Futzing about with Tribes 2 modding and "making 3d models" (read: hot garbage) in Bryce 3D.
#ue4-general
livid haven
Got the Torque 3D engine license. Did absolutely nothing with it because I was like 12 and couldn't figure out how to code anything.
Fast-forward, went to Full Sail University. Fast-forward, went to GDC Online and may or may not have attended a Playboy hosted party that was open-bar despite being under age, exchanged business cards with a pretty girl who happened to be dancing on a table but also attending GDC, end up dating long distance, has friends working at Hi-Rez, gets me an interview, get job, be in industry.
Moral of the story: Network.
dire storm
Like old school tribes with disc launchers?
dire storm
I absolutely loved Tribes
livid haven
And part of why being mislead all along the way and assigned to some MOBA clone being protyped with ripped assets was super not cool.
south ridge
@livid haven Bryce 3D was great
I made tens of scenes based around terrains and basic shapes with it
dire storm
I just got jump scared by a damn youtube video.... I hate it when the sound from one video is normal and then the next one is WW3 tactical nukes landing in your house ffs!!
livid haven
I mean, Bryce 3D was probably garbage compared to what one should have been using to try to do any kind of 3D for games, but I just liked 3D stuff so I totally cobbled together bullshit using boolean operations and grouping together primitives in Bryce 3D.
dire storm
I'm starting to look at online options for a software engineering degree I can blow my GI bill on. I considering going to a local college here in Houston but I want to minimize my campus time so I have more time on learning UE4
I never used it π
livid haven
I went to FSU for the Game Dev degree.
They taught me what I needed to get an entry level job, I taught my self everything else so I could do more than be employee 3453465 at EA waiting to get laid off when the project is over.
dire storm
full sail. Yeah I considered it when I first got out of the military however after reading some of the reviews I was very skeptical of the school.
livid haven
A) Any degree is, itself, worthless in the industry. No one cares about the degree.
B) What you learn getting the degree is what matters.
FSU puts out a new set of graduates every month. When I was there, between like 10 and 60 people per month.
All with practically identical training.
So you've got a fuckton of competition out the gate if you're just scraping by on doing just what's assigned.
livid haven
Depending on the degree/field, sure.
south ridge
Mine got me into USA way more easily π
livid haven
Ah, well, that's a special circumstance.
You're talking about dealing with work visas and such
south ridge
To anyone who is in doubt, I would suggest going for applied physics/electric engineering
It wasn't a work visa, just normal visa. I got married and it helped for that as well
dire storm
Just watched the trailer for Ashen. I like the atmosphere
livid haven
So what role did the master's degree play?
You need to bust your ass to go well beyond just the course material at Full Sail to be worth taking a look at, is the moral of that story.
And I insist that, if you have the discipline and dedication (neither of which are easy), then the resources are there for the taking to teach yourself most of what you need to get a job in the industry without paying for an expensive college degree.
devout gulch
truth ^
livid haven
Also, FSU runs you on a schedule like it's your day job - you're a full time student 40 hours a week, you're not holding down a job and doing this.
devout gulch
I work as programmer and do not have any relevelant degree ;
dire storm
Sion I won't be paying for it. GI Bill and whatnot. I'm still looking around at my options. I'll probably stick with an online degree while I cram as much game dev knowledge I can find. I have a ton of ref material already π I've picked up some C++ programming books that were highly recommended and I'm doing that as well.
livid haven
That said, despite the resources being available to self-teach, that doesn't make it unthinkable to get a degree - if you don't feel like self-teaching jives with you, then go to a school that's going to give you a course structure and an academic environment that keeps you disciplined and on task.
devout gulch
and it is no like I have problem look/switch for jobs. Last time I looked around i didn't even bother go to some interviews ;s
brave horizon
yall ever used remote mac servers for building?
livid haven
Yeah, degrees are really irrelevant for most game dev engineering jobs.
dire storm
Where do you work iniside?
livid haven
Unless you've got some expensive fancy degree that really merits a "Whoa", no one cares.
devout gulch
Flying Wild Hog
devout gulch
people will first look at you experience, then you project and then how will fit into company
dire storm
I had wanted to play shadow warrior but had never gotten around to it π¦
livid haven
Yep.
devout gulch
well if you will be patient it will problably given away for free for like 5th time this year ;d
livid haven
I've interviewed candidates, reviewed their resumes.
I want to know what you've done, how you did it, what you used to do it, in summary, as quickly as possible on your resume.
I don't want to spend more than 30 seconds figuring out if you're even in the slightest bit qualified to apply.
south ridge
@livid haven Masters degree smoothed out all interview processes and also the knowledge gained during the study is super helpful for my work
livid haven
I want to figure out if I should want to know more and spend more time reading your resume, ASAP.
dire storm
Do you guys ever go through the tutorial stuff available on youtube/udemy or rather would you recommend it? I'm a visual learner somewhat and sometimes I find following through unreal engines documentation not really daunting but confusing. Like some of the links just say stuff that was already said kinda stuff.
south ridge
I want candidate resume to contain a list of cool projects I can look up and their short description
devout gulch
@south ridge you are doing some specific physcs stuff afair (;
south ridge
It's not specific really
The general physics stuff is super helpful
And electronics knowledge
devout gulch
well for gamedev standards it's say pretty advanced
livid haven
Aye. Personal projects are a big plus - means this is your jam, you actually like this, not just do it because it pays the bills.
devout gulch
unless you doing some middlewar work
south ridge
I only care about projects on resume, that's a thing I can objectively verify
Best if open source
Same for artists, but for them it's more of a question of portfolio I guess
livid haven
I'll really only go so far as to look at someone's project - the actual project I mean, a youtube video or a site, if I see enough on the resume to make me think "Yeah, this person gets it, they know their stuff, they've done real work"
south ridge
Yeah. I wanna see some points that impress me and then verify they are legit
livid haven
"I wrote a 3D game!" isn't enough. Did you use an engine and which one? If not, what middleware or APIs did you use? What did you implement? Highlight the things that tell me what you've done, what you know.
dire storm
I can imagine a lot of places get flooded with newer game devs applying with no real experience?
south ridge
I wrote a 3D game π
livid haven
Also, if you worked on a team, a bit of how that worked out
south ridge
A bunch with custom engines, but that was mostly for learning purposes
livid haven
Experience as a team member is a big deal.
Without it, it's unclear if you're actually an insufferable raging prick that we're going to want to fire just because no one wants to deal with your bullshit. :X
dire storm
I wonder about some of the youtubers. There's some decent tutorial material out there from people who appear to really know what they are discussing. A few of them have made comments about being out of work and it makes me has a sad. They do pretty decent work. I understand the industry can be pretty volitile.
devout gulch
show my such decent tutorial
I'm I can hardly imagine for example programmer without work for longer than week\
and that's only because of taking vacation
livid haven
Well, more than a week, but still.
Hiring processes can take a few weeks or like 2 months.
dire storm
@livid haven Being prior Navy I was specifically trained to be a sarcastic dick but in a team building friendly way! Does that count? π
devout gulch
depends where you end up
here you woukld need a lot of cynisizm, and hate everything ;d
livid haven
Also, I'm super picky (and can afford to be now).
I'd never, ever want to end up in another Hi-Rez situation
I literally have anxiety inducing nightmares about being legally obligated to return to that place and work there.
livid haven
Nah, just bullshit dream logic.
So I'll starve for a bit just to make sure I never, ever end up in such a low place again.
dire storm
@devout gulch Not a programmer but there's a guy who made a udemy course and has youtube vidoes that are kinda nice. Also that super popular udemy course from the UE4 community follower.. I can look up names here in a bit. I'm currently enthralled
I need to put shadows of mordor on my play list.... Looks good but idk if I can afford the time dump
south ridge
Hi-Rez situation?
livid haven
I did 7 to 5 years ago
grave roost
So your the OG
livid haven
It was pretty bad, actually.
grave roost
XD
livid haven
I quit as soon as I thought doing so wouldn't tarnish my career by abandoning a job too quickly.
grave roost
what is your specialty
livid haven
Broadly, architecture.
dire storm
do you have a portfolio to share? π
livid haven
Better suited to writing frameworks and systems used by other developers.
dire storm
oh that kinda architecture lol
livid haven
I do not. I worked on Smite, then I worked on UE4 itself (mostly localization tech) for about 2.5 years and then about 2.5 years on Fortnite's UI now.
dire storm
I'm still broadscoping. Figure once I get a rounded basic education I'll narrow my focus
I love the UI in fortnite from what I've seen.
livid haven
Generally that summary gives a gist of my qualifications. Lots of art tech, UI, and framework development.
