UnrealCrash
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Development update - May 4, 2023
🕑 Added 2023-05-04 15:50:13 +0000 UTCDoes new lava look better (02:07)? It was suggested that old lava was too realistic.
Most changes done in April involve preparations for natural world designing as well as level designing features in general.
I also did some work on Star Defenders 2D updates such as open world support and admin tools.
It is somewhat interesting to me how many of Star Defenders features were originally intended by me for Plazma Burst series (such of open worlds that consist out of connected servers hosted by different people) yet Plazma Burst will likely stick to arena/story kind of a game.
Gameplay
- Update physics of spine-broken characters - parts coming from spine and pelvis no longer spin as freely as they do in PB2 (legs don't turn 180 degrees as easily and head can't be parallel to remaining part of spine);
- Fixed bug causing ledge grabbing to fail if player's sword was stuck in a wall nearby;
- Made it possible to drag ragdolls while climbing ledges;
- Fixed bug causing decals to appear with significant delays on movable walls due to inproper offscreen hiding when sound effect is attached to movable;
- Added wall-sword-stuck cancellation if distance between player's arm and place of stuck is large enough yet player is pulled gently enough in opposite direction (for example with grappling hook);
- Optimized large liquid pools generation;
- Optimized decoding speed of downloaded sounds;
- Fixed bug letting players grab region areas and liquid bounding boxes;
- Made it possible for players to grab other players by their knees rather than feet/pelvis. Same for grabbing by the spine;
- Fixed bad sound effects trimming for looped built-in sounds;
- Implemented flood entity spawn detection in order to prevent game completely freezing or crashing (for example when Hound Walker-CS is spawned on each frame due to level designer's mistake);
- Reworked perspective calculation to more accurate one for offscreen 3D object occlusion (long doors, long water);
- Fixed bug causing in-water sounds to be non-muffled occasionally;
- Added support for "endless" water objects;
- Fixed bug causing background water to be drawn in front of background foliage;
- Updated particle systems to handle water collisions with extended water objects;
- Fixed bug causing rain drop splashes to be darker for background rain particles;
- Fixed bug causing ambience sounds (rain, lava) to be too quiet in 2D mode;
- Fixed UI sounds being silent in 2D mode;
- Reworked sound & stereo to work in exactly same way in 2D mode as it does work in 3D mode;
- Moved extra weapon sounds such as clicks on low ammo to be played on weapon rather than owner's chest - was especially noticeable when player shoots whike swimming;
- Implemented support for "endless" water objects horizontally as well (can be specified to be extended infinitely both ways, won't have physics or affect player/rain particles in any way there though);
- Added texture filtering for far lava objects;
- Added fog support for endless water;
- Added fog support for endless water that has reflections;
- Added fog support for endless lava;
- Disabled spawn of physical engine version of regions that do not have callbacks (perhaps they could work faster like this if there was too many of them);
- Grappling hook how has slight acceleration towards cursor if it hasn't attached to anything yet (otherwise trying to go up the tall wall will occasionally cause grapphling hook to shift randomly from the wall due to rope physics);
- Added decaying 1.25 damage multiplier when sword activation sound was played.
Interfaces
- Fixed hint window size for code editor in fullscreen mode;
- Code editor now can print function parameters when shows hints for built-in functions;
- Fixed bug causing focus loss on save attempt in code editor while in a fullscreen mode;
- More proper notifications location while editing code in fullscreen mode;
- Fixed bug causing notifications not redirecting level designer to object with an issue;
- Fixed bug causing menu image to be stretched when game window is resized yet not active;
- Allowed pressing Ctrl+S while editing properties of something like map description yet text field is still in focus;
- Some design changes to multiplayer game mode selection screen;
- Better error screen if game can not run for some reason.
