ROBOTIC (POST APOCALYPTIC ZOMBIE) SHOOTER
Summary for the full release:
- Single player campaign
- Play as a robotic character piecing back together your memory
- Upgrade and craft new weapon and armor parts
- High end graphics capable of running on wide range of GPUs
Summary for the full release:
- Single player campaign
- Play as a robotic character piecing back together your memory
- Upgrade and craft new weapon and armor parts
- High end graphics capable of running on wide range of GPUs
SOLO PROJECT
My name is Rens, I have about 20 years experience with 3D and have been working with video games for 15.
I have worked with DICE, Epic, Sony, Intel, Sledgehammer | Battlefield 3, 4, hardline, COD
With Positions ranging from 3D Artist, Environment Artist, Expert TA to Technical Art Director.
I have shipped games on a range of platforms, including PS3, PS4, PS5, 360, XBOXONE, XBOXSX and integrated graphics.
This is built in my "spare" time, my hopes are to gain enough support to stop freelancing and develop only this.
The full version will combine 10 years of self funded research and development, focused on visual quality and optimization. I would love to spend time writing technical documentation to share what I have learned.
Any form of support is greatly appreciated to help push things forward and grow into a small, specialized studio.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3486780/Hope_is_Fading/
https://www.mobygames.com/person/492447/rense-de-boer
https://www.artstation.com/artbyrens
My name is Rens, I have about 20 years experience with 3D and have been working with video games for 15.
I have worked with DICE, Epic, Sony, Intel, Sledgehammer | Battlefield 3, 4, hardline, COD
With Positions ranging from 3D Artist, Environment Artist, Expert TA to Technical Art Director.
I have shipped games on a range of platforms, including PS3, PS4, PS5, 360, XBOXONE, XBOXSX and integrated graphics.
This is built in my "spare" time, my hopes are to gain enough support to stop freelancing and develop only this.
The full version will combine 10 years of self funded research and development, focused on visual quality and optimization. I would love to spend time writing technical documentation to share what I have learned.
Any form of support is greatly appreciated to help push things forward and grow into a small, specialized studio.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3486780/Hope_is_Fading/
https://www.mobygames.com/person/492447/rense-de-boer
https://www.artstation.com/artbyrens
THIS WEBSITE IS ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGES FREQUENTLY
As a technical foundation, it incorporates a lot of the functionality that will be found in the main game.
However it is the first implementation, every system needs a lot of work to bring it up to final quality.
95% of the time has been dedicated to technical work. Art will see a big push replacing almost all content.
You can play through in about 30 minutes.
With planned updates this will increase to over an hour.
With further iterations of the mission and narrative this should slowly keep going up.
As a technical foundation, it incorporates a lot of the functionality that will be found in the main game.
However it is the first implementation, every system needs a lot of work to bring it up to final quality.
95% of the time has been dedicated to technical work. Art will see a big push replacing almost all content.
You can play through in about 30 minutes.
With planned updates this will increase to over an hour.
With further iterations of the mission and narrative this should slowly keep going up.
CONCEPT - VISION
Alone, left with bullet holes and a damaged memory, a robot wakes up unable to remember what has expired.
Through exploration it finds out about its purpose, past and the struggles for survival.
A game based on exploration with plenty of side missions
Based on friendship, connecting with nature, exploring what life is through a robotic character.
No levels or classes, craft and gear up.
Different factions, legions or groups mixed with weathered, lost and abandoned robots, rusted and forgotten, dwelling in the past, no purpose or targeting anything that moves.
Purpose of the game:
To tell a story about being connected.
What it means to be alive, loss and morality, loneliness, friendship, to feel and to experience.
To see the beauty in things and value what is around you.
Not from an AI perspective, but human, using the robots journey as story telling tool.
Different explorable side stories, left behind by those who were here before us.
Convey a feeling of growing up, what is was like to be a child, exploring a forest, going on an adventure through the woods.
