Early PBR Test: Heroic Cosplaying Catgirl T-Poses Over The Nettles To Assert Her Dominance!
693, is how many materials my models have which require converting from the previous game engine's diffuse/spec rendering system, to the new, improved and shiny PBR (Physcial Based Rendering) system for cool reflections and modern fanciness. ːhappychappyː
This has meant converting 693 diffuse textures to shadowless albedo images, and then creating Ambient Occlusion, Roughness and Metalness maps for each. Needless to say ... this has taken a while ... ːnotsohappychappyː
693 Matierals converted to PBR, though as a top-down shooter, these models LOD out quickly when looking horizontally across.
Porting to the new engine also has a fancy and modern asset system which preloads objects into memory via their instances rather than directory locations, which should help performance and stability.
Metallic and Roughness materials.
In the meantime, there has been another patch, fixing a few issues with directory/folder addresses (something the new asset system will make redundant), and I have also found some non-used audio files which can be deleted in clearup. This update does not have a new build number as no C++ was changed.
With a bit of luck, a beta release of the new game engine build will be made available next month (August 2023) before being rolled into the main branch of the game as the default once stability has been tested.
In the meantime, I am back to the code, wrapped in a blanket, huddled over a hot drink because it is *checks notes* British SummerTime ,,, ːcorblimeyguvnorː
Update Notes for 1st July 2023
Update to parallax values on all terrain textures (37) for levels 1 - 7. Values are now integers (whole numbers) rather than floats (decimalization).
Work on porting the game to a new engine with fancy PBR reflections and an asset system continues.
Update Notes For May 2023
Valve has released an updated version of the Steamworks SDK to v.1.57, with the main change being how Steam ticket authorization works for the web API.
Monsters Loot Swag has been updated to version 1.7.6.8!
The Dreaded Lurgy
The [u]Dreaded Lurgy is a Rare SWAG Power-up. It is an Attack Based event which causes the targeted MONSTER to succumb to the Dreaded Lurgy. The infected MONSTER is highly contagious and will transmit the Dreaded Lurgy to any other MONSTER who they come into contact with. However, after receiving the dark gift of the Dreaded Lurgy, the victim is now immune from further infection.
Annoyingly this is also a thing in real life, and I have spent the last month suffering from The Langshan-Po Lurgy - a free internet to anyone who gets the reference, but Gen-X (greatest generation) here, is probably just showing his age.
Needless to say 3D vector maths, gimbals, quaternions, cpp and general cerebral activity, has been somewhat compromised with lurgy brain fog. In celebration at the cerebral degradation - which hopefully will only be temperory - I have revised, both the icon and the in-game activation event art, for The Dreaded Lurgy.
However during this time, Steam has snuck out a new update to Steamworks (v1.56) ... which broke previous coded SteamGameServer::getAuthentication ːsteamfacepalmː - thank you Valve devs for the code comments which gave a good explaination of the new changes. ːsteamthumbsupː
So, welcome to MONSTER LOOT SWAG updated ... errrr ... 14? Which features a few changes.
Update 14: update to 1.7.6.5
Change: Updated Steamworks SDK to 1.56
Change: Swag Parcel SFXemitters no longer delete when used up.
Change: Rare Swag Power-up The Dreaded Lurgy has icon and in-game event particle effect updated.
Also congratulations to the player who got a rather good score to finish in 3rd place on the leaderboards behind myself, the devleoper, and the Manx Monster who helped with testing in 2nd.
Early Access Update 13: Zounds!
Welcome to the 13th Early Access update of Monsters Loot Swag!
There are a whole range of tweaks and bugfixes in this update, most of them dealing with how audio works, after the big openAL change in the last update - which can be seen here!
Whilst fixing some artifact issues on the portraits of the Level 7 Boss, Zorra, also made a small change and gave her a smile. You never saw Zorro sulk, so why should she?
Before ... and after!
On to the changelog!
Updated to version 1.7.6.2.
Fix: Swag parcel audio track and audio emitter were using the same local variable on creation.
Fix: Single Audio Description of reference distance was higher than maximum distance.
Change: All Audio Reference Distance are now half of maximum distance to give better transitions when moving quickly left to right.
Change: Swag parcel audio emitters no longer delete after use, as I was still concerned that the Out Of Range Array warning might once again rear it's ugly head.
Fix: Removed artifacts on level 7 loading screens.
Change: Portraits of Zorra the Level 7 Boss now feature her with a smile.
Fix: Removed debug console spam for buying swag.
That's it for March 2023, which has predominantly been a month of audio fixes.
