CodeWalrus

Featured Member Projects => Completed and Inactive Projects => [Inactive] VelocityGames (PC/Web) => Topic started by: ben_g on January 28, 2016, 07:22:35 PM

Title: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on January 28, 2016, 07:22:35 PM
This project isn't that new and it certainly isn't anywhere near being complete yet, but I don't make nearly enough posts here and decided to finally overcome my laziness and post about my projects :P
Anyways, introducing......
Project Valhalla(The name is still temporarily, it will eventually be changed to something better or just to 'Valhalla' if we can't come up with anything)
(http://s2.postimg.org/c06w40v7d/Valhalla_screenshot.png)

What is 'Project Valhalla'?
Project Valhalla is a project I'm working on together with 2 cousins. The goal if this project is to learn how to use almost every part of Unreal Engine 4, so that we can use it well when we start on future projects, and hopefully to end up with a nice game as well  ;)

Storyline
The main storyline is very simple: Months ago, a group of Vikings set sail to a nearby island in search of a cursed sword from a legend (the legend will be explained during the 'intro'). Recently, their ship came back, but it was completely empty apart from a single sword that was lying on the deck. You then sail to that island to find out what happened to these guys (and you crash your ship on the way there), but it turns out that the entire island was cursed and it is now swarming with undead monsters. It is now your quest to save that island by lifting it's curse.

It will be explained in slightly more details in-game, but that's basically the only part of the story you'll be forced to listen to. However, there will also be a lot of backstory that you'll be able to uncover by talking to NPCs. Most NPCs will behave in a certain strange way (usually during dialogues and quests, I don't think I'll be able to give them all unique idle behaviours), and their backstory will explain the cause of their behaviour. It will need to be mostly pieced together from dialogues from multiple NPCs though, not simply by asking NPCs about their origin story. This is an attempt to give the game more depth and optional storyline, while still being easy to program.

Gameplay
The gameplay will revolve mostly around combat and puzzles, with possibly some platformer elements in it as well.
The current plan for combat is to give the player a standard attack, an attack that's more effective against armour and a way to dodge attacks, together with a locking system that points the camera at the monster you locked on and a way to change the locks (to make aiming your attacks easier. The player will also be able to obtain a crossbow that can be used for attacking at a distance, though it won't be very useful in most areas and is mostly intended as a puzzle element. Most monsters will also behave differently based on their kind (for example: zombies are weak and move slow, but they'll generally appear in large groups and if they manage to surround you, then you're pretty much dead). (the goal is to keep combat simple and intuitive, while still having it be quite varied)

During the game, you'll be able to explore 10 different areas, with 2 of them (a beach and a village) acting basically as a hub where you'll be able to do sidequests, talk to NPCs and find secrets. The 8 other areas are each protected by a simple puzzle for which you'll need a certain items. Those items are hidden at the ends of each area, sometimes protected by a boss fight (assuming we manage to program boss fights). Off course, the puzzles are made so that you'll only be able to complete the areas in one fixed order.

Planned features and other stuff
Planned The concept is worked out Somewhat functional, but not complete Finished programming-wise, but not graphics-wise (Almost) finished

The 'maybe' pile
This is a list of stuff I may eventually add, probably late in development, depending on my skills at that time and on how lazy I'll be.

Any suggestions are welcome. This project is currently closed-source, but I hope to make it open-source when it's either done or dead. Some assets can be downloaded here (http://velocitygames.be/archive/) though, with more becoming available as the project gets closer to release. Expected release date: not anytime soon, but hopefully on this timeline instead of only on alternate ones :P
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: alexgt on January 28, 2016, 09:17:38 PM
Nice, can't wait to see more! And the picture is broken for me :P
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Yuki on January 28, 2016, 10:37:31 PM
Well, sounds fun! Can't wait to see more either.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 29, 2016, 12:04:16 AM
Those are sure some interesting and strange graphics, but when I first saw a video a year ago, I liked the style and originality. I am glad this project is still a thing.

