Considering my last blog was mostly about announcing my project. I decided to finally make a blog post dedicated to updates. Especially since it was getting more annoying to add to it since there was so much stuff on one page. :P
Any changes and progress will be posted here instead of the other one. If you want to see the previous versions, you can go here:Pervious Blog
The latest version is Version 12 :- Bunch of changes to lighting system (Reliability Wise)- Bunch of changes to shadow system (Reliability Wise)- Completely changed melee system (Swings are more natural)- Experimenting with Tileset templates (Not going well, I really hate tiles)- Can now go into buildings- Interior lighting is separate from exterior- Temporarily disabled detailed tooltip in inventory. (Will soon be a screen with even MORE info)- Some adjustments to the walking animation (Not sure about this)- Slightly dynamic menu animations (Dependant on container size)- Replaced hilarious enemy audio. :(- If you don't have anything equipped, YOU CAN PUNCH!- Added VSync to options menu (Start Menu options still not in. :P)- Screen is centered on character now. Freelook can be toggled with Ctrl.-Tons and tons of other small things I can't rememberThe latest version is Version 11 :-Enemies can now drop items-Created colored lighting system-Lighting system is now tied to time of day (It didn't use to be, it just got darker or lighter as time passed. Changing the time wouldn't actually change the lighting)-You can change the time of day with the scroll wheel (Just for testing, of course)-Shadows now move according to the time of day as well.-Shadow position is tied to time of day as well.-Enemies actually look like enemies-UI changes-Felt like drawing stuff so I drew some art for the inventory.-Usable equipment slots have icons to show what goes there.-Enemy AI is better and you can see their aggro distances and where they're looking (Temporary, of course)-There's now a button to open and close inventory on screen.-Added a hit stop effect (weapon slows down due to impact on enemy)-You can't use weapons on both hands at the same time anymoreThe latest version is Version 13 :- Changed movement system so it's not possible to walk faster diagonally anymore- Made it possible to change the contents of chests after they've been created. (Allows for randomization of contents at any time. Possibly for a gambling mechanic?)- Correctly liked character speed with speed of walking animation.- Added dynamic animation to character's feet- Added dynamic animation to arms and body. Can attack, run, and walk fluidly- Created a tileset mask I don't hate- Spent a couple hours last night actually making some art for this thing. It doesn't look dreadful anymore. (In my opinion)- Revamped UI Look- Added durability to weapons and spells. Can see current durability when equipped or in inventory- Made it possible to change direction of inventory transition really easily.- Added more scenery in the world like plants.- Redid the sounds (Again)- Items now have sounds attached to them so they all sound differently when used or picked up.- Added ability to have particle effects on weapons. (like a fire sword)- Added a fire sword to test this out- Added currency to the engine. I haven't decided if you should have it be separate from the inventory or not though.- Added transitions to healthbar damage for enemies so it's easier to see how much damage was done to them.- A bunch of other things that I forgot to put here because It's been a long times since I've updated this.The latest version is Version 14 :- Worked on making the menus a bit less uggo- Added settings menu to title screen- Added parallax effect to some objects in the world. (I don't know why I love this so much)- Small tweaks to damage dealing system. (Still In progress. Still need to implement armor)- Added ability to change the sound levels (Having a lot of trouble with this on objects with Game Makers positional audio system. Might need to make my own…)- Added audio menu to settings so you can actually change the sounds. (For some reason, zero means go back to full volume. I have no idea why.)- Added new floor type with new sounds. Wood.- Changed the looting sounds so looting a bunch of stuff isn't as annoying- Fixed a bug that made the framerate go crazy low for a second. (Had to do with shadows)- Areas can have ambient audio now. The house in the map has some creepy ambient noise that doesn't belong to me since I didn't create it. Just there for proof of concept. I'll replace it with my own audio as soon as possible. For some reason, it doesn't play the first time you go in the house, so you have to go back out and in. Sounds pretty nice. Almost sad I can't keep it. :PThe latest version is Version 15 :- Title screen is a bit more interesting- Added dynamic camera movement so character can see further ahead when moving- Refined the idle audio system for enemies. - Time of day also changes color temperature- Added buttons to audio settings menu- Inventory system is now more card like. More info can be seen at once.- Added working equipment slot for armor- Added working equipment slot for pants- Added working equipment slot for feet- Can now see armor and shoes on character if equipped- Added the basics of mount mechanics- Enemies now have proper death noises with sound fade and everything. :P\- Money isn't an inventory item anymore- Reworked equipment and weapon system… Again. Now only need one weapon animation script for both hands!- Added changing mouse cursor system. I don't know why, but it makes it much more satisfying to pick up items and move them in the inventory.- Character now has momentum. It takes him a step or two to get to full speed.- More stuff I'm probably forgetting. Might add laterStuff I forgot the first time:- Added a leveling system. lol. How did I forget that?- Health scales with levelThe latest version is Version 16 :Changelog for LAR RPG Engine Version 016- Player can now lose health- Player can now die and loses items in inventory on death- Player can now dodge and dodging provides invincibility frames- Added support for ranged weapons with ammo- Added accuracy bloom to ranged accuracy crosshair- Added indicators for left hand or right hand ranged weapon accuracies- Changed the way projectiles are created allowing for easier creation of custom projectiles (easy way to add bullet types)- Containers can now be set to act as shops- Shops can have individual buy / sell rates- Items will display prices adjusted for shop buy / sell rate- Shift Clicking in shop inventory will buy that item. (Shops are still in progress)- Improved melee animations- Player inventory can now be scrolled up or down allowing for larger inventories- Scrollbar added so it's easy to see where inventory is scrolling- Character stats added when other inventories not opened- Dropping items from the inventory can now be done by grabbing it from and clicking away from the inventory- Projectiles now impact solid objects- Added an inventory button- Added a visual indicator to show when player has leveled up- Removed audio debug text on enemies- Some other stuff I don't remember writing down
PS: I'd really like to know what kind of framerates and bugs you guys are getting. (Not to mention your specs)
Nice. You have a better CPU, but I have a slightly better GPU. Makes sense. :P
I get around 45 fps on my Surface Pro, so I'm slightly worried about performance with weaker systems.I can't wait to waste hours of my life away once this is finished. No matter what, make sure to keep me updated, man!