Thanks.
dire storm
It really takes so long to develop a UI? I mean I get it, there's so much to it. Its just kinda jaw dropping on how much work goes into everything that most people "players" on the other side have no concept or idea of.
livid haven
Not responsible for the aesthetic, but a lot of the framework for building it.
Well, consider the sheer complexity of the progression systems and squads and item details.
Dealing with async calls to backend to do operations, simulating them locally, and synchronizing when the backend gets back to you.
Previewing operations that have a very wide range of effects and chain reactions of effects.
grave roost
π²
livid haven
Juggling performance bottlenecks with the complexity of data, data derived from that data, and the overhead of lots of dynamic UI.
grave roost
@livid haven have you done any landscape material work in ue4
dire storm
I think fortnite is an absolutely beautiful game. There have been a ton of complaints from the reviews I've read over about gameplay getting stale . I saw that they did a pubg adaptation and there's some searching going on about trying to find the heart and soul of the game I guess. (reviwers words not mine). I personally am not a fan of micro transactions on full priced games. Destiny 2's skins are all muted and almost all the good looking skins are behind payways/mt. idk that stuff irks the shit out of me on full priced games but its my own opinion. Sorry got off topic there
grave roost
hey how come this dont have a mic room like other discords
dire storm
There's mic rooms at the bottom
livid haven
No stress. I can't really comment on much of that, alas. Not like I'm gagged or anything, just that responding to it in any particular way makes me liable, y'know?
dire storm
but nobody is ever in them
Sion I wasn't expecting a comment or reply I completely understand.
grave roost
can i friend yall
livid haven
I generally only accept friend requests from people I have an individual personal rapport with.
livid haven
Otherwise I'd have too many friend entries for the friends list to be anything useful.
dire storm
its just sometimes I wonder if developers lose touch with gamers. I've heard that over and over across the industry. Like EA destroys everything it touches. All of those resources time and effort go into making amazing games but they aren't made with the players in mind and end up with bad player experiences. Gamers, as toxic and whiney as they may be, aren't completely stupid. Cash grabs really turn off more experienced gamers I feel away from franchises who would normally be drawn to them.
grave roost
i only have 4 friends
livid haven
I feel ya. Big companies are complicated, inherently.
devout gulch
and I still can't play Fortnite because game can't load first mission -;-
livid haven
There are a lot of different factors in how things play out.
south ridge
Heh. Well fed artists don't make out of the ordinary art
dire storm
obviously. Gotta keep the lights on. I def understand that. Its a business.
grave roost
will be back later today yall bsafe
south ridge
Though in this case, it's not the artists, but the companies
warm mountain
hey guys quick question
i see a lot of copyrighted models on turbosquid that are under an editorial license
livid haven
@devout gulch ping me sometime about that. Wouod love to help unblock you.
warm mountain
where they are allowed to make money selling the item but non commercial journalist activities
livid haven
Would* (mobile phone on couch)
warm mountain
while turbosquid is the one that officially issues and defines it along with the artist
is it actually legal?
livid haven
Is what legal?
warm mountain
selling a patented design under an editorial license
devout gulch
@livid haven thanks I'm still back and forth with support, and there was supposed to be patch yesterday about login flow, idk if it rolled out.
dire storm
I'm kinda sad Mass Effect ended up the way it did. I played the first two so much when I was on deployment in the military. 3 left me a little dumbfounded. Loved the graphics though. The new one I kinda knew was gonna be a shitshow. Is what it is.
warm mountain
i know its legal in photography under editorial license
livid haven
Copyright, not patent.
south ridge
Turbosquid cannot override artists licensing, no
warm mountain
yea
livid haven
And probably not in most cases.
livid haven
@iniside Yesterday? News to me. But I've been in my corner not sleeping working on new stuff.
warm mountain
the idea of editorial license in photography is to allow photographers to sell pictures of architecture and logos non commercially without the need of a property release or seeking permission
i didn't know it extended to 3d models so I was curious
livid haven
I am not a lawyer but I have a hard time seeing thay hold up in court for 3d models.
warm mountain
because I see a lot of Ipads and coca cola cans there and these guys have made 5 figures selling em
according to their turbosquid ranking
yea thats kinda what I think sion
I have never seen journalist using 3d models at least the ones that write articles
I have in television when the press broadcast a simlulation of events
but thats exceedingly rare
livid haven
Easy way to test! Just making something with Nintendo copyright.
warm mountain
LOL
livid haven
If they can kill you for it, they will, and you'll know.
warm mountain
let me see
dire storm
or Disney
warm mountain
that guy I was talking about sells disney Rhavon
livid haven
Anyone who is particularly litigious basically.
dire storm
back to endless youtube tutorials π
warm mountain
500 USD in sales
cloud cobalt
Play Fortnite Battle Royale On PC Free Now!
heavy sigh
Battle Royale is the new Minecraft
dire storm
I had read previously somewhere (I believe) that UE4 doesn't have a lot of support for ingame terrain editing. I think I said that right. I had an idea I wanted to play around with which would allow the player to place buildings/walls and whatnot with the ability to slightly edit the terrain around their town/city.
warm mountain
Okay so I contacted my lawyer regarding turbosquid's editorial license
She says its still illegal without a written legal agreement
cloud cobalt
@dire storm No, there is no runtime terrain editing in UE
warm mountain
whether turbosquid licenses it or not
anything that has been trademarked or copyrighted
dire storm
@cloud cobalt why is that?
dire storm
I wonder if thats why they made city skylines in unity
cloud cobalt
Everyone defaults to Unity, it's cheaper
dire storm
how so?
cloud cobalt
Also probably easier to work with for heavily procedural stuff like city builders
dire storm
Well that kinda bums me out. That's what I wanted to get into eventually in unreal.
cloud cobalt
UE4 requires 5% of your revenue, Unity requires specific licenses depending on your company but basically amounts to 2% of revenue or less, so it's cheaper
It's not like UE4 can't do a city builder btw, it's more like that's not where the engine shines
dire storm
I like the look and feel of UE4 more than unity.
warm mountain
I use UE 4 not so much because of its perks, I just find it personnal
dire storm
can the engine be modified to make it shine? That's all that matters to me π
warm mountain
Unreal tournament was my child hoood
and I used to mod and mess around in it
Idm the 5% royalty rate for the years of fun I had
cloud cobalt
As someone working on a very dynamic game, I feel like UE4 is heavily geared toward games that have static levels
Like your average MOBA or shooter
Some rendering features go out the window once you have procedural stuff, like the distance fields
Not that UNity has them
wary wave
Unity's license cost depends on your headcount and revenue margins, so you can't really say "2%"
it could work out 0.05%, it could work out 20%
Β―_(γ)_/Β―
cloud cobalt
Yeah, but it does average to something like 2% in real cases
wary wave
it is however an upfront cost, so you can factor it into financials pretty easily
dire storm
On a basic level my dream game is where the player plays as a newborn god and has to rebuild his civilization from the ground up while exploring the shattered ruins of the world around him/her. It would require knowledge in some procedural generation and I was hoping for a small amount of terrain editing around the player's city.
cloud cobalt
Terrain editing can work as long as you're not using terrain, basically
I mean the UE4 terrain system
dire storm
so basically make the whole world with static meshes?
cloud cobalt
Basically if you want terrain editing, you'll have to implement it yourself from scratch
dire storm
What's the big difference between terrain and static meshes anyways? Like if the world was relatively low poly. Not super low poly but more stylized
cloud cobalt
dire storm
thanks
cloud cobalt
south ridge
Terrain has a special rendering path
dire storm
go on π
dire storm
I should change my Discord name to Jon Snow π¦
I'm surprised someone hasn't modded terrain editing as a plugin and put it on the marketplace (I haven't read the second link if thats what that is).
