So, I lied about the 1 more dev update thing! I'm going to roll out the room decorations over a few updates. This first one contains the basic internal framework for decorating rooms. It's first task: organizing the lights!
In the old temporary system, the lights were just placed blindly along a grid, without any consideration for how it looked. This room isn't too bad but some of the hallways and smaller rooms wouldn't have any lights at all!
Now, the system adds lights depending on how big the room is, and organizes them so that they avoid walls and one another. It could use some polish, but it's much better now!
Next up I will be working on the system that decides which objects to put in which room, and actually add real entities to the rooms, FINALLY!
Steam Library -> right click Rodina -> Properties -> Betas tab -> choose Dev from dropdown
Dev Update: Interior Room Layouts!
Hi all! I'm back again with another Dev Update!
This one is very important. I've combined the EGSL Grammar Productions, which allow me to define "meaningful" rooms and sections of the interior (bathrooms, engineering wings, warehouses) with the interior generator itself. This means that the rooms will actually lay out in a proper way:
It's a bit hard to see in this screenshot, but finally the rooms are connecting to one another correctly. Hallways connect to bedrooms which have bathrooms off to the side. Now doors only link rooms that are meant to be linked, rather than rooms that just randomly end up next to one another in the generation process.
To see these rooms in action, try going to one of the Vanguard Chunks!
(hopefully this should be the last update where the main screenshot is some top-down view!)
As always, it isn't perfect, but it works and is a good base for the next step, which is to actually put STUFF in those rooms. Next update, the bathrooms will have toilets, the bedrooms will have beds, and so on. That will be a big step and will probably be the last Dev Update until 1.2.6 comes out!
* I also fixed the memory leak crash that occurred in the ship editor.
Remember that the Dev version may be even buggier than the regular version of the game! To try it out, go to
Steam Library -> right click Rodina -> Properties -> Betas tab -> choose Dev from dropdown.
Until next time!
Dev Update: EGSL Room Generation!
Hi all, it's been too long since the last Dev update but I've been working very hard on an important system. It's a "secret" feature that I've been thinking about for a long time. It's called EGSL and I'm hoping that, as it is developed and improved, it will empower me to add lots of depth and interactivity to the game.
To start with, I'm only using it in the procedural generation systems, as a way of creating formal grammar production rules. I use these rules to generate the various rooms in the interior.
I'm just getting started with EGSL and grammar productions, so this first version isn't very interesting or different from what we had before. But as I refine the generation systems, and get a hang of how to use EGSL for this, I'm hoping that it will allow for random interiors that feel meaningful, consistent, and unique. I think the system has a lot of potential - I just need to figure out how to get there! This will be the backbone of the procedural interiors!
Thank you for your patience on this one! This was a big job, but hopefully I can go back to smaller changes and more frequent dev updated! Next update I will go back to refining the generator itself to improve the way rooms and hallways are laid out. Now that EGSL is integrated I hope I can make swift progress!
Bugfixes:
* I fixed the problem with Bots staring at the lights!!!
* I fixed the black corrupted ship! Users who were unable to play the game cause of this problem should be able to play now!
Dev Update: Room Shapes!
Another Procedural Interiors Dev Update!
Since the last update I've been working on room shape generation. I added options for basic shapes and fading, symmetry, randomness, and "growths". I also added swept shapes to the paths to create the hallways, and added some logic to create angled pieces.
In the end, different room types will use different options. Many human rooms will probably be simple rectangles, while the more exotic alien locations will be more organic and random looking.
For now though, all of the shapes use the same values, so they have a kind of similar look.
Next up - top level logic! I will be generating a graph grammar to create the levels from the top down. This will give the levels a certain coherence and allow me to control the flow of a level.
Have a great weekend!
Steam Library -> right click Rodina -> Properties -> Betas tab -> choose "Dev" from the dropdown (Remember the Dev branch is experimental work in progress and may break your savegame!!!)
Dev Update: Interior Generation Progress (Hallways)
Dev Update today! As you know, I've been working on the Interior Generation for the Vanguard Ruins lately. This time, I've been working on the framework for room shapes and hallways.
Things are going great! Right now there's no overall logic to the map - the rooms are all rectangular and they are all connected to each other via a labyrinth of connecting hallways. It's only a start but.. it's different from what we had before for sure!
