Mastodawn

One thing I still needed to do after the environment overhaul, was to optimize things a bit.

I've managed to make the game run at 30fps on my reference hardware (a 10 years old laptop with a GTX 850M)

I had to sacrifice some of the rendering quality though (second image)

Now I need to create an options menu so that you can adjust quality for your hardware.

#GameDev #Contraptioneer

Among the main changes, I reduced the density of grass instances. I can't reduced the density of trees because that would impact gameplay (but maybe at some point I'll make a less detailed LOD level for trees)

I also modified the grass shader, so that it uses alpha scissor instead of alpha blend. This makes rendering faster, but it means grass can't have translucent pixels, which is important in distant mipmaps, when each blade covers less than a pixel. Have to find compromises...

Modifying a #shader depending on render quality is also going to add some difficulties with the options menu. I haven't seen anything built into #Godot to handle this. I suppose I'll have two shaders (including the same shared code), and I'll need to assign the right one to materials at runtime.

Another important change was to reduce rendering resolution. In the screenshot I've set it to 75%, and upscale with FSR1. This makes things a bit more blurry and looses details, but so far the result seem reasonable. Don't worry, it's just classical image processing, nothing like #DLSS5 😉

There is #NoAI in the game, I use no AI to make it, and don't intend to ever use any AI tool.

youen May 23

First version of the options menu. In this video I overlay the #Godot GPU graph (lower values means it takes less time to render the frame, so lower is better performance).

We can see the huge performance impact of alpha-blended grass, especially with high densities (lot of overdraw, I guess?)

#GameDev #IndieDev

youen May 23

The above video has been captured on my main dev machine, so it's powerful enough to run at 60fps no matter the settings.

Grass density has almost no impact in "alpha scissor" mode, probably because the Z-prepass makes it cheap, but I suspect it could be different on a less powerful GPU, I'll need to double check on my laptop.

I can't really capture the result on my laptop though, since the capture itself already puts a bit of strain on the hardware 😅

#Contraptioneer #GameDev #IndieGame

I think the graphics settings are complete enough for now. This allows to easily scale up to 30fps on my 10-years-old laptop.

I've also improved the lighting of distant trees (impostors).

There is still noticeable popping, but it's better than before. There's also the issue of the shadow split separation. This is a worst case scenario though, since players are not supposed to fly above the forest.

Unless... Wouldn't it be cool if players can build a suspended monorail above the forest?

So maybe that kind of camera movement is possible after all 😅 I'll see when I get there!

For now, I will put these environment improvements aside, and focus on the construction gameplay again. I hope to be able to release a first playable version "soon" 😅 Will probably be more a technical demo, with little content for now.

#GameDev #GameDesign #IndieGame

My next task for the #game is... to think about what the next tasks are 😁

My focus is to release a first playable version. What is mandatory for that? What can wait for later?

What do you think, what would you want first, as a player?

(see other #poll next)

Shovel and/or drill part to dig the ground

30.4%

Possibility to lift/manipulate machines by hand

13%

More construction parts

17.4%

Resource system (gathering, refining, build costs)

39.1%

Poll ended at May 27 at 4:10pm.

#GameDev #GameDesign #IndieGame #Poll

I'm interested to know, what would you want the most, as a player? Knowing that each additional feature pushes the release date 😅

Also interested of course to know if you have other ideas, let me know!

Survival mechanics

25.8%

Plot and/or objective to follow

41.9%

Buoyancy and/or interaction with buildings (dams)

16.1%

Wildlife and/or robot enemies

16.1%

Poll ended at May 27 at 4:15pm.

youen 6d ago

I didn't wait the end of the poll to implement "lift/manipulate" which I think is among the most critically needed... and received the least votes 😁
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@youen/116642965349107977

But I realize that I didn't manage to give enough context, mastodon is a difficult format.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback! I see there is no very clear trend, excepted maybe the most wanted "Plot and/or objective to follow", which honestly is not the easiest 😅 I'll see if I can do (the beginning of) something 🤔