south ridge
I don't think you can access all the API from a plugin
Need to modify engine etc
But not 100% sure on that
dire storm
@cloud cobalt yeah the first link you sent is what I read before. bummer
I'll have to see if there's like some devs working on this on github or something with the sourcecode. Def beyond my level of knowledge by far.
cloud cobalt
Simply put, don't use the terrain if you want it to be dynamic
You can do something like a material that displaces the surface with a displacement map, that would be a render target you paint onto
There is something like that in the engine samples
south ridge
That would work for small changes only
cloud cobalt
Yes
south ridge
Assuming it does not violate the render bounds, it's acceptable
cloud cobalt
But that's also a day's work, so it can be okay to constrain the game on that
dire storm
okay. I'll look for examples π
basically what I was going for was going to be when a player plops down a building the terrain it would flatten or a wall around a small town could pull the ground up to it. There's ez work arounds like making the ground flat in the first place and not having rolling hills/slopes or just putting the meshes on the hill anyways and figuring out how to edit them so they dont look stupid
but using god powers to make silly mountains/dirt ramps up to the evil castle is gonna be out the window for now π
cloud cobalt
You can also just add foundations
plush yew
Is it good or bad to watch and learn 20 tutorials "how to make game x in engine y". Various engines involved.
β
So: Not to concentrate on one game engine, but/rather watching various game engines and to learn and remember patterns with this learn technique? -I am beginner
here they come! The answers of gods! Behold the power of UNREAL GODOTS 
dire storm
Its better then not watching/learning anything. Ask yourself what you want to do. Figure out your goals. Write down what you need to learn to get there. Get an idea of what you don't know, need to learn. Write this down. Make a basic roadmap of learning. Start taking these steps. realize you don't know anything. Write those new steps down. Learn the new stuff. rinse repeat
dire storm
I'm on step 1 of 1 million myself. Seriously though, same shoes. Spend some time figuring out your goals. Break these goals down into managable bits so you dont get overwhelmed. Get going π
dire storm
Don't know anything about game dev? Start watching free GDC vidoes on youtube. Google "best game dev books". Look at reddit for game dev basics. There's endless resources getting your feet wet π So dive in
Just start with 1
theres nothing stopping you from learning another one later
cold lantern
4.18 preview any time soon ?
plush yew
in 3 days @cold lantern
cold lantern
@plush yew confirmed info ?
plush yew
not confirmed
cold lantern
so how can you tell it's 3 days ? XD
plush yew
i leaked the serverZ
why do you even need a preview of it?
o.ΓΆ
are you such a UE lover?
what is it for you that you want to know when the next minor update comes?
cold lantern
I need changes that's been made to apple arkit sdk
and 4.18 is not a minor update pal
plush yew
pal π€
cloud cobalt
Wait for the release, not the preview π
cold lantern
preview comes before the release
and time is of the essence so I'll pass on waiting ;p
cloud cobalt
Sure, just don't move your project to a preview like some people do
cloud cobalt
Ugh, I hope you've got more than backups for this
cold lantern
it's not like I'll be testing stuff with preview on a big project or anything
what I actually need is to be able to test ARKit implementation
and actually deploy fricken arkit test apps to the device
not possible right now with XCode going GM and full release of iOS 11
4.17 uses beta integration
cloud cobalt
My friendly advice would be to use source control for projects, even small stuff
Backups are one thing but they can't let you see changes or track multiple developments in parallel
cold lantern
cheers for the tip, using svn for such tasks
ruby robin
Hey guys! Is it possible to bulk edit component properties? I chose some actors that have same compoent and want to change it's pops as do it in actors..
wary wave
@devout gulch - without a stable marketplace, I don't think we'll see big indie plugins like that sadly
@ruby robin - probably not, I'm afraid
you might be able to drop several copies into a scene, select them all, change the relevant properties, then update the saved version from the scene instance?
bit hacky, but I think it should work
severe glen
Hi there. Is there anyway create my own streaming ? I mean when I play game It will show gameplay on website? I'm using web socket plugin . maybe it can be useful .
viscid pelican
Hello, can anyone suggest a good UE course I could follow? I'm looking for something more advanced. I'm finishing up my Computer Science degree next year and I know software design, programming and c++, at least up to intermediate level.
I've been seeing too many beginner courses and they seem to be going too slowly
ancient trench
@viscid pelican udemy's one is OK, bit slow if you can already program, but it starts off with some pure C++ example, then makes a small game with triggers & moves on to a battle tank game
viscid pelican
you mean the one by Ben Tristem? I'm looking at that one right now but seems pretty slow indeed
ancient trench
yea
viscid pelican
There is a lot of info there though so it seems to be quite worth the price
ancient trench
watch it on 2x speed π
it'll take some days to get through, found it a good way to kickstart & get a tour through how it somewhat works
dire storm
Just saw a youtube tutorial where they were using low poly assets purchased from unity store in UE4. Is that a thing? Can you use assets purchased in the unity store on commercial products for UE4 engine?
ancient trench
@viscid pelican https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUh7jVUiTpQ&feature=youtu.be that's what I made with what I learned from it, I find it teached me enough for now to get going
viscid pelican
interesting
keen birch
@dire storm Afaik you can
There is some variation in licenses on the Unity store smh
But mostly, it's fine
Neither UE4's nor Unity's standard license prohibits it
dire storm
hmmm okay. I'll put it on my list of things to look into
dire storm
Thanks for the reply π Is there such a thing as medium poly? π
dire storm
Or does Blizzard copyright all medium poly art π
dire storm
yeah I love the hand painted art style
keen birch
They wish they could copyright it xD
Or in my case "hand"painted
More like SubstanceDesigner-painted
x3
dire storm
I mean.. I really like the look and feel of low poly... I just want... a few more polys π With the hand painted look if that makes sense. I'm gonna end up paying someone(s) out the ass for my asset library then pay someone else who is experienced in hudini to bulk up my assets.
keen birch
Bulk up the assets meaning?
severe glen
Is there anyway create my own streaming ? I mean when I play game It will show gameplay on website? I'm using web socket plugin . maybe it can be useful .
keen birch
Can't help there
modern root
Anyone know the correct config file to put t.TargetFrameTimeThreshold in?
dire storm
Shoulda kept my 120k year job but it was physically and mentally killing me π¦ I coulda just paid all of these wonderful creators out here for everything I wanted.
ancient trench
@severe glen sounds like you're trying to solve things that exist, why not use OBS or shadowplay etc?
@dire storm personal happiness > salary
dire storm
@keen birch I mean preceduraly generate variations in rocks, trees, houses, ect ect ect.
keen birch
That's gonna be hard with preset assets
You'll probably want trees done in Speedtree
And the Houdini guy to also be in contact with the art guy
dire storm
so you can't take a model into hudini to get variations? That's what I was getting out of the vidoes I've been watching
keen birch
Because you can't really plop a finished house model into Houdini and then expect to get a new house out of it
dire storm
right. I mean I don't have detailed knowledge of how it all works but my general overview of it was you break things down.. walls/roofs/struts/foundation/filler peices ect ect and then set up all of the procedural compenents to the nodes, set your rules, black magic, and wala.
severe glen
@ancient trench I dont want use any third party tool. just want create my own streaming system. For direct sending to web browser
ancient trench
not that it's needed, but that doesn't answer the question as to why reinvent the wheel, besides, all that will be stuff where UE4 will be of little help
dire storm
@keen birch Am I way off touch here?
dire storm
Yeah I knew you had to break it down to compenents then set the rules for how they intersect and what variations are allowed. Its very interesting technology.
keen birch
Yup
dire storm
That moment when you realize you spent 6 hours looking at youtube tutorials/reading about features/and browsing marketplace assets without actually being producing anything π¦
keen birch
I intwnd to get into it Soon β’
dire storm
is speedtree on the marketplace?
