Hey everyone!
It’s been a little while since the last devlog. We’ve been very busy with the Gameplay Reveal trailer from two weeks ago, which was then followed up by Gamescom.
However, we’re back now! So let’s discuss what we’ve been working on since devlog 007.
News
As previously mentioned, we finally released the Gameplay Reveal Trailer for shapez 2! Thank you to everyone who joined us for the premiere and supported the trailer.
In case you missed it, you can find the trailer here:
If that got you as excited as we are, be sure to wishlist the game and follow shapez 2 to stay up to date with the news!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
Reinforcements
The astute among you may have noticed a second logo at the end of the trailer. We are working with Gamera Games – who you may know from Dyson Sphere Program – to publish the game in Greater China & Japan. They will also handle the Simplified Chinese translations for our announcements and devlogs!
Additionally, we have enlisted the help of Game Drive, a games marketing agency. As we’re moving ever closer to the Early Access release next year, marketing becomes more and more important for the growth of the game, so we need some extra manpower!
Alpha 7 Build
Alpha 7.4 of shapez 2 is currently available on our Patreon and has been for a bit. A lot of the changes you’ll read about below have already been implemented in this build. If you’re interested in giving this new build a go, be sure to subscribe to our Patreon to get access, alongside a host of other great benefits!
Devlog 008
So with all that out of the way, let’s dive into the new devlog.
Rendering & graphical performance
After watching the trailer, a lot of you had questions about the performance of the game. Once you really got going in shapez 1 and made a huge factory, or made a make-everything-machine or two, the simulation could start to lag quite badly. So understandably, when people saw the graphical uplift of shapez 2, people assumed this would make things worse. Well, fret not!
Unlike Shapez 1, Shapez 2 is made in Unity with C#. This gives us a lot more tools to optimise the simulation and prevent unnecessary use of your system’s resources. One of the changes is that the game now supports multi-threaded processing, so the simulation and the game won’t run on just one of your CPU’s cores. The biggest change however, is how we handle off-screen simulation. Instead of just fully simulating everything in your factory at all times, we’re limiting the simulation of the portion of your factory that isn’t currently on your screen to just 2 times a second – down from the full 60 times a second – while still running at full precision. You won’t notice a mechanical or visual difference at all. However, it’ll make sure the simulation runs smoothly regardless of the size of your factory.
We stress tested this system on a mega factory of 360.000+ buildings and it works great. In fact, you saw this very factory in the trailer! Our goal here is to allow for about 1 million buildings on a modern PC build for the release of the game.
Do keep in mind that the massively improved graphics will mean you most likely won’t be able to sneakily play Shapez 2 on the school computer as you could (and we know you did) with shapez.io. You will require a bit more computing power to run this at a smooth frame rate; without any tweaking of the settings, that is!
To counteract the increased resource demand of the game somewhat, there will be a host of graphical options to tinker with, alongside a ‘minimal mode’. This mode will reduce the visuals to an absolute minimum and allows Shapez 2 to be played on laptops. This mode has been tested on a Microsoft Surface Pro and runs fine!
Exact minimum and recommended system requirements are to be determined and published closer to the release of the game. If you want to give it a try right now though, be sure to download the free alpha version through our Discord server! As the game still has a lot of optimisation to go in its current state, it’s safe to say that if your PC runs Alpha well, it will be able to run it in the future.
Trains progress
We know you’re excited for space trains, and we’re working hard to make them a reality. You’ve seen them in action in the trailer, so you’ll have a good idea of the vision we have for them. Do keep in mind that the trains are still subject to change.
However, a lot of work still needs to be done to make trains fully operational, but we’re on track to have the trains depart for Early Access next year. We hope to do a devlog dedicated to trains in the future, once they’re finalised.
Barreling
In devlog 006, we introduced you to the world of fluids. One of the topics we addressed here was fluid packing and cross-island transport. As there’s no way of moving fluids directly between islands, you’d need to produce barrels to keep the fluid in, fill the barrels, then move it by your preferred mode of transportation. Once at your destination, you’d empty the barrels and pump the fluid back into your pipe system.
We feel like the process of producing barrels didn’t quite fit. Having to deliver shapes somewhere to produce the barrels made fluids a hassle to use. It didn’t add anything interesting to the mechanics, just more tedium.
Instead, the Fluid Packer building will take the fluid and ‘freezes’ it into blocks that can be transported however you wish.
Auto pinning side goals
As the side goals are very important for your progression through the game, we want to make them a bit more prominent. Now, side goals are automatically pinned if you produce the shape they require.
We will continue working on the early game and research experience and are planning to add a full tutorial.
Visualisation layers in overview mode
We added brand new visualisation layers to the overview mode. You watch a neat little demonstration here:
The layers now include:
- Islands grid
- Shape Patches
- Fluid Resources
- Shapes
- Explored Areas & islands
- Tunnels
- Train Items
- Train Lines
- Train Stations
You can enable multiple layers at once, or even all at once if you hate being able to see what you’re doing.
Island selection toolbar
We added a new Island Selection toolbar, allowing for quick and easy access to the different types of islands you can place. You’ll also be able to select multiple islands and delete them all at once. It’s easy to accidentally delete a lot this way, but don’t worry, you can undo everything if you mess up.
Packer Building
We’ve been working with the Packer and Unpacker buildings. The Packer building allows you to stack many shapes of the same type and color and pack them into one item. The Unpacker, as you may expect, does the opposite.
The main purpose for these packs is to transport the shapes via train. Pack the shapes, insert the packs into a train, remove the packs from the train, then unpack everything again. It’s also great for massively increasing the throughput on a belt, as long as you have enough Packers. Details on how this building will work together with trains, will come in the devlog dedicated to trains.
Graphical Improvements
A lot of time has been spent on improving the graphics of the game across the board. Improvements have been made to the materials of the Space Station, all buildings, the playing field as well as global lighting effects. We hope you liked what you saw in the trailer!
One of the main improvements we’ve been working on is LOD (Level of Detail). For those who don’t know, a common technique to increase performance is to lower the LOD of models that are far away from the camera. This technique is especially important to make the game run smoothly when zoomed out, like in Overview mode.
We don’t want the decrease in LOD to look jarring when you zoom out though, so we’re trying our best to make this look smooth and as unnoticeable as possible. This is done by having multiple stages of LOD, so the transition from one LOD to the next isn’t as big. We’re also fading out the shadows now, instead of simply removing them.
Now, we’re finally caught up! Again, apologies for the lack of devlogs lately. Now that the trailer is out and we have some reinforcements, we hope to bring you new devlogs every other week.
If you’d like to support the game, please wishlist the game here on Steam and follow the Shapez 2 page if you’re not already. It really does help us out a lot.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
We hope you enjoyed this devlog and can’t wait to show what else we’re working on!
~Tobias & the shapez 2 team