I assume it's a JRPG, right?
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: alexgt on January 29, 2016, 01:54:14 AM
Wow that looks really cool, what is that thing in the background btw?
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on January 30, 2016, 12:40:28 PM
It's either a printer or a sail behind a rock. This is so cool!
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on January 30, 2016, 01:46:19 PM
Quote from: alexgt and juju
Nice, can't wait to see more!
I'll try to post updates here regularly. So instead of videos appearing on my youtube channel once in a while, I'll bother the entire CW community with my progress :P

Quote from: alexgt on January 29, 2016, 01:54:14 AM
Wow that looks really cool, what is that thing in the background btw?
It is a drawbridge I tried out. the white rectangle is the bridge itself and it's attached by ropes on the other side (which are for now also white since I didn't make the models/textures yet). You can slice the ropes with your sword or by firing arrows at it, and they're meant as shortcuts to make it easier to get to places you've already been. The ropes may eventually be used for some physics-based puzzles, if I manage to make them more reliable since they can get glitchy sometimes, especially on low framerates.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 29, 2016, 12:04:16 AM
I assume it's a JRPG, right?
I don't think I've ever played a JRPG, so I don't really know how they work. The most similar game I know would be the Legend of Zelda series (the drawing style is also loosely based on Wind Waker). It's definitely not intended to be a clone though.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Jokeriske on January 30, 2016, 03:13:52 PM
I just updated our games page + the page of valhalla at our website, ive added some pictures and currently working on the media page
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: alexgt on February 02, 2016, 04:13:34 PM
Nice :)

It is not up to me but it would be cool if we were affiliates with Velocity games ;)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on February 04, 2016, 06:59:29 AM
Aah ok, Zelda style. Glad to hear. Also, the difference between JRPG and Western RPG is that JRPG storylines tend to be less dark, less depressing and more humoristic, with less character customization and looks less like MMORPGs. Typical JRPGs are Final Fantasy, Tales of series, Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest, etc, while typical Western RPGs are Borderlands, Skyrim, Diablo, LotR, Dungeon Siege, etc. Also the western RPG definition is much more broad than JRPGs in the way that some people even consider Bioshock 2 to be an RPG. The typical JRPG will have a character with disproprortionate body parts, a giant sword, a cheesy story and girls with big breasts.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on March 03, 2016, 11:09:16 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on February 04, 2016, 06:59:29 AM
Aah ok, Zelda style. Glad to hear. Also, the difference between JRPG and Western RPG is that JRPG storylines tend to be less dark, less depressing and more humoristic, with less character customization and looks less like MMORPGs. Typical JRPGs are Final Fantasy, Tales of series, Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest, etc, while typical Western RPGs are Borderlands, Skyrim, Diablo, LotR, Dungeon Siege, etc. Also the western RPG definition is much more broad than JRPGs in the way that some people even consider Bioshock 2 to be an RPG. The typical JRPG will have a character with disproprortionate body parts, a giant sword, a cheesy story and girls with big breasts.
It's more of a western RPG then. The storyline isn't that dark or depressing (though some parts of the backstory will be), but it isn't cheesy or humoristic and the characters have realistic body proportions ... at least as far as my drawing skills allow it :P

I also have a new feature to show to you guys, and it's also not the fact that this video is HD unlike most other video's on my channel :P :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceTqE1ve3NI

As you can see (or can't see because of the laggyness of the video, my recording software had a lot of issues and this was the best video I could get from it, sorry), the sword combat is pretty much completely functional (apart from bugfixes). The combat is a very important mechanic in the game though, so it also needs to be fun. The system I'm using is pretty generic, but it also has a weird stamina part added to it, which could make the combat a bit more tactical and less button mashing, or completely ruin the experience. To determine if the mechanic is good or bad, and to be able to balance the damages and stamina costs of all attacks, I'm planning to release a simple combat demo this weekend.