To appreciate the journey you are on.
Something i want to carry over through all the games I make, as these are the stories I enjoyed playing the most.
Visual Setting:
+ Industrial sci fi + Forest with different seasons.
Alone, left with bullet holes and a damaged memory, a robot wakes up unable to remember what has expired.
Through exploration it finds out about its purpose, past and the struggles for survival.
A game based on exploration with plenty of side missions
Based on friendship, connecting with nature, exploring what life is through a robotic character.
No levels or classes, craft and gear up.
Different factions, legions or groups mixed with weathered, lost and abandoned robots, rusted and forgotten, dwelling in the past, no purpose or targeting anything that moves.
Purpose of the game:
To tell a story about being connected.
What it means to be alive, loss and morality, loneliness, friendship, to feel and to experience.
To see the beauty in things and value what is around you.
Not from an AI perspective, but human, using the robots journey as story telling tool.
Different explorable side stories, left behind by those who were here before us.
Convey a feeling of growing up, what is was like to be a child, exploring a forest, going on an adventure through the woods.
To appreciate the journey you are on.
Something i want to carry over through all the games I make, as these are the stories I enjoyed playing the most.
Visual Setting:
+ Industrial sci fi + Forest with different seasons.
WHAT IS NEXT
Provide a weekly update for the next half year. The priority here is that it is fundamentaly fun to play, includes enough variation to support the play styles found in the game, implements most technical work and no issues remain.
Short term, Major focus right now is to resolve
+ Visual Benchmark
+ Enemy behavior
+ Additional armor and weapon parts and upgrades
+ Abilities
+ Crafting and resources
+ Overhaul menus and UI
+ Narative and mission design
Long term, Additionally all visual fx and animations will be replaced. Along with removal of some of the last third party 3d meshes. When all this is done, I will fully focus on visual work and increase graphics quality.
Provide a weekly update for the next half year. The priority here is that it is fundamentaly fun to play, includes enough variation to support the play styles found in the game, implements most technical work and no issues remain.
Short term, Major focus right now is to resolve
+ Visual Benchmark
+ Enemy behavior
+ Additional armor and weapon parts and upgrades
+ Abilities
+ Crafting and resources
+ Overhaul menus and UI
+ Narative and mission design
Long term, Additionally all visual fx and animations will be replaced. Along with removal of some of the last third party 3d meshes. When all this is done, I will fully focus on visual work and increase graphics quality.
EARLY ACCESS REWARDS TO BE CLAIMED IN THE FULL RELEASE
+ Two exclusive full Armor Skins (stats can be transferred to these items)
+ Each armor part has a unique variation in appearance that can be unlocked through crafting
+ Special drone companion skin
+ Two unique banners (both flag and frame can be used separately)
+ Unique background (3D environment) for previewing your character in the menu
+ Unique Battle rifle, Assault rifle, and shotgun variation
+ Two exclusive full Armor Skins (stats can be transferred to these items)
+ Each armor part has a unique variation in appearance that can be unlocked through crafting
+ Special drone companion skin
+ Two unique banners (both flag and frame can be used separately)
+ Unique background (3D environment) for previewing your character in the menu
+ Unique Battle rifle, Assault rifle, and shotgun variation
INSPIRATION FOR THE GAME
My love for the Halo universe has inspired me for decades + Diablo 3 elements
With some flavors of Gears and Borderlands
My love for the Halo universe has inspired me for decades + Diablo 3 elements
With some flavors of Gears and Borderlands
PREVIOUS WORK
Ivy in 3DsMax, *not in the game at the moment, an example of where this is going
Oak trees in UE4 *not in the game at the moment, an example of where this is going
Early benchmark and visual targets, NOT IN THIS GAME, but a preview of where this is going
leaves in UE4, *not in the game at the moment, an example of where this is going
TECHNICAL RESOUCES
I want to find the time to write a technical blog post weekly, with some of the early topics covering:
+ cast shadow from bias, better than epic proxy which adds bigger overhead with uobjects
+ gpu and cpu thread timers, how this helps gamethread scheduling of gameplay events
+ level structure and loading, why i am using an old workflow vs worldpartition
+ nanite, why it is currently not active and will be high end only
+ uobjects, all things that will break your game
+ why im not using lumen, hybrid offline light bake to merge with lightmass, as it has its own issues
+ render target dirt mask
+ no lens flare, custom system
+ bloom low res
+ sunflare half res memory save
+ disable or dev only nodes, set to hotkey
+ sort unused variables
+ how to test performance between builds
+ flowmaps
+ instance tricks, custom data, interaction
+ memory best practices
+ PSO shader stuff
+ shader tricks
+ engine settings and trimming down the engine to an AAA template
+ why not to use function interfaces
+ c++ blueprint function library and examples + optimize bounds and occlusion queries There is so much more to talk about..
