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Development & Discussion / State of the Universe (or Nothing)

« on: January 11, 2018, 09:30:28 AM »

Hey all,

Here is an update on the state of the project, first with a recap of 2017, and then with my plans for the coming year.


2017 Recap
So last year was a wash-out for Universe or Nothing, there is no other way to put it. My wife was very ill for most of the year and I had to juggle work committments with looking after her and our two children. Thankfully her illness passed and things began to return to normal, but it took a lot out of her and the recovery process has been ongoing. I ended up with a large backlog of client work for my day job, which made the last three months a bit of a firefighting exercise for me.

Now I say it was a wash out but some work was done on UoN. I continued doing bits and pieces over the year, but it was only maybe 10% of what it would have been. Most of the work I did do was on the game engine, fixing issues and adding new functionality. I focused on that stuff because frankly it's easier for me than the art side of things. I am most comfortable with code, and least comfortable with art (though I do try to challenge myself with it). The biggest project I completed last year was to break a lot of the game's code out into the mod system, to allow more of the game to be customised in mods.

I also employed some artists to work on the ships for the game, turning the two ships from Isaac's concept art into usable assets (models with all of the required material maps). That work is quite advanced but there is still more to do (I pay for this work out of my earnings, so it is bit by bit).


2018 Plan
My plan is simple in concept, I want to create a properly playable multiplayer build of the game so that we (as a community) can start to figure out what works and what doesn't. When I say properly playable I mean that it has to have three stations (Helm, Tactical and Engineering) with at least the base gameplay for each, and the ability for crews/ships to fight each other. What this build does not need to be is polish, so I am going to just focus on getting it done and I'll worry about polishing it up later. So that means placeholders for everything non-essential, which includes the 3D graphics (I will use the ship and effects from the old build that I made videos with).

What I have now is the base multiplayer game with much of the ship simulation systems in place, a fairly complete Engineering station, and the guts of Tactical and Helm. My focus will be on building out these stations, and only doing the work that is directly needed to do that.

There are risks to this plan, as there are to every plan. These include work, my situation is a little volatile right now, and my wife's health (though I really really hope this is not an issue). I'm stating this as I want to be completely transparent with you guys, but I really do hope there are no setbacks this time.


Once again thank you so much for sticking in there with me, I really appreciate your support.

Thanks for reading!

Mark

2

Development & Discussion / [Progress - 27th October] Filling in the blanks

« on: October 27, 2017, 11:30:53 AM »

Hey all,

I am delighted to say that I have been back working on Universe or Nothing in a "serious" way since early September. My wife is doing really well now, her illness is behind us and life has returned to normal.

While my wife was ill I still did a little development on UoN every week, and during that time I made some significant improvements to the modding system. I modularised much of the game's gameplay code and moved it into mods using a "plugin" system. Having this modular system makes it easier for me to add gameplay, and it also means that most of the game's source code will be available to modders.

Now my focus is on graphics programming. Up until this point (in the game) the 3D "world space" and the 2D UIs have been completely separate, rendered separately by different parts of the code, but the game requires there to be a deep integration. While much of the UI is 2D there are parts, like the spatial radar, which are 3D. In order to fulfill my vision for the game these 2D and 3D elements need to work together. This integration requires a deeper level of graphics programming (and math) than I have experience of, so my past week has been spent studying. That involves me reading books and documentation, and building prototypes to increase my knowledge of the area. That process is coming along really well, and I will be getting back to the 2D/3D integration soon.

This progress update is not a "flashy" one, it will be a while before I have new screenshots and video to show, but I really wanted to convey that I am deeply engaged in development of Universe or Nothing.


Thanks for reading!

- Mark

3

Development & Discussion / My absence

« on: July 19, 2017, 04:38:05 PM »

Hi all,

As you may have noticed I haven't been very active in the past two months.

My wife came down with a very bad chest infection just over two months ago, and while the infection was cleared after two weeks it left her with a chest condition which causes constant chronic pain. The condition is usually not permanent, but can take months to recover from. For two months I've been working from home, rather than in my office, doing my best to support my wife by helping around the house and with our two young boys. This has been a really tough time for her, and for me. I've fallen way behind in my day job, but thankfully my boss is very supportive.

As much as I've wanted to work on UoN, I just haven't had the time or mental energy for it.



I wasn't intending to post about this, as I wasn't expecting my wife's illness to last this long, and I am quite a private person when it comes to my personal life. I feel like it has been too long since I last posted though, and I wanted to be honest with you.