Because the game is still in pre-alpha, I'm not comfortable with just making the demo available to download for everyone, because then everyone who doesn't understand the concept of pre-alpha will associate Valhalla with a "glitchy game in which there's nothing to do". So if you want to try the demo, please let me know, through whichever way you want (posting here, PM, email, telling me IRL, ...), and I'll send you a copy when the demo is playable. Keep the following things in mind though:
- The game is still in pre-alpha, so a lot of features are still missing (like sounds) and there WILL be glitches.
- The demo will showcase the combat only. More things are being worked on and I may eventually showcase that in other demos, but for now, combat is the only thing that's complete enough.
- The demo will be quite repetitive. Multiple monsters with different behaviours are planned, but only the zombie is finished. The demo will thus probably consist of an arena where you fight against waves of zombies with the settings of the combat system being slightly altered between waves.
- The demo will be Windows-only for now, because I don't know how to compile for Linux and don't have the hardware to compile for Mac. Sorry.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 03, 2016, 11:40:44 PM
Quote from: ben_g on March 03, 2016, 11:09:16 PM
I also have a new feature to show to you guys, and it's also not the fact that this video is HD unlike most other video's on my channel :P :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceTqE1ve3NI

As you can see (or can't see because of the laggyness of the video, my recording software had a lot of issues and this was the best video I could get from it, sorry), the sword combat is pretty much completely functional (apart from bugfixes). The combat is a very important mechanic in the game though, so it also needs to be fun. The system I'm using is pretty generic, but it also has a weird stamina part added to it, which could make the combat a bit more tactical and less button mashing, or completely ruin the experience. To determine if the mechanic is good or bad, and to be able to balance the damages and stamina costs of all attacks, I'm planning to release a simple combat demo this weekend.
Yay! More demos! I think it looks pretty good, aside from the glitches in the video. I do think you could make the health bar look fancier, though. :P
I recommend Screencast-O-Matic (http://screencast-o-matic.com/home) ;).

Quote from: ben_g on March 03, 2016, 11:09:16 PM
Because the game is still in pre-alpha, I'm not comfortable with just making the demo available to download for everyone, because then everyone who doesn't understand the concept of pre-alpha will associate Valhalla with a "glitchy game in which there's nothing to do". So if you want to try the demo, please let me know, through whichever way you want (posting here, PM, email, telling me IRL, ...), and I'll send you a copy when the demo is playable. Keep the following things in mind though:
- The game is still in pre-alpha, so a lot of features are still missing (like sounds) and there WILL be glitches.
- The demo will showcase the combat only. More things are being worked on and I may eventually showcase that in other demos, but for now, combat is the only thing that's complete enough.
- The demo will be quite repetitive. Multiple monsters with different behaviours are planned, but only the zombie is finished. The demo will thus probably consist of an arena where you fight against waves of zombies with the settings of the combat system being slightly altered between waves.
- The demo will be Windows-only for now, because I don't know how to compile for Linux and don't have the hardware to compile for Mac. Sorry.
Understood. I love fighting zombies! I just hope it'll run on my system. Microsoft sent out a new Insider Eval. Build, and I have it installed. I can also re-record the video for you. ;D
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: aetios on March 04, 2016, 11:29:16 AM
Glad to see this coming along so well, @ben_g :D The game looks really nice so far, just needs some touchups here and there but overall pretty good, I'm confident that you can fix that before release (unlike EA or Ubisoft <_<) . Regarding linux compatibility, what is this written in? If it's c[++] with opengl, it shouldn't be all too hard :)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on March 04, 2016, 04:10:48 PM
Quote from: aeTIos on March 04, 2016, 11:29:16 AM
Glad to see this coming along so well, @ben_g :D The game looks really nice so far, just needs some touchups here and there but overall pretty good, I'm confident that you can fix that before release (unlike EA or Ubisoft <_<) . Regarding linux compatibility, what is this written in? If it's c[++] with opengl, it shouldn't be all too hard :)
Unreal Engine, programmed mostly with Blueprint (the built-inb visual scripting language) and I think I've also used a few lines of C++ somewhere. It should be possible to compile that for linux, but I haven't figured out how to correctly set up the toolchain for that yet.

