UnrealCrash
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Development update - January 2, 2023
🕑 Added 2023-01-02 20:31:01 +0000 UTCLots of visual optimizations that mostly benefit single-player experience and multiplayer mode on a large maps, then bug fixes related to them and not only them.
I've also did many Star Defenders 2D updates through December, in addition to updates that were done by other SD2D Discord server developers. Plazma Burst 2.5/3 will likely use similar approach to translations as it is done in Star Defenders 2D except it won't delay downloading of translated phrases. But I guess I should try different approaches before adding something like this to Plazma Burst 2.5/3.
Been also working on another mini-game, might publish it eventually. I don't think it will be as interesting to people following me though, since I rarely see people mentioning my horror-ish games.
Visual
- Decreased frequency of lava's idle splashes;
- Fixed bug causing particles to appear out of sync with their position and opacity;
- Made fire more transparent;
- Made fire particles spawn with offset and not always strictly at the center of combustion, also added velocity varying;
- Replaced lava's water splashes with glowing lava particles which were previously only used for idle splashes;
- Fixed bug causing transparent walls to work as z-ordering separators (technique used to sort OpenGL transparent objects, in case of PB2.5/3 glass surfaces are using it to clip characters more accurately);
- Fixed case where knees and held guns could appear on the wrong side of z-ordering separating glass surfaces;
- Implemented z-separation for arbitrary shapes, not just vertical and horizontal ones;
- Added decrease of z-separation influence when 2D sprites are too far from z-ordering separators;
- Prevented bright pixel amount recalculation whenever character dies and gets dimmed;
- Implemented offscreen sprite & geometry unloading which highly improves performance on large single-player scenes;
- Fixed bugs related to laser sights not working with offscreen sprite & geometry unloading;
- Fixed improper particle system deactivations;
- Prevented offscreen water reflection calculation;
- Fixed issue causing last step of laser beams to not being shown unless beam hits anything;
- Made sure bullet holes and bleeding works properly with offscreen sprite & geometry unloading;
- Made spiral trail of Heavy Railgun v04 CS-OneSOneK more noticeable;
- Fixed bug causing decals to be drawn behind glass surfaces;
- Fixed bug causing quality to not update visor sprite quality unless face state is changed;
- Added dimming and visor state restoration after Skin Editor is closed;
- Fixed bug causing sword quality not being updated;
- Fixed bug causing swords to randomly appear behind character whenever character is near z-ordering separators;
- Fixed bug causing improper entity offscreen sprite & geometry unloading in Level Editor;
- Made offscreen sprite & geometry unloading work with Level Editor's turning camera;
- Fixed bug causing some entities like Walker-CS to not appear instantly whenever they appear on screen due to loop sounds attached;
- Fixed bug causing some entities to not have proper debris slice texture.
Interface
- Fixed bug causing improper UI element to be click-assisted to;
- Added Level Editor's clicking sounds to Skin Editor whenever layer is changed.
Gameplay
- Made some optimizations to make level loading faster;
- Fixed optimization bugs that were causing weapons to miss glowing parts as well as laser sights on weapons;
- Fixed physics engine memory leak;
- Implemented logic that prevents characters from starting climbing up on a flat surface if they hold only the A or D key but not the W key (this could prevent unwanted climbing);
- Made it possible for characters to perform step-up logic easier whenever they are going towards very small up-going sliding parts of a floor.
Level Editor
- Prevented some of possible infinite loops that can happen in Level Editor due to improper or too large sizes of some objects;
- Made it more clear when snapping is enabled during dragging (since it might seem like entities are locked in place and can not be moved if user happens to have snapping enabled, especially by accident);
- Implemented better property evaluation checks that would detect level start errors earlier (since object properties allow actual code and expressions in them, for example "20 * ( x++ )" in case if someone would like to use variable the increases during creation of object);
- Added more clear error descriptions whenever in-line comments are added to properties.
Star Defenders 2D
- New sdRoach entity;
- Start of centralized (across all connected servers) databases support;
- Database editor, start of interfaces rework;
- Start of multi-language support (Ukrainian language might almost work);
- Bugfixes related to anti-raiding systems abuse;
- New bullet hit effect;
- Notificator for in-game events while player is not in a game;
- Other optimizations, fixes and visual improvements.
