Chernobylite Complete Edition News

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
Winter has come and is holding on. The climate gave way to us, so we’re trying to suggest to the team to add the snowman-building option to Chernobylite - from mud? From metal? From stones? Sky's the limit!.

Of course, we reckon with the fact that nothing will come out of it. As you know we’re currently not adding new stuff to the game, but we’re mainly focusing on polishing what is already in it. This means more or less that we are in the final phase. Plus, don't forget that we’re also preparing console versions.

A lot of work is still ahead of us, but it’s always getting us closer and closer. We hope you’ll enjoy this report thanks to which you will, traditionally, learn more about Chernobylite. By the way, at the end of it, we included a specific material about something you’ve been asking for a long time*.

Enjoy!
* no, it's not about "The Heist"

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/3043838585268106022

[h3]Looking through the surface of the water[/h3]
Speaking of the polishing mentioned at the beginning, let’s have a look at the water. For a long time we have been trying to reproduce the outside world in the Chernobylite as faithfully as possible. That's why we were a bit bothered that the water in the game was too ... cloudy.

It’s not that the water in Chernobyl is or isn’t of top quality - we didn't drink it or bathe in it, so we don't know that. It’s more about the fact that the water reflection effect did not fully meet our aesthetic expectations. It’s definitely too dark, and the water looked artificial in some places. In order to fix this, we've made some tricks in our editor thanks to which the reflections work smoothier, use less resources and, what’s important, reacts with light better.

You can see the effect on an example from Pripyat Port. Here's the water before the changes:



And here is the water after the changes:



[h3]How is a hatch made?[/h3]
Let's stay with the graphics. While improving collisions to map objects so that the game would work more optimally and take up less memory space, we found a few things that are worth showing to future 3D graphic designers.

This example was taken from working on a metal hatch. You can see in the picture below that it all starts with assembling the model. Maybe you can see some similarities to a game from childhood, when you cut out paper into certain shapes and assembled into a specific object (remember those sticky fingers thanks to a cheap glue?).



And here you can see the texture work. Note the differences in the appearance of the hatch before and after putting it into the game engine.



[h3]Achievements![/h3]
Traditionally, we fight with the significant bugs - the ones you ‘ve reported on Steam and on Discord. Thank you all for your support!

We don’t forget about small novelties that are to make the game more enjoyable. At this point, it’s worth informing that we’re finishing the work on the quick save prototype and we're also working on something nice for trophy hunters - the achievement system. :)



Of course, the picture for this achievement will change. We'll try to make sure it doesn't end up looking like the picture below.



[h3]Hear your stalker (all over again)[/h3]
We've been flooded with suggestions for some time now to fix this and that. A lot of these voices are about… well, voices.

You've talked about how they are a bit unnatural, stiff, maybe a bit superfluous and indistinct in places. The fact is, not all of the characters' voices sound as if we want them to. So we decided to re-record ALL lines. And not only that - we've also improved every line of dialogues in the game. The effect is satisfying... as you can see for yourself.

We’ve recently posted a video on our social media with a gameplay piece from a version of the game that is not yet available to you (but will be soon!). This way, we were able to show you how the characters' new, re-recorded lines sound like. You may notice that not only do the characters sound different, but they have also some lines changed in order to make things feel more natural.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Under normal circumstances, we would record voice-overs in a studio, as we did with Get Even. However, due to the pandemic it would be difficult and complicated to organize. So we decided to record online via Google Hangouts. Wojciech Rutkowski reveals the secrets of working in new conditions. - Our writer Łukasz was at each recording session and was responsible for leading the actors during the sessions. We recorded all dialogues between the main characters and Igor with two actors at once, so that the interactions between them in the dialogue sound natural. The actors recorded their lines in their home studios with professional microphones.

In our opinion, it turned out great! Let us know what you think!

By the way - you can see a new indicator on the linked video, which shows the direction from which the player is visible to the opponents. We wrote about him in one of the previous reports. We tried to make it more noticeable, but not too invasive at the same time.



