#@hellsplumber

[hellsplumber]

This is ShopDog, a travelling salesdog. His store is a re-purposed shipping container that travels between both the Squissum and Splotter cities.

Unlike the other shop keepers he prefers Treats over traditional currency, which isn’t as easy to come by but is well worth the extra effort. 

Some items are unique to each city, but thanks to ShopDog these international goodies can be yours!

[hellsplumber]

We recently invested in graphics engine more powerful than Unity 5 alone which allows for real-time global illumination. Obviously I couldn’t help but take a few “glamour shots”~

They’re all taken in-game with no editing other than the logo. The results are looking good for a simple un-textured play area, and should look spectacular with the final fully-textured levels!

The new character models are nearing completion too, which blows our old low-poly models away. Patreons get a sneak-peak!

If you want to get into the online test area with us, consider supporting us over at Patreon: www.patreon.com/Aquars And if not, continue following progress here!

[hellsplumber]

More Networking...

Previously I’d been trying to user Peer to peer networking for Aquar’s online functionality as it avoided server costs and meant that servers were available whenever needed due to being hosted by the player themselves. And although we’ve had relative success with this method, after testing with a few players online it’s become clear that P2P simply isn’t going to work.

Basically the latency between players is too high, causing the shots of rapid-fire weapons to lag behind. And some users had to edit their firewall and router settings to allow connections properly, which is hardly user-friendly. And finally, the networking API we were using was in an Alpha state and thus developing slowly, meaning Aquars could only progress as quickly as they did.

So once again I’ve been busy moving things over to a more permanent solution: Dedicated Servers!

Dedicated servers are located across the globe, allowing players to be connected to the closest ones and eliminating the latency issues. They also greatly simplify a lot of work for me due to having automatic features such as match-making, room creation etc].

So that’s where we’re at right now!

The only down side is that hosting doesn’t come free, but hopefully the game will be able to cover it’s own server costs for a reasonable lifetime.

This isn’t to say there should never be need to worry about the servers ever dissapearing completely. Our host allows a small number of players to be connected at once without any server costs. So although you might have to wait a little longer for an open slot, online play will work indefinitely.

I intend on paying additional servers myself for as long as they’re required to allow as many people as possible to play with minimal wait-time. I’ve been thinking ways to keep the additional servers up for as long as possible. One idea was a Patreon that players could use if they wanted to help, which would reward them with Patreon-only in-game items. I’d love feedback or ideas on this!

[hellsplumber]

Network progress!

On our old networking solution we had multiple players connected, but only in a very basic way. Only player movement/rotation and gun shots were synced over the internet, and all players used the same color paint and weapons.

I’ve spent past week moving everything over to our new networking tool and getting everything working once again. Currently:

Players are assigned a team when connected

Players are assgined corresponding team paint colors

Weapon changes are synced across the network

Player movement/rotation and weapon shots are synced across the network

In short, everything needed for a basic match! The screenshot above shows all of these features in practice. Two online players of opposing teams, using different weapons to cover the “Non-level surfaces” area of the multiplayer test level.

Although there’s plenty of room for improvement and a few features that remain to be added, as it currently stands we have the makings of the first online game-mode.

Extra Stuff!

Inbetween coding, I’ve been doing lots of research and mock-ups in 3d for the Squissum’s hub-world. I’ve been working on multiple seamless exterior models that can be interchanged with one another to make quick, unique buildings. The first of which can be seen below:

A dark, dimly lit world connected by cramped alleyways. I wonder how many people will choose to live here...

[hellsplumber]

I’m currently creating an area to test network play, which will hopefully be this weekend. It’s much bigger than the old area, and has a few useful features:

Uneven terrain for testing paint and movement on sloped surfaces

An area for testing weapon range

An area for testing weapon damage

A sprinkler for cleaning up paint, or firing paint

The city in the background is made up from simple concept models I created while designing the Squissum’s city, which is in a MUCH earlier post. Also, players enter via the elevator. It keeps things tidy and I thought it was a nice touch~

[hellsplumber]

I’m back with a quick preview of Music and Paint! Music: As I’ve yet to find a recorder that includes sound, I decided to give you a quick preview of one of our many in-game tracks!

The track is by NOQQYSC who joined the team to help provide a soundtrack. He’s well known for his video game remixes and is proving to be equally as talented at entirely original work!

Models: @nimadoodlez​ is hard at work creating higher poly models of our character. These will replace the current low-poly models you’ve seen and bring things up to date. We also plan on using a standard SecondLife rig for them to make creating your own content for the game as easy as possible!

Paint: I myself have been hard at work finalizing our painting syste. Hopefully you’ll notice how opposite paints seperate from each other, and how bodies of paint of the same color will merge into each other.

It’s also highly efficient as it can handle 100+ paint operations per second without any dip in performance. 8 player matches should reach around 80 paint operations per second in the most extreme circumstances so it's ready for the final game. Since recording this video we’ve made paint splatter more varied too, so it looks even better!

Crane Machine: I included a quick look at the crane machine to give you a feel of the physics behind it, as it’s way more fun to play than it looks in 10FPS GIFS.

I often get distracted by it when I’m meant to be testing things...

The rest: “Behind the scenes” I’ve been working hard fixing bugs, improving code and most importantly, working on the Online Play.

Thanks to switching to a new networking solution, the work required to get things online has been drastically reduced and progressing quickly. It’s allowed me to simplify things, cut down on scripts and made things much easier for me.

I’m hoping to get our first basic online match working before october~ If you have any questions, or are interested in contributing some how then leave a message and I’ll be sure to get back to you!