Inner Circle Update for September 19 2017!

Hey everyone!

Thanks a lot for the translation help the other day! I still need to piece it together but I think we have translations now for most of the text on that sheet. That worked out really well, so I’ll be uploading a second batch with some additional signage if you want to give it a go!

Anyways, I’ve got a bunch of map artwork goodies for you guys today, as well as an update from AltairPL!

Map Progress

Aside from spending a few days catching up on notes / general organizational stuff, this week I jumped in and helped Ubercharge and TK with map stuff. TK and I worked on one of the Void’s Perimeter Wall maps while Uber worked on the Market Alley. Both maps are nearing completion. I still have a day’s worth of work on the background for the Perimeter Wall map, and TK still has some texturing modifications to make for the foreground. Uber has come down with a condition related to eye strain, so he needs to take it easy for a few days. I’ll likely begin working on a PBR conversion of one of the main characters after my part on this map is finished up, so hopefully I’ll have something to show on that next week! 

Here are a couple galleries showing the progression of each of the maps!

The Void – Perimeter Wall Deck 2 Gallery

The Void – Market Alley Gallery

Progress Update from AltairPL!

So, the last time I was here I was in the middle of implementing some basic functionality to URGE. That task, along with some other stuff, is now done.

Here's quick recap of what I did since last IC update:

• Implemented URGE prototype binary structure - each OS and its bit version will have a dedicated folder containing the executable and binaries - as far as I know, this is only required on Windows, but I like how clean it is, so with time I'll try to use it for other systems as well.
• Overhauled ini parsing/processing. The old version was working, but was pretty simple and prone to problems. The new version is much better and it was a good learning experience for me.
• Added ini file dedicated to the URGE engine; it's located in the bin folder and contains three (for now) GFX options.
• Another ini file is used by dev-builds and is helping us with various things like paths, testing scenarios, etc.
• Since the URGE exe is now buried deep into the sub-folder structure, I coded a loader executable, which is located in main game folder for convenience and with time will be a universal way of launching the executable matching OS bitness (32/64).
• One of my crazy test maps was experiencing hang-like behavior on higher FPS caps for some time now. I finally had some time to look into it... unfortunately it's complicated and will require a lot more work and testing to fix it properly, but for now I've patched it up, so at least release builds should be clear of this problem.
• Made some preparations for upcoming build merge, which I've put off for far too long... anyway, while doing this, for some reason I did a quick comparison of game encrypted archive creation time. The same script needed 263 seconds in RPG Maker and 209 seconds in URGE to pack up all the game data... yay, almost a whole minute faster :D.
• As usual, I made a boatload of smaller changes, fixes, etc.

My next tasks will be a bit more organizational... build merge mentioned above, cleaning up and refactoring some constants/variables, finishing touches to basic URGE functionality, etc.

I also want to ship to you guys a refreshed version of the URGE Tech Demo. The main difference from the one before is that the new one is shader-based. If you remember, during the last Tech Demo launch I was gathering data about supported OpenGL and its shader versions. Everyone so far can handle much newer shaders than what I'm using, but I want to play it safe and make sure that it is working as it should.

I don't know how much time all this planned stuff will require and how much not planned stuff will get in the way, but most likely I'll be wrapping my work on URGE for the time being, and I'll dive back into the game Ruby scripts starting next month - there's a lot of old unfinished and new planned functionality that I have to implement before 0.06. Not to mention a lot of testing and other unpleasant activity...