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Project Valhalla

b/[Inactive] VelocityGames (PC/Web) Started by ben_g, January 28, 2016, 07:22:35 PM

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u/Dream of Omnimaga 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?
u/ben_g 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.
u/Dudeman313 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
u/Dream of Omnimaga 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.
u/Dudeman313 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?
u/ben_g 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.
Last Edit: March 07, 2016, 08:07:05 PM by ben_g
u/Dream of Omnimaga 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 :)
u/Dudeman313 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...
u/ben_g 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.
u/Dudeman313 March 07, 2016, 10:51:55 PM
Oh. Okay....  :-\
*Dudeman313 sulks
u/aetios 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.
u/Dream of Omnimaga 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. :)
u/Dudeman313 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.
u/aetios March 08, 2016, 01:09:25 PM
Those aren't very heavy games, though.
u/Dudeman313 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.
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