v 0.4.0 - Origins

You guys know I'm just playin', when I give you update estimates right? No? Well I am. I've missed another deadline, but in my defense I'm quite bad with estimating, and the list of things I wanted to get done just kept growing. But enough of this directionless rant, let's get down to bussiness. After the 0.3.0 update I warned that my primary focus from now on would be work on the Story mode, while keeping the sandbox and challenges updated especially using systems and assets that I've made for the story mode. For the most part that's true, but there were a few things that I felt needed to be done and that's why today I'm releasing the Origins update. Note: Scroll to the bottom to see the full patch notes The first big addition is the Gallery - a new location accessible through the main menu. Here you can read the backstories of heroes you've unlocked in the Sandbox. Some are quite lengthy and contains hints as to the characters' roles in the upcoming story. I felt this area was needed because people often ask why they aren't creating their own superhero, in the end PowersVR is a story-driven game and the modes that are currently playable will be only bonus content in the full release. Second I've gone hardcore into optimization and profiling. They say that optimizing the game is one of the last things you do during it's development, but not only am I working on a live product, I'm also making a VR game, meaning that bad framerate can literally impede proper testing. Overall I've employed a lot of tactics for creating my assets that come naturally to indutry pros. As I refine the asset pipeline, the models and textures become better looking and more performant and that's a nice segue into the topic OF assets. A lot of additional 2D and 3D art has found it's way into the sandbox, I've touched up on a lot this update ranging from UI to particle effect improvements. Most notably the two heroes from The Rising Sun update always had pretty lackluster effects so that's been worked on. Another important addition to the art side of things is the new building system (which I've talked about in previous posts). It allows me to generate buildings of variable sizes and colors by using a simple set of 3D models. This dramatically decreases the work that needs to be done for generating believable city blocks on top of which caped heroes can pose heroically. The next steps for the system is generating procedural props on the windows and roof and eventually creating entire clusters of buildings by entering just a few parameters. I've put in some work to improve the new player experience with better instructions around the city and even in the main menu, as well as a new notification system which for now only notifies you when you've unlocked a new hero, but in the future will deliver all sorts of messages to the player. One reason I delayed the update for so long is that I'm getting ready to go to my second convention soon. Hopefully I'll gather a ton of feedback like last time and get more people excited about VR. This time around I have a site to direct people to. Just the like the game it's still very much a work in progress, but in the coming weeks I would hope that the PowersVR website will turn into a valuable resource for people to follow it's development. (psst, click the link and find a teaser for two upcoming heroes in development). Alright player, thank you again for bearing with me with this update. Lots done, much more left to do. For now I leave you with the complete patch notes, while I got take a long nap (30 hours ought to do it).

GALLERY * Added Hero Gallery - This area can be accessed from the main menu, next to the Sandbox button - In this area you'll find a computer terminal with a keyboard and screen - The terminal contains records of all heroes and villains currently in the game * In future updates lore about the world and organizations will be added to the terminal GENERAL * Updated to Unreal Engine 4.17 - This type of incremental upgrade usually improves stability and performance - Opens up more features I can now use to make the development easier * Hero selection menu has been reworked - The "Change power" button now needs to be held to keep the menu open - Instead of a menu of four heroes at a time, bubbles with all heroes pop up around the controller - Releasing the "Change power" button over one of the bubbles will set that ability as current - Releasing the button without hovering a bubble will retain the current ability * Remapped some controller buttons (VIVE) - Trackpad now activates an ability's secondary effect (such as cancelling teleportation) - Holding the Side button now opens the hero selection menu and releasing it closes it (OCULUS TOUCH) - Pressing B or Y activates an ability's secondary effect (such as cancelling teleportation) - Holding the Index trigger now opens the hero selection menu and releasing it closes it * Unified input system - This will allow to easily integrate new controllers such as the upcoming Vive Knuckles * Additional models have been added to the game world, replacing older ones * Added base of new Billboard system which will help populate the city with colorful fictional ads - Until I get offers to add real world ones *cough*Coca-Cola call me*cough* * Added more decals around the city * Fixed an issue that made most enemy projectiles invisible. UI * Added new notification system - This system displays messages to the player one at a time, before removing them after a delay - For now the only notification is to inform players when they've unlocked a new hero - In the story mode this system will display conversations between characters or tips/prompts * Added a "Return to Main Menu" button in the game menu - This will abort challenges and in the future story missions * Added building generation system - The system builds whole buildings using a couple of 3D models and parameters - This will drastically speed up building creation and allow for bigger variety - Next I'll be looking into generating whole city blocks dynamically. * Replaced instructions around the city with visual tutorials * Added a basic controls guide in the sandbox and main menu WHIRLWIND * Removed option to land manually - Fly/Land spam was an easy exploit to confuse enemies and that wouldn't work for the story mode - The feature was also quite prone to bugs - You'll still be automatically landed when you change to a different movement power RUBY * Updated particle effects to make them more impactful HIROKU * Updated particle effect - Lightning now occasionally arcs from player's hand OPTIMIZATION * Disabled tessellation (which wasn't being used to begin with) - Big framerate boost especially with many objects on screen * Implemented Simplygon tools in the workflow - Simplygon offers automatic Level of Detail (LOD) generation - This allows for objects farther from the player to be rendered with more simplistic graphics - When building a whole city, this will prove invaluable to maintain a good framerate - All new assets and many old ones now have LODs * Due to a peformance drop, fire escapes have been removed from the game until they can be optimized - All citizens are advised to call a flying hero in case of emergency * Some older models have receieved tweaks, especially regarding their textures * Some particle systems (especially ones using translucency) have been reworked to make them lighter