Inner Circle Release + Update for May 18 2019!

Hey guys!

We've got a new build for you this week, along with a new enemy preview and some other goodies.  Mr. Kittyhawk's primary goal this week has been to rework the multi-threaded sections of the Ai that were causing a lot of issues.   He's almost there, but we didn't include it in this build because it's not quite ready.  He and Ubercharge have also begun getting the parallax stuff figured out for the existing maps.  That went well, and we now need to make necessary corrections to the artwork and separate out all the environment FX/processing so they can be added in dynamically in Unity.

TK and I have been continuing our work on updating Onyx's move set art work -- most of which is in the new build.  About half of the poses are rigged and waiting for animations, the other half are placeholders while I finish up the details on them.

Anyways, check out the patch notes below!

DOWNLOAD

PURE ONYX - May 18, 2019 Test Release 

CHANGELOG / FIXES

• Onyx's real skeleton has been added, allowing for Spine animations during regular gameplay.  There's still work to do to get animation blending behaving properly on her though, so we've disabled it for now.
• Added Onyx's Idle animation and updated the Walk animation. 
• Updated Onyx's move set artwork.
• Now that Onyx has a shadow, we've removed the colored markers from below the characters.  They still display with the debug overlay (F1 key).
• Redid the services that reset game data when the level loads, and re-enabled 'Return to Main Menu' in the pause menu.
• Resolved some of the AI hang-up issues.
• Draw order for characters engaged in an H scene is now correct
• Input now works for keyboards on the Game Over screen

Chrome Users!  I Need Some Feedback

Since we've updated to DirectX 12 I've noticed significant micro-stuttering in the game when Chrome is running in the background (especially with a lot of tabs open).  I'm curious if anyone else can verify this.  The best way to test it is to have had Chrome open for a while and try to play the game -- then close both and try the game again and compare.  It should be completely smooth (assuming your hardware can run it at 60 FPS).  Let me know!

Updated Priorities for May 

Last week I posted a list of goals for the remainder of the month, and now that we've had time to dig into them we've updated our priorities on some critical back-end stuff that's required to accomplish them.

Animation Metadata System - This will be a system that feeds Unity info about animations.  We decided we needed one when we saw how many variables were needed for H scenes, but what we really need it for right away is the ability to queue up multi-track animations for enemies.  The Vioreaper enemy, for instance, doesn't play just one animation at a time -- it's Idle animation actually consists of four playing independently (pulsing, wings flapping, hovering, and the actual limb movements).  Right now there's no way to tell Unity which of these animations takes priority, what speed each should play at, and so forth.  This will likely be the next thing Mr. Kittyhawk tackles so that we can add the Vioreaper / new enemy to the game ASAP.

In-Game Animation Tools - Up till now we've been doing all the animation editing in the Spine editor, but now that there are a lot of factors such as animation blending and physics that only show up in game, we need something like an in-game overlay that lets us load and test animation properties on the fly without having to rebuild the game.  This will also be useful for debugging input issues, of which there will be a lot as we create combos and more complex moves.  

New Larva Enemy Preview

We should be able to do a lot of fun stuff with this little guy :D.  The plan is for them to exist in packs, and when agro'd they will begin jumping up at Onyx like popcorn.   You can either hit them out of the air or stomp on them and watch them burst.  There's also a whole lot of potential for H attacks with these guys.  

• Larva Enemy Preview 
• Larva Enemy Preview 2 

Pure Onyx Desktop Wallpapers

I finished the promotional artwork this week and have made a few desktop wallpapers for you guys.  There are a couple different 16:9 crops and a 21:9 version.  I'll be making a print version available as well for anyone interested!

• 16:9 Wallpaper v1 
• 16:9 Wallpaper v2 
• 21:9 Wallpaper 

That's about it for now.  I plan to start on a new H scene this week, so hopefully I'll have some progress to show you in the next update before the monthly post :D.