keen birch
Nope
Speedtrees cannot be publicly sold
Only as freelance-service or from the Speedtree store
You're not allowed to put them on the marketplace
dire storm
umm so the trees can or cannot be in a commercial game?
keen birch
They can
They cannot be sold as is
Unless it's a contract saying e.g. I make five trees for you
But they cannot be resold
dire storm
I have toooo many windows open for everything I'm researching π¦
keen birch
I just checked, they cannot be resold, so the creator needs to be 'in service' for the client
dire storm
Next 30 minutes dedicated to speedtree thanks lol
keen birch
So you need a contract with the person creating them or something like that
Enjoy
It's an awful program
Really powerful once you figure it out
dire storm
oh?
keen birch
But awful to use
keen birch
Or rather, awful to learn
Yeah
They're not that great though
Imo
Most of them are sort of eh
dire storm
pricey too
dire storm
from the program I'm assuming
keen birch
Yeah
dire storm
can you make... medium poly trees? Or somewhat low poly trees that can have the "hand painted" feel to them?
dire storm
I like the tree trunks and the tree in the foreground but I'm not sure if thats the style I'm looking for in the background silloutes. I'll see if I can find an example somewhere
keen birch
That sort of thing
Basically, you can do more or less anything in Speedtree
You just have to know how
dire storm
I love how there's weight in the leaves on this one
hmm I copy pasted wrong without linking it to your site sorry
keen birch
That's the pine tree used everywhere in that first shot
Just uses billboard in the distance
Which is why they look flat
That has also gotten better since, though
Tweaked some material stuff
The billboards also kicked in too quickly in that shot
dire storm
I think the style I would want to go for would be to blend the style of low poly landcapes with somewhat more realized tree leaves.
I do like some of the low poly trees out there like the pine trees but I dont like the giant blockly circle ones.
wait a minute! I've stalked your webpage earlier this week!
dire storm
yeah I like that. its def closer π
wary wave
huh, the Date Time struct doesn't have a function to convert to a string, how odd
warm mountain
hey guys say I'm making a rather large map (hills to a foothill village)
is it better for me to build the map with static meshes sculpted in Zbrush or use UE4's built in terrain tool?
optimization wise
since not every where will be loaded at the same time, say if the player is on the hill it will just render the immediate area they are in till they approach the proximity to the new area.
warm mountain
i see , so that means like sculpting the landscape in a 3d software
and then generating the height map there to import to UE 4?
keen birch
Nope, don't sculpt the landscape
You might as well do that in UE4 then
If you want proper realistic landscapes, use World Machine or Houdini
wary wave
sculpting externally is fine if you know what you're doing and are using non-destructive workflows
plush yew
Sooo i heard its rlly hard to actually put in a lot of geo into a PUBG scale game? Characters already take like 30k, then your weapon 20k, which limits your environment to 20k.
So in case you want to add dynamic events, houses, maybe a huge city map, space ships and AI animals attacking... Could it be all this is too much for the fps to handle?
theres this new stream.. aand you know he talks about a lot of difficulties, and touching something large scale is probably a bit difficult for a pleb
http://www.pcgamer.com/automaton-is-working-on-a-pvp-arena-combat-game-that-supports-400-concurrent-players/?utm_content=buffer8ad1e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer-pcgamertw
And then i saw this, which seriously surprised me. A MP game with 12x12 map scale, instead of PUBG 8x8 and 400 player in one map? PUBG already struggled. How much content would be possible there
wary wave
draw distance and LODs are your enemy in open world games
70k tris is child's play for a modern renderer on modern hardware, try something like 7,000k tris :p
a little bit of instancing goes a long way
...but who cares about 400 player matches anyway? Having enough players ready to match at the same time is going to be hard
plush yew
There was this 256 player game on ps4 that died out quickly.
I just want to know how to pull off a 100 player game with a lot of content without killing medium range PC's
I mean planetside pulls it.. but it restricts renderdistance in huge playerfights.. hm
wary wave
draw distance is the killer - but I don't think it's a good idea to aim for 100 players anyway
your game would have be an absolute smash hit to be able to sustain itself for any period of time
cloud cobalt
Rule of thumb is, 1% to 10% of owners play at a given time, for a successful game
So if you want 100 players on levels, you need to pull of something like 10 000 sales
Meaning, you need to be a top seller for your game to be successful
plush yew
Please welcome @long gyro to the community! :beers:
long gyro
hi guys!
plush yew
Is someone here experienced with the webwidget plugin and could help me with a issue?
warm mountain
@wary wave When you mean non destructive workflows, you mean that the environment in non destructive and unable to be deformed? Etc a rocket launcher fired into the soil to create a hole
wary wave
no
shell jetty
@plush yew GameIdea
wary wave
plush yew
A puzzle game where you teach secret societies in outer space.
wary wave
most things will mention photoshop, but the theory / practice is the same
shell jetty
i was first thinking @wary wave was giving a gameidea
plush yew
Please welcome @violet marsh to the community! :beers:
warm mountain
Oh I SEE
like incremental saves and working on top of a base mold or a set of iterative molds
so we can fall back to the base if anything needs to be modified
if I understand it right
stable orbit
If I want to make a GTA V like vehicle movement would I just have to use UE4s system or do I have to write some more code to make it like that?
I looked at the Vehicle Advanced Template and it's not bad but obviously nowwhere near
wary wave
it means all changes you make can be reversed / modified at all points in your workflow
stable orbit
I never created a vehicle movement so I am not sure what I am even talking here
wary wave
@stable orbit - I would expect a lot of manual work setting up something like that in UE4
if you want multiplayer, that's a whole extra level of trouble
stable orbit
Ignore animations like doors opening just getting the car to move/turn/brake
wary wave
that is all harder to achieve than you might think
warm mountain
i don't think thats doable in zbrush at least on the file itself
but it allows you the option to make every save an incremental save
wary wave
it involves some complex physics simulation work, which you'll need to set up
warm mountain
so you can go back to that version
wary wave
incremental saves aren't really non-destructive, because you can't pull edits out of the 'stack'
if you decide at revision 90 that you want to undo or change what you did in revision 25, well good luck, you've lost 65 revisions
warm mountain
i see
i don't think its possible in the software i'm using sadly
I could in theory
create a mold within the same file
but it would increase the total poly count to huge amounts
and crash the sustem
system*
stable orbit
@wary wave I know it will be hard, all I want to know is can I just UE4s WheeledVehicle Movement or should I do start from scratch (no idea how but I am trying to understand what I am getting myself into)
wary wave
you want to start from scratch
warm mountain
I guess the best option is to iterate it on paper and follow it strictly
wary wave
the default wheeled sim has problems
warm mountain
once a confirmed design is made
stable orbit
@wary wave ok thank you
wary wave
no problem
stable orbit
Do you know of any post or videos where I could start?
wary wave
You're not going to find any tutorials for what you want to do
you're going to want to start quite deep down reading up generic papers on the topic of simulating vehicle physics
plush yew
Please welcome @regal violet to the community! :beers:
plush yew
Is someone here experienced with the webwidget plugin and could help me with an issue?
Please welcome @plush yew to the community! :beers:
Please welcome @pine viper to the community! :beers:
yeah im back
hello
pine viper
Hi hi!
So if I have a question about dealing with animation in Unreal, but through C++, is that best handled in the animation channel? The description seems to imply it's more intended for the tools surrounding animation - or should I go to programming?