[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

Since the Kickstarter campaign and the Early Access premiere in 2019, we’ve been constantly and openly showing you our work progress by updating the game (Mega Patches), by patching it (fixes, minor updates), by Weekly Reports and daily publications on our social media channels. The time has come to share something that deserves special attention.
[h3]We’ve got two important pieces of news for you.[/h3]
Both are good, but some of you may have expected a bit of other information.

The first news is that despite the pandemics hitting the world pretty hard, we were developing the game right on the schedule (remember Roadmap?). But then again, we will have to wait for the final PC version until Q2 2021.

Why is that good news? Our plans have grown bigger. We have decided to hold the premiere and not to focus on delivering additional content AFTER the premiere - and the most crucial reason behind this decision is to be able to translate the game into more languages than we’ve previously promised. Thanks to cooperation with our publisher, All in! Games, the Chernobylite plot and interface will be additionally translated professionally into Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese. Besides that, all language versions were fully rewritten and polished (stylistics mostly). As for the voiceovers (English & Russian) - we’re re-recording them from scratch in a professional studio with professional voice actors.
Thanks to that, the overall experience coming from the game should become incomparably more exciting and immersive. Unfortunately, due to how big the game is (Chernobylite has multiple times more plot text lines than any of our previous titles), the process of adding and testing new translations is time-consuming and that’s the reason we won’t be able to finish and polish it in Q1 2021.
[h3]The second good news[/h3]
is that most of the team, which doesn’t take part in the translation “business,” will not sit idle and wait. We’ve promised you that Chernobylite will have our constant support and development, even after we leave Early Access, and we’re going to prove it again.

Moving premiere to Q2 2021, simultaneously, we’re creating new content and gameplay elements that previously were supposed to be published as DLCs. This means that the final version of Chernobylite will be bigger and filled with new content, which will enrich the experience and make playing it even more pleasurable. Among these additions, you’ll find a new location, new weapons, new enemies, extended cooperation with other in-game characters and tons of fixes in the existing mechanics and tools.

All of you who bought our game in Early Access or supported us during the Kickstarter campaign will get that new content completely free of charge and as a part of standard Chernobylite updates. The nearest MegaPatch will appear as planned (winter). Still, after it you can expect at least one additional content extension before the premiere - not to mention regular fixes and updates, which will appear whenever needed.

We’d also like to remind you that the console version of Chernobylite is under heavy development and it should be finished in the following months. The PC version premiere, which will be close to the console versions premiere, will not only allow us to make more buzz around Chernobylite and reach out to players that didn’t yet come across our game but also to continue the development of the project as after-the-premiere support (more DLCs and MegaPatches in the months following the premieres).
[h3]Soon we’ll be able to share the date of the premiere and we won’t hesitate to do that as soon as we can![/h3]
At the very end, we’d like to really thank you all for your support - we hear many kind words from you. We believe that you’ll understand the decision. Its goal is to provide our game with the best development possible.

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
Winter surprised us a lot this year. It was snowing (at least in Poland and few other countries). In mid-January! Who would have thought? ;)

Anyway, we sit in warm houses in comfortable slippers, with cups of cocoa in hand and pamper Chernobylite. As usual, you can read about the recent effects of our work in this report.

[h3]Fog and rain are our weapons[/h3]
And since we talk about the weather, briefly one of the coolest solutions that will appear in the game. When you’re on any map, if there's fog, AI will see much less - meaning they’ll have a harder time noticing you. Downside? You’ll have a harder time spotting them too.

And the sound is also important while trying to find unexpected guests - if there’s rain, AI will be less aware about all the noises around. So we can say they will “hear” less things, like steps or even shooting (depending on the distance).

We want the game world to have an even greater impact on the player - that’s why we are tweaking the system. Also, it would be unfair (and not very realistic) if the opponent could boast of a falcon eye during the very limited visibility. You know, it’s not a strategy game with Fog of War which covers the map only for non-AI players.