The good news is that my wife is improving, bit by bit. In a few weeks, all going well, things should be back to normal for us.

While all of this has been going on Pete continued working on the Kite class spaceship, and just last week he completed it. I'm really looking forward to getting the ship into the game, and showing it off to you guys.


I really appreciate all of the support and patience you guys have shown me.


Thanks for reading!

Mark

4

Development & Discussion / Server Maintenance - SSL Update

« on: May 20, 2017, 03:27:40 PM »

Hi all,

As part of regular maintenance on our server, which hosts the web server (for the site and forums), I have installed SSL certificates for the site (so that it now uses a secure https connection).

The switch to SSL can cause issues with site content and logging in. Everything looks ok, but if you find any issues it would be great if you could reply with them here. If you can't log in to post then please email me with the issue (mark.aherne<at_symbol>wiredgames.eu).


Thanks!

Mark

5

Development & Discussion / [Progress - 19th May] Subordinates work and Kite spaceship progress

« on: May 19, 2017, 01:37:08 PM »

Hi all,


I've been beavering away on the Engineering systems, focused on how the subordinates (the managed crew members) interact with the systems on the ship (in terms of Engineering this means performance boosts, and actions like Repair and Stabilise).

As well as that Pete has continued working on the Kite class spaceship and has sent on another update:

Got some good time on the ship this week.

I have one large part left to optimise and unwrap and then a few small skeletal arm bits, I'll see what I can do with those. Here is the ship as it stands:


​Everything there is unwrapped, what remains is to join everything up and normalise those UVs, then split them into 4 for texturing. There is quite a bit of overlap and reuse of similar objects, which should help keep resolution up on such a large asset. Polycount is currently 135k triangles, and I haven't sacrificed anything so far:



Here is a quick export into Toolbag 3:


I'm looking forward to getting the UVs finalised and doing some texture work.

Thanks for reading!

Mark

6

Development & Discussion / [Progress - 16th March] UI Animations & Kite Class Spaceship

« on: April 16, 2017, 08:07:06 PM »

Hey all,

I have finished my work on the animation systems for the UI. I was hoping to get a video out of it in action before I head off on my trip, but there isn't enough time.

When I get back I intend to work on the modular armor system. Right now ships only have one armor block, whereas ship armor will be split into sections, each housing one or more of the ship's systems.

Pete sent me on an update of his workon creating the production/game ready Kite class spaceship model. Here it is:

I've been tipping away on this, here's an image of where I'm at:


What am I looking at you might ask? Well, these are the parts that I've been optimising and unwrapping, wherever you see an even checkerboard texture is where I have greatly reduced polygon detail and unwrapped for texturing in line with best practices.

Currently it's at about 140k tris but I still have a ways to go with this, and some of the isolated pieces will be collapsed together. I'll keep going as I am and then assess once I've completed an optimisation/unwrapping pass on each remaining piece of geometry.

Here's the wireframe:


Here's an image of parts optimised vs parts remaining


Let me know if you have any comments or queries.

Thanks for reading!

Mark

7

Development & Discussion / On Holiday

« on: April 16, 2017, 07:54:40 PM »

Hey guys,

I am heading off for a week long sea kayak trip around Lough Corrib (with a friend) from the 24th of April to the 30th.

I have a lot to do to prepare for the trip (on top of my regular work hours), including some work on the boats, so it will be quiet here for the next two weeks.

Chat to you when I get back.

Thanks,

Mark

8

Development & Discussion / Our new 3D artist

« on: April 02, 2017, 06:00:02 PM »

Hey all,

Isaac did a fantastic job on the Kite and Takouba class spaceships, but in order to use them in game a 3D artist (modeller/texture artist) needs to turn the reference designs into usable ships for the game.

I've been on the lookout for such a person, and so far I've been blessed to have attracted talented people to work on UoN. This time is no different. Pete McNally, who is certainly one of the best 3D artists I know of, began working on the Kite ship this weekend. He will be turning Isaac's design into a working ship for the game.

It will be a number of weeks before there is anything to show, but in the mean time you can check out some of his personal work here on ArtStation. His blog is also chock full of excellent work.

Thanks for reading!

Mark

9

Development & Discussion / [Progress - 22th March] UI Colours Templates

« on: March 22, 2017, 10:26:10 PM »

Hey all,

This will be a short post, but it has been almost two weeks since my last post and I want to keep the progress updates going.

