Project S-812

[unique hill]

actually that one may not work as well

ill not do that

lol

[icy anchor]

Yay, the LOD

[gray spade]

by the way if you will ever want to automate formatting and do some other cool stuff (i don't remember), there is Scony's godot-gdscript-toolkit
as a small sneak peak i am also making a similar tool, but still at the stage of writing parser

[icy anchor]

That looks interesting. Let me try it out. Honestly i'm quite interested to see how fast it may work in my code base that consists of >45000 lines

[gray spade]

oh actually please tell the results too

i wonder how much slower my tool is 😂

[icy anchor]

I shouldn't have written gdlint ./

[gray spade]

good code you have there haha

[icy anchor]

I'm surprised it works, but getting very upset when it's not!

Also, yeah, now it is a fact, it has 5822 problems found and entirety of this code consists of Trailing whitespace(s) (trailing-whitespace)

I love it

[unique hill]

lmao

[icy anchor]

In one of the addons, there are problems in the code

Maybe that's the cause of all issues

But, honestly, i thought that i have problems, but not even sure at this point

7358 lines of roasting of everything i've ever done in Godot

[icy anchor]

It managed to read entirety of codebase in like 15 seconds, which is quite an astonishing result knowing my CPU

[unique hill]

so much whitespaces

[icy anchor]

I was wondering why spacebar didn't work that good on one of my older keyboards

[unique hill]

sending a video in a sec

[icy anchor]

Does it remove it entirely from scene tree?

[unique hill]

yep

but is stored in memory to be re-added

so that we dont need to reload it entirely again

[icy anchor]

That's great. Also, collisions are fine? After getting culled off

I think i had a problem when i used that one thing with culling CollisionShape, when node got re-added to scene tree, sometimes it was missing the collision

But in other cases i did the very same thing and it worked well so just saying you may need to check it

[unique hill]

wait was there audio in this clip

shitt

[icy anchor]

Nice music, btw

[unique hill]

god dammit

[icy anchor]

But not really recognizable anyway

I was more surprised by hotcocoastudios.discowd.com

[unique hill]

lmao

[icy anchor]

You know what it reminds me of? One second

https://youtu.be/nglwzT5rnTQ?si=G7Nars1ZfLqXtAHc

That song

I know, very different, but somewhat similar vibe

[unique hill]

@sturdy void made it

[icy anchor]

I need more of that stuff

[unique hill]

he does all the non fast paced ost

[unique hill]

with his permission I can send more

hes made quite a few that hasnt been used yet

oooooooooooooooooh I just found something

a very old screenshot from last year

[sturdy void]

you have permission

[unique hill]

aight thanks

[unique hill]

this was taken before this forum channel was made

you can see just how far the artstyle came

[icy anchor]

That'll be nice to hear

[sturdy void]

ive only made 3 songs so far and idek if we are gonna use one of them lmao

[icy anchor]

It had so many iterations in a such short period of time

[unique hill]

it used to be comic-based

hence the benday dots

[sturdy void]

it also used to be shit

[unique hill]

im proud of the style ive settled on now though

[icy anchor]

You guys are making me think of hiding legacy, unused tracks somewhere. Maybe you should do it too just in case

[unique hill]

brutally honest but true

[unique hill]

I have made so many tracks for this game

and used none of them

[sturdy void]

lmfao

[unique hill]

then again I never finish my tracks except for a select few

[sturdy void]

its all me (so far) baybeee

[unique hill]

wheres the warehouse track?

I cant find it

[sturdy void]

what

[icy anchor]

I know right? There were a lot of attempts just to have unused tracks

[unique hill]

holy shit I found an image from the prototype

this was so long ago

yet it feels like yesterday

[sturdy void]

real and most of them are pretty damn good

[icy anchor]

Looks very corrupted, so different from current, clean one

[sturdy void]

justquickly skiming this for leaks

[icy anchor]

Same dude

[unique hill]

i dont like most of my tracks

I never fully get to depict what I want to depict, nor use the sounds I want to use

[sturdy void]

theyre good stfu

[unique hill]

the only one that im really really proud of

is

oh i cant say the name of it

I sent it to dadaskis before so he knows what it is

[icy anchor]

I can even send the loadout menu track i made. The old one that i wanted to use, and one of the current ones

[sturdy void]

the siren one is good

idk the name

[unique hill]

ye that

its a bop

[icy anchor]

That is a great one!

[unique hill]

where is the warehouse track??

[sturdy void]

what warehouse track

[unborn vale]

Quick delete it!

[sturdy void]

i aint make no warehouse track

[icy anchor]

It's hard to like anything you do, i guess that's what we are sharing

[unique hill]

ehhhh?

im in the twilight zone or some shit

lmao

[sturdy void]

i mean you probably told me to i just couldnt

[unique hill]

this has inspired me to finally make the theme and leitmotif for this game

[sturdy void]

MAKE

[unique hill]

you did tho

and u sent it

[sturdy void]

THE
FORKING

STORY

[unique hill]

later :(

[sturdy void]

idk i only remember the ambient trackj and the menu music

[unique hill]

there was an ambient track for the warehouse

i downloaded it but i ended up deleting my downloads folder

so I dont have it

I wonder if i should send the siren track I made here?

[icy anchor]

Gonna send these at my thread

[icy anchor]

That'd be nice

[sturdy void]

just change the file name

[unique hill]

mm

yo I just made something cool in online sequencer

1s

[icy anchor]

Man, i don't know how does it all work inside of this project, but i wanted to say one thing: I've seen quite a bunch of devs that started to make the game not from making the game, but from making a lore for this game. These guys literally should've written a book, but they are not content with it, so they are living in an illusion of making a game when they are not doing anything to make it.

