A new interface to go with the Oculus Rift?

The Oculus Rift development kits have begun shipping to developers and despite the relatively low resolution and missing head translation, much praise is being heaped upon them.

Will Ground Branch be supporting it?
The short answer is, yes.
The long answer is, $#&@ yes.

The Rift brings a lot to the tactical FPS genre, not to mention gaming and non-gaming alike. The only issue the Rift has is that there are no decent interfaces to go with it – we’re stuck using a mouse/keyboard combo or gamepad.

The problem with any new device is getting past the super-human accuracy we are given when we use a mouse. Any non-mouse implementation will either need to match a mouses accuracy or provide a substantial benefit above and beyond this limitation.

You can see an interesting way of using a Razer Hyrda in the following video:

I could see an implementation similar to this that replaces aiming, sprinting, reloading and the like with simple realistic hand movements.

Reload?
Hand to magazine, hold trigger.

Sprint?
Both hands down.

Melee?
Swing weapon out.

Not only more immersive, but faster and with more control then a button press.

Will that be enough to make up for the lack of accuracy?
I don’t know.

I really don’t want to see “no mouse/keyboard” servers, but wouldn’t be surprised if it happens.

Thoughts?

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Posted in Gameplay, Programming, Weapons |

In-game vid 07/04/2013

Took care of a several issues related to the true first person viewpoint and thought I’d share a quick in-game vid of it in action. I’m not sure why, but the volume of my voices alternates a bit in the uploaded version. I’ll try to figure out why before the next vid.

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Posted in Gameplay, Programming | Tagged |

Real Life™ doing what it does best.

Due to a dose of Real Life™, I did not have it in me to do updates or socialise much in the past few weeks. Thankfully, things have a progressed and much of the stress is gone.

On the bright side, one way I deal with stress is to distract myself by coding… a lot. I’ve done everything from updating more loadout and UI related code (booo!) to gametypes and AI (woohoo!).

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Posted in Customization, Gameplay, Programming |

What is old is new again

One thing that can happen with game development that spans a lengthy time period is art done early in the process can start to feel outdated and fall behind the current standards. This isn’t always a bad thing (It’s the gameplay man!) but I felt like the weapon models/textures needed an upgrade since they are so visible. The work previously done by Snowfella was top notch and served its purpose very well. So again, my hats off to him…..and we are still using some of his work in the finish game as well.

So let’s start off with the high res version of the AK-74. This model is used to bake Normal and Ambient Occlusion maps for the in game model. I’ll do some more updates down the road to show some of the process.

-John

 

High polygon model

High polygon model

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Posted in Weapons |

Odd tests are odd…

New UE3 build this week, which delayed work in other areas a bit, but no matter.

After finishing an update of this kind, I like to check things by making a quick map in the editor, chucking in random stuff and running it with multiple players. I was already in the process (before the update) of more tests involving loadouts, so I thought I’d combine the two.
dev_ingame_20130227a
Basic bot code has been sitting there for ages. I just created a nav mesh, told them to use a loadout and let em’ rip. Considering the level of asset optimisation (none) and the age of the machine (2008), I’m happy with the results.

Also been testing and updating firearm related code.
With any luck, we’ll be shooting at each other soon, which will be nice.

You know, read out of context, that could sound weird…

-Kris

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Work on loadout replication continues…

Pretty rough (lighting etc), but the information travels across the network correctly, which is the most important thing.

dev_ingame_20130213a

Loadouts are saved in the JSON format to make sharing and editing them a lot easier. To make this easier to send across a network, the client will take this loadout and reduce it down to references from a item list that has been synchronised between the server and client, then send that to the server.

After verifying its contents, based on admin, gametype or scenario restrictions, the server then distributes this to all the clients, as required.

This allows for plenty of player customisation, but ensures that the server remains king.

Another decent step towards a playable build :)

-Kris

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Posted in Characters, Customization, Gameplay, Programming |

Fun with replication!

Working on replicating loadouts – both player and item – from server to client.

Since items can attach to other items, there is a chance that attachments will run several layers deep. To test this, I added an attachment point to the ACOG and created a new weapon loadout to abuse it.

The following is the in-game results…

dev_ingame_20132010a

I had to laugh.

Needless to say, no, you won’t actually be able to do this in the final game :P

Either way, it feels good to be working on gameplay related stuff.

-Kris

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Its time to take our glorified GI Joe simulator…

… and turn it into something playable.

We have no plans to release the build shown here to the public at this time, but it is making the rounds with donators from Ground Branch’s early days. Once it has been abused and patched up for a while, we’ll consider our options.

That’s it.

-Kris

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Posted in Characters, Customization, Programming, Weapons |

Remember that boring stuff?

It is really starting to shape up.

That’s it.

-Kris

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Posted in Customization, Weapons |

Boring stuff needs doing too!

Engine updates, bug fixes, fiddling with motion capture files, UI work – all quite boring.

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend tracking down an issue that developed – which was my fault – and migrating to a new UE3 build.

Seem to have nailed the problem, hopefully for good.

I hope so, otherwise John will slap me upside the head again.

Speaking of John, he’s recently been replacing the crappy awesome programmer art I created for the UI with proper assets, based on this mockup.

Jeremy continues creating new animations, based on earlier motion capture work.

Nothing particularly fun or interesting, but it is progress.

- Kris

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