I created color templates for the mod system. These templates allow you to change all of the UI colors without editing the UIs at all. As well as that I have attached these templates to the game's faction system, so each faction can have it's own color scheme. So the UIs for a UNION ship will use a different color palette than Centauri ships.

You can see an example of a colors template here: http://pastebin.com/FRALiJq4 (colours are written in hex format, similar to HTML)

Next up I am working on button animations for the UIs, to give a better "feel" to interacting with the screens.


Thanks for reading!

Mark

 

10

Development & Discussion / [Progress - 10th March] Internal Comms

« on: March 10, 2017, 12:27:40 PM »

Hey all,


I've been busy working on the Technicians gameplay, and a big part of that is the "Internal Comms".

Events can occur while a Technician is assigned to a system, these can be Instability events caused by overheating or damage, or they can be setbacks or breakthroughs in the action the Technician is currently engaged in (such as repairing the system).

When an event happens the Technician will send you a message through the Internal Comms, which appears in your list of notifications. When you click this notification it opens the message so that you can learn about the event and choose how to deal with it.

I am currently working on the UI for Internal Comms messages. This is the first draft, and I wanted to get some early feedback from you. The selected message is an example of a setback which has occurred during the repair of a system. You are given the choice to complete the repair quickly, but suffer extra Instability, or take the time to do a full repair.


And the chat area has been replaced with an Internal Comms area, it shows the number of pending messages, and the two latest (High Priority first) messages.


Internal Comms will be used for the other role subordinates (Tactical Operatives and Science Researchers) as well.


Thanks for reading!

Mark

11

Development & Discussion / [Progress - 5th March] Modding API

« on: March 05, 2017, 01:06:14 AM »

Hey all,


This is a technical post, but it's a milestone for UoN and I wanted to share.

One of the most difficult to implement features of a complex game is a modding API, the ability to inject custom code into the game. The reason it is difficult is because the game has to be structured to suit code injection, the ability to use code that was not written as part of the game. Luckily I planned for a modding API from the start, but I still had a lot of work to do to actually implement it.

I added the ability to use custom assets (textures, models, UIs), and config files (for entities in the game, spaceships, equipment) into the game last year, but put off the modding API until recently. Thankfully that work is now complete, UoN now has a full modding API where all of the systems in the game are accessible to, and can use, custom code.

Here is an example of code from the base mod (UNION uses a base mod for all of the game's content). This is the main spaceship process, which manages Heat and Instability. This file is saved as a .CS file in the mod folder.

Code: [Select]

using System;
using UON.Common;
using UON.ModdingAPI;

namespace UON.BaseMod
{
    public class StandardSpaceshipExtension : ISpaceshipExtension
    {
        private float m_nextUpdatePassiveHeatTime;

        private ISpaceshipComponent m_spaceshipComponent;
        private IEquipmentComponent m_equipmentComponent;

        public void OnServerEntityUpdate(float deltaTime, IKotarEntity entity)
        {
            m_spaceshipComponent = entity.GetComponent<SpaceshipComponent>(ComponentIds.Spaceship);
            m_equipmentComponent = entity.GetComponent<EquipmentComponent>(ComponentIds.Equipment);
           
            for (byte systemIndex = 0; systemIndex < m_spaceshipComponent.Template.Systems.Count; systemIndex++)
            {
                float actualPassiveHeatLevel = 0.0f;
                if (m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].OperatingPowerLevel >= m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Template.Class.MinOperatingPower)
                {
                    actualPassiveHeatLevel = m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].OperatingPowerLevel * m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Template.PassiveHeatCoefficient;
                }

                if (actualPassiveHeatLevel == 0.0f)
                {
                    m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].PassiveOperatingHeat = actualPassiveHeatLevel;
                }
                else if (UONGame.Instance.PlayTime.TotalTime.TotalSeconds > m_nextUpdatePassiveHeatTime)
                {
                    m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].PassiveOperatingHeat = actualPassiveHeatLevel + (((float)UONGame.Instance.Random.NextDouble() * 20.0f) - 10.0f);
                }

                if (m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Heat > m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].PassiveOperatingHeat)
                {
                    float excessHeat = m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Heat - m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Template.HeatsinkCapacity;
                    if (excessHeat > 0.0f)
                    {
                        m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Instability += (excessHeat * m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Template.OverheatToInstabilityRate);
                        m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Heat -= excessHeat;
                    }

                    m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Heat -= ((m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Template.HeatDissipationAmountPerSecond * 0.5f) + (m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Template.HeatDissipationAmountPerSecond * 0.5f * (m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].PercentageIntegrity / 100))) * deltaTime;
                }

