UnionVGF Indie Game developers (or thinking about becoming one) corner

Well when using Playmaker use to become a performance drop, but read something about that this performance drop will not show up when building the final game, at least not as great.

Now what I think I will do is to export the part of stronghold I had into a new project, then have different tests in different projects then export them as well when feel they are finished to piece together in a final project, just got to make sure to take a lot of backups.
 
Cool. You can also test the framerate on the final game by downloading a script that shows the FPS counter or using a program that displays the FPS like Fraps or something. Then, just do a quick build and test the game on its own without the editor running. You should see a smooth 60fps, and if not then you know something is up.
 
After much testing, does not seem that I can use the tessellation at all :

GHZuiw6.jpg


Sow went back to Gaia, still using Megascans as it looks way better than default textures.

X2r8O73.jpg
jXY4KBl.jpg


Will have to look for a new way to make caves then. Snow is made with Relief Terrain Pack.
 
Have you ever considered downgrading the graphics and focusing more on functionality and interactivity? I mean, trying to do caves, like you said, can be tricky if you are also seeking AAA visuals. Sometimes, you just need to decide what is most important.

Unless you are planning on a big release on Steam and have lots of money riding on this, then you don't need to beat yourself up over making it look flawless. I mean, there are plenty of games that get by with lesser graphics or stylized graphics (look at Minecraft). And hey, I still enjoy playing Morrowind....

With my game, many times have I said "okay, this is too much trouble or this is just eating too much performance" and I just decided I was better without it. I eliminated anything that was hampering my game's progress or wasn't helping me achieve my original vision of the game.

Think about the things that you know you need the game to do and focus on only things that will help you meet that goal. Anything that gets in the way will slow down your progress or make you find workarounds, and these things should be simply eliminated.

Game design is a balancing act and is about making compromises. It is easy trying things out or coming up with cool ideas. The hard part is deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. And unfortunately, we often don't know whether something will work until we test it. I have had to let some things go that I worked hard on, and it's never easy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLC
Think I will will use some sort of teleport system between the different levels, then can also make underground caves without needing to enter any cave entrance.

Looking into some of the previous assets I bought and this gateway could be used, just need some sort of magic effect.

z0UDMq5.jpg
 
Or you could put the cave or any interior on a separate level of its own. Many games do this. You click a door, then it loads the cave level, then click while inside to be taken back to the world.

Whichever system you use, just make sure you have some sort of spawn point. Whether teleporting or loading a new level, you need to make sure the player appears in the correct spot in the level. I haven't done this very much, so I can't be of much help, but I'm sure you can find a tutorial on spawning after coming back from interior room or whatnot.
 
Fog made with Particle Playground, and using point lights.
Have been thinking about an underground ruin with many inactive gateways, and that have these special tokens that will be used to activate them.

EuQBvj4.jpg
 
There now can teleport:

 
Cool, you might want to add a little sound effect to it. Some sort of digital woosh maybe? I think it would make it feel more dynamic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLC
Yeah that I can do.

Are thinking that each world will have its own colored gateway: Blue for the Winter lands, Yellow for Desert, Green for the great forest area, Red for the Volcanic wasteland and sow on.
 
Using Master Audio together with Universal Sound FX :

 
  • Like
Reactions: Godsmack
Thanks to UNature I can have a lot of grass in the level now and performance is good:

1hLyteg.jpg


Birdflock asset used here, I just assign landing spots and birds will land in the trees and on top of the gateway:

9WDqB2z.jpg


Depth of Field:

rT7jzea.jpg


And now for a backup and then after will look into enemies attacking player again.
 
Godsmack said:
I can't remember if you posted it, but what are your computer specs?
Click to expand...

-Intel Core i7-3770 CPU 3.40 GHZ
-16 GB Ram (Kingston DDR3)
-64 bits operation system - Windows 10
-Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 4GB PhysX CUDA "Windforce 3X"
 
That looks pretty good.

I'm thinking about buying another computer, something mid-range. It'll be used for other stuff, but it will also give me something to test on. If I release my game on Steam, I need to make sure that people can still play it even without high end gaming computers.

My current pc is:
Intel Core i5-3550 @3.30ghz 3.70ghz (never did figure out why it lists two numbers)
16gb ram
win 7 pro 64bit
nvidia gtx 970
 
Bought me a new asset : VR Hands and FP Arms Pack, and I believe that with this I have more control then I had before, I should now be able to make stamina float values decide if can attack or not.

Used playmaker for visual script and works very well sow far, however will have do more tests with switching to Katana and crossbow, and if that works I can do spells as well as I did see animations for that inside the pack I bought.

 
You couldn't make stamina decide if you could attack or not? It shouldn't be too hard, I wouldn't think.

Maybe on attack button pressed, if stamina > 0 then attack, else do nothing. Or make it set a true or false statement like if stamina > 0 then set CanAttack to true, else CanAttack is false, then on button pressed if CanAttack is true, then attack. You could also use a number other than zero if it is easier.