Oh, and on my Macbook Pro (4th gen i5, Intel Iris 5100, 8gb RAM) I got about 60FPS, regardless of V-Sync settings. My PC is MARGINALLY better, but I don't feel like going upstairs.Notes - things I thought about and wanted while playing:Scroll down doesn't work to adjust time - doesn't really MATTER since it's debug, but OCD almost made me stab myselfColor temperature makes WORLDS of difference.If a held spell is glowing/emitting particles, maybe have a small light on that hand?draw_set_alpha(1); before you draw the gold text in the upper lefthand corner- it flickers a lot while moving around the inventory. :PI love how you remade the inventory and keep the camera view center. Some armor locations aren't showing icons for me when empty, though the slots work.Item hover hotkeys feel necessary for a game like this - E to equip, Q to use… SOMETHING - dragging and dropping feels nice, and allows for good organization, but feels sluggish if you're trying to switch equipment often.Hold E for multi-item pickup within a certain rangeI've never had anyone look forward to something I've made like that before. I gotta say, it feels pretty good. ;_;
Thank you. You saying you WANT to spend hours playing this, actually gave me motivation to work on this some more! I know it might sound weird, but still. I mean it.Regarding your notes, I thank you for that as well. Feedback like that is incredibly important. People will always catch stuff that you never thought to look for. I'm gonna read your comment back when I start working on this again so I remember what to fix.And yeah, you can't scroll down to change the time. That's… actually intentional. The time of day is determined by the progression of time, and the way I programmed it… doesn't allow you to rewind time. Only speed it up. Kinda like real life time travel could potentially be. Weird, huh? :PAs for the glowing spell thing, that's not really intentional, but It's actually a result of me reworking the melee system (again). I didn't want the fire effect to disappear, so I temporarily placed the code in the spells so I wouldn't forget it was still there until I moved it back. And yeah, I plan on giving the particle effects on held items colored light. It only makes sense. :POh, and the armor slots not showing up isn't a bug… I just haven't made the icons yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Your suggestion for the item hover hotkeys I also agree with, but I haven't decided if I'm going to add a right click menu instead, or stick with the button press activation method I have now.And lastly, my brother suggested the same thing, and I liked that feature in Borderlands. So I'm probably going to add that at some point as well. (The hold E to collect multiple items mechanic)Damn good RPG!
Do you plan to add quests or something like that?FPS was 55-65.Inside house near door it drops to 48-55.My computer:Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2 GHz 4 coresRAM: 8 GBGraphics card: AMD R9 280X 2GBThanks. :D
And yeah. I do plan on adding a quest system. (At some point, but hopefully soon).As for your performance, dang. That's really low for your specs. I.. don't even know what could be causing that. Especially when you mention that you get even LOWER fps in the house. The house has nothing inside except the lights!What framerate did you get in the menu?I missed the house on my first two plays, I got pretty much the same as Zuurix inside and outside the house.
There's no FPS counter on menu?
@Acid
You did have similar specs, but Zuurix has a dedicated graphics card. I feel like that should result in better performance…@ZuurixOh, my bad. I'm used to using a separate FPS counter so I guess it slipped my mind that everyone else can't see the framerate when I don't show it in the game. I'll be sure to include that in the next version.The latest version is Version 16 :
Changelog for LAR RPG Engine Version 016- Player can now lose health- Player can now die and loses items in inventory on death- Player can now dodge and dodging provides invincibility frames- Added support for ranged weapons with ammo- Added accuracy bloom to ranged accuracy crosshair- Added indicators for left hand or right hand ranged weapon accuracies- Changed the way projectiles are created allowing for easier creation of custom projectiles (easy way to add bullet types)- Containers can now be set to act as shops- Shops can have individual buy / sell rates- Items will display prices adjusted for shop buy / sell rate- Shift Clicking in shop inventory will buy that item. (Shops are still in progress)- Improved melee animations- Player inventory can now be scrolled up or down allowing for larger inventories- Scrollbar added so it's easy to see where inventory is scrolling- Character stats added when other inventories not opened- Dropping items from the inventory can now be done by grabbing it from and clicking away from the inventory- Projectiles now impact solid objects- Added an inventory button- Added a visual indicator to show when player has leveled up- Removed audio debug text on enemies- Some other stuff I don't remember writing downPic (version 16):Are there any downloads to this engine? I would like to see it in action.