[h3]Time has frozen on the pictures[/h3]
Now that we're having such nice views, let's show you a trick. If we take three-dimensional models and transform them into two-dimensional textures, and then frame them in appropriate frames, we get some pretty cool photos. They almost resemble those taken out of a camera film.



[h3]Vanishing chernohosts[/h3]
The last major update of the Unreal Engine was a godsend for us and a great opportunity to fix this and that. For example, one of the annoyances of life was a bug causing the engine to crash when we wanted to change the name of one object in the editor. Imagine if you decided to change your dog's name, and it suddenly explodes. Annoying...

Looking at this from the player's side, we also made some adjustments. These include adding missing textures to your notes, fixing the never-ending growls after killing Borderers and Chernohosts, and fixing a bug where exploratory music was not triggering in some events. In fact, we're reworking the ENTIRE sound system in the game. We hope to show off the results soon.

Another bug was very scary, but fortunately it has been already fixed - after exiting the portal Chernohosts sometimes began to disappear, starting from the bottom! This error only occurred if Chernohost did not notice the player when exiting the portal.



Why was this happening? From the technical side, it looked like this: when exiting the portal, Chernohost gets information about the location of the portal and which direction its front is facing. Then, with the help of this information, we were able to make the part of the Chernohost behind the portal in the opposite direction to its front, transparent. This helps in "selling" the player the impression that chernohost is really exiting the portal.



The bug has been fixed and it also fixes another one - when the portal is in the building on the upper floor and the player is below it, he won't see the legs suddenly appearing from the ceiling when the monster above it exits the portal. Which was a little bit creepy too.

[h3]More green[/h3]
We also have something for the fans of the bush shown last week, as well as the rest of the vegetation in Chernobylite. We have updated our plant documentation so that Chernobylite maps can boast even more flora diversity.



[h3]Thermovision, scanners and other goodies[/h3]
Ok, now something extra for the fans of military technicalities and future (hopefully) game developers. We have added a few novelties to the game and we’ll gladly explain the functions of them and show you how the work on their creation has proceeded.

Thermovision
Thermovision was already a bit cluttered with the last mega-patch. Places where you can find weapons (which already have modifications) have been added to the game. However, some of you may have gotten into the situation where your gun had a thermal imager installed which hit the game prematurely and didn't work. Oops.

We are currently working on a solution to make the new toy distinguish enemies from the environment.



Rafał Ściblak, our junior technical and fx artist, will tell you more about it: - There is a special function in the Unreal Engine called the CustomDepth buffer to which you can assign objects. They are then rendered in a special image that includes only those objects that have been tagged. Thanks to this, it is easy to distinguish objects that interest us from the rest of the scene. Underneath is the CustomDepth buffer visualization. This buffer also contains information about the pixel depth of the object (which we will mention in a moment). The closer to the pixel the camera is, the whiter it gets.



The only thing left to do in the material is to "paint" the objects in this buffer in some color, for example yellow, and the rest of the scene with gray. Finally, add the terracture of the sight and voila - the thermal imaging effect is practically ready. Magic!

Scanner and translucent eyes/object elements
You will come across various improvements in the game, like scanners. One of them is detecting enemies through walls.

Again, Rafał will explain how they work: - To make this possible, a special material had to be created that would bypass the occlusion test in the motor. The occlusion test is used to check if an object is obstructed by another. The invisible part is then not rendered.

However, this introduces a small error, as seen in the image below - you can see soldier's eyeballs and all vertices that would not normally be displayed.



How to deal with this? The CustomDepth buffer comes to the rescue again. - This time the information about the pixel depth of the object was used. In this way, we can compare the depth of the currently visible pixel with the depth of the soldier's pixel - explains Rafał. If the soldier's pixel is deeper than the currently visible pixel, its visibility in the material is set to zero. This is how we created our own occlusion test. Problem solved!



