Primeval News

[evolution] Download Branch Update

[p]The player's creature now continues looking towards where their camera is looking while attacking.[/p]
[p]Now the player's attacks are aimed in the direction their creature's head is facing when the attack happens.[/p]
[p]The player's creature can now look and turn their head up to a 90 degree angle, up from a 45 degree angle.[/p]
[p]The spine animator for all creatures has been removed because it was distorting their feet.[/p]
[p]Sprinting now starts at a faster acceleration rate.[/p]
[p]Sprinting now accelerates faster.[/p]
[p]Running now accelerates faster.[/p]
[p]More work has been done to the Prairie and Deciduous Forest biomes.[/p]

New [evolution] Download Branch

[h3]Download Branch: \[evolution] now available![/h3]

[p]The newest version of the game is only going to be available on the new \[evolution] download branch. This version will receive future updates and the other download branches will no longer be updated but are being kept around so players with less powerful computers can still play the game. This version of the game uses between 16 and 32gb of ram. This number may be lowered in future updates.[/p][p][/p]

[p]The game's vegetation has been converted from using the Vegetation Studio Pro rendering system to instead use the GPU Instancer Pro rendering system. This improved the performance of the game in a lot of areas. This new rendering system is a step between the old system and the future Nano Tech system as they both use the same terrain trees and terrain details systems. Some of the biomes have been slightly changed but are mostly the same. More biome changes may come in the future as a result of this switch. This is only available on the new \[evolution] download branch.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Download Branch: \[default][/h3]

[p]The default branch is the hdrp version from the last 1.4.0z update and it will no longer be receiving updates but will remain available until I can lower the ram usage of the main \[evolution] version.[/p]

Update 1.4.0z

[p]The main download branch is now the HDRP version of the game. This main download branch is the only one that will be receiving further updates. The Lightweight URP version of the game will no longer receive updates and will be removed when the main branch receives further optimizations when the Nano Tech tool releases.[/p]
[p]The F key is now an alternate sprint key for left-handed players.[/p]
[p]Fixed AI creatures looking like they hadn't died, when they had actually died previously. Usually when the camera got far away from a dead creature and then came back into range this would happen.[/p]
[p]Creatures now have two times more flesh on their carcass when they die. Carry capacity has been adjusted for carnivores to compensate. Swallow size has been adjusted for titanoboa to compensate.[/p]
[p]Carcasses that spawn randomly around the map have now been reduced to a 50% spawn rate to make it harder to survive.[/p]
[p]Breaching out of the water has been temporarily disabled until it can be fixed.[/p]
[p]Nightvision is now brighter closer to the player and is darker further away. It is also more black and white tinted now instead of a blusish-green tint.[/p]
[p]Ground texture import settings have had their size lowered to 2048, down from 4096, which reduced the amount of memory the game uses slightly.[/p]
[p]Ground textures have been changed to new textures and have received a quality pass with some adjustments to tiling size, brightness, and normal strength.[/p]
[p]Fixed some rendering problems with all of the cactus models.[/p]
[p]AI creatures on land once again align with the terrain or object they are standing on.[/p]
[p]Removed the functionality of finding different random types of food variants while eating, such as insect carapaces, creature flesh, fish fat, etc. All associated tasks have been removed as well. This functionality just seemed to add unnecessary difficulty to the game.[/p]
[p]Now you gain a level (and evolution point) after taking 5 bites of food, down from 100 bites of food. This should make it easier to advance and customize your creatures.[/p]
[p]Added the graphics options for Grass Distance, Plant Distance, Tree Distance, and Large Object Distance. Lowering these settings can improve performance. Raising these settings can improve visuals at the cost of performance.[/p]
[p]The player can now only walk up 70-degree slopes.[/p]
[p]Fixed some problems with the character controller. Now it should be easier to walk over small rocks.[/p]
[p]I have become aware that some of the creatures' heights are not correct so I'm correcting them to be more accurate, the following are the corrections to the adults, and smaller growth stages' scaling reflect this maximum size adjustment.[/p]
[p]Adult Tyrannosaurus Rex is now 20 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Spinosaurus is now 25.5 feet tall at the top of its sail.[/p]
[p]Adult Suchomimus is now 16.4 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Giganotosaurus is now 23 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Dilophosaurus is now 10 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Deinonychus is now 4.75 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Ceratosaurus is now 10 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Carnotaurus is now 10 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Allosaurus is now 16.5 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Albertosaurus is now 11 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Adult Acrocanthosaurus is now 15.4 feet tall.[/p]
[p]Allosaurus' skin textures are now all working properly.[/p]
[p]All creatures' skin texture smoothness has been reduced by 50%.[/p]
[p]Creature nests have a new surface texture.[/p]

HDRP Branch Update

[p]Hey everyone, after testing the URP stylized version of the game for awhile I just wanted to let you know that I think the HDRP realistic version of the game is the right way to go for this game. I think realistic graphics just fit dinosaur games a lot better and can look really amazing and the stylized version doesn't quite fit my vision for the game graphically.[/p][p][/p][p]I'm still waiting for the NanoTech asset technology to be released into its beta state so I can test it with the HDRP version of the game to see if it can improve fps more and reduce memory usage. Until I'm absolutely certain that HDRP is the only way forward I'll keep the URP version as a download branch for everyone to be able to play if they choose. I just won't be making any updates to the URP version unless for some reason the HDRP version is abandoned after NanoTech testing fails to show improvements. I just don't want to have to update two Primeval projects side by side for every fix or improvement I make to the game, that's just going to be too much work for me.[/p][p][/p][p]By default the URP version of the game will be installed for new users because it uses a lot less ram and can be played by just about anyone wanting to play the game. So if you want to play the HDRP version you'll need to switch to that download branch manually.[/p][p][/p][p]So, I updated the HDRP version of the game to the latest version of Unity 6.2 (was previously on 6.1). This version brings with it improvements and fixes and also the Mesh LOD system which automatically scales the complexity/quality of meshes (3d models) to higher or lower detailed meshes as the camera gets closer or further away which can improve the performance. I'm using this Mesh LOD technology with the all of the creatures. I also updated the upscaling technology that the game uses. DLSS/XESS2/FSR3 will be used depending on your graphics card and this can improve the fps dramatically in some cases. I saw around a 50% increase in FPS after the update and other users are reporting even higher improvements after the update.[/p][p]
Try the HDRP download branch again if you want to see if it now runs better, and if you want the latest updates for Primeval going forward![/p]

Primeval Visual Update

[p]Primeval now uses Unity's URP (Universal Rendering Pipeline).[/p][p]The game can now run on a wider range of computers.[/p][p]The game now gets between 60 to 120 fps on a broader range of computers.[/p][p]The game now uses around 5.5gb of ram (down from 8gb to 12gb).[/p][p]The game's environments now use a more stylized set of trees, plants, grasses, and ground textures to help lighten the game's workload. [/p][p](If you would like to continue playing the HDRP version of the game that has more realistic visuals it is available as a beta download branch.)[/p]