But yeah, make the story, please

[sturdy void]

thank you dadaskis

[sturdy void]

im stealing this

[unique hill]

dont I stole the melody from Black Mesa's Questionable Ethisc

Ethics

[unique hill]

in a moment

ok wow, I definitely didnt know as much about online sequencer as I thought

this is pure effects

[unique hill]

also I am writing the story if you check gdd.md often

[gray spade]

uh

you are aware that that repo is public, right? or is it a different one

[sturdy void]

diff

[gray spade]

ah alright

[unique hill]

EH

WHAT

whats the name under

Project S?

[sturdy void]

bro they wouldnt know what repo they're looking for lmao

[gray spade]

under the other dev's github account

[unique hill]

oh then its diff

[gray spade]

i don't remember

good then

[icy anchor]

Incorruptable privacy

[unique hill]

https://hotcocoastudios.discowd.com/0O3MBX9mBz.mp4

[unique hill]

showcase of hq shader button

[sturdy void]

yeah its private

[gray spade]

mm yeah

that's a different org

[unique hill]

fancy

pls dont be giving me a heart attack ever again

[gray spade]

lmao sorry

[sturdy void]

you should make a cinematic mode that just makes movement really smooth and hides all ui and body elements

[icy anchor]

Honestly i expected this setting to turn the whole game to literal visual mess, but good to know it doesn't do that

[gray spade]

just that the file name is 1:1 the same

[unique hill]

wdym

[unique hill]

nope

[icy anchor]

That'd be really fun if that repo was really public. I'd answer a lot of my questions

[gray spade]

gdd.md

[unique hill]

it would be devestating for me

[unique hill]

archipelinaut?

[sturdy void]

TIME TO LEAK THE REPO :D

[gray spade]

YES

[unique hill]

ohh

[gray spade]

that's it

[unique hill]

thats illogical's game

I got the idea of a gdd.md from his repository

he has it FOSS

[gray spade]

yes please

[unique hill]

this would be a large inconvenience

[icy anchor]

I wonder what would happen if people actually get their hands on repo

[unique hill]

no one would know much to be honest

[sturdy void]

want my session cookie

[icy anchor]

Nah this ain't that easy man

[gray spade]

xd

decision reverted

[sturdy void]

lmao section deez nuts

[icy anchor]

Can you describe the whole story with 3 words

[unique hill]

no bc I didnt write it yet

well

kinda

ish

[sturdy void]

future, british, godot
B)

acc i cann do it in 2:

mirrors edge

[gray spade]

godot!!?

[icy anchor]

I knew that lost connection has something to do with british people!

*british conspiracy intensifies*

[sturdy void]

im rbiths

british

[gray spade]

b'itish

[sturdy void]

radish

[icy anchor]

"Earlier, this city had a beautiful, dark atmosphere..."

"But now it has been ambushed by British Empire"

"The eye in the sky is watching"

Alright, jokes aside, that seems to be a fitting kind of story, even if it is not finished just yet

[icy anchor]

Sorry just in case! No intention to offend anyone

[gray spade]

okay but seriously how could godot fit in the story?

[icy anchor]

It already does it in billboard, but, honestly, that seems to be unusual decision

[gray spade]

oh wow never noticed

[sturdy void]

its made in godot

[icy anchor]

What if Godot in this game is kind of "Deus-Ex Machina"

So any events lead to the fact that game is powered with the power of God GODot

[gray spade]

well sure it is, but like godot in the actual game lore is indeed unusual

[gray spade]

no need to cross that, we all here know the truth

[icy anchor]

Time to write Godot bible

[gray spade]

indeed

[sturdy void]

idk

i mean how do you know the game isnt just based around the play waiting for godot and you just sit on a bench until godot finally shows up and the credits roll

[gray spade]

don't get me wrong, i would be more than happy if it integrated well

[sturdy void]

wow sixteen is 16??

this is my first time looking at the gdd lmf

[gray spade]

sounds like bullshit not gonna lie /j

[icy anchor]

"Watch the Paint Dry" in the world of Godot? That sounds amazing

[sturdy void]

ye

[unique hill]

I can do it in 4

with accuracy bc im the writer

wrong time, wrong place

[unique hill]

ye thats why ur the va for the MC

[icy anchor]

Sounds good too!

[unique hill]

definitely the only reason

[sturdy void]

also i came up with its name sooo

[unique hill]

ya

[icy anchor]

What name?

S-812?

Damn i'm still wondering how it is related to the game itself

Godot, secret project, lost connection, british people

That's a crazy mix i'd see

[unique hill]

na

the MC's name hes talking about

[icy anchor]

Oh, alright

[unique hill]

💀💀

I never put it into a list like that

its very odd to see

[icy anchor]

That's, my friend, my weird perpective based of everything i've seen yet

[icy anchor]

#1151311410882686996 message
They did

[unique hill]

ah fair

that would also be the first mention of british people

this game's city is canonically based in england

more information for u right there

[icy anchor]

British Empire applauds you

[unique hill]

!

[icy anchor]

Gonna move the conv about the new dialog thing here

It sounds very promising so that'd be nice to see any kind of screenshots... If you don't mind!

[gray spade]

why tenor doesn't have a british version of social credits meme :(

[unique hill]

I ended up having to leave midway through creating it

so I just got the custom resources and no function yet

will make later today when I have time

[unique hill]

I made it

I spent 30 minutes coding it and it worked first try

am I magic?

things dont work first try

[unique hill]

https://hotcocoastudios.discowd.com/xbVZjaXpRX.mp4

there is voiceline compatibility

but the only voicelines I have saved are my own

[unique hill]

@icy anchor

https://hotcocoastudios.discowd.com/f6RRWLOjty.mp4

my implementation

[unique hill]

screenshots & videos will slow down as development continues into the story writing phase

[unique hill]

yk this doesnt look that bad

maybe I can reintroduce some comic-like elements at some point

[icy anchor]

Amazing one, especially for the use-case you have mentioned earlier! By the way, you may be interested in one potential possibility to simplify work with it:

@tool

@export(DialogueItem) var items = [] : set = set_items

func set_items(value: Array):
  items = value
  for item_index in range(len(items)):
    var item = items[item_index]
    if item == null:
      items[item_index] = DialogueItem.new()

Basically, what it does is creating a new dialogue item when you add a new element into your array. Just a little fancy thing!