All glitches in the game that I know off are just graphical glitches. Since the demo is meant to get feedback on the current combat mechanics and to see if things should change. Because there's still a big chance that things should be changed completely or even removed, I'm not going to put a lot of effort into polishing and removing every single tiny graphical glitch for the demo, but I'll definitely try to get rid of most of them when the game is nearing completion and most of the features are final.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on March 07, 2016, 12:04:52 AM
Double-post for project update:

(http://s17.postimg.org/nh3h27o3j/Capture2.png)
It's there. 50 minutes late for the intended 'weekend' release (building the project repeatedly exposed new problems that weren't visible when running it from within the editor), but at least it's fully working now.
Currently, only Dudeman has applied for the demo, and I could use feedback from more people. If you are interested, tell me and I'll send you the links to the demo. The download size is only 102MB for the 64bit version or 92MB for the 32bit version.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 07, 2016, 12:07:19 AM
I wouldn't mind testing it if it works on Windows 7. Of course it depends if it runs on this computer, though. I also watched the video above and I love how it looks like so far. Will it be zombie-themed, by the way?
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on March 07, 2016, 12:30:33 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 07, 2016, 12:07:19 AM
I wouldn't mind testing it if it works on Windows 7. Of course it depends if it runs on this computer, though. I also watched the video above and I love how it looks like so far. Will it be zombie-themed, by the way?
Thank you. I also like how the game looks.
According to the storyline, the zombies exist because the island is cursed. The zombies are only one of the many possibilities that gives us. The zombies are more intended as a 'swarm' monster though, a single zombie is easy to beat, but large groups can get very challenging, especially in small spaces. So you will still see a lot of them throughout the game, but it's not a pure zombie game.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 01:14:32 AM
I like how it looks too! But @ben_g , you wouldn't mind telling us the controls, now would you?  ;D
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 07, 2016, 06:21:10 AM
So I tried this after installing Visual C++ 2015 runtimes and the UE4 stuff and it runs pretty smoothly on my machine. Do you plan to add a full screen mode with different resolutions? Also I see about the zombie. I wasn't sure anymore if the game would share themes from RPGs in general or be mainly oriented towards zombie apocalypse or something, since a lot of games do the latter nowadays.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 02:58:15 PM
Really? On my computer, it's terrifyingly slow! I have Windows 10 Pro, an Insider Evaluation copy that is otherwise pretty speedy, but when I run this, it slows down. It's almost the same effect if I were to type "/walrii" into IRC 30 times :blah:! Maybe @ben_g could consider a lite version with less things to load, or the ability to run in low quality?
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on March 07, 2016, 07:07:58 PM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 07, 2016, 06:21:10 AM
So I tried this after installing Visual C++ 2015 runtimes and the UE4 stuff and it runs pretty smoothly on my machine. Do you plan to add a full screen mode with different resolutions? Also I see about the zombie. I wasn't sure anymore if the game would share themes from RPGs in general or be mainly oriented towards zombie apocalypse or something, since a lot of games do the latter nowadays.
Fullscreen mode and the ability to change the settings will come once we have a working menu. For now, you can activate fullscreen mode by running the game as 'Valhalla.exe -fullscreen' from the command line.
I'm not going for a zombie apocalypse theme in this game, since it has become quite cliché nowadays in my opinion.

Quote from: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 02:58:15 PM
Really? On my computer, it's terrifyingly slow! I have Windows 10 Pro, an Insider Evaluation copy that is otherwise pretty speedy, but when I run this, it slows down. It's almost the same effect if I were to type "/walrii" into IRC 30 times :blah:! Maybe @ben_g could consider a lite version with less things to load, or the ability to run in low quality?
Could you tell me your system specs? Since all assets are already low-res, it isn't really possible to load less. There are still a few parts where I could gain extra performance though: currently, everything is rendered in the maximum detail (apart from supersampling, which is disabled by default), and I decided to temporarily keep that setting since it still runs at 80-90fps on my PC, which can't run many modern games at a playable speed.
Unreal engine also has built-in physically based lighting, which looks awesome on realistic scenes, but is quite heavy. Because that's the built-in method, I currently render the lighting by letting Unreal Engine do it's physically based thing, then I extract the lighting, simplify it and reapply it to the scene. That extracting and reapplying is actually much more lightweight than it sounds, but that still means that it does a lot of calculations that aren't really needed. Unfortunately, changing the way Unreal Engine handles lighting requires modifying the engine, which is possible to do since it's source is available, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet, and I"d want to do that as late in development as possible since that would also make updating the engine a lot harder.
The sky is also rendered in a way that's way more advanced than needed, so that is yet another thing that may also get changed in a later version. The trees also use dynamic lighting instead of pre-rendered lighting, but that didn't seem to have a noticeable performance impact on my computer.

