Hey everyone,
We hope you enjoyed the last Developer Briefing! We wanted to round up some of the main topics from the AMA and our Dev Interview in one place, so if you haven’t caught up on Dev Brief #194 yet, we highly recommend taking a read here, plus, you’ll be able to check out progress on the British rework!
As promised, in this week’s dev brief we’ll be sharing more on the updates to the game’s favourite faces - which players who joined us for the Patch 14.3 PTE session will have been able to check out for themselves.
Patch 14.3
We are aiming for this next patch to release on the 14th of September, and are currently in the process of evaluating and scoping your feedback from the Patch 14.3 PTE session. Some reports of changes to the FOV on ultrawide, particularly when in tanks, are also being worked on, and the final changelog will be shared on release!
Character Head Improvements
All in-game heads have been upgraded in both their textures, and mesh, to fix technical issues as well as increase the realism and sharpness of the current head models. Some heads, such as the US default head, however, received more care and attention to increase the detail of the model and textures but also bring them up to a higher level of realism and standard than other in-game head models.
During these upgrades, the eyes were a key focus point, with increased sharpness in the textures but also improved shadows in the eyes. This adds an extra level of detail and realism to all in-game head models. - Luke, Junior Character Artist
Soviet Forces Improved Character Heads
German Forces Improved Character Heads
US Forces Improved Character Heads
British Forces Improved Character Heads
Textures
All heads were given some slight adjustments to the overall textures, with sharpening, colour correction, and contrast passes, to help them blend better.
US Solider Texture Adjustments
False Eye Shadow
To add a level of realism and help the eyes appear to be sunken into the eye socket, I created false shadows at the top of the eyes for all the heads. This is a very basic change that is very effective. - Luke, Junior Character Artist
Eye Shadowing
Mesh
Acting as the foundation for the character models, the mesh has been updated for soldiers across all forces.
Head Seam Lines
Any visible seam lines have also been softened to avoid hard edges.
Head Seam Adjustments
Eye Mesh Adjustments
To start, I created some measuring tools in order to correctly measure the eyes to the correct scale for the eye and eyeball, and then worked on scaling the eyes. The shape of the eyelids on some heads also received some adjustments to either create better symmetry, or create a more anatomically correct shape and proportion. - Luke, Junior Character Artist
The eye direction on most character heads has also been adjusted so that it faces directly forward, a process that required manual tweaking for each head.
Eye Mesh Adjustments
Not So Hairy Heads
While looking at the existing hair in Hell Let Loose, we made the decision to look at increasing the visual fidelity.
While we’d love to look at offering a variety of hair style alternatives in the future, including the possibility of the quintessential moustache, particularly for the British forces, some of the older character models had slightly lower resolution textures, and a more flatly painted look to the hair.
In Patch 14.3, you’ll find the previous textures have now been changed to a close shaven texture:
To remove the hair and create the shaven head texture, I used the clone stamp and textures from the other in-game heads and pulled the Normal, Colour, Roughness and AO to create a shaven texture that matches the other in-game heads. - Luke, Junior Character Artist
Shaven Texture
Adjusting ‘Default Guy’ Albert
As many people had pointed out in this Reddit post, the US forces default character head, while offering some unique charm, was in fact in need of a bit of a TLC.
I adjusted the mesh to be more anatomically correct. Changes were made to the head shape, as well as positions to the major landmarks of the face such as the ears, mouth and eyes. - Luke, Junior Character Artist
US Forces Albert - Mesh Adjustments
With new textures and mesh adjustments, Albert has now re-grown his eyebrow after a terse shave in the trenches left a bald patch - or at least, that’s what we can assume.
Brought inline with the other models by fixing the head shape, eye position, symmetry, shadowing and direction, as well as tweaks to the ear position, mouth, and more, Albert still retains his “What did I sign up for?” appeal, but in a more balanced manner.
Although we’ll be sure to miss those puppy dog eyes, his new look will help him welcome new and existing players to Hell.
British Medium Tank Poll Results
3,000 of you took the time to vote on the poll for which British medium tank we should introduce for North Africa as part of the British forces rework, with the Crusader Mk.III taking the win with 1.9k votes!
Stay tuned for a future dev brief where we’ll share more on progress.
Common Questions
For answers to questions on game meta, bugs, and more, please read Developer Briefing #194, check out the AMA on Reddit, or visit the Discord to read the full answers in the #ama-july-2023 channel, plus catch up on the Dev Interview!
Community News
Community Run Giveaway
The BEER Haus community are giving Hell Let Loose players the chance to win a Mini Keg gaming PC, built by Savage Industries, as a thank you for supporting and growing The BEER Haus Hell Let Loose server!
The Specs:
- ASUS ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming WiFi 6e MOBO
- Intel i9 13900K CPU
- Zotac 3070 Ti
- G-Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB
- WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X NVMe
- EVGA SuperNOVA 850 GM, 80 PLUS Gold 850W
- Hyte Revolt 3 Case
- EK Nucleus AIO Dark All-in-One Liquid CPU Cooler
Huge thanks to Saucymuffin, TheFreshBakedGoods, RazBora, Terrydactyl, makL, molotovgrl, & squiddsTV for putting this together! We'll also be throwing in some Hell Let Loose DLC, so the lucky winner can boot up then suit up!
Open to US residents.
Giveaway Closes: 30th of September
Enter now: https://gleam.io/zhnct/beer-haus-mini-keg-giveaway
War Correspondent, Content Creator, and Community Videos
Make sure to post your videos in the #hll-videos channel in the Official Hell Let Loose Discord for a chance to be shown in future Developer Briefings!
20 Intermediate Tips For Hell Let Loose
Whether you've been playing for a while or are new to the battlefield, GoudaGamer shares some great tips on how you can improve your game sense in this video: https://youtu.be/9OLgWl43ASo?feature=shared
The Five Stages of Hell Let Loose
McBluffin Gaming breaks down the five stages every Hell Let Loose player goes through when picking up the game for the first time.
This felt a bit too personal, we won’t lie: https://youtu.be/N1N2YAksql0
THE Best Sniper Experience in Gaming
Our favourite recon duo are back in action on El Alamein!
Watch SoulSniper’s recent video here: https://youtu.be/Fw1z_zGPW1c?feature=shared
Join the Conversation
Submit clips and artwork by joining the Discord for a chance to be shown in a future dev brief!
Discord: https://discord.gg/hellletloose
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HellLetLoose/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hell_let_loose
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HellLetLoose
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellletlooseofficial/
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HellLetLoose