                if (m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Heat < m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].PassiveOperatingHeat)
                {
                    m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Heat = Math.Min(m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].Heat + (4.0f * deltaTime), m_equipmentComponent[systemIndex].PassiveOperatingHeat); // Add heat up to the current PassiveOperatingHeat, 4.0f is just a sample number
                }

                if (UONGame.Instance.PlayTime.TotalTime.TotalSeconds > m_nextUpdatePassiveHeatTime)
                {
                    m_nextUpdatePassiveHeatTime = (float)UONGame.Instance.PlayTime.TotalTime.TotalSeconds + 0.75f + ((float)UONGame.Instance.Random.NextDouble() * 0.75f);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

To use this code, all that is required is setting the class name StandardSpaceshipExtension in the SpaceshipExtensionCodePath entry on the spaceship config file:

Code: [Select]

/* UNION Spaceship Template v0.01a */
{
"Key": "Albatross",
"IsEnabled": true,
"Data": {
"TypeKey": "Spaceship",
"FactionKey": "UNION",
"IsPlayerSelectable": true,
"ClassType": "Frigate",
"EntityPath": "UNIONBase/Entity/Albatross",
"SpaceshipExtensionCodePath": "UNIONBase/Code/StandardSpaceshipExtension"
        }
}

Now that the modding API has been completed I will, over time, be moving a lot of code out of the compiled game and into the base mod. Anyone can then modify the code and put it into their own mods.


Thanks for reading!

Mark

12

Development & Discussion / [Progress - 21st February] Engineering Design Updates

« on: February 21, 2017, 05:35:44 AM »

Hey all,

My work on the Engineering UI, specifically Technicians at the moment, continues. That work is not ready to show in action, yet. However as I have been working on the UI I have also had some ideas on how to improve it, not just visually but also as a user experience.

Part of that work was recoloring the UI (as shown in my previous post), making click-able/interactive elements brighter and more pronounced with consistent colors.

I have built on to that by adding a small detail to each button in the UI. I think this detail, a small cut out triangle on the top right of each button, helps to highlight the buttons on the UI. And I hope it looks nice too. 😊

I also updated the power nodes on the power wheel to be consistent with the other interactive elements.

As always your feedback is appreciated.




Thanks for reading!

Mark

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Development & Discussion / [Progress - 14th February] Engineering Recolor

« on: February 14, 2017, 01:39:14 PM »

Hey all,

I've been working, and making great progress, on the Technicians.

However the more I worked with the UI the more I wanted some more vibrancy in the colours.

I went back to the colour palette and did a few things:
I changed the red to match better.
I re-introduced green (which is complementary to the red).
I added more blues (removed the grays) to the UI, brightening things fairly significantly.
Tweaked what colours some elements use, especially the ship armor status (green to red now).

Here it is, I would love to hear what you think (click to view in full size):


Some elements of the UI are still a work in progress, and so are blank in this pic.

Thanks for reading!

- Mark

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Development & Discussion / [Progress - 10th February] Technician Portraits

« on: February 10, 2017, 01:32:59 PM »

Hey all,

First off I'd like a share a little news, Universe or Nothing will be showcased by two separate companies at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The two companies are Xenko, the 3D engine we use, and Noesis, our GUI framework. Both are very impressed by how UoN is shaping up.

I've been doing some polishing to the UIs and such for that showcase, but I've also been working on the Technicians system and UI. Part of that means getting rid of the old Technician portraits, which were just placeholders.

Here are the first four portraits:

They are modelled and rendered in 3D, and then converted to vectors for use in the UI.

Let me know what you think.

You will be able to replace portraits, and/or create your own Technicians, using the mod system.

I hope to have some footage of the basic Technician system fairly soon.


Thanks for reading!

Mark

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Development & Discussion / [Progress - 06th February] Engineering UI (With Video)

« on: February 06, 2017, 08:41:15 PM »

Hey all,


I've been working on the systems in the game for the past few months. There's still plenty to do there, but I decided to take a break from it to work on implementing the Engineering UI.

I feel like I've made enough progress on it to warrant showing a video.
View the video on YouTube

At the moment I am focusing on functionality. Though I am happy that it looks nice, there will be a lot of animation work (transitions, feedback) to add before release.

Technicians are not implemented in the UI yet, I am working on those next.

Let me know what you think.


Thanks for reading!

Mark