Devlog #48: March 2025

Becoming friends with post-processing

By Maja - CEO, Concept Artist

Last month I wrote about fighting with different post-processing parts like the light and skybox. Then I finally got something that looked ok. However, when we actually tested to merge the post-processing branch with the rest, we discovered that the sky box and system we used was way too heavy for the game. Which means your computer would struggle a lot to run the game. So I had to learn a new skybox and cloud system, which was surprisingly easy to use. Yay! That was a relief. So now we have another sky, which actually had better color options that matched the idea in my head. The idea was to have a colder blue color, and without so much yellow in the horizon. There were also new clouds that were easier to control without making the sky overcast.

I also continued to explore new post processing adjustments. I got a better understanding of Beautify this month, so it was much easier for me to work without asking Marius for help. Poor Marius, had to help me a lot when it didn’t work. When we changed the skybox we also got a new sun, but I got it to be kind of nice looking. Compared to the blurred light ball it was at the beginning.

Making volume With the new volumetric GI-asset I got the option to add something that imitates shadows in corners and edges. This made every wooden edge pop and look softer at the same time! I love it. It also gave some nice details on the jumps, signs and so on.

Above, you can see the before and after. On the left is before, and on the right is after.

New vibes I feel like the environment has a more colder and Nordic vibe, compared to what you can see in steam. I also went into the horse creator scene and did some adjustments, moving a few cameras and such for it. The horse creator scene is difficult to work with to match the light from the stable. We will change it later, but while we use the area, I have to make it look ok for what it’s for.

The post-processing that is currently in the Steam build on the left versus the new post-processing adjustments by me to the right. And whoosh, we go from Spain to Norway! The new screenshot is taken directly from the Unity development view.

The Horse Creator/Menu scene When the game changes visually, the Horse creator scene must follow. It’s not the easiest scene to work with and we will probably switch it out later. This scene is quite closed off surrounded with mountains and trees. So the light is not the best there. But I did what I could, so now it’s a little bit better. Though the fog makes it look a bit rainy. Which is not unusual for Nordic countries. I had some fun editing the cameras, because I wanted the angle to be different. I moved the horse a bit closer to the river too. My goal was to have the river in the background.

Adjustments inside the stable I also had to adjust some light that I previously placed inside the rooms in the stable that needed adjustments. When I tested it out, I discovered that many of them were too low and too bright. So I went ahead and fixed that. You can see on the image how bad it was! The horse’s hind even turned into a dark void.

Everything all at once

By Mathilde - Community Manager, 3D-artist

This month has consisted of me trying to tie up "loose ends" and help where I could. The reason for this is that at the end of March, I started my new part-time job that I will be working at for the next 6 months. Don't worry, I will still be working on Astride, just a little bit reduced.

I've focused on finishing the foal model. This includes adding the different breeds as blend shapes, finalizing the mane and tail with textures for tobiano patterns, foal camo, silver, and more! I also added the needed blend shapes for the face, such as blinking, face shape, and cute mouth movements.

I couldn't help but show these cute faces above, it was so fun to work on this task!

The foal model as the Norwegian Fjord horse.

The foal model as the Arabian (I know Arabians do not have tobiano natively, but I was also testing the textures for the mane lining up with the body textures for the tobiano patterns).

Here is also the foal camo displayed on the different base colors, black, bay, and red!

Moving on, I also finally updated the textures for pangare. We already have pangare in the game, but the textures were outdated and had seams running between the legs and across the stomach. This is now fixed!

Another issue we had was the fact that there were no textures for the combination of silver and cream. I fixed this by making some unique textures that will be used if the horse is buckskin (bay with cream) with silver or smoky black (black with cream) with silver. Now, the silver + cream combination should be more like they appear in real life genetics!

Lastly, I've added a couple more show jumping courses and did some tweaks to the dressage courses. The first training course has less gait transitions and I made a completely new training course just to get to know our dressage course design system a little better. In the future, I hope to add more dressage courses and tests for you guys.

Environment

By Tirna - Project Manager, 3D-artist

The final month of learning the basics of the new environment tool Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures to share this time—this past month has been full of testing, errors, and a lot of back-and-forth. But now, I can finally say I’m starting to get a better grasp of this tool. Working on something that will actually become Eldheim—and not just another test scene—is both exciting and something I take seriously.

There won’t be many updates from me on the test scene in the current builds, but don’t worry—a much better scene is on the way! And the best part? This doesn’t affect the other aspects of Astride, like programming or Maja’s post-processing work.

Let me share a bit of our vision for the environment. Right now, there’s not much to be excited about—but that’s about to change. Some of us on the team grew up alongside Norway’s longest river, Glomma, which winds through a variety of landscapes. The part we know best features vast fields, scattered forests, and mountains in the background—just like what you see in these pictures.

The test scene you currently have access to wasn’t created with a clear plan; it was simply a space for me to experiment and learn. This time, however, we’re putting much more thought into it. We hope you’re just as excited as we are!

Originally, we aimed to create a map that captured diverse elements from all over Norway. But we’ve realized it’s better to focus on what we know best—the lesser-known yet beloved Østerdalen vibe.

Lead changes & gait transitions

By Marius - Animator

A little help here and a little help there This month I have been helping Maja at times as she has been learning the ropes in Unity and working in 3D. But I’ll leave it to her to tell what she has worked with.

