It's that time again - welcome back for our 67th development update!
This week has been a mad flurry of testing, bug fixing, polishing, and optimization. The features that will be in EA have been 99% locked down at this point, and the goal now is to make sure that everything is solid for launch. NPCs specifically have received a ton of love this week; a few highlights are improved visual randomization, animation randomization, and copious amounts of overall polish.
We made some solid progress onthe optimization front as well; Ian went through a ton of particle systems throughout the game and remade them to improve rendering performance, and Christian improved our back-end zone system which turns off objects when they're not needed.
The last highlight for this week is that Alayna has started work on our next trailer! We've been holding off on putting this together for awhile, so we could focus purely on development. This means that there's a ton of new stuff to share (which you already know if you're reading the blog each week!), and we're looking forward to putting it up... when it's ready! Stay tuned.
Adam
Updated Item spawn lists to ensure all new items are spawning appropriately in game
Extensive testing, identifying and tracking down bugs
Fixed various bugs in main sceneAlayna
Continued work on writing datalog content
Planned out new trailer
Began work on collecting footage for new trailerChristian
Tweaked scene loading system to improve load times
Improved custom zone culling system for significant performance improvements
Fixed various NPC bugs
Converted all NPCs to use smoother "blend tree" movement system
Added slow and fast combat movement sets to all NPCs
Restructured NPC animators to improve the responsiveness of combat
Tweaked Stage 2 Afflicted to have much more sedentary behavior, as well as more variation in their idle animations
Added footstep sounds to all NPCs
Added NPC animation randomization system
Fixed bug with subtitlesPatrick
Enhanced detail in certain areas of the environment
Finished Recylcer and Rehydrator models
Modelled specialized colliders for all stairs in world
Tracking down modelling errors througout the world
Fixing these errors!Ian
Remade a huge amount of particle effects in order to improve performance
Various bug fixesMathew
Enhanced detail in certain areas of the environment
Continued work on props for new area to be added after EA launchJames
Properly integrated full map system; all areas of the environment are now included in the player's minimap!
Improved stability of all doors
Improved broken bone/bleeding status effects, as well as implemented proper UI indicators
Many, many more miscellaneous bug fixesChris
Huge amounts of bug fixing on:
- Datapad menu
- Status menu
- Kiosk menu
- Options menu
- Building Interaction menu