Dog update Like before, I pass systems when working on the singleplayer...well actually in this case..the dog was just there..looking at me..thinking..Why can't I be petted..DOGE NEEDS THE LUV..So I broke down and made a small update on it's behaviour. You can pet the dog now! It also make's a few more sounds. See what happens when you pet her on the back and head!
Bugfixes and improvements
Audio sources per weapon part, every aspect of the weapon has it's own audio source now meaning you hear the clip enter the weapon at the right point, hear the bullet exiting the barrel at the right point etc. In short sound is way more 3D and directional
Improved flight model and audio for enemy airplanes and player aircraft.
Made sure holster highlighting works again.
Made sure weapons that are not in your hand do not end up in the holsters when you try to grab them.
Made sure the dog does not grab a foot from miles away causing floating foot syndrome on enemies ;).
Made sure the dog is slightly slower when running, it was a bit fast.
Tweaked dog behaviour when being petted.
Fixed a few bugs with the bolts of guns
Made sure the menu always spawns in view (previously it would only spawn in one spot, now it always Spawns where you look.)
Added a Reticle to the airplane
Gave walking a max speed so you do not have differences between controllers and walking speed(Max is slightly slower now as well)
Baby! Yeah so I mentioned this before and will do it again every update to make sure everyone reads it. We're having a baby and it's gonna be here pretty quick now. This means I will be offline for a bit to take care of my wife and the baby. Since this is my first I am going by assumption here, but it could be that there's no update for a month or two at some point. Rest assured this does not mean I will not continue the work. I will simply be..preoccupied with poop daipers and stuff for a short while.. Please don't see the project as "dead" in the meantime because it is very much alive!
If any bugs or suggestions are found in the meantime. Hop on the discord or the forums here and please do mention them!
Discord Don’t forget the discord channel. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! The discord: Discord
Roadmap Also don’t forget the Under a Desert Sun roadmap. You can find it here: Roadmap
Be safe everyone and kind regards, Raymond
Blood, Score and music! Ow and no baby yet!
Hi there,
As you all probably know I am working on the SP (Single Player) element of Under a Desert Sun. As always for more details look at the forums or join the discord!
While working on SP I pass through allot of my current systems and sometimes improve them. I want to try and bring these improvements to the game early with these patches. That way bug fixes and small stuff don't have to wait for the first SP sliver to be finished. This Patch will contain the following:
Updated Health and Score indication The old method had simple numerical scores for health and score. As you can see in the image below. I found it less immersive and wanted a new method.
Old hands:
I improved this by, changing the system completely. First off, your score is now shown on a small watch on your left wrist. This feels more immersive and it's not constantly in your face. So wanna know your wave score, look at the watch!
Secondly health is now shown by how bloody your hands are. somewhere past 50% you'll start seeing your hands get bloody indicating you're coming close to death. When really close they will even drop blood. I thought this would be a more immersive method of showing how much health you have. I personally also like that you kinda have to guess and don't know your health to the number.
New Hands:
Some people however like to not have to much blood on screen. So I made sure that you can turn of player blood in the menu (This option was there before) which turns off the in view blood and turns the old style numerical healthbar back on. Default is the new more immersive method.
Music While going trough my sound systems I made mechanics that make it easier to change music, and add multiple tracks to the game. Every map now has a soundtrack that fits the vibe of the map better and in this way the atmosphere of each map increases. You will notice this immediately when going into the main area as this also has a new music track.
Menu I thought it would be good to give each button a description. When you hover over a button you will now see description text in the middle. Furthermore I noticed that the options for snapturn and left/right control broke somehow. I fixed this in this update so all options should work again and safe properly again.
Baby! Yeah so I mentioned this before and will do it again every update to make sure everyone reads it. We're having a baby and it's gonna be here pretty quick now. This means I will be offline for a bit to take care of my wife and the baby. Since this is my first I am going by assumption here, but it could be that there's no update for a month or two at some point. Rest assured this does not mean I will not continue the work. I will simply be..preoccupied with poop daipers and stuff for a short while.. Please don't see the project as "dead" in the meantime because it is very much alive!
