News Update: Work And Progress. Week 45

[Carnaxus 11]

Maybe because the guys who squish bugs are a different department than the guys who add content and visual goodies? And trust me... you don't want someone who usually produces game props and items to work on debugging... When that happens whole games crash lol.

 

Yes.  Yes, games do.  I'm certified to be one of those game prop producers (haven't found a job in the field yet  ), but I don't know the first (or last) thing about game coding.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Carnaxus

[Marshlander 188]

I'm personally thrilled to see the work that is being done on the sounds - it just seems to hit a good spot for development! The sound falloff - or lack of it - has been an immersion limiter for me for a while, even though it was fun being able to tell whether my neighbours from the edge of local range were cutting planks or smithing back on Release.

 

Also reworking of some of the fighting sounds would be awesome... I always turn down the sound when fighting bears, for instance. Their repetitive roar is a nerve-wracker.

 

It's awesome to see what one person's initiative can do in a small team, and while I'm certain there's some work on all sides involved, thanks Johan for taking this up!

[Daolin 894]

Something tells me that if we only had a game platform but a completely bug free game set in an environment of ugly placeholder graphics, no animations and floating cubes representing the creatures.

You would happily agree that there is need to balance both art and code to be an appealing game experience.

Fortunately one does not have to exclude the other in this situation.

 

You are incorrect.

 

I would prefer a bug free game than a pretty game any day, java struggles as it is to support the graphics we have, so yeah, bug fixes before graphics.

[Redd 4,281]

Something tells me that if we only had a game platform but a completely bug free game set in an environment of ugly placeholder graphics, no animations and floating cubes representing the creatures.

You would happily agree that there is need to balance both art and code to be an appealing game experience.

Fortunately one does not have to exclude the other in this situation.

Well said.

[Ruger 610]

Something tells me that if we only had a game platform but a completely bug free game set in an environment of ugly placeholder graphics, no animations and floating cubes representing the creatures.

You would happily agree that there is need to balance both art and code to be an appealing game experience.

Fortunately one does not have to exclude the other in this situation.

 

I'll take a fix on the memory leak over you guys balancing the graphics to the bug fixing stuffs...

[Kagrenac 812]

I'll take a fix on the memory leak over you guys balancing the graphics to the bug fixing stuffs...

Except that art team has nothing to do with fixing bugs or memory leaks.

[Marshlander 188]

Except that art team has nothing to do with fixing bugs or memory leaks.

Not directly, no. But the overall strategy of adding more textures, renderable items, etc when there are such memory leak problems of course makes those problems much more noticeable.

 

I'm experiencing more client freezes since the furniture updates when passing huge/developed deeds than a few weeks ago.

[Ecrir 887]

Not directly, no. But the overall strategy of adding more textures, renderable items, etc when there are such memory leak problems of course makes those problems much more noticeable.

 

I'm experiencing more client freezes since the furniture updates when passing huge/developed deeds than a few weeks ago.

 

So adding art helps to make those bugs more apparent, which will then hopefully make it easier to fix. Thus adding art has the potential to help fix bugs.

Edited November 11, 2014 by Ecrir

[Marshlander 188]

So adding art helps to make those bugs more apparent, which will then hopefully make it easier to fix. Thus adding art has the potential to help fix bugs.

It could mean that they are willing to face the issue boldly and head-on. Or it could mean they are unaware to the extent of the problem, or ignoring it.

 

Though I do agree that adding content is a commitment to having the game grow. I felt the same way about the issues with the release of Xanadu - Rolf is willing to extend the boundaries of what is possible with his game/server/engine, and it shows in a number of cracks and issues... but it just means that he's putting in the willingness to tackle these things over time, instead of staying in the same pattern. And to this day, all the issues with Xanadu have been resolved in a competent manner except for the god domains (and that some game systems like sailing are less attractive in the Xanadu setup). I'm sure the game as a whole has profited from the time spent on optimizing the spawns, since they always have been a kind of up-and-down thing even on the old servers.

 

The client FPS drops and freezes when approaching deeds with lots of furniture/decorations/light sources are however becoming a big issue and I hope this is going to be addressed in step with the new additions.

[KanePT 699]

Well, the colossus would actually need to be retextured if downscaled. Just think about it, all those bricks and then downscaled to character size = tons of tiny miniature bricks.

Not a bad idea though! It is always good to find reuse of assets.

But as always it is hard to make them a priority with so much already in the pipeline hehe.

I was thinking about the model itself, surely upscaling the smaller statue would return a less refined outcome than downscaling the bigger model (surely must have higher poly count).

The textures can be fixed easily enough.

[Carnaxus 11]

I was thinking about the model itself, surely upscaling the smaller statue would return a less refined outcome than downscaling the bigger model (surely must have higher poly count).

The textures can be fixed easily enough.

 

Actually, chances are that the smaller models have a higher polycount.  It's harder to get smooth curves on small objects without using more polies, whereas with the huge things people can't really get close enough for that level of detail to matter.