[icy anchor]

Sounds like a nice idea

[icy anchor]

That looks creepy lol
Imagine someone getting to that level and just randomly walking around and seeing "Hello." I kinda love it

[icy anchor]

Sometimes they do!

[unborn vale]

@unique hill Have you played the stanley parable or portal before?

[unique hill]

I've played portal 2, not stanley though

[unique hill]

oooh

[unique hill]

fun fact, TV screens have a pixel effect upon closer inspection

https://hotcocoastudios.discowd.com/nIPf22aQhP.mp4

Texture quality dropdown using Texture Mipmap Bias

this is unfortunate for dadaskis

bc that isnt in 3.X

(default setting is medium)

[icy anchor]

I will make the modders lower the quality of the textures on their own if they REALLY wish

[unique hill]

💀

[icy anchor]

Looks nice btw

[unique hill]

also I have a question

Do you have an Anistropic filtering setting in your game?

4.X doesn't suppport changing of Anistropic Filtering at run-time, so I was wondering if thats the case in 3.X too

[icy anchor]

Not really, i don't really want to touch it, it is 16 by default as it does not affect it much

I think yeah, i can't change it in run-time too

WTF is going on with Godot in this case?

[unique hill]

Weird

[icy anchor]

Like, i really checked it as much as i could, and, really, no difference. I mean, probably lower-end hardware might have a stroke, but let's be real, it will have a stroke because of ALL stuff i did instead

[unique hill]

I had it disabled in project S this entire time, I only just re-enabled it in the video at x4 so textures look better at angles

[unique hill]

💀 thats true

same for this, may godot have mercy on anyone who enables HQ Shaders in this game

[icy anchor]

Keep it that way. Honestly, filtering helps to get better look of textures. I did never realize that until i stumble across that issue when all my textures were blurry as hell

[unique hill]

from what i've seen, it doesnt make an FPS difference

maybe 1 or 2 frames? Don't know

It may increase ram usage, I'm going to measure that right now actually

[icy anchor]

I wish i could make something like that, but all shaders in my game are oversimplified already... maybe... Maybe i can make it forcefully use vertex lighting... But that is too much

[icy anchor]

In my case, i didn't get ANY difference, which is weird

I mean, i tested it in levels with gameplay logic so no wonder, if there was only rendering there would be difference

But i think tests like that prove how cheap it really is

x4 still seem to be a good middleground though

[unique hill]

I believe its the default one? dunno

I do see an improvement in the textures tho

this is actually not bad

im surprised at how little ram this takes

[icy anchor]

*cranking up to x16*

[icy anchor]

Nice font btw

It reminds me of something, but i cannot even tell what

Some kind of futuristic game...

[unique hill]

ty!

[icy anchor]

Maybe i've seen something similar at Spider-Man: Shuttered Dimensions? Idk

[unique hill]

Its Orbiton

[unique hill]

perhaps! Its a really scifi-like font thats used alot in games

[unique hill]

originally the font used everywhere in the game was Lexend

but then @spark sparrow suggested we use Orbiton Black

and it was a really good fit for the scifi aesthetic, so we switched over to that font

[icy anchor]

Oh, i didn't notice there is one more team member here

All this time i thought there are 3 of you

But that's a nice change nonetheless

[unique hill]

holy shit. lowest settings looks so weird

[unique hill]

theres actually 8 of us

but most are artists and unavailable sometimes

[icy anchor]

140 fps at least

[icy anchor]

Army of artists is what is really needed to make anything look good

[unique hill]

the members that are in the thread are illogicalapple, ylumiccoon, kamino and me

[unique hill]

true

[icy anchor]

Especially if they can make something that is fitting to the project and doesn't stand out too much

[unique hill]

but I tend to make most of the textures not gunna lie

i think maybe its because I have a specific vision so I do more stuff

[unique hill]

theyre really talented

especially ylumiccoon, who uses scratch (the block coding website) as their art tool

infact they made the HCS logo, and the Torvi Technologies logo (to name a few that you all have seen so far)

[unique hill]

max settings

[icy anchor]

Visual scripting for kids? I've seen this thing, but i'd never think that someone would use it for logos. That'd be nice to know more about this workflow

[icy anchor]

What's the thing that takes up FPS in this case? In my game that is SSAO setting

And shadows

[unique hill]

I don't know the exact one, but I know a major contributor

upscaling

In Project S there are 3 upscaling modes available

Bilinear, AMD FSR 1.0 and AMD FSR 2.0

they render the game at a low resolution, and scales it back up to the viewport resolution (1920x1080)

amd fsr is the best upscaler but takes a decent amount of GPU usage

but, they can also be used for downscaling

[unique hill]

in this case, the game is being rendered at DOUBLE the resolution, 3480x2160, and is being downscaled back to 1920x1080

it looks much clearer but takes up a large portion of FPS

sorry for talking in multiple messages, its a habit I have when I get passionate about something

[icy anchor]

What kind of settings run the best and affect the looks of the game the least?

I can definitely tell there are some screen-space effects that are essential for the visuals, which are probably related to ambient occlusion and global illumination

[unique hill]

I never tested it, but i would assume default settings may be the best

as I always use default settings

which means the style and aesthethic of the game is made to work perfectly well on default settings whilst keeping performance good

I think you can use Low lighting quality and still have it look really good

the lighting quality modes dont change much, just makes lighting a bit more accurate

[icy anchor]

Many screenshots i've seen yet are default settings? It's very nice then!

