Post#3 » 22 Apr, 2018 6:29 pm

Thank you to Odi for posting for me. I had a wee bit of food poisoning sadly, so was trying to keep working and get some rest. But alas, work kept calling. At least I had the post written up. So, again, thank you!None of the trees there show the ones you will be able to harvest. But there is one plant in there. Any of the flora that we have in game and will be harvestable will have their own unique set of models. Though they will now show up white from a distance as they do now, nor will all trees be those hudson pine trees, you will be able to recognize them by size and of course mouse over. if we want to add anything special in addition to this very vague information, we do welcome input.When we get to that system and start it, we will be taking feedback and possibly a poll asking how you guys would like to be able to recognize all of the harvest assets in a fairly easy manor. The shinies (visual indicators) are the easy part. It is the rebuilding of a unified system that will take the extra time. So it will be good to get your feedback regarding this at that time so we can have everyone working on it.For the architecture itself, the three sets of models worked on so far have been reduced by around 20-80% while adding a bit more to them as well.I have broken up and separated the interiors from the exteriors to be able to use an interior environment as you can see in the two gif's above. Interiors will also have their own "rooms" which will help with performance going in and outside of the buildings. (If you are curios on how rooms work in HeroEngine, you can go here: http://hewiki.heroengine.com/wiki/Rooms Please note that I have not reworked any of the interiors yet other than a few obvious holes that a few testing found. Interiors will be updated and cleaned up as well though.Now the buildings, Here is an example:Large Platform Keep/fort:HGM: Current= 320 kb, New= 88kbPolys: Current= 27,705 , New= 18,878Verts: Current=32,159 , New= 20,128Model count totals: Current= 1 per file, New= 36 per fileTexture count totals: Current= 17, New= 3Texture size: Current= 4k (and two 8k), New= 2kTotal poly count totals: Current= 7,018- 18-27,705 each, New= 82,009Total vert count totals: Current= 11,991-32,159 each, New= 90,074In addition to the reduction, I have also grouped all of the same or similar assets using the same textures and materials to reduce the added load and draws. Bringing all of these assets into a single max (or maya) file will allow us to use ONE texture and ONE material as needed for all of the assets in the set.We also found that several of the assets use different textures (names and locations in the engine) that are actually the same or might have one small thing added. With merging these multiple textures into one and all of the same assets type into one max file, we have just reduced a lot of load time and overhead for the players.In the example above, I merged two platform styles that were all individual but still are sets that were all separate files using some of the same (imagery) textures. So I was not only able to reduce the actual vert and poly count, but also reduce some of the extra overhead by using all separate textures located in different directories.Harvesting:Harvesting itself will be broken up into categories as well. While going through what plants and trees were needed, we ended up delving into the crafting as well to see what mats (Materials) required or should have separate assets. This does help us as well for when we begin the crafting revamp as we found several things that were actually the same, but took up multiple slots as the root name was different, despite them being the same thing (think wood as an example).The plan is to have both a standard and a harvestable tree, plant or rock for the 'Wack-a-odes'. I have begun some of this work already, and will be part of the core harvesting system (Harvestors and Wack-a- node). The system will then be divided up into sub systems so we do not have to recreate the same scripts or files, but instead use what we originally built and expand for each sub system instead. This revamp will allow us to do the following:1) Bring a more unique feel to each of the three sub systems of harvesting2) Reduce the over all overhead and scripts required3) Ability to expand upon these for future development and content updates4) Avoid running into conflicts with using separate systems5) Above helps us with debugging when there are bugs present (easier and quicker to go through a few scripts than by the 10's or more to find where each call leads to.)The Art part: Imagine running down the road. You have run this many times, but this time you spot a plant that has some unusual berries on it. This was never here before. You mouse over it and realize you can harvest the plant! How many more like this can you find? Does your Survey tool tell you if there are any more in this region?With the art itself, as I mentioned above, this revamp of both system and art will allow more diversity, and to allow players to know what something is just by visually seeing it and not being forced to mouse over or harvest the mat. So visual appearance of the flora is important.We also want to be able to allow diversity as well and make the harvest flora fit more into the world and not just stand out shouting "Here I am" from a distance. Immersion is important, while also having the ease of recognition. Now this does not mean that you will know what is what right away, but it will be much easier to learn and recognize in a short term. So no pointy yellow rock for most of your different types of stone. No lava tube worm for most of your plants.For recognition, we will have a small variance from the primary non harvestables. Not every single tree in the game will be able to be harvested. Though this is an awesome concept and one many games have played whit the idea or attempted, the tech and overhead is just not feasible right now. There is also the issue of a persistent world as well as giving all players the availability of being able to harvest. Regrowth is the solution, but that is where the tech limitations come in and can cause much more overhead. Bandwidth, calls between client and server, synchronizing between clients, etc. This all creates extra overhead if everything was possibly to harvest. Now, I am not saying it is not impossible, it is surely possible, but with the limited resources and staff and small player base, at this time it is not something we will be doing.So, to put that in shorter terms, each harvestable asset will have its own unique identifier visually, as well as a client side post process shader upon mouse over. This can be a pulsating glow, an outline, sparkles coming from it. How we do this last part (the polish) will be more what you all think and like the best. But I am sure we will try a few different styles for you all to test and give feedback on.Now, here is an example of a common plant that you first experience when you first come into the world as a new Mnemozine. The Byna berry. This image is a sample of all possible cycles, but does not mean all three will be coming in either. Of course, we might have more as well.I hope that helps answer your question? I am sure it has a bit more than you had intended to ask, I did tend to prattle on a wee bit. However, I do hope that this helps answer some of the additional questions you and others may have. If not, feel free to ask!