Comments
UnrealCrash
Hmm. At very last it is still possible to press H or V keys to mirror selected objects as well as facing directions of selected entities. Then, it is possible to intercept the level loading with code that copies specific objects and flips them, possibly with any else extra logic. This method could be more useful to make it automatically keep track of symmetry as sometimes level designers can forget about moving something on both parts of the map. Same kind of interception can be used to make copy of a whole level on top or on left for other kinds of interesting effects. Maybe random enemy placing, random ranks etc. -- But if you mean just plain flat mirrors - that is not ready right now. It could be fairly easy to do since it is already implemented for liquid surfaces.
Tempus
I'm wondering if you have anything like "mirroring" In the Level Editor
UnrealCrash
> Hey Eric. Happy new year! Hey! Happy New Year to you too ~ (And everyone else who couldn't decode that twitter post :P ) > I hope you are having a good start to the new year. Seems alright so far. > You mentioning visual optimizations brought back a question I had forgotten about. > Do you have a plan for how off-screen combat will be handled? ( Shooting at enemies that are not on screen ) I hope gameplay-wise nothing would need to be optimized. Game is already able to subdivide world walls into regions of interest which AI will be able to benefit from and have less time spent looping through all the objects in a map. PB2 has similar optimizations except for it used a grid cache of a world that would only benefit point overlap tests. PB2 had line ray-cast cache which is why enemies would frequently shoot some corner of a wall in slow motion whenever they see player. PB2 also does have hibernation-like states for offscreen characters but PB2.5/3 might not have these, unless some map would have hundreds of enemies that should not be simulated and can spawn at the specific moment projectile/entity/player appears near them. I think even PB2 AI was only shooting back at player if player made it obvious he was offscreen, though I can see how it did appear unexpected for most players who just had random projectile flying near offscreen AI enemy. Currently, PB2.5/3 AI do react sort of like squad that can tell each other about threats - so they can either go follow most likely positions of this "threat" (basically fake shadows of a player than follow random waypoints) or even shoot at potential player locations. It all will be tweaked and nerfed in non-multiplayer-like bot modes. > The current way it works may be fine for PVP gameplay but in Coop/Singleplayer being able to easily clear out a whole level by simply shooting enemies that are off-screen slightly ruins the flow in some situations. Well, AI so far do fight back offscreen shooters. I think they mostly did that in PB2 unless I purposely prevented them shooting offscreen too much. > I'm curious if you have any plans to handle this or if you are planning to keep it the way it is now. Surely, I still need to see how it feels and plays in levels. > What is your roadmap for 2023? > I'm curious if you have planned out a roadmap for your projects or plans this year. Would love to see it if it does exist! My closest to-do points include lots of bug fixes (such as players not being able to move in slow-motion while they crouch) and more entities for campaign. In a way I will try to speedrun the needed Level Editor features for campaign levels (auto-assignment of surfaces whenever new walls are made, maybe more usability features), probably better background environment objects (trees are still very conceptual and there is no variety in them nor in any background decorative objects). > Overall Eric keep staying healthy. Been paying attention to all the news in Ukraine since it started and I'm glad to see that you all are holding on and pushing back. I try to keep this type of conversation out of most of my messages but I was worried about the whole situation. Nothing is ended here in Ukraine, but perhaps one day. > I'll definitely check out your mini game you plan on posting. Who knows could be a banger. Always cool to try out new things after all. > Keep up the great work as always and make sure to take some breaks. See you next month! Thank you! ~
Patty
Hey Eric. Happy new year! I hope you are having a good start to the new year. You mentioning visual optimizations brought back a question I had forgotten about. Do you have a plan for how off-screen combat will be handled? ( Shooting at enemies that are not on screen ) The current way it works may be fine for PVP gameplay but in Coop/Singleplayer being able to easily clear out a whole level by simply shooting enemies that are off-screen slightly ruins the flow in some situations. I'm curious if you have any plans to handle this or if you are planning to keep it the way it is now. What is your roadmap for 2023? I'm curious if you have planned out a roadmap for your projects or plans this year. Would love to see it if it does exist! Overall Eric keep staying healthy. Been paying attention to all the news in Ukraine since it started and I'm glad to see that you all are holding on and pushing back. I try to keep this type of conversation out of most of my messages but I was worried about the whole situation. I'll definitely check out your mini game you plan on posting. Who knows could be a banger. Always cool to try out new things after all. Keep up the great work as always and make sure to take some breaks. See you next month!
