Over the past week, the Depths of Erendorn team has made significant progress across various areas. The 3D modelling team completed a new bird of prey variant resembling a Golden Eagle with detailed, deep brown colours. The set piece design team finalised high-poly models for the quest notice board set and improved the bricks material from the forge. The client team added player logout functionality, refined the Session Clearing workflow, implemented the new Settlement into the world map, resolved XP bar issues, and started developing new UI features and camera movement upgrades. The server team advanced the new login and population management systems, integrated a queue mechanism, and improved open-world code stability. Meanwhile, the animation team added new abilities with unique audio cues, enhancing gameplay clarity and immersion. As always, join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn. Alternatively, join our Discord for all the latest! - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
Over the past week, the 3D modelling team at Depths of Erendorn has made significant progress by completing another variation of the bird model. Building on the textured bird from the previous week, the team has created a new bird of prey resembling the Golden Eagle from our own world. This variant features deep brown colours extending from the beak across the body, enhancing its realism and visual appeal. Examples of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
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Set Piece Design
Over the past week, the set piece design team at Depths of Erendorn has made significant strides in their work. They completed the high-poly models for the quest notice board set, an important element that will inform players about events occurring in the wider world. Additionally, adjustments were made to the bricks material from the forge to enhance its appearance. The team has now begun the remaining steps to finalise the quest notice board set, which includes creating low-poly versions, UV mapping, baking textures, and applying the final textures. This progress brings the quest notice board set closer to being a fully integrated asset within the game.
Programming
Client
Over the past week, the client team at Depths of Erendorn has focused on several key areas. The ability for players to log out in any situation has been added, resulting in a refinement of the Session Clearing workflow to ensure no memory is lost in the process. The team also implemented the new Settlement into the world map, ensuring all files are accounted for. Additionally, significant time was spent testing and revising the XP bar functions after issues with real-time updates were identified during previous testing. Following the resolution of these issues, the team moved on to implementing UI features for levelling up and began plotting the early stages of upgrading camera movement. These efforts aim to enhance the overall player experience and ensure the game's systems function smoothly. Additional work from the client side team can be seen below.
- Added clear functions for a number of classes to allow them to be correctly unloaded when logging out.
- Worked through the unloading requirements for logging out before and after a character is loaded.
- Helped to fix a number of map issues preventing the new settlement appearing for all team members.
Server
Over the past week, the server team at Depths of Erendorn focused on continuing the development of the new login and population management systems. This included writing code for the queue mechanism, linking it with the login API, and managing player assignments and server resources with regard to reserving player slots. The servers now store their populations in the cache, allowing for near real-time updates of server information. Additionally, the team continued cleaning up portions of the open-world code, resolving issues with NavEdits and addressing an edge case that caused crashes due to an impossible Z-axis value. These improvements enhance server stability and ensure a smoother player experience.
Sound Design
Over the past week, the animation team at Depths of Erendorn has continued developing and integrating several new abilities into the engine. The abilities Deep Wound, Animated Sword, Embers, and Attack of Pursuit have all been added, each accompanied by unique sounds created from primary resources collected during various recording sessions. These distinct audio cues ensure that each ability can be easily identified during the heat of battle, enhancing the gameplay experience. Examples of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
Animation
Over the past week, the animation team at Depths of Erendorn has made substantial progress on several fronts. For the Revenant, the team completed the basic implementation in the engine, setting up animation blends, and creating both the Animation Blueprint and Character Blueprint. Similarly, the Centaur saw significant development, with the completion of its basic implementation, including animation blends, AnimBP, and CharacterBP. Additionally, the team created and integrated an AnimBP for the Centaur's tail, ensuring synchronised animations between the tail and body within the CharacterBP. Updates on the bird rig and animations also continued, further enhancing the game's diverse array of creatures. Examples of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of April yet?!