Just makes me remember Escaper v1.0. where settings drastically changed the looks of the game

I'm glad that even lowest ones are looking good in your case

Not that Godot gives possibility to screw it up, but, yeah, i think you'd make something like that either way, especially when it has that nice fps

[unique hill]

I honestly wouldnt have assumed it would go that far down

I should remove the Lowest texture quality so the minimum is just Low

[unique hill]

thanks!

[unique hill]

theres just this random error that exists and Idk why

it doesnt appear to impact anything

but is kinda annoying ngl

[unique hill]

https://hotcocoastudios.discowd.com/fckAWxeFUX.mp4

day night cycle test

[unique hill]

tad bit more realistic clouds

no performance impact bc its literally just 2 planes

[thorn dome]

After watching this thread for a month or two, this game is absolutely beautiful. Amazing job on the graphics.

[unique hill]

thanks, man!

I really try to put the maximum effort I can in all aspects of the game

[thorn dome]

It shows in the results.

[unique hill]

:D

im just doing some sound design right now, from some audio Kamino has sent

replacing the old placeholder ones

closer screenshot of the clouds

[sturdy void]

i am literally the bestest sound engineer

/hj

[unique hill]

hell yeah

your shoes sound nice

[iron shore]

hsc

[unique hill]

may up the resolution of these clouds ngl

theyre 256x256, maybe 512x512 will look a tad better

[icy anchor]

Don't be afraid to use even 1024x1024 if needed. That is a really HUGE surface that is very visible, for such kind of cases don't hesitate to use higher resolution texture. That is a fine practice in terms of "texel density" (highly recommend taking a read on this one)

[unique hill]

true, though I don't like to use large textures often

simply to save on RAM and VRAM usage

[icy anchor]

I don't think that is going to be a big contributor

[unique hill]

fair

I may make it 1024x1024

and may upscale some other textures that are low res

[icy anchor]

In many cases, my game uses 512x512 textures, similar texel density as Half-Life 2. I bet you can run Half-Life 2 without getting into trouble with VRAM, right?

I use 2048x2048 for huge surfaces like asphalt, because that is a good way to break repetition while keeping uniform texel density

As it follows i use it only in exceptional cases

Just saying for you to remember if you will need it. It looks fine either way

[unique hill]

ooh alright that makes sense

my way of getting rid of repetition was just having actual tiles

like the windows and rooftop tiled concrete

but ill definitely use that method for more organic surfaces

[icy anchor]

They are really universal, i'm literally stopping myself from making each texture a tile one. Sometimes for good, sometimes not really. Mirror's Edge nailed it either way

[unique hill]

mirrors edge is a really good game to look up to

they really nailed so many things

[unique hill]

the low res kinda gives it a fluffy look ngl

ooh wait, maybe I can blur the texture slightly

for that fluff

[icy anchor]

That's the way too!

[unique hill]

max settings, upgraded clouds

made em have a mild displacement and are higher res now

Wow okay

turns out I accidentally disabled some of the graphics options

that were hardcoded

sending screenshot of all the effects back in

ooh no wait i just broke something

uh oh

default settings, supersampled x2

for some reason lens flare was disabled on this map

clouds and stars

maybe the bloom is a bit intense ngl

imma tone back the glow

im also going to severely tone back the glare on the windows

[unique hill]

ive made a saddening discovery, but I dont know what I expected really

the lens flare shader, unsuprisingly, takes alot of gpu power to compute

so ive put it to be enabled or disabled depending on the HQ shaders option

[icy anchor]

That's good you did it!

[unique hill]

fancy!

new HQ reflections option (on)

[gray spade]

i always wanted to ask if that "glitter" everywhere is intentional or not

[unique hill]

(off)

[unique hill]

wdym?

ohh

Kinda and kinda not

its a remnant of having a ReflectionProbe

[unique hill]

oh those

thats actually the sky reflecting

[gray spade]

and on the floor as well

[unique hill]

i may need to tone that back a bit

as its a bit too visible

[gray spade]

i wonder if this is "intentional" as well?

[unique hill]

kind of as well

I believe thats the outline shader having a moment

[unborn vale]

This looks much better 🔥

[unique hill]

🔥 truee

[iron shore]

nether

reveal gameplay

[unique hill]

No

ill be fully transparent, kinda wondering if gameplay would be underwhelming when revealed

[icy anchor]

It's better to prototype often, even if it can be painful

[unique hill]

true

I tried to get the gameplay loop down a bit before sending out test builds in-house

[unique hill]

Ooh

I found a new lens flare shader on godotshaders, looks promising and appears to work in a much different way than the one i currently use

Im going to try it out and see

interesting..

this is actually not bad

I can combine this with the other lens flare shader for an even better effect

its like a weird lens flare

but like its decent

imma tweak it a bit

[iron shore]

it don't matter

[unique hill]

gameplay does matter

[iron shore]

ya

just reveal it

[unique hill]

we'll wait until we have like 5 levels

[iron shore]

by keeping it secret you're just raising expectations

[iron shore]

bruh

[unique hill]

thats fair

[iron shore]

you're missing an opportunity to get feedback and improve

[unique hill]

I need feedback on the gameplay from the testers first

[unique hill]

ye ye

lemme get feedback first

[iron shore]

everyone is biased as fuck

[unique hill]

this is a good point

[unique hill]

are u sure

[iron shore]

bro

everyone on hcs

is on hcs

[unique hill]

thats fair

aaaaaah alright

soon

[iron shore]

you're missing an opportunity to get public unbiased feedback, kickstarter or YouTube support, etc

[unique hill]

ill finish two levels first

which wont take long

[iron shore]

mhm

[unique hill]

then ill send gameplay

[unique hill]

im procrastinating heavily by working on the visuals

theres nothing to do on the visuals

i just dont like map making

but i gotta so im doing it rn

[iron shore]

get a map maker

[unique hill]

you

?

