Sunticks per Sol.
*Revision: Day&Night Temperature range increased.
*Revision: Survival stats ticks revised.
*Revision: Water meter adjusted to last one hour.
*Revision: Water meter depletes faster when running.
*Revision: Center screen Notice queue now limited to 10 msgs.
*Bugfix: Spamming E at camp generator caused excess
notice texts and small cpu usage from growing unused msg queue.
*Bugfix: Expired Notice messages are now removed from queue.
*Bugfix: Excess notices are ignored after 10 live msgs.
*Bugfix: Explorable area now limited to current test terrain.
Update 0.3.3.0 - Texture & Survival Update
There are also a few rendering engine adjustments made to organize art production for long term development.
Additions and Changes
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*Added: Survival Stats are now active.
*Added: Depleted Power causes 1hp drain per second.
*Added: Depleted Hydro causes 1hp drain per second.
*Added: New internal DeathTick stat determines hp drain rate.
*Added: Render Goblin Games logo displayed when game starts.
*Revision: Copper Ore - PBR texture changed for art experiments.
*Revision: Ore boulder mesh, textures, normals,& shaders revised.
*Revision: Vehicle Control has been revised.
*Revision: Sound playback improved and more organized.
*Revision: Mouse based vehicle steering disabled.
*Revision: QPC frame timer revised for stability.
*Revision: Resource boulders are now randomly spawned when creating a new game.
*Revision: Shaders & Texture Pack reconfiguration.
*Bugfix: Music previously prevented certain rapid sounds from playing
*Added: Internal DeathTick stat created for future development of heat, cold, pressure, toxins, radiation, disease, posions, bleeding, suit pressure,etc.
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Vehicle controls.
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Obtaining and controlling sci-fi vehicles is intended to be a significant part of the game experience.
With that in mind, it is clear that previous vehicle mouse input is not immersive and never represented the intended game experience. So for now, vehicle steering via mouse input will be disabled in favor of simple w,a,s,d keyboard controls while better baseline vehicle physics and controls are developed.
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Frame timers & Vsync.
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I admit frustration with this particular issue. Despite abundant information and seemingly simple solutions, tuning frame timers for a variety of hardware and desktop configurations has been distracting to development. This update returns frame timers to previously used method that creates an overall stable game experience across a variety of system configurations.
Update 0.3.2.9
Thankfully, sparkles of development treasure have been found along the way and this weeks update contains revisions impacted by code clean up and overall project evaluation.
Game startup and performance has been improved thanks to code cleanup that removed redundant resource loading used during the recent core game engine overhaul.
Build mode holograph transparency was revised to improve visual preview of objects being built.
Object rendering shaders have been revised from PBR based materials to a simpler chromatic sci-fi style shader and the starting outpost was revised while brainstorming new game scenarios.
In addition, the recently added and neglected Storm Cutter ship has been resized and given its original properly uvmapped texture.
Additions and Changes
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*Revision: Hologram build object transparency improved.
*Revision: Storm Cutter resized for similarity to hovers.
*Revision: Object shaders revised for visual style testing
*Revision: Environment matcap replaced with chromatic matcap
*Revision: Storm Cutter specific texture added to texture pack.
*New Game outpost revised and made larger as build mode example.
*Texture Pack revisions will impact textures on objects from previous builds.
*Frostborn Mushroom mesh changed to frosted fern plant.
*PBR style shader material changed to simplified stylized shader.
Update 0.3.2.8
This update also contains a few small QOL adjustments and shader bugfixes that may have been left out or missed in the previous update.
Additions and Changes
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*Startup window background color set to solid black.
*Game over backgrond color set to solid black.
*Added: Opening music during game startup.
*Added: PBR materal test area near new game outpost.
*Added: Second level new game outpost for demonstration.
*Revised: Objects are now rendered using a test PBR formula.
*Revised: Starting sun tick and location is later in the day.
*Revised: Added gold and silver hovercrafts to new game outpost.
*Bugfix: Missing start menu or pink screen on AMD GPU.
*Bugfix: Terrain not appearing for players using AMD GPU
*Bugfix: Ghost Object shader revised for simplicity.
Update 0.3.2.7 Shader Bugfix:
*Bugfix: Missing start menu or pink screen on AMD GPU.
*Bugfix: Terrain not appearing for players using AMD GPU
*Bugfix: Ghost Object shader revised for stability.
Update 0.3.2.6
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*Revised start menu and buttons.
*Added ghost object rendering for build mode.
*Restored: Day & Night Cycle.
*Revised vehicle basic speed.
*Hud fonts revised to 50% alpha.
*PBR Shader revisions for object shaders.
*Revised New Game to basic outpost scenario.
Update 0.3.2.5
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Todays update contains a few engine revisions needed to reorganize overall design and base building features. World scale is being reverted back to a player view of 2.0 world units and standard base wall size of 4x4 world units while the revised collision system is being battle tested during the next few updates. Egg shaped resource boulders return for seasonal theme along with three new texture assets, a lighting feature in development, and revised collision.
Additions & Revisions
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*Added 3 texture assets to base building texture set.
*Added simple baked shadow when building floors.
*Revised player can strafe when moving foward or back.
*Revised player collision using bounding box methods.
*Player View revised to 2.5 world units.
*Basic wall pieces returned to 4x4 world units.
*Basic floor piece remains 8x8 world units.
*Rounded "egg like" ore boulders return for seasonal theme.