(I'm gonna go with my gut and try programming haha)
plush yew
Please welcome @elder current to the community! :beers:
cursive dirge
@stable orbit you can check this thread to get started https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/community-content-tools-and-tutorials/60077-the-re-inventing-the-wheel-thread
check my posts tegleg linked in the original post, they contain tons of links around the subject and some bare bones explanation how these things work
one thing to note tho, those messages were from 2015, UE4 has exposed a better substepping delegate in UE 4.15 which should be used instead, those old examples still work but you can make cleaner setup with the new ones
stable orbit
I will have a look thank you
cursive dirge
also
since 4.13, substepping has been done in game thread, so you don't have to be that careful about debugging in it anymore
it used to run in separate thread in past
also, this one is golden https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/10
there's alternative car model on that package (you need Unity to download it and it's in c# but you mainly need the knowledge and Unity uses meters instead of cm for base units so those things wouldn't translate 1:1 anyway)
there's a lot of things taken care of, like how you can do air drag, basic engine sim etc, they even have some basic pacejka tire model there
just do note that if you plan to make a proper vehicle sim from scratch, it's a task for months / could be years if you want really high fidelity solution
if you just follow this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG1CtlFRmpU you can make that in a weekend, but it'll not solve most of the difficult problems
it's a good starting point tho
stable orbit
Well I mainly want to get this for the physics part and because Codemaster are around and when I finish uni I would apply there. Since they are making racing games I assume it would help.
cursive dirge
well, if you really want to be their physics programmer, you need to go for that years long route then
stable orbit
No their physics programmer but even if I have some knowledge it might help
I am terrible at maths so to me physics is wow
cursive dirge
I dunno, I'd just say focus on the thing you want to get good at rather
if you are not going to make game physics, don't even try to get into that field
it's a steep rabbit hole that sinks all your time
trust me π
they'll not be impressed if you just make some subpar vehicle sim
and you can't make good one from scratch quickly if you don't have in depth understanding in the physics and related math
well, I'd debate that one can't make good one from scratch quickly even if one does have good understanding on those
it's an iterative process
but...
if you want to learn game physics, it can be more motivating to do the university math classes
well, for the vector and matrix math side anyway, as that all applies well in game programming
for me, math was tedious as there wasn't really any good reason to learn it in school, it was just abstract things thrown in front of your face
stable orbit
Yes same here
I still can't really say that I had to use complex maths
But yeah the thing regarding diving into physics does concern me now
I can't really say what part of a game I really enjoy making, could be (gameplay)
cursive dirge
also, I'd recommend not getting obsessed on working for some specific company, on this line of field, you probably don't end up working in the company you initially wanted to work in
also if you work in gamedev, the game genre for the tasks you'll end up doing might not make as big of a difference than you'd initially think it will
that's why I suggested to focus on things that truly interest you, as otherwise you'll just be another generalist who doesn't know anything particular super well
I wouldn't hire such people myself, unless they truly know their sh*t well
especially in the smaller companies, people have to juggle many hats inevitably, but it does help if you know some area really well
stable orbit
I don't really want to work for CodeMaster mainly because they only make racing games and they don't really intrest me but that's the only game company in town
The other ones are like web games, android games which are just a big NO
frank escarp
laughs in spanish
only 2 companies that could be known as AAA
everyone is indies/mobile
cursive dirge
isn't codemasters a british company?
stable orbit
Idk, I do live in Birmingham UK but not sure
cursive dirge
you don't get into this line of career by looking at jobs from your hometown
stable orbit
Birmingham is the second biggest city/town in UK
cursive dirge
unless it's some capital area or other place where lots of game studios camp
cursive dirge
working in a bigger corporation isn't always nice either
stable orbit
I don't intend to stay there for more than a year
I just want to get the feeling and see how things run
cursive dirge
heh, you'll not get the job there with that attitude
stable orbit
Obviously they won't know that
π
But in all fairness I would want to work at FacePunch
They seem really chill and good as a company
cursive dirge
anyway, bigger companies tend to want some resume, it's rare that one gets in without having worked on some smaller places first nor are they places where people just go learning things. in gamedev, there are thousands of people who love the idea of being a game developer, but getting one that actually is good and driven at it is rare. There's demand for latter, and none for the former
stable orbit
They were recently hiring Graduate Programmers, so in a way I had a chance how big not sure as there are people better than me for sure.
cursive dirge
around here, some companies do run programming contests for CS etc students
content is basically a bluff, it's there to get people to attend but they use those to get to interview the ones that did better job at the task they gave
I guess that works for some too
it's still kinda longshot IMO
tiny prawn
if anyone gets a crash in 4.16 when using media textures im about to submit a bug entry for that in answers with a 100% reproduction rate. so yep. crashes are fun!
viral cape
Where do I ask questions about lighting bugs
the 2 marked walls are not supposed to have lighting and only do occasionally.
like random flickering lights through terrain
plush yew
Please welcome @short geyser to the community! :beers:
plush yew
Please welcome @short zephyr to the community! :beers:
next badger
Could someone link me a HUGE duscussion on Answer Hub? i need to test my theme.
i need both, answers and comments
plush yew
Please welcome @pliant hemlock to the community! :beers:
Please welcome @random fjord to the community! :beers:
dire storm
Does anyone else just add everything they want to look at to their cart so they dont have to click to preview items in the MP then scroll 15 fucking miles to get back to where they were browsing?
stable orbit
@cursive dirge What would you suggest is good to know or what sort of projects/tasks are good to have when before finishing uni. Not sure if you work in the industry or not as we haven't discussed it.
random fjord
good bot
dire storm
might want to toss that in the programming section fyi if you don't get help here.
random fjord
Good plan xD
dire storm
Well there goes my bookmarking strategy in the asset store π¦ 50 item cap on cart
plush yew
Please welcome @eager portal to the community! :beers:
uneven fractal
so how do I add a notify to an animationbp event graph?
that part of the tutorial I'm watching is out of date :/
vivid girder
@uneven fractal Right click in the notify bar on the animation sequence and select New Notify
uneven fractal
whats a udk?
plush yew
Unreal Engine 3
uneven fractal
eh nope
you got a pretty good chance of finding someone that knows unreal 3 here though
@vivid girder what I'm talking about is the add notify event in the shortcut menu but that doesn't exsist in my version of unreal
vivid girder
You create notifys on your Animation assets, then implement them in your ABP Event Graph
You find the notify event by just typing the name you gave the notify in the anim asset
plush yew
Hello everyone , um silly question
uneven fractal
nothing comes up when I type the name out
in this tutorial I've made 2 notifies at a certain part in a montage
plush yew
I already have sorta of a gaming pc , it plays most of the games well on 1080 p , but since I wanna get into game development whit unreal engine 4 , I would need a pc that can handle 3d modeling and the rest of the tools that an indie must "master" (got some recommend)
vivid girder
@uneven fractal Show me a screenshot of your notify and of you typing the same name in your ABP Event Graph
plush yew
can someone help me with UE3? or UDK to be exact
uneven fractal
plush yew
Ik how to make a simple animtree and get diffuse map too work etc...
plush yew
I also know how to make 3rd and 1st person
dire storm
@plush yew a quick google search will point you in the right direction. There are sites that specifically cover PC hardware reviews/specs/uses. You're gonna get much better detailed information there which will help you decide.
plush yew
Ok thank you
uneven fractal
@plush yew unreal 4 is graphically intensive so I would suggest not skimping on the gpu
plush yew
Soooo...
Nvm ig
I am some what experienced in pc building and i was going to go ryzen but then I realized that UE4 somewhat acts as a game which means mix of high clocks and cores and threads
vivid girder
@uneven fractal Try typing PlayMontageNotify
plush yew
@uneven fractal I will go whit a 1060 6 gb
dire storm
plush yew
Will that do fine for 1080?
uneven fractal
@vivid girder ffs I thought I renamed it
actually how do I rename it to the correct thing that I typed as it's name on the right side in the montage?
vivid girder
I usually have to delete my notifies and add a new one with the correct name....
Lemme know if you find out
uneven fractal
oh wow I though I was losing it
is there a hotkey that brings me to the naming field as soon as I create anything?
plush yew
So if UE4 is GPU intensive , will a 1060 6 GB be good enough?
uneven fractal
that's what I'm running atm
vivid girder
@plush yew same
uneven fractal
1060 6gb is pretty great
plush yew
Hmm ok thanks I guess
uneven fractal
I'm using an unoptimized unreal4 survival game as a benchmark
plush yew
Will probably do quite ryzen 7 1700 / 16 GB 3200 mhz ram and a 1060
uneven fractal
@vivid girder I Found the issue I was creating copies of the same notify instead of making new ones
I'm alternating between wow this engine is so easy to use and oh god what did I do wrong
plush yew
Please welcome @torn herald to the community! :beers:
dire storm
I'm still using a AMD Radeon HD 7900 series
plush yew
...
plush yew
Please welcome @latent saddle to the community! :beers:
latent saddle
plush yew
Please welcome @lilac oyster to the community! :beers:
Please welcome @plush yew to the community! :beers:
Please welcome @old swan to the community! :beers:
old swan
I'm having issues packaging, the only error message I seem to get is:
LogLinker:Error: Bad name index -1/117
My application packaged fine yesterday.
