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[Thaumaturge]

Hey there! The original shader employed by the skin material didn't have much in the way of tweaking parameters easily. I imagine editing the shader code itself you could've achieved similar results but I believe opting for the standard Unity shader was a much better option and the results def. show it heh

Heh, I would have expected the opposite to be true: the default shader to have been the less-capable, and a third-party one to have provided things not covered by the default!

Well, I'm glad that you discovered that the default works better for you, and so switched over to it. ^_^

Thanks for dropping by Thaumaturge. I'm going to be posting some updates myself soon

It's my pleasure, and that's good to read, respectively. ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

Here's a quick video of some of the recent updates, most notably:

• flooded junctions: similar to gates, these serve to break up the levels a bit and create more visual points of reference
• more decals: mold along waterlines, wooden planks in hallways. For those who are curious, we're using DynamicDecals for most of our decals.
  
• room-specfic particles

[Thaumaturge]

Looks good, I think! (Although I'll confess that I didn't get a good look at the mould decals.)

(I like the little "spikes " note that appeared at one point. That was a cute touch. ^_^)

If I may, how are you specifying the footstep sounds to be played for each surface? That is, where is that data stored?

[Cosmocat Games]

If I may, how are you specifying the footstep sounds to be played for each surface? That is, where is that data stored?

Currently, this lives with the character controller via assigning an array of clips for each surface types. It's a primitive approach but works fine for now since I've only implemented two types of surfaces (dirt, water).

Once we add more surface types I plan to move this into a separate component, to be used by both the player and enemies. The job of the component would be to raycast down, grab the physics material, and play a clip from an array indexed by physics material.

Some things I have yet to work out 100%:

• detecting variations in the splat-map: I'd prefer not to read mesh data at runtime so I'll probably try to find a workaround, like using triggers, or splitting up the meshes by their surface.
• detecting decal-based surfaces (i.e. toxic puddles, blood, etc.): I'll probably use triggers for this

[Thaumaturge]

Ah, interesting, and thank you. ^_^

In my own case, I had some trouble finding a good place to store such data in my collision geometry--although whether that's a limitation of the collision system, or lack of knowledge on my part, I'm not sure. (I think that one solution was suggested to me, but discarded for some reason that I forget.) I've ended up storing my "surface types" in a tag that collision objects may have (with a default used when none is found).

Otherwise, I think that we do things in more or less the same way: I have a list of sounds (specifically, a list of lists, as each surface-type may have multiple sound-files, for variety), and a sound is picked from there based on the above-mentioned tag, as discovered by the ray-cast that looks for a surface for the character to stand on.

(I haven't attempted splatting- or decal- based variation at all. In one case in which I've had a splatted surface that called for changes in footstep-sound, there were only a few, large sections like this, so I simply split the mesh.)

[Cosmocat Games]

Finally got around to doing something I've been meaning to for a while: now when you throw an overcharged beacon at a mutant miner they run around madly while burning 



Previously, this would trigger their attack state, which looked a bit silly as often they stand still while attacking.

In other news, I recently (and somewhat impulsively) decided to rip out Unity-based sounds and replace them with FMOD. 40+ hours later and I'm just about done. A fairly massive undertaking this late in the game but I'm quite happy with the results. Some things that now become trivial and no longer require custom code, all of which I took immediate advantage of:

• distance-based filtering
• blending between multiple audio clips
• triggering multiple audio clips in succession: for example, certain items now have an initial "grab" foley sound followed by an item specific sound
• triggering random clips, randomizing pitch: for example, the background ambience now has random rockslide/debris sounds via a scatterer instrument, where this was previously baked into the track
• triggering sounds based on a parameter (i.e. footsteps based on surface type)
• reverb zones: tunnels now have their own reverb, and I plan to do the same for large rooms
• side-chain compression: loud SFX now duck background ambience, drawing your attention to them (this is something that Dark Souls 3 does which I quite dig--I recently found out DS3 used FMOD as well!)
• applying a master limiter: finally, no more clipping!

It's also a much better workflow: I can create, test and mix sounds quickly in FMOD Studio rather than having to create (and code) test scenes in Unity.

I also took the opportunity to purchase a new sound library and have subsequently replaced or revamped many of the sounds, as well as added some additional ones.

I hope to post a video in the days to come so stay tuned for that.

[Thaumaturge]

Nice, on all counts! ^_^

(I do like the lighting created by the burning miner, by the way.)

[SamLouix]

Consider me interested, when is it out?

[Cosmocat Games]

Consider me interested, when is it out?

No official release date yet but hoping to do an open beta within a month or so, and Early Access within a couple of that.

[Cosmocat Games]

Working on combat and game feel stuff a bit. While I'm trying to downplay combat overall in favour of stealth and evasion/parkour, I do want it to feel like a viable option. To that end:

• made the drill bit much bigger (in retrospect, it was puny before)
• added screen-shake, slow time on successful hit
• added toxic blood decals to the drill (it starts off clean, of course)
• made the radius for blood particles wider, increased speed
• added blood decals on particle collision
• added impact decals for the pickaxe (not pictured)
• moved the post-processing stack to the weapon camera so that it can benefit from bloom, motion blur, etc. (also not pictured)

[chosenpredator]

there is two games called undermine so I thought it was this one: https://twitter.com/undermine_game

but both look great

[Thaumaturge]

That looks pretty good thus far! (Naturally I'm not in a position to speak to how it feels to play, but it looks fine when watched, at least.)

