dev log 03 - catching up

where have i been?

So... I vanished for a few months there. Don't worry! I'm still alive!

I started back at Uni again - it turned out teaching and studying was more than enough to keep me super busy. So busy infact, that I wasn't really able to touch this project much for a long while

However! I'm back at it - chipping away at the code mines....

the tests

So - last time I mentioned that I wanted to run some small tests so that I could start designing levels - I did get around to messing about with a single test stage.

It's nothing fancy, but playing it with a few people with varying network connections helped spot a laundry list of bugs with several of my core systems.

Most of the bugs were benign - but there was one amusing instance where the minigun audio would get stuck on for some players, stacking with each gun present

I also took some time to investigate another networking library - Purrnet. It seems pretty decent and I was able to port most of the game over on an alpha branch

I don't think the way it handles prediction is a good fit for the type of game I am building though - so I'll be sticking to fishnet for the time being

getting better guns

One thing that has been bothering me for a while is the fact that weapons just sort of paste themselves onto the screen once picked up.

To solve this, I've started on the dreaded task of adding Firstperson animations to the game - and I can say that most of the hard work is done

I've only created the art assets for the revolver - but I'm using this as an excuse to try and push the polish on just one asset for now so that I can ensure all my core systems can handle what I want

Here's a showcase of the new firstperson animations:

Still pretty stiff, but LEAGUES better than just having a gun 'pop' onto the screen.

I also took this as an excuse to start improving the shaders for the game; I want to settle on an artstyle rather soon, as it will influence how I go about building the rest of my assets.

Compared to the old gun - the new style is a lot more flat, I want to use simpler textures to try and keep things fairly easy to create for now. I don't have the time to make bespoke handpainted textures for every prop, sadly.

With that said - I think this actually looks much nicer than the old revolver shader/textures.

Anywho - I'll be doing as much as I can to polish this one gun until I'm satisfied with the core systems - I'll try to be a little more consistent with my uploads over the end of year break.

Ciao!