[iron shore]

no

i have no experience

[unique hill]

perfect opportunity to gain some

also

[iron shore]

I'll make my own game later and get good with that

but you want high quality maps

[unique hill]

yeah the visuals are perfect now, cant change anything about it

[iron shore]

so find a high quality map maker

[unique hill]

me

[iron shore]

you don't want to do it

[unique hill]

to be honest im more of an environmental artist

im doing it now arent i

[iron shore]

you still don't want to

this is what makes you want to stop developing this game

[unique hill]

?

my issue is that I have a hard time starting things

but once im going, im going

also

make the controls menu

[iron shore]

ne'er

[unique hill]

hm

[icy anchor]

I've seen the game and now i'm genuinely curious what kind of feedback it may need? "Add more content" doesn't seem to be a very helpful kind of feedback

But, of course, i've only seen it and didn't try it on my own

[unique hill]

I was told it felt bland

and I kind of agree. It may just be because of how long ive been developing the gameplay

I may have gotten desensitized to it

[iron shore]

it just feels bland

it's not fun, even though the graphics are nice

[unique hill]

I'm testing vigorously to ensure that its fun

ive got @icy anchor testing a build right now

I want to make sure the game isnt just "Looks good but plays bad"

I want it to be "Looks good and plays amazing"

[unique hill]

shippin container

im going to start work on the warehouse and tutorial

[unique hill]

Ok so, I want to make a seamless game experience with almost no loading screens

so im going to spend my time coding a system that loads in and unloads things seamlessly

so you can play the entire game without ever once seeing a loading screen

(besides when you actually start the game of course)

[unique hill]

modellin da warehouse

gon do fancy thingies

it looks much smaller than it actually is going to be

[unique hill]

getting collision to work was horrific but this is what I have

its massive

[iron shore]

all your collisions are so expensive

[icy anchor]

What do you mean by being expensive? Are they just concave?

[iron shore]

he makes them very detailed

including in areas we don't even reach

and i think concave ones are way worse

[icy anchor]

I think he is doing alright because that game doesn't seem to be like the one i make where the physical hell of raycasts, areas and rigidbodies can happen

The only concern that i have is that you guys spend time over making collisions, but it's up to you, you know who am i and how i'm going to recommend to use tool scripts everywhere

[icy anchor]

And after some time i'm going to complain that making of custom tools sucks ass because you have to support them too

[unique hill]

I dont often do that

I usually comeback to fix them later

[iron shore]

i'm talking about in efficiency and time

let's face it, the street lights on the bottom of the world don't need the collision you gave them

[unique hill]

they do

[iron shore]

how

[unique hill]

when you enter into falling death

[iron shore]

bruh

[unique hill]

you dont want to just go through the world do you

you hit the ground

and then bam

[icy anchor]

I've fallen down one time and it was fun walking around

[unique hill]

death

WHT

[iron shore]

it's easy nether

[unique hill]

oh well

[icy anchor]

I wish i could replicate

[unique hill]

its fun for spdedrunners and game breakers too

[iron shore]

i will reupload my profile picture now

[unique hill]

but seriously I really like how when you fall you dont die until you hit the ground

[iron shore]

ye

but why do the street lights need col

[unique hill]

because yes

simply

I dont see any performance drop having them

the game run surprisingly well on dadaski's computer

[unique hill]

I could remove the collision later \

[icy anchor]

Alright, i'm using Godot a bit unconventional way, but, as i understand, for Nether, to make a collision, he has to...

1. Make a scene for a prop
2. Mesh instance and stuff, maybe materials
3. Press "Mesh" button and make concave something-something and it makes StaticBody3D with CollisionShape3D on it
4. Tada? Concave collisions have pretty much fine optimization i think, until you stumble across physical hell that may not even take place in this game

[unique hill]

yee

[unique hill]

those are sometimes a bit laggy, and when they are I choose simplified convex or multiple convex if it needs detailed collision

like water tanks, those are a mix of multiple convex and a box collision so you can stand on it without slipping

the vents are just normal simplified convex or just boxes

[icy anchor]

Laggy? That's interesting. In my case, only dense meshes are laggy, like, debris, broken glass, fully-detailed weapon geometry, even sentry gun in the past. I wonder what you've made to make it lag

[icy anchor]

What is polycount of the water tank

[unique hill]

laggy as in if you run into the staticbody

it drops fps

but you rarely actually do that

[icy anchor]

Yep, that's what i had

[unique hill]

I think 200 and something

[icy anchor]

In my case, Bender was jumping on weapons, i had to walk on broken glass of m_day1_1, etc, that all stuff

It is also including raycasts and etc, it's all getting more expensive this way

[icy anchor]

200? Man, it's weird, i had like 4000 triangles in my weapon prop, but maybe it has some kind of different law of how processing of it works

[unique hill]

Idk to be honest, I dont really spend long on collision

as my system is already made so that I can just plop anything anywhere and it works

[icy anchor]

Sounds amazing then

[unique hill]

I know the style and everything I want for the levels

but i dont know where to start to actually make the levels

[iron shore]

just do the levels first

don't decorate it

[unique hill]

I think I can do this in a way

by using weird workarounds

its unfortunate that godot is missing Asset streaming

but I now know that the weird unreal engine pop in and out is because of that

unreal loads the lowest LODs then higher detail and higher until the highest

but only when needed

if a LOD isnt shown for a while, it gets unloaded

really thinking how I can go about doing this without diving into the engine source code

[icy anchor]

You know what, it may sound as a very weird suggestion, but i highly recommend you to try making Garry's Mod maps. After making them i had much less confusion about level design part

[icy anchor]

Your assets are very, very lightweight. I think UE's streaming was designed for very high-definition assets that take up a lot space in RAM, VRAM, etc. I'm saying that because you may just need to add and remove children from scene and that may work pretty much well. Yep, your assets will remain loaded into RAM for example (as they are orphan nodes), but come and think to it, maybe you are making such lightweights assets for that one reason

[humble blaze]

Cant you make meshes streamable in the import process? I know that doesnt cover all assets but maybe you could look into that Nether (unless I’m missing something)

[unique hill]

huh neat

[unique hill]

ill try that later

[unique hill]

you can?