I want to find the time to write a technical blog post weekly, with some of the early topics covering:
+ cast shadow from bias, better than epic proxy which adds bigger overhead with uobjects
+ gpu and cpu thread timers, how this helps gamethread scheduling of gameplay events
+ level structure and loading, why i am using an old workflow vs worldpartition
+ nanite, why it is currently not active and will be high end only
+ uobjects, all things that will break your game
+ why im not using lumen, hybrid offline light bake to merge with lightmass, as it has its own issues
+ render target dirt mask
+ no lens flare, custom system
+ bloom low res
+ sunflare half res memory save
+ disable or dev only nodes, set to hotkey
+ sort unused variables
+ how to test performance between builds
+ flowmaps
+ instance tricks, custom data, interaction
+ memory best practices
+ PSO shader stuff
+ shader tricks
+ engine settings and trimming down the engine to an AAA template
+ why not to use function interfaces
+ c++ blueprint function library and examples + optimize bounds and occlusion queries There is so much more to talk about..
IMPLEMENTED OPTIMIZATIONS AND GENERAL TECHNICAL CHANGES
NOT ALL OF THIS IS IN THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE GAME YET
some of the work done, in no particular order
optimized prepass
optimized occlusion queries, taking the faster route where possible in code, harder on instances
custom precomputed visibility culling
uobject management
shadow management, better way of keeping track of cache validation
shadow disabling methods
instance management
optimization through scripting, set visibility and other variables on components, tick behavior
cast shadow from LOD
caching shadows for various actor types
tickbehavior
foliage shading
texture maps storing a wide range of data, multi channels and compression
memory managed
normal map management and compression, reducing file size
texture streaming behavior, preloading and keeping in memory
additional mip settings or switching
addtoroot, preloading an entire level for fast opening
custom light bake GI method, hybrid lumen
performance tracker
Manage PSO related data
user available perf data, game, render, rhi gpu timers to make perf settings more clear
NVAPI, showing nvidia related gpu stats
gpu memory stats
dev overlay, allowing you to see when garbage collection, streaming, visibility, saving or other things happen in the background, bigger events that can cause stalls
memory and texture memory pool management, based on current available memory and system
drawcall and shader optimization
general 3d pipeline, asset and texture creation workflows
flowmaps for water, foliage and more
custom tree building tools, replacing the need for other applications, fast implementation of changes if needed, custom library and behavior, instant results in engine and optimization via workflow
custom root system,
2D fluid systems, allowing for more detailed interaction
water tile system with prebaked fluid sims, blending in different ways with velocity and anims and behavior
custom instancing tool replacing the 10 year old foliage tool, lack of placement behavior, lack of control after placement, lack of library and preset management ect
simulation tools
custom vertex color tools, for animation and storing additional data
custom instance data, sampling and storing other data, able to sample ambient values, disabling cast shadow, disabling lit shader model and using a cached brightness value
particle interaction
storing data per pixel
various render target driven data
world normal tool, allowing for accurate blending of ground or terrain meshes
AI optimization and scaling based on cpu
AI pathfinding
animation optmizations, update frame
bone updates and for foliage lot of different blending and switching out
control rigs
rootmotionscaling, tested implementation of motionmatching but dont like the workflow, lack of control, prefer a more custom ruleset
xbox controller, custom deadzone and angle behavior
build every function in the game, needing to expand and layer as i go
spend a lot of time reverse engineering code
spend a large amount of time optimizing workflows for content, photogrammetry and capturing foliage
supersampling, increasing texture detail for beyond its regular baked result
light weight respawning the player without breaking references, heavy restarting or streaming
...