If any bugs or suggestions are found in the meantime. Hop on the discord or the forums here and please do mention them!
Discord Don’t forget the discord channel. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! The discord: Discord
Roadmap Also don’t forget the Under a Desert Sun roadmap. You can find it here: Roadmap
Be safe everyone and kind regards, Raymond
First Beta view and some away time
Hi there,
I thought i'd post a post to make sure everyone knows I am still on track and to inform people about my short abscence during the birth and after of our baby!
Progress So, progress on the SP (single player) sliver is going well. I've added a few in editor screens to show where this is going. I have the main track of the first bit of this level figured out and the rough outline of what I want to happen in the SP sliver. Basically it will be the first 10 to 15 minutes of the game.
Inside area
Outside
Since the first look at this level allot of the rooms and area's have been propped up, Meaning more detail and small stuff in the background. I also added effects like foging etc to set the scene more. You can't see it in these images but allot of the wall boundry stuff and interactive objects have been added as well.
Baby! Yeah so I mentioned this before. We're having a baby and it's gonna be here pretty quick now. This means I will be offline for a bit to take care of my wife and the baby. Since this is my first I am going by assumption here, but it could be that there's no update for a month or two. Rest assured this does not mean I will not continue the work. I will simply be..preoccupied with poop daipers and stuff for a short while.. Please don't see the project as "dead" in the meantime because it is very much alive!
If any bugs or suggestions are found in the meantime. Hop on the discord or the forums here and please do mention them!
Discord Don’t forget the discord channel. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! The discord: https://discord.gg/g5fK7Df
Roadmap Also don’t forget the Under a Desert Sun roadmap. You can find it here: https://trello.com/b/CEDvwMAb/under-a-desert-sun
Be safe everyone and kind regards, Raymond
Under a Desert Sun, options update
Hi everyone,
Just a small update but a relevant one. I've added an option that turns of the bloody camera view when hit. Some users requested this. Default the option is on but you can turn it off in the settings in game.
Kind regards, Raymond
Final Alpha update
Hi there,
I am very happy to announce that this is the last alpha post. This means that after this update Under a Desert Sun will enter beta phase. Just to recap:
For Under a Desert Sun I try and work in 3 main phases:
Alpha phase, in this I create functionality and test it by implementing it in wavemaps or test maps. The wave maps will stay as a separate mode when the game is finished next to the singleplayer
Beta phase, will focus on creating the singleplayer and narrative
Pollish phase, an extensive bug fix and pollish period where we make sure everything works optimally and performance is improved as much as possible.
In this post I want to do two things,
Mention the changes in this particular patch
Recap all the things that are now available in beta
Changes and additions In this last alpha update Updated weapon behaviour
Colt1911 is now manual reload
Improved manual reload on most weapons
Fixed Colt, Luger and Bar ammo clip drop bug. They would pop trough gun geometry sometimes.
Fixed bolting bug where you can pull bolt further then it should go.
Updated the tutorial level
All tutorials have new movies that better depict how the current guns work
Added tutorial text and movies on enemy stagger and melee weapons
Flight mechanics
Guns for player and enemies now work
You can dogfight enemies, enemies respawn after being destroyed
Hands animate when grabbing stick and throttle
Alpha recap The alpha phase is there so I can make and test many mechanics that I will use in the singleplayer. Basically I've worked on an entire “adventure game” template which I can now use to make the singleplayer. You, the player, have helped me enormously by testing these mechanics in the wave maps and test maps available in the current early access.
Game mechanics I’ve made a whole bunch of standard game mechanics ready to be used in game. These are things such as:
Health indicators
Hit behaviour
Highlighters for dynamic objects
Animation and sound behaviours
Sound, Particle and animation triggers
Level switch triggers
Menu settings
Physics and collision behaviour for movement and hands
Basically many of the things you need for an VR adventure game that are not standard implemented in Unity.