[humble blaze]

If you select a mesh in the import process the "make streamable" option shows up

[unique hill]

oh what

I wonder what that does

it doesnt appear to have any documentation

[humble blaze]

I havent checked it out myself so I have no idea

But it might be a step in the right direction

[unique hill]

interesting

but now im wondering if it even has functionality

as I remember in 3.X, there was a Mesh LOD setting that didnt have any functionality at all

and was simply there as a placeholder

definitely will experiment with

[humble blaze]

I understand why they add the placeholders but they always throw me off

I hope this isnt another case of that but I wouldnt be surprised considering the lack of documentation on it

[unique hill]

yeah, although most things arent documented in the import settings

and atleast the mesh lod slider had text stating it was a placeholder

so maybe this might work

I did find an issue opened by reduz on mesh streaming though

and it hasnt been closed yet

[icy anchor]

Excuse me it is still placeholder???

[unique hill]

no no no

It works in 4.X

it works quite well actually though I dont abuse it often unless im testing

[humble blaze]

This especially threw me off so heres to hoping that it works

[unique hill]

same

Mesh streaming and texture streaming is more of an issue for larger games

that dont want loading screens

Ive always been fascinated at how unreal engine games can seemingly unload and load large parts of the level instantly

without killing my pc

so I wanted to do something similar, although I dont know much about level design yet (still gotta learn)

[humble blaze]

I havent mucked around with multithreading much myself but considering the size of many of the assets (which I assume arent crazy high poly or anything) I think you could load segments of the level in and out on a different thread with minimal problems. Some clever design would be needed to hide this from the player though

It probably wouldnt be easy as mesh streaming but it's a way to achieve what you're going for

[unique hill]

The issue with this, is that instantiate() and add_child() give me heavy problems when executing it on a thread

for some unknown reason

[humble blaze]

You'd need to do some communication between threads, let the subthread do the loading and have it send that data to the main thread to be manipulated (instanced, added to the scene, what have you)

[unique hill]

I could pull a mirrors edge or take something from out of the LOZBOTW book

mirrors edge has loading masked as gameplay with elevators, and legend of zelda just has low quality everything until the high quality version is needed

[unique hill]

lord have mercy

[icy anchor]

Node tree doesn't seem to be very friendly with these

[humble blaze]

Yeah for what I know its a bad idea to modify the scene tree on a subthread

[unique hill]

The docs say that instantiation can occur on a thread

but in my testing it simply did not cooperate

even though I was executing add_child() on the main thread

to avoid any and all errors

[icy anchor]

*sound of opening an issue on their repo*

[humble blaze]

Can is a very strong statement, never said it could do it well :p

Does sound like a problem though

[unique hill]

💀

I think that it might just be a good option to fuck around with threads and to find out

maybe sephamores and mutexes as well

how long have I gone without noticing 4.2.1 released

[iron shore]

@unique hillWHAT

[gray spade]

🤨

[iron shore]

[unique hill]

It was a bit fucked up in daytime scene

scenes

would flashbang me constantly

[iron shore]

damn

get rid of it there

add an option

[unique hill]

Noe

[iron shore]

bru

[unique hill]

breadpog 👍

[unique hill]

heres a screenshot of the prototype of this game, made in 2022

interesting to see how far its come

[icy anchor]

2022 man

[unique hill]

I found really really early screenshots, here we can see the city was originally intended to be darker and grittier, with a column like appearance

clearer image

it was originally named "The Middle"

I never knew just how much 2022 screenshots I have

[tepid rapids]

oh wow you have really come far

i don't have my super early stuff anymore but it was pretty bland learning material, i hope i have stuff like this to look back on eventually lmfao

[iron shore]

i like the vibe of this

[unique hill]

I have tons!

Mainly because I send a shit ton of screenshots in the Hot Cocoa Studios group chat

for all the team members to see

[tepid rapids]

yeah lol that's called "DMs of my friends before it was all seirous"

[heady thorn]

Wait, y'all have friends?! 😂

[humble blaze]

The colors in this are killer

[unique hill]

Ill send some more prototype screenshots

this was called "The Under"

made in 2023 using a dev build of 4.0 (as 4.0 didnt release then yet)

I actually still like how this looks

I may bring it back somehow

[icy anchor]

I hope you bring it all back somehow

[icy anchor]

Especially this one, you know, i made HDRI while being inspired by it and some other screenshots of the game

I want to try falling down to the ground level safely

[unique hill]

somehow

[humble blaze]

Yeah these areas look really interesting

[unique hill]

Maybe as a DLC at some point

im waiting for my class rn

[icy anchor]

You know, maybe secret levels or stuff

[unique hill]

we're on a quick break

[icy anchor]

Or that too!

[unique hill]

if this game gains decent popularity

I want to have a DLC mode called

Project S-812: Two sides to every coin

where instead of playing as the protag

[icy anchor]

So... what i have to do to repeat it...

[unique hill]

you play as someone under the antagonist

but with a twist

this DLC is multiplayer only

[icy anchor]

I died :(

[unique hill]

you and another fellow are twins and are sent to hunt the protag

or something along those lines

Im planning for 5 chapters

in 5 different areas

along with 2 dlcs

[tepid rapids]

:0 that big ol building

[unique hill]

I probably wont hit this chapter and dlc goal ngl

but im still hoping

Idk how popular this game would become nor how well received itll be

[sturdy void]

how is this thread so forking active

[unborn vale]

magic

[unique hill]

bc we're amzaing

no cap no cp

[unique hill]

what did you think itll flop immediately??