NOT ALL OF THIS IS IN THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE GAME YET
some of the work done, in no particular order
optimized prepass
optimized occlusion queries, taking the faster route where possible in code, harder on instances
custom precomputed visibility culling
uobject management
shadow management, better way of keeping track of cache validation
shadow disabling methods
instance management
optimization through scripting, set visibility and other variables on components, tick behavior
cast shadow from LOD
caching shadows for various actor types
tickbehavior
foliage shading
texture maps storing a wide range of data, multi channels and compression
memory managed
normal map management and compression, reducing file size
texture streaming behavior, preloading and keeping in memory
additional mip settings or switching
addtoroot, preloading an entire level for fast opening
custom light bake GI method, hybrid lumen
performance tracker
Manage PSO related data
user available perf data, game, render, rhi gpu timers to make perf settings more clear
NVAPI, showing nvidia related gpu stats
gpu memory stats
dev overlay, allowing you to see when garbage collection, streaming, visibility, saving or other things happen in the background, bigger events that can cause stalls
memory and texture memory pool management, based on current available memory and system
drawcall and shader optimization
general 3d pipeline, asset and texture creation workflows
flowmaps for water, foliage and more
custom tree building tools, replacing the need for other applications, fast implementation of changes if needed, custom library and behavior, instant results in engine and optimization via workflow
custom root system,
2D fluid systems, allowing for more detailed interaction
water tile system with prebaked fluid sims, blending in different ways with velocity and anims and behavior
custom instancing tool replacing the 10 year old foliage tool, lack of placement behavior, lack of control after placement, lack of library and preset management ect
simulation tools
custom vertex color tools, for animation and storing additional data
custom instance data, sampling and storing other data, able to sample ambient values, disabling cast shadow, disabling lit shader model and using a cached brightness value
particle interaction
storing data per pixel
various render target driven data
world normal tool, allowing for accurate blending of ground or terrain meshes
AI optimization and scaling based on cpu
AI pathfinding
animation optmizations, update frame
bone updates and for foliage lot of different blending and switching out
control rigs
rootmotionscaling, tested implementation of motionmatching but dont like the workflow, lack of control, prefer a more custom ruleset
xbox controller, custom deadzone and angle behavior
build every function in the game, needing to expand and layer as i go
spend a lot of time reverse engineering code
spend a large amount of time optimizing workflows for content, photogrammetry and capturing foliage
supersampling, increasing texture detail for beyond its regular baked result
light weight respawning the player without breaking references, heavy restarting or streaming
...
