Last week has been a busy one for the team as the artists get to a finalised model for the Zentragal rework while the set design team continue the work of props. The sound team are out and about again collecting and editing new sounds for some ominous atmospheric audio! Our VFX team has continued working on a range of new abilities, focusing this week on the Druid character class. Finally, our animation team has continued their work on the Small Ogre monster model, creating new animations such as attack and idle cycles! As always, join us on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
The 3D modelling team have had an exciting week as the sculpt for the Zentragal character model has been finalised. Now this is complete, we get a final look at what the Zentragal character will look like once it is in the engine. Next in the pipeline, once textured, will be for the finalised model to be animated and completing any final prep to get the model ready for the engine.
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Taking the high poly model, from the sculpting software, our artist has baked the mesh onto a low poly model. This process, known as "Baking", will give the appearance that the high poly model is the one being used in the game but will be an imitation of the high poly baked onto the low poly model. Through this process, a height map will be created. This is very similar to a texture map which is used for colour as it will have all the detail of the higher sculpt that can be applied to the low poly mesh. In doing this, the model will appear to have all the intricate detail that the artists have worked weeks on but will be much less resource-intensive.
Set Piece Design
As in previous development logs, the Set Piece Design team continue with making props that will populate the dwellings of Erendorn. This week the team has focused on some more blocky items such as crates and footstools that can be seen below! The artists have brought some amazing detail into these props from the small rivet heads on the reinforced chest and the details in the legs of the basin. These details will be crucial to storytelling within Erendorn, keeping each building fresh and unique for players that may be exploring them. These new props can be seen below!
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Programming
Client
Last week the team spent a lot of time updating the login process as well as adding countless effects of player movements in the World Session and the Movement Manager. A breakdown of the work done from the Client-side team can be seen below!
- Updated the method for connecting to the World Session to allow players with already selected characters to join without forcing character selection.
- Created World Movement Steppers to handle World Movement Server logs, players can now see the results of any other connected player's movements in the World.
- Updated how Step Logs reference their parent Session or Combat.
Server
With the server now mostly bug free, the server team have been working on cleaning up some older, messier code that we just haven't had the time to up until now. The code calculating when the next entity/team's turn is finished has been completely rewritten. Turn skipping when stunned has been cleaned up and concentrated into one place, and an experimental change to having Movement and casting spells cost a small amount of energy has been implemented. Some of the other work completed by the server side team can be seen below.
- Crashes caused from new movement code.
- Crashes in importing zone nav data.
- Crashes when a settlement is reacting to an 'ExpectPlayer' notification from another server.
- Fixed some logging on 'WorldLeave' commands.
- Fixed a crash on connection drops.
Sound Design
The sound design team have been out in the wilderness again this week, collecting sounds to be used as effects in the game. This week the team has taken some of the audio created from chopping woodblocks. These sounds have then been edited to create eerie and suspenseful audio that will keep players on their toes as they travel through the more spine-chilling areas of Erendorn.
The sound team have also been working with the VFX team to create some more audio for visual effects, tackling the ability effects for the Earthen Dwarf character class. These audio clips are currently work in progress sounds, they will be reworked and polished next week when the sound team are back to civilisation! These sounds and visual effects can be seen in the video below!
Animation
The animation team have continued their work with the ogre model this week, focusing on some attack cycles, stunned animations and idle animations. These animations, although they are works in progress, do a fantastic job at conveying the size and power of the creature that will inhabit the world of Erendorn. Over the next week, the team will look at polishing these animations and then move on to working on the finalised Zentragal model. All of these work in progress animations can be seen below!
Visual Effects
Last week, the visual effects team have continued their work on the extensive list of abilities. The team focused on a range of abilities that will be used by the Druid character class. These abilities include Wind Blast, Lifemend, Dampening Shield and Toxify. Taking a stereotypical look at a Druid's spells the visual effects team have used earthy and bright colours to convey the Druids class connection with nature and the natural light of the world. These new visual effects can be seen in the video under this text.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of March yet?!
