Here comes Alpha 12!

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kharnov
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Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by kharnov »

Today, let's go over what we expect to include in our twelfth alpha release, out on Sunday, February 3rd.

ImageOver this month, we've been focusing heavily on code work while giving out assignments to current and new artists. For the most part, this release will be heavy on engine adjustments, while in later months you can expect to see quite a few art updates. In terms of engine-side graphical improvements, we have some new work by gimhael, who fixed our bloom implementation last release. Besides fixing the lighting on the new creep texture, he has also fixed rim lighting and has now added a new effect, motion blur. Rim lighting is essentially a different sort of lighting that brings out added detail, and we have it working off ambient lighting. As for motion blur, it functions very much like you'd imagine, blurring most of the screen when you move fast enough. This can be triggered by falling down a steep vertical drop, pouncing as a dragoon, or even dodging as a human. In the above shot, bloom, rim lighting, and motion blur are all enabled. It's kind of hard to show off in a screenshot well, but you'll be able to see it in-game.

Another major feature has been added by Fuma, who has at last committed his overhaul of the bot code. Unlike the old system, which was rigid and produced strange behaviors, the new one is much more flexible, and functions off behavior trees. In general, the bots are much more competent than they used to be, but the most exciting implication of using behavior trees is that it should now be fairly easy to script your own bot behavior. This could be useful for server owners that want their bots to behave in various ways, or even for a potential tutorial mode. Each individual bot can be given its own specific behavior tree if desired, which could prove amusing when observing bots fighting each other. Sooner or later, we'll get right to documenting how you can write a behavior tree and what sorts of actions are available.

Although it isn't part of the core gameplay yet, since it's still very much in an early testing phase, you'll be able to playtest our resources system, coded by `Ishq. We'll have a server up for you to experiment with it, and we'll possibly stick the new bots on it too. Considering that it's a very major shift in the fundamental gameplay of Unvanquished, we're very much eager to hear your feedback on it. Rather than focusing on balance at the moment, we're trying to get the implementation right, and we're still exploring new features to add to it. If all goes well, then we'll expand further on new avenues of design in the future. There's still a lot to do, and plenty more that we're discussing amongst ourselves.

We've made a lot of other fixes and small changes, too. As mentioned last week, there are the alterations to flamethrower and shotgun behaviors, to better fit their effects. The team overlay will show credits and evolution points that your teammates have, which should help with organizing rushes. We've also done some more code cleanup as well, and you can follow the progress of these changes in greater detail on our Git repository. Lastly, danmal has been doing more work with fixing the installer, and I'll give more details on his fixes next week on release day. In general, you can expect less annoying behavior than in the past.

See you next week, when we make our release.

Click here to read this article on the main site!

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ViruS
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by ViruS »

Woot! Motion blur!

Btw, is the blur dependant on fps?

He has also adjusted the shotgun's spread, so that instead of firing in a square, it instead fires in a circular pattern

Does this mean also the chaingun, rifle and other weapon spreads are circular now? (they were)

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KenuR
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by KenuR »

Is it possible to turn the motion blur off?

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StalKermit
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by StalKermit »

Has anyone ever left motion blur on in games where it's possible to choose?

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ViruS
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by ViruS »

Most likely toggle-able by cvar i'll assume. There should be an intensity setting as well, or maybe combine the two: r_motionblur [0-9]

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seana11
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by seana11 »

I'm really excited about the new bot stuff. It should make screwing with them much easier :).

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danmal
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by danmal »

KenuR wrote:

Is it possible to turn the motion blur off?

Yep, you can also set the intensity.

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DwarfVader
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by DwarfVader »

Hi all,

Nice to see work is going on....

btw. you remember http://dl.dropbox.com/u/69238784/humanStage.webm ?

You are absolutly ALLOWED to use/implement/extend whatever existing code i wrote and/or the idea of polishing the ingame announcement system like I did in the past. I absolutly don't claim any credits or something else about that idea/code snippets I came up with/send to your devs.

So just in case you are looking for a new field of work to be done or you are short of available graphic artists(workpower) at the moment and looking for something witch will bring noticable results and fresh content to the screen ( with relativly low work effort )...I strongly encourage you to work on it.

Maybee better than mention older work implementations of previous alpha releases, because you haven't much to write about?

greetings
DwarfVader

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kharnov
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by kharnov »

Yes, you can toggle motion blur on and off. By default it will be off, just like the other graphics options. You can also adjust the intensity of the effect.

Also, none of what I've written about is from earlier releases, DwarfVader. This is all the work we've done this month. You can track our progress on our Git repository. My actual release post will be more verbose than this one.

WhiteTech
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Re: Here comes Alpha 12!

Post by WhiteTech »

I find this one particularly exciting. I feel like this release and next is really pushing Unvanquished to being it's own game!

As for the no balancing until the resource changes is a good idea. That in itself can throw off the balance changes.

Hows the installer working for this release? In past it was bugged, and it also downloaded all the maps all over again, taking forever.

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