[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
Welcome to the new (and hopefully much better) 2021! Refreshed? Full? Ready for new challenges? We certainly do! Immediately after returning from a well-deserved rest, we went to work at full speed. This year will be especially important for us with the upcoming game premiere, so keep your fingers crossed for us!, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Although we must admit that even during the holidays, not everyone was idle - we used the break to update the Unreal Engine to the latest version 4.26. Thanks to this, the game will work better on PC, and it will also be possible to release it on new generation consoles with raytracing and not only!

In the meantime, we invite you to share some information about what we were working on before we fell into holiday lethargy.

[h3]What's ringing there?[/h3]
Of course, as usual, there are fixes for the major and minor bugs you caught. However, something invisible is worth mentioning at the beginning too. You can’t see it, but you can definitely hear it. Yes, the in-game sound design fixes are incoming!

We have slightly improved the system of additional sounds of the main character's steps - now you can determine the probability of hearing these sounds for each type of surface on which Igor moves (e.g. branches breaking when he walks on a grass, or a piece of glass on a concrete pavement). We are also testing the sounds of walking on various types of rubbish inside buildings. Igor will be much more likely to hit trash/glass/paper along the way.

On top of that, we've also worked a bit on the system that suits Igor's breathing sounds best suited to him, as well as fine-tuning Igor's responses in the Moscow Eye and Red Forest events. We've also added missing sound effects to fill each event action. Plus, we've included the sounds of rain dripping in puddles.

All this will make the experience coming from the Zone even better (especially with headphones).

[h3]The Heist![/h3]
You often ask us if we will ever post anything related to The Heist - the last mission in the game that will make it all clear!

Seems that any news about The Heist would be currently much more interesting for you than the Chernobylite release date itself! You are so into your early access game that you want to know the finale as soon as possible. It's amazing and we love how much you feel connected with the story! It is also a sign that you liked the game a lot and want more. It makes us more than just happy.

Well, that day has finally come. It is finally time to answer this most pressing question. It's time to give you a little but long-awaited sneak peek from The Heist.

Are you ready?

Here it is!



Ladies and gentlemen, here is a bush. The bush you'll see in The Heist.

Of course, it’s a joke. Sorry for being so cold-blooded and savage with our “readbait”. But believe us, if a higher instance gave us the green light, we would show you much more. However, we agreed on that, we want to provide you with a fully developed end product and at the same time protect you from spoilers.

Give us time and you will not be disappointed. Meanwhile, we collect materials and wait for the aforementioned green light.

But in order not to leave you with anything, in the picture below you can see how we worked on such a detail as hair. With this little trick, we make them look more realistic than before.



Here is another thing worth mentioning. See what tangle of connections we have to go through in the editor so that the hair on the head and on the chin behaves naturally. At the same time, we must take care of their optimization so that the movement of even one little hair will not "crash" the game.



[h3]How to hear Chernobyl?[/h3]
It is no coincidence that the beginning of the report is devoted to the accompanying sounds in the game. Why? Because today we want to introduce you to a man thanks to whom you can "hear" Chernobyl.

Adam Dyrszka deals with the complete sound design of Chernobylite (worth emphasizing: not music! We will write about it later). - I make sure that the game world is filled with sounds everywhere. For example, in the woods trees rustle in the wind, when a soldier walks towards us we hear stomping, when it rains - drops break against windows and windowsills, if something explodes your speakers should shake the whole house. Generally speaking, I do my best to never be too quiet during the game - says Adam.

As he admits, it is quite a challenge to add audio to such mysterious places as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the Dead City. - It is easy to thicken the sound environment with chirping birds, flying planes, street noise and other human activity. However, we must remember that this place is dark, lifeless as we know it - he explains. - Apart from the supernatural phenomena characteristic of the game itself, where you can get carried away with fantasy, creating zone sounds takes hours of searching for references, listening to authentic recordings on the spot and then time-consuming testing plus correction. Honestly, looking at the end result I am quite surprised that we managed to get such a varied and interesting background based mainly on the noise of wind, leaves and various crackles - he adds.