Need to deliver tomorrow O.o
I've tried deleting various folders such as Intermediate, Config, and Saved and even successfully packaged older versions of the project.
Anyone have advice on where to start debugging? Been at it a couple of hours, gone nowhere.
glossy flame
@old swan are you running (and hopefully actively using) any type of source control on the project? If so, you could try to narrow the issue down to a certain change/commit, at least
old swan
Unfortunately, we are in the middle of switching source control from git to plastic scm. Really hating myself right now for not having this part of the project tracked.
I now have it tracked ... but it is a bit late
glossy flame
Hmm, could you possibly throw the full log up on a Gist or something like that? I understand if not, but it could help in sniffing out the error
Otherwise, that one line doesn't give much to go off of :/
The interesting thing is all the references I'm finding to an error similar to this are runtime errors, and this is a packaging error?
old swan
Uploading log now
Yeah, I'm having no issue running in editor, standalone, or loading - just packaging.
glossy flame
Alright, well I don't really see much that would bring about those types of errors out of nowhere, especially the first two. Based on other online posts about issues like this and the fact it doesn't seem to be a code issue (cleared intermediates), I think that you might have to consider corrupted assets, but I don't have a ton to put behind that claim
old swan
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too.
I think I might try to reverse source control this. I have a backup from this morning, and a tracked version from right now. Gonna see if I can diff them
uneven fractal
ermogod making a simple tag game where you run around and tag people to make them it on a local area connection is way more difficult then I thought lol
plush yew
Please welcome @jaunty sentinel to the community! :beers:
Please welcome @long marten to the community! :beers:
tulip vault
Ugh, nothing is more frustrating than being able to find the node that a tutorial shows
in this instance, a plain old set material for a spline tool
BUT IT DOESNT EXIST IN MY EDITOR
actually scratch that, contextual stings when you're learning blueprinting
why can't i find the node the normal way of searching for it, but can if i drag off the last node?
OH and now guess what? i can't find the next required node with or without contextual functions
aarrrghhh
https://i.imgur.com/9twI8bb.png what's needed
https://i.imgur.com/8Q7S7pH.png what i have
dire storm
Maybe I just need to get some sleep but I cannot for the life of me figure out where my print screen pictures are going in windows 10. I wanted to ask a for loop question on a tutorial I'm working on but I can't even find the damn picture. I'm failing hard today lol π¦
@tulip vault That's really strange. I'm actually working on a spline tutorial myself right now in the pinball game on udemy. I was able to find that node and a ton of other get nodes by dragging off π¦
tulip vault
I found it, example was made in 4.3
new node is this https://i.imgur.com/4aIG9mL.png
dire storm
anyone have a clue where the default folder for print screens is in windows 10?
tulip vault
that was a frustrating ten minutes of no progress
dire storm
google knows. I'll ask him π
warm mountain
Hey guys how many versions of varying detail of a static mesh say a bird fountain and skycraper would be recomended to be made for manual LOD
Also should I develop LODs of NPCs as well. I'm a little worried in regards to the animation part swapping far away enemies to a lower quality mesh in the middle big their animation
potent quiver
Hey guys anyone thinking about buying a perfect TPS shooter game project almost ready to be released on steam ? If u wanna check that plz contact me
plush yew
https://www.udemy.com/unrealcourse/
Any of you saw this course? Was it beneficial learning how far you can go with instancing and implementing stuff into your enviro?
rustic panther
55 hours of video for $10?
plush yew
sounds worth it. Was a kickstarter
rustic panther
plush yew
There are also https://www.packtpub.com/mapt/video/game_development/9781786462329/21259/21267/navigating-the-c---api these videos educating you bit per bit, but i kinda think that you can get the basics in any of those, even from pluralsight videos. Just looking for a video explaining enviro creation with dynamic elements, and its limits
yeah thats another course i ran into. many basic courses
the 55h course has quizzes and all this probably stretching it, but still cheap
54 gigs.rip
rustic panther
well you just made me spend $30
that's cool, you can live chat with the course instructors
plush yew
@rustic panther Youre welcome π Possibly the best investmestment to do. If you find tips what you SHOULDN'T do creating a game, or what is out of space for the UE's fps.. i'd love to know cuz right now im still dealing with rigging and sims so I can push UE4 out a bit.
tulip vault
Gotta love how unoptimized Unreal is off the bat. I have a decent rig with a modern GPU and i get framedrops with a level full of texture examples
gloomy horizon
In editor?
Because like.. that thing takes up a ton of resources.
I have a decent rig and I get 120FPS constantly in regular mode let alone constant 90 VR π
dire storm
Every day I read through all of the discord channels hoping to to pick up knowledge slowly when I should just be pounding out tutorials, unreal documentation and practicing. Why do I do this to myself lol π
safe rose
@dire storm What tutorials are you mainly looking at?
Are there certain things you feel are lacking?
Hard to grasp?
plush yew
Whilst ppl complain about UE being unoptimized I never see anyone yelling at CryEngine other than being badly documented.
I absolutely hate learning these basics in UE just so I can learn CE. Same with houdini. Worst tuts ever. Tried at the start but learning it without knowing how sims work I couldnt do anything with it
cursive dirge
@tulip vault define "modern gpu"
tulip vault
RX 560 4gb
cursive dirge
Ue4 should run butter smooth on all basic scenes on that
tulip vault
i know, and it irks me
cursive dirge
It did even on my old gtx670
Maybe it's some amd driver issue
I wouldnt know, never had any gaming amd gpu
tulip vault
No, no. I know it's not. it's persisted over all the GPU's i have really
one was an NVidia that crapped out after i used it with unreal
the rest AMD's
cursive dirge
I've done pretty extensive testing on UE4, Unity and CE, UE4 seems to be the one to pick for smooth frames and small CPU load. Unity runs well but smooth framerates require a lot of work
What nvidia?
tulip vault
It was ages ago, a 500 series
the other GPU's i've had are an HD 6450, a R7 240 and then this one
my current GPU is the best one i've had my entire life
cursive dirge
Hd6450 is a media gpu
rustic panther
compute
cursive dirge
But you can still run ue4 with forward shading on it
tulip vault
yeah, it got replaced with the R7
cursive dirge
UE4's forward is really fast on low end gear
tulip vault
My PC has been frankensteined from a prebuilt my parents got scalped on to what it is now, a respectable machine with a skylake processor, the gpu as mentioned, and of course upgraded ram
the only old part left in it is the hard drive
dire storm
@safe rose I think I sent you a DM before about what I'm struggling with. Its all basic shit for me right now. I'm doing the more popular Udemy courses and making the mini games, watching various youtube tutorial (you can seriously get fucking lost in a timeloop there for 6 hours and not even realize). I'm also skimming through the unreal tutorials and documentation. Just to get a good general sense of things without actually practicing anything I spent around 2 weeks I would say, around 6 hours a day if not more just watching/skimming through everything without really focusing on replicating. The idea has been to just have the engine, and people talking about the engine in front of me as much as possible. Furthermore I saved approx 1 million website links on things I might go back to for reference.
cursive dirge
@dire storm key thing is to just make your own things asap
Once you grasp the basics, try to figure rest on your own from the docs etc
tulip vault
https://i.imgur.com/DHH7JP5.jpg here's the scene i have with about 70 textures
this drops me down to about 20fps
cursive dirge
Only tutorials I'd advice watching are the beginner ones and then only things that might interest you
@tulip vault that is the automotive material level..