My one critique is that the blood-spurts look more like sparks or energy emissions of some sort, to me. Perhaps a different particle-image, something less diffuse and more liquid-seeming, might look a bit better? (For the sake of clarity, I don't mean the decals--those look fine to me, as far as the gif shows!)

[Cosmocat Games]

My one critique is that the blood-spurts look more like sparks or energy emissions of some sort, to me. Perhaps a different particle-image, something less diffuse and more liquid-seeming, might look a bit better? (For the sake of clarity, I don't mean the decals--those look fine to me, as far as the gif shows!)

The sparks are separate from the blood. That's a bug of sorts... they currently trigger for dead enemies, but they're only supposed to trigger for rock and metal surfaces

[Thaumaturge]

Looking again, I seem to see two sets of sparks: bright, yellow-orange ones, and diffuse, green ones. Are both part of that bug? I was taking the green sparks for "blood", and it was these that I was referring to, I believe.

(I'm not sure that I noticed the yellow-orange sparks as a separate effect until I went back to look again.)

Otherwise, I don't see any blood flying free, just splats appearing on the walls. ^^;

[Cosmocat Games]

Looking again, I seem to see two sets of sparks: bright, yellow-orange ones, and diffuse, green ones. Are both part of that bug? I was taking the green sparks for "blood", and it was these that I was referring to, I believe.

Nah, the green is supposed to be toxic blood type stuff. Feedback noted

[Thaumaturge]

Fair enough, and I'm glad. ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

Having a ton of fun playing around with Substance Painter, such a great tool!



Overall I'm still working on getting everything presentable for capturing some new marketing/promo shots which will be used to refresh Steam and the website--they've kind of been neglected in comparison to the devlog and social media.

I think I'm going to park creating a new trailer for now, though, and instead just capture a bit of recent gameplay. I don't think it's worth the investment of time right now, especially as I'll probably need to create another one for Early Access. (my experiments with trying to automate trailer creation didn't really pan out, they just ended up being a time suck)

Once I've got a new batch of shots and video posted I hope to (officially) announce an open beta. I'll be running the next one 100% through Discord, mainly in an effort to drive more traffic to it/build up a bit of a community, something I've not been able to focus on as much as I'd like.

(As you can probably tell, it's becoming a bit of a balancing act trying to decide where to spend my time, and it's especially getting stretched thin as I'm pretty much working solo now. Not helping matters is the fact that I've taken on some paid clients to raise capital/cover expenses. This is in addition to working a 40 hour/week day job... )

Some other recent changes of note:

• created a new flashlight cookie with scratches/wear
• added a second point light to the flashlight to simulate indirect light, since I can't use real-time indirect light due to the way the generation currently works
• added depth of field for the MonPro
• added support for multiple module sizes: the first few levels use 16x16 modules, the latter use 32x32. This creates more sprawling levels in the second half of the game, which I plan to use to create some parkour segments. As well, it enables me to remove some hacky logic I had added to support large rooms @ 16x16 resolution.
• mutant miners now follow a path instead of wandering randomly. This makes stealth play a bit easier and prevents some weirdness, like them walking right up against walls. I'm also spawning ghouls in hallways now, which create more challenging gameplay in places.
• added root motion for mutant minters (well, simulated via script--the animations I'm using don't have root motion data, unfortunately). This results in a more natural movement with less "skating".
• enemies now apply "instant" damage, where previously this was calculated as damage per/second on contact. I believe this makes enemy damage feel more predictable and fair.

Here's the new flashlight cookie and indirect light:



Here's a shot of a longer hallway generated @ 32x32 module resolution (you can also spot some more Substance Painter work: the rust on the leaking barrels):



Here you can see the depth of field for the MonPro:



And I just realized a took a similar shot last January, let's so how it compares, heh:

[Thaumaturge]

Regarding the light, I think that I said this much earlier in the thread (perhaps my first response?), but I'm really glad that your flashlight doesn't leave the area outside of the main cone entirely black. That's somewhat of a nuisance in some horror games, I feel, and it's good to see it averted here!

Regarding the modules, support of additional sizes sounds like a good idea--especially if it opens up gameplay opportunities!

Is it feasible to mix module sizes? It might be interesting to occasionally have a small area in an otherwise expansive level, or a cramped level that suddenly opens up, for example.

Regarding mutants now having paths, I suspect that this is indeed a good idea: I recall that when playing the Thief games, the guards having set patrols enabled a sort of "observe and plan" gameplay--with occasional nervy segments in which one was either rushing, or otherwise lacked information. Random wandering means that observation is of little value, and that avoiding detection feels a bit more like a matter of luck than skill, I fear.

[Cosmocat Games]

Is it feasible to mix module sizes? It might be interesting to occasionally have a small area in an otherwise expansive level, or a cramped level that suddenly opens up, for example.

Not the way it's setup now, however, the 32x32 levels do have a mix of small and big rooms, so what you're describing still happens. The difference being that the small modules have longer hallways connecting them.

[Thaumaturge]

Ah, that's fair enough--I suppose that modules with smaller rooms just have more "empty space", which I imagine is harmless. I'm glad that the general effect of such variation is available, at least! ^_^