Egoboo Development Diary Part 5

All general stuff game related to Egoboo gameplay (Characters, tactics, etc.).

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Zefz
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Egoboo Development Diary Part 5

Post by Zefz »

Hello and welcome back for yet another development diary for Egoboo. We have some exciting news for you! Nightly builds are up and running. So now you can download the game in it's current development state and try out all the new features. Feedback for additional bug reports or suggestions for improvements or other tweaks are welcome! You report issues here.

So what is going on?
We are still rewriting old legacy code to C++ and optimizing the rendering code so that it can run on any integrated Intel HD graphics card (no dedicated GPU hardware required). A vast amount of bugfixes and porting has already been done, so the overall state of the game and code-base has been vastly improved since last year. The code is now more clear and concise after removing a lot of legacy code, which makes it easier to maintain and add additional features in the future. The game currently runs fine on Windows, Linux and Macintosh systems both in 32-bit and 64-bit mode.

Other than the source code itself, we also want to rework the data files so that it is easier to maintain and bugfix the datafiles themselves while keeping the simplicity and moddability Egoboo has. The last few development diaries mentioned various new game features like Perks, a brand new Stealth system and numerous other gameplay improvements. Our aim is to make the game easier and more fun to play!


It is all in the Details
We have done some extra attention to graphical details, improving texture detail, particle effects and reflections among other things. Floor reflections have proper reflection falloff if you jump or fly above the ground. The text messages on top of the screen fade away gradually instead of suddenly disappearing. The floating text that indicates the amount of damage you deal or take now becomes bigger or smaller depending on the amount of damage dealt. Here are a few screenshots on some examples of improvements:


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Higher quality texture for Wizard Starter floor pentagram

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Better flame and smoke effect from Braziers


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ayu2hami is working on HD version of textures for characters and monsters

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Bonus: A new spellbook icon for evil necromancy spells!

A new Map Editor
We have begun working on a new in-game map editor that allows you to create and modify game modules using the game engine. This allows you to see exactly how the module will look in-game and allows for rapid play testing in-game. By re-using the game engine we can more easy maintain and improve the map editor as the game evolves. It is also completely cross-platform and has no additional dependencies above that Egoboo itself requires! This new map editor replaces the previous two map editors Cartman and EgoMap. Creating a proper mapping tool is no easy task, so do not expect it to be fully functional with all required features in the near future.


Nightly Builds up and running!
We finally have nightly builds for Windows binaries! This allows you to download the latest development version and help us test the game and give us feedback to improve the game. You can get them here:
Download Link

If you are interested in aiding development, take a look at these links:
Developer Chat
Source Code

Bugfixes and Changes
  • Reworked Whirlwind Spell for improved physics. It now also affects particles such as arrows or coins. Can easily be modded for new spell effects like Black Hole or a Repulsion Field.
    Improved Levitation spell
    Fix various AI script bugs
    Improved lighting engine
    Make it easier to loot items from chests or from the inventories of dead monsters
    Optimized font rendering to improve FPS
    Added new glacial spike door to Ice Palace. Use fire or crushing weapons to open!
    Fixed various transparency and reflection graphics glitches
    Soldier Starter chest properly drops Chainmail armour instead of another Leather Jerkin
    Improved particle effects for torches and braziers
    Improved fog effect in G’nome Starter
    Better texture for pentagram in Wizard Starter
    Improved physics interaction with grabbing and dropping chair stools
    Optimization to particle effects to improve game performance
    Graphics engine and game physics optimizations for better and more stable frame rate
    Fixed some memory leaks and reduced overall memory usage
    Fixed some possible crash bugs
    Make it easier to jump on mounts
    Fix some animation glitches when getting hurt
    Improved game camera
    GUI should now properly adapt and handle all supported resolutions
    Reworked movement physics so that interactions with platforms and the mesh is no longer buggy and overall feels better. This makes it easier to interact with platforms (e.g less chance to glitch through them) and improved icy floor physics among other things.
    Improve monster grab attack interaction (e.g Carpet Mimic or the Water Wierd)
    Reduce particle usage by preventing cosmetic particles (e.g smoke or sparkles) from spawning outside the camera view. This frees up more particles for stuff that happens on the screen and generally improves frame rate.
    The no reflection IDSZ [VAMP] now works as it should.
    Fix Tranches hiding in chests from glitching out of the world when jumping out of the chest.
    Fix possible bug where losing money could cause an underflow and give you a lot of money back.
    Fix possible issue for detecting if and object is in your inventory
    The collision dampen attribute is now properly used for collision handling
    Fixed some issues in platform attachment weight calculation that could cause traps or buttons to trigger prematurely.
    Buying armours in town shops now properly costs you money
    Sound effects are properly mixed in 3D space for split-screen cameras
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woodmouse
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Re: Egoboo Development Diary Part 5

Post by woodmouse »

Nice to see all this awesome development! I wish I could help somehow; I could do some textures? What size are the new ones, how are thry laid out? Could you post a template of a character texture? I want to do one for Bargel... ᴼᴗᴼ I could also do sound effects and music, but I'm not sure if there's any need for either. Maybe I'll just do some and post them so you could decide if they're useful or not.
Once upon a time, when unicorns roamed the earth...
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penguinflyer5234
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Re: Egoboo Development Diary Part 5

Post by penguinflyer5234 »

current HD skins are 512x512, icons are 256x256

the layout of skins has not changed since that's part of the model
...
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