There should be a way to change the settings trough the config files, but I haven't found that out yet. Is the slowdown really bad or is it still playable? If it is really bad, then I'll try building a demo with lower settings.

BTW: if you have both a dedicated graphics card and an on-board one, then make sure that it is using the dedicated card. Especially on laptops with an 'optimus' configuration, this can be a problem, because it probably won't be recougnised as a game and use the on-board one to use less power.

EDIT: forgot about this:
Quote from: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 01:14:32 AM
I like how it looks too! But @ben_g , you wouldn't mind telling us the controls, now would you?  ;D
I thought it was pretty clear, but:

Controls

ActionKeyboard/mouseController
MoveZQSD / WASD / arrow keysleft stick
Lookmove the mouse / arrow keysright stick
AttackLeft clickX
JumpSpaceA
Intreact/speakEY
Sprintshiftpress the left stick
LockTabLeft Bumper (LB)

You should be able to change those in /Unnamed/Config/DefaultInput.ini. They will also eventually be editable in-game, once the menu is done.

Attack styles

AttackKey CombinationDamageStamina CostSpecial Effect
SlashAttackLowVery Low(none)
StabSprint + AttackMediumLowIgnores armour (Zombies have no armour, so not that useful now :P)
SideslashLock + Move sideways + AttackLowMedium90° arc: hits monsters in front of you and next to you. It also moves the lock to the monster next to you.
BackslashLock + Move backwards + attackLowHigh180° arc: also hits monsters behind you, and moves the lock to the monster behind you.
DodgeLock + Move sideways + JumpNoneMediumYou'll roll to the side and avoid attacks while rolling
Jump AttackAttack while in the airHighlow(none)
Shoulder BumpSprint + JumpNonehighKnocks down monsters, but causes you to faceplant if you miss
FinisherLock on knocked-down monster + AttackExtremeNormalHas a small range and takes long to pull off. You can be attacked when you are doing this attack.