CURRENT OPEN ISSUES AND TASKS - EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND MAY BE DELAYED
there are currently some issues around ammo and reloading while making some changes to the underlying functionality
add crosshair option to crafting
camera collision
need a way to restart
using energy signature lures or draws in enemies
complex enemy behavior
flashlight should consume energy/different types of lighting
ammo pickups need to have some form of storage vs just disappearing
high velocity bullets swap, for now just a global upgrade
rename plastic metal to 3 new compounds, common and rare
outlines fade after interaction
terminal marker should wait for dialogue
random bug with animation sync jumping the character forward
anodized harden or strengthen a piece
prevent salvage all items
radar ability UI
ask vendor to link stashes
play scripted sounds
melee hit with rifle
script the concrete blocks falling better
stabilize energy cell, allows you do recharge faster
add difficulty, make robots more accurate
if player is not indoors after fallback add a dialogue warning forcing it
load game save game
runtime menu music wont play if you re open it quickly while its fading out
hit indicator disappeared investigate
second ability power surge aoe? cmpliments the overload hint at stacking energy is higher output
make weapon sounds its own audio subclass
if you die reset ammo to minimum if lower
make sure hud damage dirt mask is dynamic and updates / changes
make energy shield small on equip, add proper animation to scale / deploy with fx
dead ai become static
add a max texture size option
crafting machine, upgrade weapons, add weapon function, too many weapons
armor color customization
player flashlight shadow too low res *as intended atm until further adjusted
build in perf checks for better timing of spawning and preventing gpu or cpu going over 16ms
allow opacity changes for perf overlay and outline in UI
focus indicator while playing melee which enemy you are locked on
AI run away, different behavior
add current objective to in game menu
target lock or focus on enemy trace and move to
start with smaller jump distance, uses less energy
overloading core to gain an energy boost can cause damage, balance this
physical animation
support exporting perf data to xml
perf profiles and gpu overview per mode
theres an issue when walking on odd collision that causes the on jump end event to trigger rapidly
dropping left shoulder from inventory to equipped right shoulder pushes right shoulder back to inventory and equips left
leap in the air needs a curve fall off so its not straight up but looks affected by gravity
check which sounds play as 2D
switching direction while sprint is held is inaccurate and skips playing the stop start or pivot animation state
follow up on bug "for some reason a grenade retriggers death event in ai base bp"
find out why jumping is unreliable, events are not always firing as they should
create utility to disable all receive decal, but then turn it on for a radius of actors around each decal actor
measure depth when jumping into water to spawn a small or large splash in combo with velocity
tool to disable affect nav mesh
tool to see which material do not have their physics set
Re introduce nanite, nanite is fantastic and has a great benefit but is not the default
Color management, need different monitors to further expand my knowledge.
shadow optimization reducing increase while moving
add extra custom layer of occlusion culling method, precached
canopy system, where trees in the level actually are structured to work together
futher exploration of 8K resolution support
customizing the engine, looking for a more custom renderer, potentially branching off in the future
custom terrain tools, current setup is not enough
Look at erosion based workflows
terrain formations tool, creating low memory high detail shapes that can be manipulated
finish my foliage creation and placement toolset
3d performance heatmap and reports
further optimizations and hand crafted environments, spending time creating real art and not rush every decision or action
playstation controller support on pc
xbox and playstation support
pick up a rare energy core, or upgrade
add a passive skill, should be 4 slots
add an action skill, should be 4 slots
further explain the attributes and what they are in charge of
- passive
- Reroute, draw more energy from the core to faster recharge shield but risk having too little energy for actions
- Speed Boost, increase movement and attack speed
- Reduce cooldown, venting the core allowing it to run at higher operating rate
let the vendor tell u something about linking stashes
no extra bonus damage ect on weapons, any extra damage will come from the ability to hit faster / harder from an energy core upgrade or large arm capable of handling such equipment
stats for weapons
-damage (per second?)
-accuracy
-fire rate
-reload speed
-magazine size
fps weapon equip sound on swap
energy weapon pulling from core, core upgrade would help make this much more interesting
Passive is more how you "tweak" or "tune" your robot, say from savings to performance mode
...