Weapons I’ve implemented fully controllable melee and projectile weapons. All weapons can be controlled by your VR controllers Melee
Blades and knives that damage the enemy
You can stab and leave them in enemies
You can throw them into enemies
Ofcourse you can slash away as well!
Projectile
You can shoot guns that have impact on surfaces and of course enemies
Almost all weapons are manual reload meaning that when a weapon does not have a bullet in the chamber you manually have to reload it.
You can use weapons to bash some off the enemies, they will stagger
Enemies I’ve made several enemy templates allowing me to make:
Living enemies that shoot guns
Undead enemies that have typical zombie behaviour
Undead enemies that are faster and more agile
Flight mechanics
I’ve made sure that you can fly a plane and fight enemy planes.
Fully controllable airplane
Airplane projectiles/guns
Crash mechanics
Damage mechanics
Friendly AI I’ve implemented a friendly companion in the form of a dog. It auto attacks enemies and is ready to get more functionality like being able to go to and pick up specific things.
Lots of content ready to be used Lastly, you see that I have purchased or made lots of content. All assets such as buildings, guns, enemies, sounds, music and a whole bunch of other things I’ve purchased for use in the singleplayer. The range of things is quite broad but basically I have all the necessary things to make a first singleplayer chapter from desert environments to rainy city scapes with a 1940’s vibe.
I am sure I didn't mention everything I did in the last three years but I hope this gives an idea of the scope of the entire alpha. Personally I am quite happy what I have achieved so far as a lone developer doing this next to his full time job ;) And now we go onward towards the beta! Will post soon when I've got some things to show.
Discord Don’t forget the discord channel. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! The discord: https://discord.gg/g5fK7Df
Roadmap Also don’t forget the Under a Desert Sun roadmap. You can find it here: https://trello.com/b/CEDvwMAb/under-a-desert-sun
Be safe everyone and kind regards, Raymond
Under a Desert Sun Alpha 0.99999
Hi everyone,
As you know I have started adding graphic settings to the menu. I've finalized this with this update adding the following to the settings:
Resolution scale, effects sharpness
Anti Aliasing, effects border sharpness
Texture quality, the resolution and sharpness of the textures
Bloom, post processing effect to add a haze around lighting and glimmer
Ambient occlusion, post processing effect to add small shadows in corners and closely spaced objects
All settings have an effect on performance. You can go all high settings and give your PC a serious workout or go full potato mode for smoothness. Anything in between is also possible: Potato Mode:
High mode:
Comparison(High/Potato):
It is my hope that these options make my game playable for a wide range of systems.
As most of you know I am working on finishing the alpha state of the game. Meaning pretty soon we'll be going into beta which will focus more on making the single-player story.
In this update I've added some finishing touches on:
The dog!
The dog is now with you most of the time. It will attack and distract enemies. I plan on making it do more and add to it's behaviours as the single-player needs. Ideas are welcome in the discord!
I've made a small trailer for this that you can see on the main page!
Melee As you know I have added several melee features over time. The following have been added: Melee weapons
Being able to throw the pointy things!
Being able to bash enemies with guns and shields, which makes them stagger!
Graphics I've noticed the game is getting a but heavier now I add more things to the game. I thought it wise to start adding options for graphics so people can tweak the game. I've added the following post processing options which you can toggle:
Anti Aliasing
Bloom
Ambient occlusion
I plan on adding some more options, each option takes quite a bit of testing so this will happen over time.