Level Editor
- Allowed execution blocking timers in auto-start triggers;
- Level startup is prevented when level verification has caused an error now;
- Added custom shape regions (they can call triggers when something enters/leaves/stays in them);
- Reworked regions into walls/doors-like class so they will likely have similar properties except for regions being invisible and not synced;
- Added region destruction on level restart;
- Added attachment support for regions (they can be attached to movables now);
- Fixed bug causing parameters panel to show error messages when in-line comments appear in values;
- Did some optimization to amount of information about walls/doors/regions that is stored in compiled version of map;
- Fixed issues such as objects pasted with Ctrl+V into structure list were kept following the mouse;
- Fixed issue causing lack of fog effect on really long doors;
- Added possibility to shift and rescale natural tetures (grass, cliffs, sand, dirt - for generated background terrain as well);
- Added options for foliage and background terrain, similar to ones that exist for shadowmap generation;
- Fixed bug causing trees to disappear on "KEEP" update mode;
- Fixed bug causing foreground grass to not spawn even though it appears on "KEEP" update mode;
- Fixed bug causing fog to have wrong color if map was launched without shadows for the first time;
- Fixed bug causing view to be not updated instantly when designer switces between 2D and 3D modes;
- Added live update for water objects when depth and infinitiness is updated;
- Added live fog update for liquid objects;
- Fixed issue causing inverse fog value on foreground doors when fog is too dense;
- Fixed strange grass elevation on angled terrain;
- Fixed bug not allowing creation of walls with cliff surface as basis;
- Disabled grass generation underwater;
- Disallowed upside down grass generation in rare cases;
- Fixed issue with assymetrical natural materials application on symmetrical geometry (one side has grass, other one doesn't);
- Made it so blueprint mode hides environment geometry;
- Fixed bug causing compilation mismatch warnings on map load when partial preview was enabled during save;
- Fixed crash when map designer deletes object and clicks on parameters panel;
- Added visual rectangles around trigger groups;
- Added support for object drag and drop into groups (in addition to it being possible to do via structure view);
- Made it possible to move dragged object out of the current group by right clicking;
- Fixed issue causing concave-shaped regions to call callback triggers multiple times (which could double the anti-gravity-like force, for example);
- Implemented better triangulation algorithm for concave walls since previous one would occasionally fail (for example on star defender from cardboard star defender map);
- Added possiblity to drag items strictly horizontally, vertically and diagonally while level designer holds Shift key after dragging was started;
- Changed lava appearance to be "less realistic". Not sure if it is better?
- Implemented new UV application algorithm for natural sufaces so there is significantly less probability to end up having some side that has extremely stretched surface texure (previously it was a simple plane projection from top right but it does not work that good with walls that have 45 degree sides);
- Disabled contour calculation for backgrounds walls (optimization);
- Made it so few walls having same material do not have same texture offsets;
- Fixed accuracy errors that caused more assymetry in terms of where cliff and grass are applied;
- Fixed wrong texture (ground) instead of cliff on corners of natural walls;
- Fixed triangulation issues for thin natural walls that previously resulted into holes;
- Fixed index shift when front face triangulation was built for large concave natural walls.
Plazma Burst 2 updates
- Re-added chat logs for new servers upon moderation team request;
- Better map search and map search by years.
Star Defenders updates
- Open world mode support;
- Players who have started playing at the same time on a same server will spawn together as well now;
- New Cut Droid enemy;
- Matter stealer enemy;
- More cable node logical types, sensor types and buttons;
- Some admin tools including bans and browser fingerprinting;
- More server config settings (for example PvP mode damage scaler, list of allowed BSU modes, server access password etc);
- Star Defenders is officially an open source project now;
- Water can flow a bit more fluidly;
- Bugfixes & optimizations;
- Some project folder structure reorganization;
- Bot factory supports coding;
- Stream logger feature which is available to server admins (for streaming their server events to stream services perhaps?);
- Other additions from other project contributors. More updates are here https://github.com/Eric-Gurt/StarDefenders2D/commits/main
Comments
UnrealCrash
^^
UnrealCrash
Hmm. I guess I'll add some way to recolor/alter lava texture.
eso matic
So Awesome, wow!!!
UnrealCrash
That sounds like a good plan :D
Nyove
really love the background terrain generation! game looks awesome! :D
AnarchE
doing well. Looking for a job at the Airport so I can travel for free.
UnrealCrash
It is just a fog support demo. Depth can be any value. Both start and end along depth axis are adjustable, it is a property of surface - object that keeps texture and material information. I think I'm fine. How are you?
AnarchE
Another month, another great update. Those doors feel odd to me with how they will extend to the background that far out. Is there a fix or an option for that? Btw, how are you doing?