there are currently some issues around ammo and reloading while making some changes to the underlying functionality
add crosshair option to crafting
camera collision
need a way to restart
using energy signature lures or draws in enemies
complex enemy behavior
flashlight should consume energy/different types of lighting
ammo pickups need to have some form of storage vs just disappearing
high velocity bullets swap, for now just a global upgrade
rename plastic metal to 3 new compounds, common and rare
outlines fade after interaction
terminal marker should wait for dialogue
random bug with animation sync jumping the character forward
anodized harden or strengthen a piece
prevent salvage all items
radar ability UI
ask vendor to link stashes
play scripted sounds
melee hit with rifle
script the concrete blocks falling better
stabilize energy cell, allows you do recharge faster
add difficulty, make robots more accurate
if player is not indoors after fallback add a dialogue warning forcing it
load game save game
runtime menu music wont play if you re open it quickly while its fading out
hit indicator disappeared investigate
second ability power surge aoe? cmpliments the overload hint at stacking energy is higher output
make weapon sounds its own audio subclass
if you die reset ammo to minimum if lower
make sure hud damage dirt mask is dynamic and updates / changes
make energy shield small on equip, add proper animation to scale / deploy with fx
dead ai become static
add a max texture size option
crafting machine, upgrade weapons, add weapon function, too many weapons
armor color customization
player flashlight shadow too low res *as intended atm until further adjusted
build in perf checks for better timing of spawning and preventing gpu or cpu going over 16ms
allow opacity changes for perf overlay and outline in UI
focus indicator while playing melee which enemy you are locked on
AI run away, different behavior
add current objective to in game menu
target lock or focus on enemy trace and move to
start with smaller jump distance, uses less energy
overloading core to gain an energy boost can cause damage, balance this
physical animation
support exporting perf data to xml
perf profiles and gpu overview per mode
theres an issue when walking on odd collision that causes the on jump end event to trigger rapidly
dropping left shoulder from inventory to equipped right shoulder pushes right shoulder back to inventory and equips left
leap in the air needs a curve fall off so its not straight up but looks affected by gravity
check which sounds play as 2D
switching direction while sprint is held is inaccurate and skips playing the stop start or pivot animation state
follow up on bug "for some reason a grenade retriggers death event in ai base bp"
find out why jumping is unreliable, events are not always firing as they should
create utility to disable all receive decal, but then turn it on for a radius of actors around each decal actor
measure depth when jumping into water to spawn a small or large splash in combo with velocity
tool to disable affect nav mesh
tool to see which material do not have their physics set
Re introduce nanite, nanite is fantastic and has a great benefit but is not the default
Color management, need different monitors to further expand my knowledge.
shadow optimization reducing increase while moving
add extra custom layer of occlusion culling method, precached
canopy system, where trees in the level actually are structured to work together
futher exploration of 8K resolution support
customizing the engine, looking for a more custom renderer, potentially branching off in the future
custom terrain tools, current setup is not enough
Look at erosion based workflows
terrain formations tool, creating low memory high detail shapes that can be manipulated
finish my foliage creation and placement toolset
3d performance heatmap and reports
further optimizations and hand crafted environments, spending time creating real art and not rush every decision or action
playstation controller support on pc
xbox and playstation support
pick up a rare energy core, or upgrade
add a passive skill, should be 4 slots
add an action skill, should be 4 slots
further explain the attributes and what they are in charge of
- passive
- Reroute, draw more energy from the core to faster recharge shield but risk having too little energy for actions
- Speed Boost, increase movement and attack speed
- Reduce cooldown, venting the core allowing it to run at higher operating rate
let the vendor tell u something about linking stashes
no extra bonus damage ect on weapons, any extra damage will come from the ability to hit faster / harder from an energy core upgrade or large arm capable of handling such equipment
stats for weapons
-damage (per second?)
-accuracy
-fire rate
-reload speed
-magazine size
fps weapon equip sound on swap
energy weapon pulling from core, core upgrade would help make this much more interesting
Passive is more how you "tweak" or "tune" your robot, say from savings to performance mode
...
Adding more segments about visual work and many prototyped workflows shortly.
Forest with custom trees test in 2018, updated 2 years ago, not in the game at the moment, an example of where this is going
Rock simulation test, 3 years ago, not in the game at the moment, an example of where this is going
My work on stage, presented by nvidia
