Changes In Version 0.1.5.6
New Implementations
- Implemented audio loading system for music tracks and ambience (lowered CPU usage but increased memory usage, no longer reads from hard drive, also keeps less audio files in memory at a time)
- Implemented loading system for menu images (reduced memory usage by about 50 MB)
- Implemented mouse prompt UI system for the following items: Small Crate, Large Crate, Wood Table, and the Wood Chest
- Re-implemented Spike's world file compression script (please post in the forums if this leads to unstable saved games)
- Implemented thirst
Minor Changes
- Added more to the game wiki (new items and updated some olds)
- 'Food' stat in the inventory screen is now displayed as 'Hunger'
- Decreased hunger rate
- All liquid items now restore various amounts of thirst
- Made day/night lighting more visible
- Dust storms increase thirst rate
- Heartbeat sound effects are now a part of the volume system
- Ambient sounds now work correctly and play depending on the time of day
- Main menu says 'Hello' to you now
Bug Fixes
- Fixed: Various possible future issues with the save file that needed to be fixed
- Fixed Bug: When loading a saved game in which a weather effect was active, ambient sounds would not play
- Fixed Bug: Saved games sometimes would experience buggy weather due to a messed up buffer data type
- Fixed Bug: Ambient sound playing at world start
- Fixed Bug: Possible crash involved with the wood chest
New Artwork
- New Artwork: Main Menu (Gazelle)
- New Artwork: HUD (Gazelle)
- New Artwork: Time Of Day Clock (Gazelle)
The New UI And Main Menu
Gazelle (the other half of Seabass And Gazelle Studios) and I decided it was about time we did something about the shabby UI and main menu I had done so long ago. You see Gazelle has never contributed to the development of this game which is why she isn't listed as a developer. She did some wonderful artwork for the game now and it looks fantastic.
[img=http://i.imgur.com/67SeONn.png]
[img=http://i.imgur.com/t4uHjcC.png]
[img=http://i.imgur.com/8dBfglw.png]
Big Optimizations
The music and ambience in Project Explore plays a big role in creating a mood and atmosphere for the game. It also was a big contributor to CPU/Hard disk usage. I never really took the time to make a loading/unloading system since I didn't see much reason to but since I plan on adding more music and additional audio in general it just makes sense to take care of it now.
I have implemented a system to load and unload audio as needed. You may notice that the game takes nearly 80 Mb of additional memory compared to before. This is because whichever music and ambient track is current playing is kept completely uncompressed in memory so that the CPU can stream it without any real usage. When these files are being used the game will unload all othe ambient and music tracks to reduce memory usage.
The main menu images including the splash art in the background are unloaded from memory as well once the game is launched. It only saved about 10 Mb but who cares. That might make it game playable for one more person.
Thirst, Making Survival A Bit More Difficult
Playing the game for even 30 minutes makes you start to crave a bit more of a challenge. Thirst is here and while it will not fill in the gap that is there it will help a bit. All liquid items replenish thirst now so I recommend finding a bottle quickly and living near lakes or ponds. Thirst is like hunger in the sense that if you let it reach zero you will start to lose heatlh. Thirst is affected by temperature like hunger is but will run down a bit faster. Dust storms will also decrease your thirst faster than usual.
Spike's World Compression Script
My wonderful co-programmer Spike wrote a script to compress the world into a much smaller size when saving a while ago but for quite some time there were issues with the save file I was using that was leading to misaligned and corrupt worlds. I believe I have finally fixed it after about an hour of non-stop save, quit, and load testing. While normally I don't see a huge advantage to saving 4 Mb of space for all this hassle there is a MASSIVE difference when it comes to larger worlds.
An 'Extra Large' world takes 64 Mb of space when saved in the default uncompressed format. With Spike's compression script that file is 4 Mb. That's a big difference. One worth all the hassle. So please post in the community discussion bug report section if you have any problems with the new save files. It is important to note that old saves WILL NOT work with this version.
Thanks for reading! Have an amazing day!
OLDER SAVED GAMES WILL NOT WORK WITH THIS VERSION