What changed
0 fixes3 additions1 change1 removal
- Gameplay
- Balance
- Performance
addedMessage from Rory (Programmer)Since the last update I've been working on a refactor of the main player character, a.k.a the Pawn. Out of Ammo was built for an immature platform with rapid iteration of new features being tacked on wherever they would fit. The Pawn was the key component of the entire game; over time anything that happened became somehow integrated with the Pawn. This made the game pretty difficult to work on since the Pawn was so massive that it took several minutes to open, save, compile or do anything. It had become what's known as a God-Object. So, in order to facilitate further development, I volunteered to clean up the Pawn. Just a bit.
changedMessage from Rory (Programmer)When I first started writing this changelog I believed I was about halfway done - in fact at the time I was only a sixth of the way through. At least 7 GB of data changed over almost a thousand files, 5 engine updates, a near-endless amount of bugs and 5 months later I've reworked almost the whole core of the game! I had massively underestimated the task. Because the player pawn was involved with everything, reworking the Pawn meant that I was reworking almost everything else as well. But the end result has made the game much more maintainable.
removedVersion 1.0.9Screen Percentage has been removed in favour of Pixel Density. Instead of having to figure out an appropriate screen percentage for each headset, and often being slightly off, we can use a normalized number to get the perfect amount. If you have pixel density set to the default you can be certain it will be perfect for your device. You can still down-sample to 0.5x or up-sample to 1.5x normal resolution if you want, but if you just need a few extra frames here and there...
addedVersion 1.0.9Dynamic Resolution is now available. We haven't tested it fully so we're not enabling this by default but if you feel like you need it it can be accessed by setting Pixel Density to "Dynamic".
addedVersion 1.0.9Spectator Screens have been added as an alternative view option. It's off by default though (the "Default View" option just copies what the player can see with almost no overhead) as it effectively involves rendering the whole world
Out of Ammo changes
addedSince the last update I've been working on a refactor of the main player character, a.k.a the Pawn. Out of Ammo was built for an immature platform with rapid iteration of new features being tacked on wherever they would fit. The Pawn was the key component of the entire game; over time anything that happened became somehow integrated with the Pawn. This made the game pretty difficult to work on since the Pawn was so massive that it took several minutes to open, save, compile or do anything. It had become what's known as a God-Object. So, in order to facilitate further development, I volunteered to clean up the Pawn. Just a bit.
changedWhen I first started writing this changelog I believed I was about halfway done - in fact at the time I was only a sixth of the way through. At least 7 GB of data changed over almost a thousand files, 5 engine updates, a near-endless amount of bugs and 5 months later I've reworked almost the whole core of the game! I had massively underestimated the task. Because the player pawn was involved with everything, reworking the Pawn meant that I was reworking almost everything else as well. But the end result has made the game much more maintainable.
removedScreen Percentage has been removed in favour of Pixel Density. Instead of having to figure out an appropriate screen percentage for each headset, and often being slightly off, we can use a normalized number to get the perfect amount. If you have pixel density set to the default you can be certain it will be perfect for your device. You can still down-sample to 0.5x or up-sample to 1.5x normal resolution if you want, but if you just need a few extra frames here and there...
addedDynamic Resolution is now available. We haven't tested it fully so we're not enabling this by default but if you feel like you need it it can be accessed by setting Pixel Density to "Dynamic".
addedSpectator Screens have been added as an alternative view option. It's off by default though (the "Default View" option just copies what the player can see with almost no overhead) as it effectively involves rendering the whole world
A few months ago we assigned more resource to do some substantial updates to the game. This started a long journey of refactoring. Think of it like taking a panel off the wall to replace it, realizing the frame needs replacing, so you replace that... essentially this Malcolm in the Middle episode.
This represents a pretty major change in how Out of Ammo is built. So if you like it, please do get the word out there! We've pumped a lot of development time in this, as always let us know your thoughts below.
Message from Rory (Programmer)
Hi, I'm the guy who's been holed up making an update for Out of Ammo. I haven't seen the sun from my blacked-out room for months! What was supposed to take a matter of weeks has expanded to take over all my waking hours, so let me start this changelog with a cautionary tale…
Since the last update I've been working on a refactor of the main player character, a.k.a the Pawn. Out of Ammo was built for an immature platform with rapid iteration of new features being tacked on wherever they would fit. The Pawn was the key component of the entire game; over time anything that happened became somehow integrated with the Pawn. This made the game pretty difficult to work on since the Pawn was so massive that it took several minutes to open, save, compile or do anything. It had become what's known as a God-Object. So, in order to facilitate further development, I volunteered to clean up the Pawn. Just a bit.
When I first started writing this changelog I believed I was about halfway done - in fact at the time I was only a sixth of the way through. At least 7 GB of data changed over almost a thousand files, 5 engine updates, a near-endless amount of bugs and 5 months later I've reworked almost the whole core of the game! I had massively underestimated the task. Because the player pawn was involved with everything, reworking the Pawn meant that I was reworking almost everything else as well. But the end result has made the game much more maintainable.
... I'm sure there's a moral in this somewhere. Don't bite off more than you can chew? Don't volunteer for anything? Hindsight is 20/20? I don't know, but hopefully it's helped you gain some insight into what has been a very difficult update!
Version 1.0.9
Engine update
Out of Ammo has gone from using Unreal version 4.16 to version 4.21 and has gained many benefits from doing so.
Screen Percentage has been removed in favour of Pixel Density. Instead of having to figure out an appropriate screen percentage for each headset, and often being slightly off, we can use a normalized number to get the perfect amount. If you have pixel density set to the default you can be certain it will be perfect for your device. You can still down-sample to 0.5x or up-sample to 1.5x normal resolution if you want, but if you just need a few extra frames here and there...
Dynamic Resolution is now available. We haven't tested it fully so we're not enabling this by default but if you feel like you need it it can be accessed by setting Pixel Density to "Dynamic".
Spectator Screens have been added as an alternative view option. It's off by default though (the "Default View" option just copies what the player can see with almost no overhead) as it effectively involves rendering the whole world