Smh

[sturdy void]

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

myave

[sturdy void]

dude the dev team gc isnt even as active as this

[icy anchor]

Tear a hole in the dev team gc

[sturdy void]

as in fire someone?

i vote nether our only deeveloper

[icy anchor]

Lol

As any successful corporate department, we have to fire someone

Even if the lead is our one and only developer

[sturdy void]

and the studio owner 💀

[unique hill]

wtf

thats crazy

[unique hill]

yall are busy 😔

[sturdy void]

bih im the only one online during my day

[unique hill]

https://github.com/anthonyec/godot_little_camera_preview

found something that would help me immensely with cutscenes

[timid flume]

Too bad it didn't have "dog" in it

[unique hill]

lol

this was probably the fastest ive responded to someone

because I was already lurking in this thread

[unique hill]

sry if I responded too fast 👀

[unique hill]

I think I can make a good modding SDK by just giving users all the models with collision

but to play the maps, you need to have the actual game installed

as itll launch and load the map in the gmae

[timid flume]

You're all good fam

[unique hill]

im making the warehouse level

I have a clear vision of the level I want it to be

i just quickly made a background environment so that i can get a feel of the atmosphere

[unique hill]

this is massive by the way

the player is like a dust particle

Ill have parts of the level load in as the player progresses

[iron shore]

don't put too much action in for indoor areas

[unique hill]

im not

this is a more chill level

planning to have it a bit puzzling

though that would need me to code new functionality

[unique hill]

I know for a fact

that at the end of the warehouse section

I want a action scene

followed by a cutscene overlooking the city

something to really show what we're capable of for future chapters

[upper frigate]

o/

[unique hill]

o/

[unborn vale]

Is that a 3d space or a drawing? It looks so good 🤩

Those god rays are amazing

[unique hill]

a 3D space! Down to the volumetric rays!

[unique hill]

its actually a trick im using!

The god rays are a model with a texture applied on it

and with its shading set to unlit, then I just tweak it until it looks good

[unborn vale]

Oh that's actually really smart

then you can just modulate it, assuming its a white ish texture?

[unique hill]

I also re-used the clouds in the night scene for fog down below

[unique hill]

yee

[unborn vale]

Such smart

[unique hill]

unlit

with no environment

lit with environment

[unborn vale]

But sadly considering the recent 4 quarters of the company profits have been going down, I think we will have to fire you, sorry

[unborn vale]

Man that is so nice

[unique hill]

damn thats crazy

I deny your request for firing

[unborn vale]

Sorry, I deny the firing, I suggest that you fire the firing manager

[unique hill]

I plan for this to be a step-like area

with each step being a separate level

but since it takes place in the exact same area

the background will just be re-sed

re-used

the background being the warehouse itself

[unborn vale]

Sorta like when you go through the same place in portal twice, but the second time it has changed?

[unique hill]

yeah, except its only changing because computers arent powerful enough to have such a large level loaded in all at once

so when you go down a step

the step is loaded

and the previous one is unloaded

[unborn vale]

ahhh

smart

[unique hill]

and replaced with a lower detail version

[unique hill]

yee

[unborn vale]

yee

[unique hill]

oh also

those containers are just cuboids

theres no other geometry except that

instead, i used

✨ displacement maps ✨

[unborn vale]

Did you hear that they removed displacement maps in unreal 5?

[unique hill]

fr?

[unborn vale]

yep

[unique hill]

that makes sense ngl

they wouldve replaced it with something better

[unborn vale]

They said something along the lines of it being a deprecated technology

But they havem't replaced it...

[unique hill]

thats weird

Alot of games use displacement maps for fur

just look at almost any toy in poppy playtime

its very visible that theyre using displacement maps

for the fur

and it works well

[sturdy void]

bred

[icy anchor]

Bread

[unique hill]

bread

I'm going to place a photorealistic bread model somewhere in my game

and im going to make it unnecessarily high quality and look very out of place

the outlines wouldnt even be applied onto it

[gray spade]

great idea

[gray spade]

a fluffy, outlined and very cartoon-ish bread somewhere in index purger. deal?

[unique hill]

perfect

[icy anchor]

Sounds nice

[civic sedge]

A 12M Vertex Bread?

[unique hill]

nah imma use displacement and normal maps

[sturdy void]

use my animated ad

spent.like an hour on that

[unique hill]

definitely

oh what

it didnt animate

scam!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1066471772872003815/1198730261265911838/bread_animation.gif?ex=65d26c8d&is=65bff78d&hm=5c170688f8c852a9ea07f7d9dbc708364ab8c5a970715dfba3a2e596ba9e68f5&

[sturdy void]

yes

my first attempt with blender and i made spinning bread

[unique hill]

dam I suck at level design

[unborn vale]

I mean all the things I've seen so far looks cool 🤷‍♂️

[humble blaze]

^

[unique hill]

im good at making things look good, but after playing this level I dont really find it fun to be honest

Its good, dont get me wrong

I need to get a mechanic that gives the player a reason to play besides getting from point A to B

Im still thinking about that

maybe Ill whip up a prototype level and send gameplay footage here so I can get better feedback 👀

[unique hill]

Ive started to actually prototype levels

before I often ended up building the level around the environment

instead im going to build the environment around the level

[iron shore]

great idea sherlock

[unique hill]

Smh

check your dms

I gave u a task to do

[iron shore]

tomorow

[unique hill]

ye whenever ur free

just dont put it off indefinitely

like the controls menu

[unique hill]

https://imgur.com/a/mD0mFxk

"Recently, the security bots have been acting... odd."