Early Access Update 12: PBR Peak and OpenAL CrossFade Bug Fix
First up, after a massive hunt through my code to try and understand why the audio falloff was so rapid that it made the audio sound like it was washing across your ears, I discovered that, actually, my code was fine. Another indie dev suggested that it was actually openAL defaulting to an overly rapid crossfade, and sure enough it was. It may have taken over 9000 years to find this out, but it was a 2 line fix in a 1kb file. ːnotsohappychappyː
So that should save your audio balance, especially when using headphones.
And the second part of this update is a peak at a future engine upgrade. This upgrade should fix the occaisional loading jitter when newly networked objects arrive to the client - I currently have a custom preload group for each level to try and minimize this - but will also include PBR (physical based rendering), better known as fancy reflections for metal and shiny objects.
Behold the high poly version of the playable cosplaying catgirl Southern Hospitality using metalness and roughness maps in PBR.
And what's a PBR material test without a Cornell Box!
So that's all to come later.
If anyone finds any bugs, please report them in the forums with a description of what was happening - eg: "I was getting a Swag parcel on level 4 whilst being swarmed by a million enemies and the game made an oof sound and died" - these reports are very helpful and appreciated, cheers. ːsteamhappyː
Monsters Loot Swag: Introducing PUMPKIN
This is PUMPKIN, she enjoys gently floating around forests, sipping mulled wine and blasting magic vegetables at anything that moves!
PUMPKIN is the first of the unlockable characters, available in the Early Access of the game; and she can be unlocked by the player getting the MARATHON achievement.
PUMPKIN is a mix ranged, playable character with a long ranged standard attack and decent strength for knocking monsters out of the way. Her special attack is a very high damage strike to the enemy to her immediate front, whilst her evasion stuns all monsters within half the screen with a slap of her broomstick. Whilst her healing and enery recharging is somewhat low, this is made up for with her exceptionally high starting mobility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8sMd1qMSFc
Crosses off "cute witch" from his list of weibo meme characters.
Early Access Update 10: Regular Update FIVE - Hello 2023!
Welcome to Regular Update number FIVE! (total Early Access update number 10) This will be the fifth of many major updates, usually once a month, which adds to, improves and expands the game during Early Access.
This EARLY ACCESS update means that the first 70% of all game levels are now complete.
This update features brand spanking new Level 7, it's guardian monsters and the Boss Monster, Zorra The Knife Enthusiast. The floor is lava - literally!
Here is changelog list!
Update 10: New Year Regular 2023; update to version 1.7.0.1
New: Level 7, The Temple of Pele has been added!
New: Level 7 enemies have been added!
New: Created enemy Orbital Cannon special attack for Level 7 Boss Monster.
Change: Nerfed Lava damage, and now works as a 2% of player health per 250ms submerged in lava.
Fix: Lava damage now turns off when not standing in lava.
New: Lava damage is now visually displayed to the player as a flaming particle effect.
New: Added a check to prevent the player being dropped in liquid to prevent lava damage on spawning.
Change: Moved finished terrain texture images to finalized folder away from working and temporary terrain texture images.
Fix: Added missing fx definition for some terrain textures.
Fix: Added a check to make sure that there preload group is not empty when looking for an initial player spawn point to use as a reference point.
Fix: Eger player character move side left and right had wrong final keyframes set.
Fix: Spawning without a preload group available could set the camera below the terrain during debugging, now there is a check for terrain height if no preload objects are available.
Fix: Re-enabled splash screen address link which was missing for some reason.
Change: Reduced distance check for spawning between nodes in the cache group.
Change: Removed unused Orbital Cannon startup model.
New: Stopped the permadeath deleting the dev's save game level progress when debugging ... should probably have thought about this earlier - derp!
Next update will start to bring in extra unlockable player character cosplays!
Early Access Update 9: Regular Update FOUR - End of 2022
Welcome to Regular Update number FOUR! (total Early Access update number 9) This will be the third of many major updates, usually once a month, which adds to, improves and expands the game during Early Access.
This update features brand spanking new artwork for the Level 5 Boss Monster, Lula The Non-Resident Alien. I also noticed that the later boss portraits were failing to display with the Boss Health Bar due to a missing code link, all of which are now fixed.
The portrait art for the Level 6 Boss, Kaeru The Horticulturist, also got a minor revamp as I wasn't fully happy with the shadowing around the leg. I bet AiArt doesn't have this procrastinating ... ːnotsohappychappyː
Here is changelog list!
Updated to version 1.6.2.3
New: Level 5 Boss in game portrait, save game portrait and loading screen are now in.
Fix: Fixed missing texture in Level 6.
Fix: Level 4 Boss Portrait now displays correctly when the boss spawns.