Of course, I haven't used Playmaker for a long time, so I'm not sure how it works with if statements. Also, you said you couldn't do that with your old asset, so I have no idea how that asset was set up.
 
Last edited:
That is just what is planing to do, make a global float of stamina, each attack will take I think 5 for melee and 10 for katana with a starting stamina at 40 that can be upgraded to max 100.
And will have to recharge.
True can use a Boolean with true and false for figure out if can attack or not.

Not sure what I did different this time, but now I am able to access the animator states through playmaker, unlike before.
 
And then test with switching between weapons works, not sure if going to add crossbow, did not work as well as I had hoped.
Also will maybe make the hand part of a secondary "weapon" camera sow hand does not go through objects.



And part where attacking with Katana I think I will try move hand down a bit.

As seen early tests with stamina as well here, but only for melee attacks for now, should be able to copy and paste actions to get it working with Katana as well.
Have a float comparing between Stamina and 0, if equals 0 it will not attack.

By the way I hope starseeker is doing well.
 
You could play with the position of the camera or make the camera's field of view more narrow to help prevent the cut off part of the arm from showing.

Also, you could always add the crossbow later. For that matter, you could just let the player use the katana only and focus on making it as good as possible. Then, you won't have to worry about weapon switching or anything else. Just a thought. Sometimes, it's easier to focus on doing one thing well then trying to make the game do so many things. It can get stressful, trust me.

I also hope Starseeker is doing well. I haven't heard anything about his game for a while now.

I myself have actually been taking a break from my game for a while. I am building a vocal booth in the basement so I can try to do voice overs on the side. And, who knows maybe make it another potential career option. I mean, I have no idea if my game or any game I make is going to be successful enough to make a full-time income. I just want a backup option. Something that I can do from home alongside game development that has the potential for a full-time career as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLC
And changing clipping planes from 0.3 to 0.1 seems to have fixed the cut off part:



But seems to be an issue with stamina here, as I can only see 3 attacks before all of the stamina is gone, sow need more tests to see what is wrong.
 
And fixed stamina by adding a Boolean state, now can make the last attack.
At first thought it was something with animation, but disabling the float then was working, sow I made a new Fsm:

Here checking if stamina is zero that will make the Boolean true or false:

C2ICgrT.jpg


And added in an extra state that checks if the Boolean is true and false before attacking:

UJkRy4X.jpg


Will copy this to the Melee attack as well, will most likely need to add a float comparison there later on and remove the Bool None True when stamina is regenerating.
 
Last edited:
And now hand and weapon will not go through objects (at least not shown on camera) , as moved it to a new camera, added weapon layer to hand as well as katana and set depth higher than the normal camera.



Also I did activate HDR and Directx11 in the newest test.

Have been trying again and again on Stamina recharging, but gets errors about that the script is looping, however I do remember I had some older tests where recharging worked.
 
And stamina regeneration works, in video also shows how I made it within Playmaker:



As all is working now, I think I will remove the GUI boxes and start making the bars again.
However first I will add an extra float compare when using Katana sow need to have 10 stamina in order to use it.
 
It seems odd that you need an event for each level of stamina, but as long as it works, then I guess it's fine.

When you get some enemies to fight, you will probably end up tweaking how long it takes to refill stamina or how much stamina is used per hit. It will depend on long combat lasts and how many attacks you need to kill things. This is why I like keeping code simple. When it comes time for balancing the game or tweaking values, it's good to be able to do quick tests and tweaks. In some cases, I'll even set up temporary code just for game balancing or testing.
 
Well tried Add and Subtract, but that did all result in a loop error, sow now instead uses the set value, sow that is why need an event for each level of stamina (set value to 0, 5, 10, 15 and sow on).

Reason why I like visual is just that, that easy to tweaking the values as well as that takes shorter time to discover problems then if I had been writing the code, oh I remember following tutorials on youtube and there seemed to always be some problems with the code, then had to search around to see if could figure out what was wrong, but I did learn some from it that I am using in the Visual scripting, like the Skill Menu I made long ago.
 
As long as it doesn't affect performance, then it's fine. There really is no right or wrong way to do it.

I sometimes go back over my code and try to see if I can make it more elegant or simple. Sometimes I just clean it up and add comments or formatting to make it easier to read. In these cases, I often make a backup copy just in case I screw it up.

I will say that I had some trouble with visual scripting. It was just hard to read and see what was going on when things got complex. It was one of the reasons I switched to code. However, as long as you can keep it so you can tell what is going on, then I think it is fine.

If you ever run into any logic errors or loops, just let me know. I can try to help.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLC
Thanks for that :txbsmile:.
Seems all is in order for now, I did put in a new float compare and that works, now when have 5 stamina cannot any longer attack with katana, but an attack with melee.
 
Made very simple Playmaker script with smooth look at and follow, and play animator:



Think will try on making it a bit random how attacks, that also can switch between ranged and melee and make it random when they attacks as well, do remember there being a random wait action that can use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back