Fixes:
I've made sure that some hand animation bugs no longer occur
I've made sure the flight level works again, controls were bugged after an update
Lots of small improvements
Discord Don’t forget the discord channel. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! The discord: Discord
Roadmap Also don’t forget the Under a Desert Sun roadmap. You can find it here: Roadmap
Be safe everyone and kind regards, Raymond
Under a Desert Sun a0.95
Hi there,
I still hope everyone is safe, well and coping with the current situation concerning the coronavirus. For anyone having practical questions about the coronavirus, the dutch government has a pretty complete overview here: Covid19 measures
Please keep in mind that some measures are specific to my country, the Netherlands.
Improved animations and physics behaviour With the addition of melee I noticed that I wanted to give all my enemies a bit more flare. So I am updating a lot of the animations of the enemies. This way they get more character and look more diverse. I’ll be adding this in a few updates as I improve. But below you can see some examples of the improvement in my development map(Special map where I test behaviours). All of the stuff you see below is now live in the game! So go try it out!
In addition to animations I use some more complex physics behaviour to make enemies have more diverse reactions to getting hit by an object. Also visible in some of the gifs below.
Improved undead
Improved swarmers
Improved soldiers
Mummies
Discord Don’t forget the discord channel. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! The discord: Under a Desert Sun Discord
Roadmap Also don’t forget the Under a Desert Sun roadmap. You can find it here: Under a Desert Sun Roadmap
Be safe everyone and kind regards, Raymond
Under a Desert Sun Alpha 0.9
Hi there,
I still hope everyone is safe, well and coping with the current situation concerning the coronavirus. For anyone having practical questions about the coronavirus, the dutch government has a pretty complete overview here: Covid19 info
Please keep in mind that some measures are specific to my country, the Netherlands.
This update has one focus. Melee combat. Before I go into the details I want to reiterate the plan for Under a Desert Sun real quick.
Alpha, Beta, Pre-production Under a Desert Sun’s development knows three main phases:
Alpha, we build functionality and test it using wavemaps and other test maps. The functionality will be used in the singleplayer and the wave maps will stay as a seperate game mode.
Beta, story and singleplayer focus. Building of the maps and creating cinematic stuff
Pre-production, polishing all the elements of the game
As mentioned before with these last bits of functionality the game will soon go into beta. I will spend a seperate update on this once we start with beta explaining the details. And now...
MELEE I wanted to add certain forms of melee combat before going into beta. The main reason being that I find VR fun because you can interact with the world. I wanted to make sure that you’d be able to grab certain objects to shield you from damage and to do damage with yourself. THis first version of melee combat contains the following:
Melee weapons that you can use to hit enemies
You can stab and stick melee weapons in enemies
Melee weapons can be thrown to do a lot of damage
Shields that shield you from damage.
I have added melee weapons to: The tutorial area with explanations:
The desert day and night maps:
The idea is that I now have functionality that can make any object a shield or weapon. So in the future you might find less conventional shields and weapons in the game. For now, try them out and come give some feedback in the discord!
Small stuff I improved the LvlCube table. In my opionion it was quite messy and now it is easier to see that if you're new it's best to start with the tutorial level.
Discord Don’t forget the discord channel. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! The discord: Under a Desert Sun Discord
Roadmap Also don’t forget the Under a Desert Sun roadmap. You can find it here: Under a Desert Sun Roadmap
Be safe everyone and kind regards, Raymond
Under a Desert Sun - Work in progress update
Hi everyone,
As always I want to keep people posted on what I am working on right now. With hand physics out of the way after a few patches I now have time to work on some of the final stuff before we go from alpha to beta. I also am working on the singplayer maps.
Singleplayer map progress The above images are from the singleplayer early on in the first chapter.
Melee weapons As a last addition to player functionality that you will be able to test in the "testwave" maps I want to add melee weapons and shields. I figured it would be logical and just downright cool if you can use melee weapons that lay around as well as the guns that are already in the game. Maybe even pick up a shield and use a handgun captain America style.
As you can see in the image, I have enough weapons to choose from to make this work. I already have a prototype working. THis is a bit to buggy yet. As soon as it works a bit better I will post progress ofcourse!