The witch will also tell you about these different attack styles and she can even enable/disable health regeneration, the stamina cost of attacks and weather or not you instantly regain stamina when taking damage, if you want a harder or easier experience.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 07, 2016, 09:25:31 PM
YEah I was wondering how we spoke to the witch actually and I didn't realize that various attack moves were implemented yet. Nice touch by the way :)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 10:13:49 PM
By specs, do you just mean the basic stuff?
I have Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview Eval. Copy, Build 14279.rs1_release.160229-1700 on a Acer Aspire 5735-4624 made to run Windows Vista Home Premium, and according to the sticker, it has an Intel Pentium Dual-Core inside. It's usually pretty speedy, but not when I run Valhalla. Maybe you could make less things move(grass, trees, ???) ? And I don't know about that last part you meant...
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on March 07, 2016, 10:41:08 PM
Quote from: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 10:13:49 PM
By specs, do you just mean the basic stuff?
I have Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview Eval. Copy, Build 14279.rs1_release.160229-1700 on a Acer Aspire 5735-4624 made to run Windows Vista Home Premium, and according to the sticker, it has an Intel Pentium Dual-Core inside. It's usually pretty speedy, but not when I run Valhalla. Maybe you could make less things move(grass, trees, ???) ? And I don't know about that last part you meant...
Unfortunately, your laptop doesn't really seem to be meant for running games. I'll definitely try to optimize more though, and if you want, I'll also recompile a demo with lower settings.
Trees don't move though, and grass just orients itself towards the camera, which should actually be faster than having stationary 3D grass. The optimizations may take time though, especially since I may not be able to work on this project a lot in the next 3 months due to an internship (which is mainly why I wanted to get a demo out so soon). I'll try to at least have a settings screen by the time the next demo is released though, so that you can at least lower the settings. The next demo isn't planned anytime soon though, and it'll either be a test of a new combat system is a lot of changes have to be made, and if we're going to keep the combat system, then it'll probably take until chapter 1 is playable to get feedback on how the full game works.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 10:51:55 PM
Oh. Okay....  :-\
*Dudeman313 sulks
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: aetios on March 07, 2016, 11:02:16 PM
Quote
BTW: if you have both a dedicated graphics card and an on-board one, then make sure that it is using the dedicated card. Especially on laptops with an 'optimus' configuration, this can be a problem, because it probably won't be recougnised as a game and use the on-board one to use less power.
This should not pose a very big problem, as you can choose to run certain programs on the ded gpu.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 07, 2016, 11:34:02 PM
Quote from: ben_g on March 07, 2016, 10:41:08 PM
Quote from: Dudeman313 on March 07, 2016, 10:13:49 PM
By specs, do you just mean the basic stuff?
I have Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview Eval. Copy, Build 14279.rs1_release.160229-1700 on a Acer Aspire 5735-4624 made to run Windows Vista Home Premium, and according to the sticker, it has an Intel Pentium Dual-Core inside. It's usually pretty speedy, but not when I run Valhalla. Maybe you could make less things move(grass, trees, ???) ? And I don't know about that last part you meant...
Unfortunately, your laptop doesn't really seem to be meant for running games. I'll definitely try to optimize more though, and if you want, I'll also recompile a demo with lower settings.
Trees don't move though, and grass just orients itself towards the camera, which should actually be faster than having stationary 3D grass. The optimizations may take time though, especially since I may not be able to work on this project a lot in the next 3 months due to an internship (which is mainly why I wanted to get a demo out so soon). I'll try to at least have a settings screen by the time the next demo is released though, so that you can at least lower the settings. The next demo isn't planned anytime soon though, and it'll either be a test of a new combat system is a lot of changes have to be made, and if we're going to keep the combat system, then it'll probably take until chapter 1 is playable to get feedback on how the full game works.
You could always have options for video settings to disable some special effects, make stuff not animated, reduce drawing distance and resolution for those with lower end PCs. After all, Zelda: Windwaker had similar graphics, yet it ran fine on a 2001 Gamecube (although it was at lower resolution).


Also good luck with your internship. I hope you still have some free time to come here and keep us updated on anything, though. :)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 08, 2016, 04:39:52 AM
The funny thing is, I own and play several games on my laptop. I think the difference is that they are all from the Windows Store. I wonder what makes them different, other than that. It can easily handle Shadow Fight 2 and fluidly run Asphalt 8: Airborne.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: aetios on March 08, 2016, 01:09:25 PM
Those aren't very heavy games, though.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 08, 2016, 02:38:01 PM
Really? I thought the graphics of Asphalt 8 might be something big.
And Shadow Fight 2 used to run slowly until I decreased the background quality.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 08, 2016, 09:53:41 PM
It really depends of the game. Free games made by the Internet community rather than companies are usually much more demanding in terms of video card requirements, because they tend to be made by hardcore gamers and programmers who only own high-end PCs, while companies will focus on making sure that their games run on as many platforms as possible. Also, it depends of the game genre. RPGs tend to be less graphical-intensive, but there can be many 3D objects on the screen at once that can cause lag, and there are other game genres like sports games where the in-game map is very small.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on March 08, 2016, 10:34:29 PM
Well, this game is based on Unreal Engine, which is a common engine in AAA-games and thus very powerfull. Since I've already disabled multiple features and use materials and shaders that aren't even close to being as advanced as the example materials, my game is still quite a bit more lightweight than the latest AAA games (especially considering the demo runs at nearly maximal settings).