[unborn vale]

Is that a model from the game?

[unique hill]

ye

animation from it as well

[unborn vale]

It look so cool!

[unique hill]

ty!

[unborn vale]

Man if I saw that walking out of a shadow and then like turn towards me I would be fucking scared

[unique hill]

it would

the previous design is way more scarier

let me send it

https://imgur.com/a/Dcz9zKW

previopus design

imagine that shit chasing you down

running on walls and ceilings

[unborn vale]

that would be fucking crazy

[unique hill]

I had to cut it out though as I remodelled the base model for all robots in the game

[gray spade]

or fucking funny, depending on which type of person you are

[unique hill]

💀

[gray spade]

the new model seems like a pretty good balance

[unique hill]

i agree

i plan for them to attack you with their wristblades when youre close

[sturdy void]

i wanted to get him to make them into essentially femboy catgirl bots but that never followed through

at least i dont think so

[unique hill]

It never followed through bc that feels weird to see

you got a femboy-ish looking protagonist model

as compensation insted

instead*

https://hotcocoastudios.discowd.com/0DazkMOiee.mp4

adding functionality

[sturdy void]

no i didnt

until you give him blue and white thigh highs i am not accepting that

[unique hill]

I mean with the hoodie it kinda looks like it

[unique hill]

i am not doing that

[sturdy void]

fine i will then

[unique hill]

you are not doing that

[sturdy void]

i will learn blender purely to femboy the protag

[sturdy void]

fuck you im him I can do what i want

[unique hill]

heis not based on your likeness

ur the VA

smh

clear difference

[sturdy void]

hes british and i named him

[unique hill]

everyone is british in the game

[sturdy void]

how would you know you never seen that

[sturdy void]

except his sidekick is for some reason Australian?

[unique hill]

australia and england are related

theyre like brothers yeah

theyre under the same mother

*father

[sturdy void]

theyre on opposite ends of the world

[unique hill]

and?

[sturdy void]

i mean our dad's prolly dead soon anyway soooo

[unique hill]

another one spawns in dw

[sturdy void]

wtf were we, separated at birth or sum?

[unique hill]

i mean yeah

probably

[sturdy void]

ah yes the repeating /summon empire:monarch command block

[unique hill]

england colonized everywhere

[sturdy void]

ah shit technically yeah

[unique hill]

its kinda like australia is england's son

now that i think abt it

[sturdy void]

i was thinking Pangea but yeah okay

[unique hill]

and australia moved away

you get what im saying right

[sturdy void]

no

but you do you

[unique hill]

also sidekick is an odd term

hes more of a friend innit

[sturdy void]

im trying to not reveal the name smfh

[unique hill]

of who

[sturdy void]

-_-

of anything

[unique hill]

this accurately describes the main side characters mood at all times

[sturdy void]

like i was tempted to say "how do you know im not secretly a [protagonist description in detail here] irl" but then remembered this place aint know a lot yet

[sturdy void]

@spark sparrow accurate

[unique hill]

i wonder if alpha can put on an australian accent

I dont think it was a good idea for me to set the game in england and make these characters british and australian

when the only british person is you

[sturdy void]

exactly

[unique hill]

and no one else is even close to your time zone

[sturdy void]

and i can do a relatively convincing american accent

so

uh

[unique hill]

ehh

[sturdy void]

literally the dumbest setting countru

[unique hill]

I still hear some brit in it

[sturdy void]

relatively

[unique hill]

but I like england

[sturdy void]

why

[unique hill]

and it makes more sense

[sturdy void]

not even i like england

[sturdy void]

how

[unique hill]

I dunno I just like london

[sturdy void]

the antagonist is a damn tech giant that's literally just fucking silicon valley

[unique hill]

so i made the game set in england

[unique hill]

no what?

you buffoon

2 things

oh no I cant say those two things

fuck sake

[sturdy void]

dms

also you already leaked the company name I just hinted at their deal

[unique hill]

second thing, Idk if theyre the main antagonist

they could very well just be an antagonist

bc I dont wanna go the typical "big bad company rules the world" story

[sturdy void]

that's why i didn't say main antagonist

[unique hill]

but u did say the

[sturdy void]

these nuts

[unique hill]

no idea what I did but lowest settings suddenly give this FPS level

[timid flume]

How did you change your original image of the forum post?

[unique hill]

I deleted the original attachment, and edited my original message to have a link which was just an image

that image being the new one

[vast citrus]

you mean I didn't have to delete my thread and make a new one?

[unique hill]

no 💀 what

[timid flume]

Ah, I assume the image was posted somewhere into discord and you just copied the attachment link to the post?

[unique hill]

yep

[unique hill]

just spent quite some time getting physics interpolation working

game should now look and feel better on higher Hz monitors

thanks to sinewave knowing what to look for and how to look for it when beta testing!

[unique hill]

i have been vigorously testing gameplay alongside fellow game devs and team members to ensure its the best it could be

so expect to see some actual levels soon instead of test things

[unique hill]

@iron shore

ill just make the controls menu

[unique hill]

I revoke this statement

[iron shore]

weed eater

[unique hill]

eh?

[sturdy void]

go steal code from somewhere

literally just google "gdscript control settings" and theres multiple tutorials lol"

[unique hill]

ye but i dont wanna

i did find an addon that does it thoso i might usethat

[icy anchor]

All that dictionary magic around control panel makes it feel like a bunch of outdated bureaucracy. I've written it once, i'd steal it other time

[sturdy void]

"i dont wanna steal other people's code so im just gonna use other people's code"

[unique hill]

the difference is that I credit them

stealing is you dont give credit I think

kam can I post a funny screenshot of a message u sent

[sturdy void]

sure?

[sturdy void]

i think?

[unique hill]

im fixing said hurt sounds