plush yew
So you dont recommend the udemy courses? For what reason
tulip vault
Yeah, but i've taken it and added to it
dire storm
I'm currently at this moment (besides being on discord) building the pinball game from the udemy tutorial. Everything in general makes sense to me but I am missing the experience and some of the basic understandings of terms, when to use them, why you use -2 on a for loop when working with spline meshing. Just those kind of questions come up. I write them down. I wanted to have actually fuctioning small games/tutorials in engine as fast as possible that I can read through, see if I can follow the blueprints and if I'm not understanding whats happening, look up documentation/ cry for help.
tulip vault
i test my textures in this room
cursive dirge
Thats not meant to run blazing fast, nor are those materials optimized in any way
It's like you'd test basic perf with kite demo assets
cursive dirge
I'm just saying.. Those automotive mats are not "game-ready"
tulip vault
any way to make em that
cursive dirge
Would need lod'd materials, they are now doing shitton of math each even in the distance
You can view that scene with the shader complexity debug view
It's probably reddish
tulip vault
gah that's trippy https://i.imgur.com/b8D56qx.jpg
dire storm
See there's a question I have right there! I've read that meshes have auto LODs but are you saying the materials do not?
tulip vault
apparently the materials are all good https://i.imgur.com/IN094s6.png
only one is red
dire storm
My "dream" game would have small buildable towns where the player has bird eye view but can also come down and control units 3rd person. I need to read up on my LODs and optimization
tulip vault
the one that is red is glass
severe glen
hi there. Is anybody interesting live game streaming? I would like to integrate my ue4 project. but I dont know what should I use ? openGL or DX 12 ?
tulip vault
DX12 obviously, who needs OpenGL
severe glen
is it possible to achive it?
dire storm
Anyone else randomly get a grey flat tile under their meshes in SM view window instead of the default table? I can post a picture if needed. Its annoying
cursive dirge
@severe glen DX11
@tulip vault anyway, the scene is not just 70 textures, each material is complex shader on it's own there
safe rose
@dire storm Yup, you did, just making sure there wasn't anything else to add:)
@dire storm I haven't looked at the ChrisMurphy tutorials, are they any good?
Is there something you wished he has discussed or been more clearer on?
old swan
@severe glen
Haven't looked into live game streaming but have ran across this BP
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/BlueprintAPI/LiveStreaming/StartBroadcastingGame/index.html
cursive dirge
also that RX560, it's apparently with perf between GTX660-GTX670, that's somewhat middle spec atm, you can still set the scalability down (it's default to Epic) if you struggle to run things
but like mentioned, that's not the best scene to test generic perf
your regular shaders would be light green usually
in that shader complexity view
tulip vault
I don't know why everone dogs on the card. it's a little powerhouse for how much it cost me
I do wish for better though
who wouldn't
severe glen
@old swan I tried use it but it doesnt work
cursive dirge
well, it's not the newest one, I'm not saying you couldn't use it, just saying you need to take it's limitations into account
those automotive materials are originally designed to be run on GTX980 or Titan
or whatever that mclaren demo used
dire storm
@safe rose Many of the tutorials I've viewed try to quickly get to their main focus which is usually what is applicable to the project in the tutorial. Which makes perfect sense. Time is money. I'm one of the guys that if you open up a new window or or are scrolling through the details panel I want to know what everything is, when it would be used, how it works, how does it even work ect ect broken down to the basics. Thats just me, how I learn. So when I watch a tutorial on lighting and someone just flies through everything just pulling sliders here and there I lose my shit π
lighting is just an example. I know most of it is me just needing to read through the documentation and googling. I'm aware of that. Takes time, I'm making progress.
@safe rose I feel the tutorials are def worth 10$. absolutley.
cloud cobalt
@tulip vault To be fair, Unreal Editor is not meant to be optimized. It's a developer tool, so you shouldn't care about engine performance in the editor mode. If you're serious about game development you can afford a powerful computer - it will cost much less than some of the software people use
cursive dirge
for example, since I've recently tested UE4 and CE low end perf, I put every setting down to see how far I can push it, you can run UE4 on really weak GPU's and CPU's if you accept to not run it with all bells and whistles on
cloud cobalt
The game runtime itself is pretty optimized
cursive dirge
yeah, that too
cloud cobalt
I've seen my own game run on a frigging Surface Pro, something that runs a laptop GPU in a tablet format
cursive dirge
although, editors perf doesn't differ that much from the actual build afaik
not the same way as on other engines anyway
south ridge
Editor is very much slower than the shipping build
It's not TOO bad
But there's about 20-30% overhead spent on drawing editor UI
tulip vault
I come from the source engine as is apparent by my nametag, and it's given me a large respect for optimization. just irks me that i hardly know a thing about Unreal no matter how much i try to make sense of it. I've been trying with unreal since version 4.6 and haven't gotten it at all. it hasn't worked for me very well, but source won't fulfill my needs for my game vision
south ridge
It's stupid drawing too. It does a lot of tree traversal to make those fancy actor lists and other dumb stuff
cloud cobalt
The editor is definitely something like 50% slower than the game tbh
cursive dirge
well, if you want source perf, use ue4's forward
put scalability to low
sg.postprocessing 0 or 1 π
things will fly
trust me
cloud cobalt
@tulip vault Try a packaged build of your game before you talk of performance - like I said, the editor performance has nothing to do with the game performance
tulip vault
I turn off a lot of things i personally don't like such as motion blur of DOF
cloud cobalt
It's common to double the framerate in packaged builds
Just the editor UI itself can take something like 3ms to process, which is 20% of your CPU budget
And it's pretty optimized, it's just extremely huge
cursive dirge
I personally haven't seen that big differences, but I guess it depends on the case
cloud cobalt
Then profile, see what's slow, etc.
tulip vault
I wish i had a few friends who 3-d modelled, then i could finally get to my specialty: level design
cursive dirge
you can do level design on placeholders
old swan
I think if you run in standalone window, with editor minimized it shouldn't eat too many frames.
cloud cobalt
@old swan Only if it's a separare standalone game and not just a separate window, yes
Basically the "launch" button
tulip vault
PLaceholders hurt me as a designer, especially with how meshes have a locked UV
severe glen
any ide for streaming?
tulip vault
i can't resize starter content without it looking nasty
cursive dirge
placeholders don't need to look good
tulip vault
Going from BSP/CSG to Meshes is harsh
dire storm
@safe rose Actually yes. There's something missing in almost every tutorial I've seen. A functional breakdown of mechanics prior to coding. I've found, learned, read whatever that writing down what you are trying to do. IE I want my gun to shoot bullets with kickback. Or I want to create a spline fence blueprint which automatically spawns posts, ect ect. Take that, break it down into tasks and how they work. what functions you would have to use. For a newbie game dev (who is going to be the audience of tutorials most likely anyways) that kinda info would be invaluable prior to just jumping into BPs and spittin spagetti faster than spiderman swingin through NY.
cursive dirge
@tulip vault if you've used UE4 since 4.6 and it still doesn't "click", have you considered Unity?
ebon saffron
Anyone know where I can get a male/female human character for prototyping purposes . That is useable with the unreal skeleton . Getting sick of looking at the mannequin. Prefer free but can pay a little . Thank
cursive dirge
and people have different preferences
tulip vault
and i don't mean Unity is worse with the stigma attached to it, it's just worse to me in general
To me, my favorite workflows are Source>Unreal>Unity
for the 3-d engines i got
cursive dirge
if you wait 10 years, source 2 might release
tulip vault
Love that joke
cursive dirge
would be funnier if it were source 3
tulip vault
technically Source is Source 2 because GoldSRC
tulip vault
"Source 2" is Source 3
cursive dirge
UE4's sidescroller template, in UE4's forward and things scaled down can run 370fps on my i3+GTX670
tulip vault
gotem
cursive dirge
with shadows and AA still enabled
of course, that's really bare bones scene
but that's the starting point where you can add things if needed
oh, and that was on 1080p
if you have like 1440p or 4k monitor, then you need a lot more GPU power
cursive dirge
yeah, that'll make it heavier
it's even more noticeable on weaker GPUs
like when I benchmarked nvidia GT610 on UE4, I got 60fps on 720p but only 30fps on 1080p
tulip vault
I should say when Unreal doesn't click for me, i mean that on the blueprinting side
I can make a level perfectly fine
tulip vault
That's only on GMod, LUA
but in more modern games like CSGO and Portal 2, it uses VScript
which i've never used
HOWEVER
logic is I/O based
cursive dirge
so you never got into programming or scripting on source either?