Lead change slow and standing Last month I made turning animations for lead change, which was about time but there was something amiss when I tested it. While some of the problem was in the animation itself, I found that the main problem was that the lead change animation was made for only one speed. So unless you were riding perfectly at the same speed as I animated the lead change, it would make weird transitions and movements.

The fix was to make lead change animations at the same speeds as canter animations are, only problem… Lead change animations are some of the most time consuming animations I know of. Because of this I started with the most noticeable lead change speeds: the slow ones.

Along with the slow canter lead change I also had to make a standing canter lead change. This animation will most likely not actually be seen, but is crucial for blending animations when you lead change at even slower speeds than the slow canter speed.

Walk before you canter While Ouroboros have been working on the movement system I got requested to make transition animations that skip gaits, as we want to be able to go from walk to canter without trotting first. While some transitions between gaits are passable without a custom animation, walk to canter is not one of them; and will also most likely be used frequently, so the animation is high priority.

Unlike most animation work nowadays this is a new animation and not a variant of an existing one, even if it uses parts of both walk and canter animation.

Haunting horse head scaling When we added the Icelandic horse, I had to set up a system in Unity that scales the horse's head, as not all horses use the same head size. But somewhere in the last few months something has happened that broke the system.

The system we use is very simple, but simple by design. We very simply change the scale of the horse bone to what is needed, but this is dependent on the horse rig not having any scaling keyframes. But for some reason blender has started to add start and end keyframes that don’t exist to the animations when exporting. This is not new as I have had similar problems before, but the usual fixes don’t work. I have checked that all scaling keyframes are deleted before export and have unchecked “add start/end keyframes” but still it is stubborn in adding the keyframes.

The reason this is a problem is that if there are keyframes for scaling in the animations, it resets any scaling we set in code back to what the animation says. While the easiest solution would be to just overwrite the animation information, this requires overwriting the animation every frame; while possible it is not a very optimized solution, especially with multiplayer.

There is one solution which is the “simplify” setting during export from Blender, the problem there is that it simplifies a little too well and removes any non-moving animation. So poses that don’t necessarily move gets removed; this can destroy some other animation overrides that I use, but more importantly: it removes singular bone animations that don't move. While not common, there are some animations that don't move every single bone. When they are removed they keep the position and rotation of the last animation played. This can be fixed by adding slight movement to the bones in question and is what I am currently working on, as it does not hurt the animations even if I find a better solution.

Ideally I would get a script that makes me able to choose animation channels to ignore during export, but sadly I haven’t found any and I can’t take the time to learn a whole new coding language and how to make it interact with blender as of now.

Anyway, this is a problem that needs fixing as soon as possible as our Icelandic horses run around with tiny heads at the moment.

Horse controller

By Ouroboros - Programmer

My work on the horse controller has continued throughout March, and we’re finally at a point where we can start some more serious in-house testing of it. I have finished the gait transitions, which includes being able to reverse, and a new mechanic for turning. The gait transitions will most likely only require minor adjustments, but the turning might need a lot more work before we are happy with it.

The changes to the horse controller also brings with it some changes to the in-game UI. Up until now, we have simply had text at the bottom middle of the screen saying the gait the horse is in. This has been moved to the bottom left-hand corner and, in addition to the text, there is an icon indicating the gait. A curve with an indicator shows the current speed of the horse in the active gait, and arrows indicate the sharpness of a turn. This UI is still being worked on and will change as we continue work on the horse controller.

The last thing I’ve focused on this month is performance. With the upgrade to Unity 6, updating of packages, and more work on post processing, I noticed a drop in performance. I have spent time profiling and analyzing the game to find parts to improve. We have taken steps in the right direction, but this will remain an ongoing job until the game is finished.

Face animations

By Mathie - Intern

Hi guys! I’ve spent some time battling with the Blender interface and I’m still getting the hang of it all, and combined with my uni workload and life itself it’s been going a bit slower on my end. Regardless, I still have a few things to share!

Animation - make a face! My primary focus this time around has been working in Blender on creating facial expressions using the rig I have been setting up.

They're definitely still on the janky side, the export wasn't kind to the timing on some of these. Although far from perfect, they are a decent starting point for me to improve on. That ought to be a good motivation for me to get these to look even better!

The facial rig The rig I’m working with has been made and customized by me to my own liking. Due to the way the whole rig is set up, it consists of two armatures to fit the workflow. One for animating and one for baking said animation, and the first iteration on the facial rig was only present on the latter. This made it tricky to animate the face together with any body movement for idle animations, as the switch between the armatures would only carry over some of the keyframes. So this has been remedied by now having the facial rig available on both armatures, though it’s still being tweaked as of writing. All in all I’ve been surprised by the amount of rigging I’ve gotten to work on, especially since I’m by no means specialised in it, but it’s been super interesting! It also would not have been possible had Marius not been there to carefully supervise me throughout the process.

I’ve realized that maybe the best way of learning Blender is by having a readily available “Blender guru” at your side. Seriously though, Marius has been a real trooper and an absolute life saver.

The bones you see on the right of the face are all the “controllers” that have been assigned drivers that allow me to animate the face. This is the first time I've worked with a facial rig that is set up in this manner, as when I have worked with facial rigs in Maya, the controllers are intricately placed along the face, often with custom shapes too! Luckily by being the one who customised this facial rig I know exactly what each controller does, perhaps it’s still somewhat intuitive upon first glance? I’ll let you guys be the judge of that ^^

A little blooper to wrap up my entry, do the wave! ~~

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