UnrealCrash
> Hey Eric! Hey! > I think the new lava effects fit a lot better than the previous ones. > As you mentioned the previous lava textures were too realistic compared to the rest of the game causing them to stand out more than the rest. > I think overall this fits in with the rest while also having that lava design so I think this was a step in the right direction! Nice to hear, I was actually not sure. > Loving the new map design features. Especially the background design in the video. > I'm getting a lot of ideas and overall can't wait to see what people create with this. > I can't remember if you showed off the grappling hook before. > I'm quite excited to see what can be done with the grappling hook loving all the new movement features you are adding overall! Probably it was muted and had no length change UI. > I'm assuming most of these gadgets such as the jetpack and the grappling hook won't be accessible instantly in the campaign right? > And will it be possible to disable and enable each with the use of tools in the editor? It surely is possible to manage availability of all these features. Can't say so far as to what will be available in campaign in general, but likely players will start with something like self-boost. I assume it will be critical for progression anyway if something like this will be in campaign in the first place. > I pretty much think you nailed the water effects in the game. The texture is clean and the way it reacts to external stuff such as bullets or player movements is really nice. Love the water sounds and the way it muffles weapon sounds. > Would love to comment more on triggers but I would need to personally try them out first before I could give a talk more about them. > I'm glad to see that triggers have really been opened up in terms of customization and I cant wait to see the possibilities in the future or what you use them for in the campaign. > Any plans in future posts to discuss or show AI enhancements? I've asked something similar before but I believe we have yet to see more of a detailed showcase of the improvements to Enemy AI or Squad AI teammates. I'll definitely show what is done with AI characters soemtime. I've been delaying any work related to them such as ability to use switches to open paths/use elevators simply due to focusing on other stuff. Essentially it feels like even simplest AI could be enough for enemies while something like being able to load 3D models as part of background decorations will be more required at this point. Some Star Defenders 2D experiments made me think that advanced & smart AI isn't always the most fun to play against. Well, maybe only if it is your teammate. > I'm somebody who is very interested in how they behave in gameplay and quite invested in stuff like that so would love to hear more in a future post what do you think? I could showcase some of stuff I guess. I noted it to upcoming plans. > As always see you next time and keep up the good work! Thank you ~
UnrealCrash
> The new lava is better than before for sure. I still think it sticks out a bit, but I can't pin down why exactly that is the case. I wonder. > Overall these backgrounds have so much potential for atmosphere. Curious to see how more city-like environments could look like Kind of not sure how they could be made so far. I mean one thing could be moving decorations to background by specifying z-offset, but then 3D models would have been better at times. It probably needs support for texture 3D models as decorations. > I presume regarding doors we can dictate how far (if at all) into the background they extend? Yes, both where they start and where they end through z-axis. Should be possible to make background doors like that, sort of. > The grappling hook mechanically looks great. All the mobility options players and AI will have are going to lead to some great gameplay > Edit: Is the double jump still a piece of equipment or is it more of a default ability? If its still equipment I presume then that we can use multiple kinds of equipment at the same time (IE jetpack + grappling hook)? Grappling hook so far is separate from boosts - can be used independently from them. But only one boost is allowed so far (double jump, self-boost or jetpack). Yet, the "nope-ing out" boost is also independent. Sword climbing is also independent, but more like depends on sword model. I guess it could be possible for map designers to combine boost mechanics multiple in one.
tehswordninja
The new lava is better than before for sure. I still think it sticks out a bit, but I can't pin down why exactly that is the case. Overall these backgrounds have so much potential for atmosphere. Curious to see how more city-like environments could look like I presume regarding doors we can dictate how far (if at all) into the background they extend? The grappling hook mechanically looks great. All the mobility options players and AI will have are going to lead to some great gameplay Edit: Is the double jump still a piece of equipment or is it more of a default ability? If its still equipment I presume then that we can use multiple kinds of equipment at the same time (IE jetpack + grappling hook)?
Patty
Hey Eric! I think the new lava effects fit a lot better than the previous ones. As you mentioned the previous lava textures were too realistic compared to the rest of the game causing them to stand out more than the rest. I think overall this fits in with the rest while also having that lava design so I think this was a step in the right direction! Loving the new map design features. Especially the background design in the video. I'm getting a lot of ideas and overall can't wait to see what people create with this. I can't remember if you showed off the grappling hook before. I'm quite excited to see what can be done with the grappling hook loving all the new movement features you are adding overall! I'm assuming most of these gadgets such as the jetpack and the grappling hook won't be accessible instantly in the campaign right? And will it be possible to disable and enable each with the use of tools in the editor? I pretty much think you nailed the water effects in the game. The texture is clean and the way it reacts to external stuff such as bullets or player movements is really nice. Love the water sounds and the way it muffles weapon sounds. Would love to comment more on triggers but I would need to personally try them out first before I could give a talk more about them. I'm glad to see that triggers have really been opened up in terms of customization and I cant wait to see the possibilities in the future or what you use them for in the campaign. Any plans in future posts to discuss or show AI enhancements? I've asked something similar before but I believe we have yet to see more of a detailed showcase of the improvements to Enemy AI or Squad AI teammates. I'm somebody who is very interested in how they behave in gameplay and quite invested in stuff like that so would love to hear more in a future post what do you think? As always see you next time and keep up the good work!
UnrealCrash
Currently game has built-in ActionScript 3.0 as well as different versions of JavaScript for sandboxed execution. For performance reasons I'll likely stick to some of recent JavaScript versions. That code snippet is JavaScript. Game itself originally was written in ActionScript 3.0 but I'm currently trying to keep project as language agnostic, meaning I'll be able to port whole code base to languages like C#, JavaScript, ActionScript (probably won't) etc. In-game user interfaces, all shaders, geometry operations are written by myself. In fact all models are just .obj files. It still does rely on some libraries for visuals, audio, networking though. But then network is built on top of UDP messages and I made any logic for delta compression and message delivery checks.
UnrealCrash
PB3 liquids can work similarly. So far liquids can only reflect on the one side though. Other than that - they look like a floating jello.
wytily
Enriched backgrounds that change with perspective and flowing water make the game more vivid and interesting. Can anti-gravity water areas seen in some saw maps in PB2 be implemented in PB3?
zooi
Sorry if this was explained elsewhere but what scripting language is that? It looks like JS. Also, what language is the engine itself written in?