There is still a lot of room for optimizations though. Most of them are small (replacing the realistically rendered sky with a simple gradient would for example improve performance by probably about 2%), but I think I could gain a lot of extra performance by getting rid of UE's physically-based lighting. The lighting looks awesome on realistic scenes, but since I simplify it during post-processing anyway, a much simpler and much more lightweight calculation should do the trick, and doing the lighting in the actual lighting part instead of extracting and reapplying a simplified form of it should also get rid of those weird patterns that sometimes appear at the edges of shadows, since they are caused by inaccuracies during the extracting pass.
The huge downside of this is that it requires modifying the engine, since the lighting calculations aren't opened to the user.

I've looked into making a demo with lower settings, but I couldn't find any documentation on how to do that, so I guess I'd have to create some kind of settings menu to get it to work, or maybe I'll try a script that measures the framerate during the intro/main menu and gradually lowers the settings if it doesn't meet a certain framerate.

My PC and laptop both are only mid-range though, so don't worry, you won't need 4 GTX Titan's in SLI to be able to run the final version :P
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 09, 2016, 01:22:38 AM
I'm happy to hear that. :)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 17, 2016, 08:19:11 AM
I'm glad to hear. Also I saw the Youtube video showcasing the title + intro and I liked how it zoomed on the world from the sea.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on April 02, 2016, 09:03:44 PM
So, what are you working on now, locations and puzzles, or enemies and graphics?
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on September 03, 2016, 11:18:30 PM
Quote from: Dudeman313 on April 02, 2016, 09:03:44 PM
So, what are you working on now, locations and puzzles, or enemies and graphics?
I apparently didn't see this post. I've been mainly working on graphics lately, and I'm planning to start working on locations soon, along with the puzzles that will be put in them.

Thanks to the new Unreal Engine update that released a few days ago, I've also finally gotten shadows to work. This means that feature-wise, my altered lighting system has finally been completed, and I'm quite happy with how it looks now.
(https://s15.postimg.org/53ykb5ecb/Capture3.png)

I've also replicated the scene in an older version, so you can see the difference:
(https://s16.postimg.org/6xqn9tdth/capture4.png)
This old version still had shadows, but for some reason they are almost invisible here. The old version also had a blue lamp in the same position as the new version, but this is almost invisible too.
The wall material has not been updated, the difference in appearance is purely caused by the new lighting.

Now let's hope that I can also improve the gameplay that much :)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on September 04, 2016, 02:12:23 PM
Hm I like that lightning effect on the wall behind those guys.  :D
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dudeman313 on October 11, 2016, 10:04:28 PM
Very nice!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: p2 on October 14, 2016, 05:15:23 PM
I'm curious have you already mach progress on the fighting engine? :)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: ben_g on October 15, 2016, 05:49:39 PM
I already redid respawning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HRYLuBgECw

Apart from that, I've been adding additional internal functionality to the player class to make it ready for the new combat system, but it's not at all functional yet. Big parts of the old code can be reused though, so it shouldn't take that long to have a working version.
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: p2 on October 17, 2016, 08:57:48 AM
You seem to be pretty bad at this game :trollface:

are the trees solid or can you pass through them? The forest seems to be pretty hard to cross otherwise ^^
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Jokeriske on November 18, 2016, 02:15:22 PM
Quote from: p2 on October 17, 2016, 08:57:48 AM
You seem to be pretty bad at this game :trollface:

are the trees solid or can you pass through them? The forest seems to be pretty hard to cross otherwise ^^

The trees are solid. But it is possible to pass through the woods on parts where you need to. Otherwise it will be a barrier. :)
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on November 18, 2016, 05:34:17 PM
I will check the video at home tonight :). I am curious about the changes. :3=
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: p4nix on November 18, 2016, 05:36:42 PM
I really like the progress and effort you put into this.
Just a question: are the trees supposed to stay at that size? To be honest, they look a bit small to me...
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: p2 on November 18, 2016, 09:51:00 PM
now that you mention it, they indeed look a little bit small ^^
but somehow the smaller trees fit in the image I think, it still looks really nice this way ^^
Title: Re: Project Valhalla
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on December 09, 2016, 07:28:03 AM
I'm late @ben_g but I just watched the video finally and I like what I see so far. I wonder what's with those small cables or things that moves all around the place, though? It almost feels like an hurricane is coming O.O . With less wind effect it would definitively look cool, though.