The question is how are the sounds for Chernobylite designed? Well, first of all, you must be aware that when designing all kinds of sound effects, we try to create unique content, unique for this project. What does it mean? Where possible, we try to record our own sounds. It is especially important to create your own library of sounds for the characteristic elements of the project - says Adam. - It is best to show it on the example of the title green crystals and any anomalies associated with them. In the game, they make a high-pitched, sometimes squeaky glass noise. I needed something one-of-a-kind, so I borrowed the crystal vases from my grandmother, all she had actually. And then hit them for a few hours with various objects and "played" them with a cello bow.



Another important and at the same time the most characteristic element of our game are the lines spoken by the characters wearing gas masks. In order to achieve such an effect, it was impossible (especially during a pandemic) to invite voice actors to put on masks and speak through them into the microphone. This had to be approached differently. - Our solution was to create a proprietary effect using bandpass filtering. For this purpose, I used several different gas masks and a small speaker from the computer set. I "dressed" this loudspeaker in masks, and then generated a specific sound impulse that I caught with microphones. After running such a recording through the appropriate software, I got a database of some extremely realistic effects that are applied to the dialogues in real time inside the game - explains Adam.



Adam admits directly that recording and creating unique sounds is a great fun and gives a lot of scope to show off. However, not all sound effects can be achieved on their own (e.g. explosions or the noises of certain vehicles), especially with the limited time for project implementation. - That's why we use extensive libraries of very high-quality sounds that allow us to create multi-layered and effective SFXs - he says.

[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
Can you smell the scent in the air? It isn’t a gunpowder smell. Also, it isn’t an unpleasant smell from the depths of the cellar. Or even the weird-ish but interesting smell of incoming dangerous adventure! It is the sweet scent of the atmosphere of the coming Christmas!

Christmas dinner with the family. Christmas tree. Presents. Eggnog. GINGERBREADS!

On this occasion, The Farm 51 team goes for a short but well-deserved rest so this Report will be the only one for the next two weeks. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, so we need to gather some strength for what awaits us in the following weeks and months. And that’s why the whole Chernobylite team is taking some days off - to be with our families, friends, significant others, rest before the intense work awaiting in 2021. Remember we are working now to finish the PC version as well as to prepare current-gen and next-gen consoles versions!

We won’t leave you with empty hands, though - although the report is more modest than the previous ones, it is filled to the brim with materials that are not available on the Internet. We hope you will like them.

Before you continue scrolling, we want to wish you everything best for Christmas and we hope you’ll spend this time happy & healthy. Also, we’d like to wish you that the upcoming year will be better than this one. Which, fortunately, will soon be behind us.

[h3]We build houses[/h3]
We know that we have 3D modelling fans among our players. You liked our sketches and designs of characters and items that we throw into the world of Chernobylite. That is why we decided to show you other, much more interesting samples of our works.

Let's start decorating your home. Literally. In the photos below you can see how an ordinary block transforms into a dingy building from which plaster and paint are falling off.



In the next photos, you can see the end result - in the end, we managed to adjust the facade of the building to equally damaged rooms. In this case: the room and the kitchen.



[h3]Working on geometry to the belt[/h3]
This slogan may not sound encouraging, but believe us, this kind of small thing has a significant impact on the reception of the entire work. Plus, contrary to appearances, it is extremely laborious. You can see the effects of these works below.



To prove that "sculpting" such an object takes a lot of time, we attach the following photo showing the belt after disassembling it, like a cutout for children. The next step is to smooth the object to give it more realistic shapes.



The next step is texturing and viola! The belt looks as it should. The coat shown in the photo was created in a similar way.



[h3]Structure of the Borderer[/h3]
We move from object to character. More specifically to the mighty Borderer. As you can see, all the fun with it begins with the basics, i.e. drawing a bare (from the technical side, but also literally in this case) silhouette.



As you can see, we took care of even the smallest details.

Even. The. Smallest.



A few “tweaks” had to be added. Effect? Frightening.



[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Once again: happy holidays, Stalkers!