old swan
I want to spend a week in Source and a week in Lumberyard / Cry so that I get a tiny taste of each.
south ridge
Haha. I tried source programming
cursive dirge
blueprints should be rather easy tho
south ridge
It's pretty bad
cursive dirge
@old swan wait for CE 5.4 ;D
it'll be better experience as they've removed half of the old crap
on coding side
tulip vault
here's what level design logic looks like https://i.imgur.com/ulBni5q.png
you have point entities and BSP brushes
cursive dirge
I have a feeling that CE's C# would be pretty easy for noobs but it's still lacking some functionality, so it's pretty much stock c++ now
tulip vault
input and output are simple, just tell it what to do when (action) happens
cursive dirge
well, they do have visual scripting but that's mixed experience atm too as they are in transition between two node graph systems
old swan
FUCK YES, smashed my bug.
tulip vault
splat
old swan
Been working on that for 8 hours. I can now go home and sleep... only to be back in the office in 7 hours.
keen birch
@cursive dirge I looked at CE just yesterday, because I love the engine for my level design
Initially when they released their C# thing I downloaded it and wanted to get started
But after three days they still didn't have any docs, so I left it
cursive dirge
5.4 will change a lot of things
cursive dirge
they've promised to put more doc updates on 5.4 launch, but we'll see
most of the graphics related ones are still for CE 3.x π
even the editor UI is different
keen birch
We'll see
I really wish they'd do a proper job for once
I'd love to be able to use CryEngine
cursive dirge
yeah, I don't really care much of those docs tho, I'd only want more c++ api docs but they are not a priority it appears
keen birch
But so far, they haven't given me a large incentive to do so over UE4
cursive dirge
it's similar deal with UE4's c++
you get intro docs
but when you actually start using the engine, you need to find the info elsewhere
tulip vault
i wish i could just make pretty levels but i have no assets and no money to buy the things that people have on the market
cursive dirge
@keen birch I've been using CE this summer, it's definitely not as polished experience, so one does need to have more patience with it
@tulip vault maybe learn 3D modeling on your own then?
keen birch
^
Or network and get artists who like working with you
In which case you'll probably want to learn programming
tulip vault
Tried and failed with Blender, 3ds max, and Maya
https://imgur.com/9izyqif best thing i ever made
cursive dirge
modo ftw π
keen birch
CryEngine ships with a nice amount of stock things
cursive dirge
Unity and UE4 has lots more stock assets tho
keen birch
And you can't expect to be awesome at it immediately @tulip vault
tulip vault
i don't
cursive dirge
CE does have that old woodlands sample map but it's starting to get outdated for all parts
cursive dirge
you get faster
keen birch
CE has a shitton of assets
But then
I used the engine ages ago
So that may not be the case anymore
cursive dirge
well, you basically get these https://www.cryengine.com/marketplace/publisher/694795776
where most usable things are from this https://www.cryengine.com/marketplace/product/cryengine-sample-project-gamesdk
tulip vault
As for networking, i occasionally put out help wanteds in #career-chat . i don't know anyone, only one friend as a graphical artist who makes substance-painter stuff for our project
cursive dirge
but when you use assets from that gamesdk, people will immediately recognize you used those
there are few games on steam that are just that map rearranged π
well, thing is, if level designing is your only skillset, you'd need to have some proof that you can actually do that well
like examples of your designed levels
even with that, it'll be hard to convince others to do the assets and code
tulip vault
I have one finished product out on the workshop and another in-dev
hold on i'll get the link
cursive dirge
everyone can just slap assets around and make something, therefore you'd need to have something to show how you'll stand out from the mass
plush yew
I, as a 3d designing guy, don't care for other projects at all.
Most of them will never find any exposure, and even if they do the advertisement doesn't pay off most of the time. So unless good payment is in you just don't mind.
But there are super many free assets online on random cg marketplaces that are great to use
safe rose
@dire storm So, basically, you would like to see a pseudocode
plush yew
detail is in the shaders, beauty is in the design
safe rose
Which is what I am already going to do
Along with some other little things, which show how I usually do things and think things out
I'm also trying to make the book lively, and upbeat, as many jokes and trolling messages as allowed
tulip vault
Gotta love it when you're houselocked, got no friendly contacts except online, two of which have made it in the game world for themselves. I don't make too many friends... always alone π ( π¦ )
plush yew
well. Take your chance to change it.
safe rose
@tulip vault Take your time
I mean...shit
I am 34 years old
I did 12 years in the Marines
Went to SCAD for Game Development
Basically, 16+ years later than most game dev starters
But, I'll tell you what, once you have something rolling, it gets easier.
tulip vault
getting the ball rolling is my challenge right now
cursive dirge
baby steps :p
safe rose
I think my initial start post graudation was a huge challenge/obstacle
cursive dirge
you just need to start doing something
plush yew
Yup. I'm 24 never did anything in my life, never had the profession to to make a business. As you dive into online business shit gets easier
cursive dirge
it's easy to get stuck in phase where you just look around
safe rose
I got plenty of job offers, but they want relocation
cursive dirge
you need real projects
safe rose
And sadly, due to some personal stuff, I can't move around right now.
So, I had some constraints.
But I didn't let that stop me
I just worked within those constraints, and kept pushing myself
Anyway, TL;DR: the first month of freelancing/contract remotely was a bit stressful, lots of unknowns
But then shit just kept on coming
plush yew
Sooooo.. youre happy where you at now?
Please welcome @plush yew to the community! :beers:
plush yew
Yeah..
safe rose
I have a lot of goals and dreams I have yet to achieve
Writing this book is one of them.
Once I get this book out, one checkmark done. Then I'll move onto the next goal.
cursive dirge
what book?
tulip vault
If it helps with the perspective, i live in a household where my mom (the one parent always home) always tells me i'm wasting my time with computers and i should be looking to get a real job. yeah. that kind of parent
safe rose
"Mastering UE4 Visual Scripting" aka "Mastering Blueprints"
tulip vault
Also, never allowed to go anywhere unless it fits mom's agenda
plush yew
You know im always thinking.. 3d art is nice.
You can do whatever you got in mind.. but really becoming big is another challenge. you could create websites for companies earning 7k per sale, you could code for any company out there and get more...
But thats not really succeeding, youre a random pleb in the system then. So just keep stressing the line until you get a opportunity
tulip vault
I'm sometimes wondering if i should just put up all my ideas on some idea forum and give up
go after a more hands on thing i enjoy
cars
safe rose
@plush yew That's right
I mean, also, you hear a lot of stories from people in the "real world"
Especially in the AAA market
And these are true stories. People aren't happy really.
They "say" they are in public, but privately, is another matter.
Indie Studios are practically the same nowadays also
Indie isn't the same as it used to be
tulip vault
i know i'm not happy and probably never will. i've not found my zen
wary wave
Indie never changed, people just moved the goalposts when they use the word
safe rose
Right, Indie, like I said is more like Triple Indie
III
Basically AAA studio without the publisher backing or funding
plush yew
Hello. I have a weird assertion failure which prevents my project from being packaged.... And I can't find any solution in the answerhub or the forums yet.
safe rose
But trying to do the same shit
@plush yew Check your logs please
Right before the fail
It'll tell you what's up
wary wave
iD Software is a classic example, I think - Quake 3 was built by about 20 people, maybe less, hehe
(without a publisher)
cursive dirge
but they had Carmack
plush yew
@safe rose well not really... it just tells me
Assertion failed: (GIsCriticalError || !NumMarks) [File:D:\Build++UE4+Release-4.16+Compile\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Core\Public\Misc/MemStack.h] [Line: 90]
and
:Error: Runnable thread RenderThread 0 crashed.
But no sign of which asset or else to start with
I guess it's something with the RenderThread... but something could be anything
safe rose
@plush yew yo