Fix: Level 5 Boss Portrait now displays correctly when the boss spawns.
Fix: Level 6 Boss Portrait now displays correctly when the boss spawns.
Change: Unneccessary spam in the console has now been removed.
Change: Reworked Level 6 Boss portraits because some of the shadowing and negative space was bugging me - I bet AI don't have this problem with procrastination.
Change: Removed unneccessary source files that were accidentally included, thus saving space on the download.
Change: Tweaked some values for damage balancing with monster special weapons.
It is also the end of Space Year 2022.
So a quick look back at the major points of the year, the first one being releasing Monsters Loot Swag on Steam via Early Access.
Since then I have made 9 updates, most of them bug fixes which included the most awkward to find crash bug involving audio emitters throwing an Out Of Range Array Whilst I managed to stop the crash in the Second Major Update (bullet point 48), it took some more time before I had finally tracked down what had caused it and fixed that. And boy did that take a lot of printf!
With bugs squashed left, right and centre - I have now been able to expand the game itself, starting with adding the all new Level 6 in Regular Update 3.
So, with 2022 ending, 2023 will be all about expanding the game until it is finished, and leaves Early Access completed! This will entail creating the final 4 levels (6-10) and their Boss Monsters, and the remaining unlockable Catgirl Cosplayers. There are a few other things to do, such as get the Souvenir system up and running, and of course open the whole thing up to modding, which will probably include a level editor and Steamworks Workshop integration.
I am aiming for final completion of Early Access around late Spring or early Summer.
Goodbye 2022, and Happy New Year everyone! ːsteamhappyː
Early Access Update 8: Regular Update THREE
Welcome to Regular Update number THREE! (total Early Access update number 8) This will be the third of many major updates, usually once a month, which adds to, improves and expands the game during Early Access.
This update features numerous fixes, improvements and balancing changes. Especially new is Level 6 is now out and playable - if you can survive that long! This is "The Takiyasha Ornamental Water Garden" which introduces a new type of environmental hazard; water. Water slows both players and monsters down.
Another major change is that after months of bug-hunting I finally fixed the "out of bounds array issue" which I had stopped crashing in the first major update. Turns out it was an audio emitter issue, with object deletion getting out of synch when a lot of stuff was happening on screen - and this is a game where a lot of stuff happens on screen!
Updated to version 1.6.0.1
New: Level 6, The Takiyasha Ornamental Water Garden has been added!
New: Level 6 enemies have been added!
Fix: Nerve Gas could be defended against but Fun Balls could not, which was the wrong way around.
New: Added object of environmental hazard of Water which slows both players and monsters.
New: Added player water effects.
New: Added code for environmental hazard of Lava which damages players only.
Fix: Bikaver Special Evade "Hussar Charge" now checks for elevation off terrain or collidable objects to prevent getting feet stuck when landing.
Fix: Level 4 Boss Special Dash Attack now checks for elevation off terrain or collidable objects to prevent getting feet stuck when landing.
Fix: Player temperory SWAG power-up buffs audio now plays once instead of looping infinitely which it was never supposed to do.
Fix: Finally found the source of the Out Of Bounds Index Array when buying swag. If in doubt blame SFXemitters ... Swag/parcel buying audio now schedules off after 500ms. Crash for this issue had already been fixed in Regular Update 1.
Fix: Audio listener now references the position of the player object but uses the camera/screen rotation.
Fix: Audio descriptions for areas of sounds are back to normal and workaround for audio issues based on camera position have been removed.
Change: Removed distance checks for Exit Node placement from Preload Group which was introduced to workaround the original audio listener bug which I initially mistook for something else and is now fixed.
Fix: Finally found the source of the Out Of Bounds Index Array when buying swag. If in doubt blame SFXemitters ... Swag/parcel buying audio now schedules off after 500ms. Crash for this issue had already been fixed in Regular Update 1.
Fix: Audio listener now references the position of the player object but uses the camera/screen rotation.
Fix: Audio descriptions for areas of sounds are back to normal and workaround for audio issues based on camera position have been removed.
Change: Removed distance checks for Exit Node placement from Preload Group which was introduced to workaround the original audio listener bug which I initially mistook for something else and is now fixed.
New: Level 4 Enemy Boss Monster portraits for level, loading and saved game have been added. Thick thighs save lives.
Merry Christmas and see you in the 2023 with Regular Update 4! ːsteamthumbsupː
Early PBR Test: Heroic Cosplaying Catgirl T-Poses Over The Nettles To Assert Her Dominance!
693 Matierals converted to PBR, though as a top-down shooter, these models LOD out quickly when looking horizontally across.
