Devlog 14 - 0.2.0.4 - Chapter 02 Pass 00

New build is available! New Chapter available!

This is the 1st pass of the 3rd chapter (#02). It’s a bit stub.

Sprint log:

Explanation and demo

—— Game

General

• New: Started using the .ini config files more heavily. New LifeDev.ini file.
• New: Started working on the save-game. Basic structure and methods in place.
• New: Started working a bit on custom control mapping.
• Started working on reducing the visual stress for people that needs/wants it.
• • Disabled Lumen by default. Mostly since it did not made a lot of sense, secondly to improve performance. (It can be enabled with the .ini config files).
• • Removed depth of field post process effect.
• Performance pass
• • cleanup on things loaded
• • significance plugin working! Added to a bunch of objects in the scene.
• Lots of bug fixes, cleanups, and improvements all around.
• • Removed unused assets, variables, and code.
• • Updated collisions.

Chapter 2

• New: New chapter.
• New: New room.
• New: New character.
• New: New types of interactions. Including cards.
• Attempt to improve the lighting.
• パラメーター adjustments.

Chapter 0 and 1

• Added some new objects.
• Improved some interactions.
• Some tweaks and improvements in many aspects.

—–– Subsystems and plugins

Flashbacks

• New: Added feature flag for strobe lights to disable flashing lights.
• • It can be toggled at the start, but also can be toggled on the .ini files.
• Added duration to SetMax and SetMin.
• LD/New: Created new flashback post process. Less visually confusing, more meaningful.

Dialogs

• Not much.

Story

• New: Feat to remove items at end of step.
• New: Feat to ensure items at the start of a step.
• Fixes on finishing step on item received.
• Fix item rewarding.
• Fix incorrect transition on last step of sequence.
• Reworked the whole step cycle. Start, Stop, StartSequence. Much improved, such determinism, no bugs, good wow.
• Improved character teleport.
• LD: reworked chapter load cycle.

Inventory / Flags

• New: Added ensure items, which makes sure there’s at least 1 of the item.
• New: Added remove items, which removes completely an item.
• New: Added ItemLogic class and CardLogic. Not much use yet, but allows for having custom logic instance for each item.

Interactions

• Fix not being able to modify the root component in blueprints.
• LD: Added UseItemDlgs. Which allows to define a map of items/dialogs, so that when an item is used it will trigger the specified dialog. Speeding up development considerably.
• LD: Improves on animation management.
• LD/New: Improves on flicker on flashback.

Sound

• New: New sounds for drawers and lamps.
• New: New music.
• New: Added audio volumes for reverb and stuff.
• Updated sounds groups and levels.

Art

• New: New objects: Calendar, wide chair, bathtub, wide cabinet, stand lamp, books, toilet, hall, wide doors, picture frame.
• New: New character!
• New: Started experimenting with skeletal animations and voxel art hybrid.
• New: Started experimenting with a new palette system for assets.
• Improved, cleaned, and improved performance of voxel materials.

Utils

• New: Added material and material functions for palette with vertex colors.
• New: QuickMesh can set collisions.
• Moved a bunch of voxel color related materials to JUtils plugin.

New! Significance

• New: Finally working significance plugin. in a separate plugin to have clean dependencies.
• Configurable through .ini files.
• • Use Background thread.
• • Update interval.
• • Number of player controllers to process.
• Subsystem to control everything globally.
• Component to easily control each actor individually.
• • Can be subclassed. LifeDev has a custom one that works in tandem with animations.
• • Everything is per instance configurable.
• • Auto register.
• • Simple to use.
• • Can override the significance calculation.
• • Delegates for changes and events.
• • Can adjust tick enabled and intervals.
• • Can control hiding components.
• • Significance depending on:
• • • Actor being hidden
• • • Last time rendered (visible). Configurable timeout.
• • • Distance to camera. With different levels.