Hello Drakelings!
Welcome to the fifteenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of October 2021.
Not a whole lot to go over this month, as most of what was worked on was behind the scenes with the programming team, so this will be a smaller devblog. That said, as of this devblog we have just implemented the very first iteration of the animation overhaul into the Test Environment build of the game, so if you would like to check it out, boot into that version. Please keep in mind that this system is extremely work-in-progress, and what you are going to see as of this first iteration is nowhere near final—a lot has been broken, since many things need to be hooked back up into this new system in order to be functional again (which is part of the team’s main focus in the coming weeks). I will include more information about this system towards the end of the devblog, as this is a pretty major overhaul to the OHDcore framework, and many of the features that are in/planned to be in will be depending on this system.
On to the October recap:
Expansions
Operation: Invictus
The Emissary Development Group Handstop & Witt Machine Big Body Tu-Tu-Three models that were shown off in the last devblog have been completed:
The character artists also put more work into the Eastern European militia model:
Maps
The level designers continued to experiment with lighting on Risala, Khafji, and Monte Cassino:
Risala
Khafji
In the photo above with the arches, you can see a new sand particle effect that the level designers are starting to mess with and add to Khafji as well
Monte Cassino
Objects, Models, and Textures
World Props and Environment Assets
Last month the environment artists worked on an updated art and optimization pass to our desert environments:
Soon, the team will begin doing another art pass on these maps to add more detail and make the environments look more war torn and lived in. They are also focusing on optimization along the way since they will be redoing many buildings, which allows them to do things like reduce draw calls and improve overall performance.
This is an example of our new work flow for this art pass. Buildings will now feature a layered material composed of multiple materials that will allow us to add detail across the buildings in a more flexible way. We are not currently doing this on the buildings you see now. The current building’s purpose has always been to be placeholder while the level designers and environment artists hone in on a more finalized map creation and art direction work flow, so it has been much easier for them to use more basic buildings while so many other elements of the maps are still in flux/constantly changing.
Some more images of props that were created for this scene:
Upcoming and WIP Features
Animation Overhaul
The new animation overhaul that I mentioned at the start of the devblog is now in the Test Environment. Once again, this system is extremely work-in-progress, and what you are going to see as of this first iteration is nowhere near final—a lot has been broken, since many things need to be hooked back up into this new system in order to be functional again (which is part of the team’s main focus in the coming weeks).
This system is going to allow us to do many things to improve the gunplay, the overall player controller, and open up greater potential for many other systems and features that we are planning on adding. This includes, but is not limited to: completely procedurally generated animation blending (which allows us to do things like reloading while in ADS), vaulting and mantling implementation, bipodding and weapon resting, support for weapon customization (so we can do things like make it so the hand stays with a foregrip if it’s moved up and down the rail without needing to add in new animations, for example), alternate optics (such as being able to use a scope plus a canted optic), and so on and so forth. In addition, this system also reduces the amount of animations required per set for any given weapon/item that will be utilizing this system, which means that not only will our animators be able to become more efficient with the volume of animations they produce (which means weapons can get set up and ready for gameplay sooner), but it also means that modders will technically also be required to do less to set up a weapon for any mods they are making, thereby making it easier to create more modding content overall.
We cannot stress enough how major this update is, and all of the doors that it is opening up for us to be able to pursue a lot of features that we and many others want to see—we can’t wait to get this system fully fleshed out and configured/polished up, so that we can start working on all of these other features.
Bots/AI
More work was done to the bot AI last month. Now, all bots can join and create squads, spawn at rally points and FOBs, and they will sprint, crouch, and go prone depending on whatever scenario they are in (such as getting shot at). In addition, a number of parameters were exposed in the SDK so that modders have some more options to tweak the bots to their liking.
Next up, the AI programmer will be polishing up existing systems, and putting some more focus into expanding the tactics and strategies that the bots will be able to implement in certain scenarios (such as bounding/peeling, flanking, and so on). There will be a lot to do here, so this probably will not happen right away, but now that a lot of these baseline systems are implemented and in a playable state, it will be easier for the AI programmer to start focusing on enhancing the PvE experience further.
—
That’s all for this month. I apologize for getting this devblog out late in the month—October-December tend to be extremely busy for us, so it has been hard to find the time to get to this when I had hoped to. I will try to get the next one out sooner, and we should have a lot more content to show off next month as well!
Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and be sure to follow our Steam announcements to track updates. See you all next time!
-Goomes, Lead Community Manager