(don't worry about bugs with it for now as this is not meant to be final)
Next up, I introduce top-level flow to the map, with a specific layout (Room A connects to Room B which connects to C and D). Between that and some more interesting room shapes, we'll start to see this come together a bit more :D
Still a long way to go on this one but I'm excited about the progress!
Steam Library -> right click Rodina -> Properties -> Betas tab -> choose "Dev" from the dropdown
(I also added an "old_vanguard" branch for those of you who like the old system, while this new one is being developed!)
Dev Update: Interior Generation Threaded
Simple update to the Dev branch today that puts the Interior Generation systems into the Generation Thread, so that generating an interior won't cause a big hitch.
Right now there IS still a slight hitch as the interior is attached but that's a separate issue that will be optimized at the end (once I work on the generator some more and know what the conditions are).
Next up I'm going to work on the generator itself and put some time into room sizes and shapes, as well as hallways!
Dev Update: Editor Reworked!
Welp, I've gone and done it again.
As part of getting Procedural Interiors working again, I had to make some changes to the Interior Systems. Because of these changes, it was really easy for me to once again Rework the Interior Editor! :P
I couldn't help it.
I hope the new system is the easiest yet, but you'll have to tell me. The short version is: no more room outlines. Now to draw a room you just pain it on - kind of like the original system. Then you can add interior walls by drawing them seperately.
This is it, I promise, haha! Please let me know what you think! And REMEMBER that the Dev Branch can screw up your game, so always use backups!
Steam Library -> right click Rodina -> Properties -> Betas tab -> select "Dev" from dropdown
Have a great weekend!
Dev Update: Vanguard Ruins functional again
I made the Vanguard Ruins work with the new interior systems and made a dev update for them! Now all of you who enjoy visiting them can go back to get your fill :)
Issues:
* Enemy balance is still not suited to interiors, so they are brutally hard.
* They aren't exactly the same as they used to be (no angled walls) because that would have involved extra work that would have been thrown away.
I actually had to make some further changes to the interiors to get this stuff working again. The change made it VERY convenient to take one last look at the interior editor in an attempt to fix its user-unfriendliness. Stay tuned!!!
Rember, the Dev Branch is unstable and could corrupt your save!!!
Steam Library -> right click Rodina -> Properties -> Betas tab -> Choose "dev" from dropdown
Small 1.2.5 patch
I updated the build to fix a problem with the interior bounds generation!
This was to fix the Kestrel Ship mod, but it could have affected other modded ships as well!
Also, don't know if I've mentioned this yet but I'm hoping to do a Dev update as soon as I've got the Vanguard Ruins back and working in the game. Hopefully shouldn't be too long!
Rodina 1.2.5 - "3D Interiors" Released!!
It's done! The 3D Interiors update is released, complete with a new Interior Editor which gives you the ability to create multi-story interiors and rooms!
This update also contains several new tilesets, as well as the ability to recolor existing tilesets and to create custom lights!
I'm VERY excited to be finished with this one! Next up I'm going to be improving the Interior Procedural Generation, so that I can finally begin adding outposts and bases to the planets :D
As always, if you have any trouble with this update, email me at brendan@elliptic-games.com so I can issue a patch!
Update Notes:
* New Feature: 3D Interiors
* New Feature: Revamped Interior Editor w/ many new features
* New Feature: Custom tilesets and custom lights
* New Content: Several new tilesets
* Improvement: Interior Bounds generation will figure out how big your ship is and base the interior bounds off of that.
* Improvement: Highlight selected entities so the user always knows what is being moved / deleted
* Improvement: Tilesets constructed out of sub-parts so that they can be stretched for tall rooms
* Improvement: Lighting should run slightly faster
* Bugfix: Fix object picking in editor (Fire Extinguisher spam)
* Bugfix: Don't turn off gravbike unless it's not moving
* Bugfix: Don't let ship drop below planet surface if it loads in with no physics
* Bugfix: Fix fire extinguisher firing behind objects
PATCH
Quick note! I just patched the build. Probably will do one more, but I've already fixed several issues:
* Fixed a crash that occurred during flood-filling some interior maps (Modded ships, and certain interior map patterns affected)
* You can no longer edit the airlock, or remove the airlock doors. This fixes a crash
* We SHOULD see less "bounciness" on the floor (please let me know!)
PATCH 2
* Fixed collision problem on entering airlock
* Made stairs significantly easier to go up and down
* Removed "Mouse Wheel Position" input action which was screwing up control remapping for a user (it's not an action anyway, it's a state)
