Primeval News

September Update

Hello, my health still hasn't gotten much better so I wasn't able to do much with Primeval development this month. I was able to get a little done though.

Now available is a more realistic looking lighting/sky/weather system.

August Update

Hello, I'd like to first give a brief update on what's been going on and why its been taking so long to get updates released this last two months. I've been having some health problems and its been keeping me from using the computer much, so i haven't been able to get much done. My health is getting a little bit better sometimes so I've been able to make a little progress with the update and have decided to release it before the dinosaur/critter functionality is complete, that way people on the main branch of the game can get these updates without having to wait an excessive amount of time to get them because there are a few fixes in there as well.

Critters have been added to the game. They are a lightweight version of creatures but do not need to process nearly as much as a normal creature, so more of them can be in the area around the player without causing much performance loss.
The first critters that have been added to the game are aquatic, 4 different species of fish to help liven up the ocean and lakes.
All AI creatures have been converted into critters at runtime to allow a lot more of them to be in the game and in view of the camera.
More work will be done with critters to get them to eat, sit, sleep, idle, and form packs.
The iguanodon now has a new model, 6 new skin textures, and new animations.
Added a new velociraptor model, textures, and animations, and changed the previous velociraptor into the the deinonychus species.
Creature now get loaded into view depending on their size and distance from the camera, so smaller creatures are only loaded closer to the camera where as larger creatures can be loaded further away from the camera. This improves game performance.
More adjustments have been made to the Savage Lands map and its plants and biomes.
All ground textures on the Savage Lands map have been replaced with new, higher-quality textures.
The big Pangaea map stopped working and won't load so its getting disabled until I can fix it so players don't get stuck trying to load it.
Your previously "huge" creatures, after Elder size 1.1 have been restored, and unlimited growth now shows on your creatures at 100% instead of 5%. I thought about this subject more and decided its a good thing that can keep players enjoying the game after reaching elder status, and if players want to bring their huge creatures into a multiplayer game (when multiplayer goes live), that's fine too. Groups of players could potentially have to form to take down an extremely large and dangerous player. Growth does slow down after reaching elder status, and it slows down to 1% of its normal rate passively and from eating. Lets try this rate for a little while and see how long it takes you to grow to massive proportions. If it takes too long to get much bigger I'll tune that number higher and we can try that. I may have to get more advanced with this rate, and maybe make it scale based on your size, so the bigger you get the lower this rate goes, but that's up for testing if this doesn't work.
Elder creatures now have faster movement after growing past their initial elder growth size of 1.1.
The player will no longer get stuck on rocks while swimming underwater.
Seashells have been added as decoration to the beaches and underwater.
Grass has been added as decoration in the ocean, lakes, and streams.
Flying creatures can once again fly.
Fixed a glitch where the evolution window wasn't working properly.
Fixed a glitch where aquatic AI creatures were not spawning.

July Update

Converted the game from the High Definition Rendering Pipleline (HDRP) to the Universal Rendering Pipeline (URP) to improve performance. In some cases the FPS went from 50 to 100+. The game's memory usage went up slightly due to losing a memory-saving HDRP feature.
The player can now randomize their creature's skin colors at the creature creation screen. More work will be done to expand this system in the near future.
The player can randomize their creature's skin colors during gameplay by going to the Tab key menu, and then going to Stats tab, and then clicking the "Shed Skin" button. This costs 1 evolution point every time you shed your skin. Shedding your entire skin is spread out over 5 minutes.
Creatures now use object pooling to reuse creatures instead of destroying them. This should reduce some lag spikes during gameplay but uses a little more memory.
Converted 3D grass into 2D grass billboards to improve performance.
Some trees in the Savage Lands map have been swapped for different trees that are better for performance.
The rocks in the Savage Lands map have been replaced with higher quality models/textures.
Tylosaurus now has a much tighter head turning range.
Added minor biomes to the Savage Lands map, "Dirt", "Rocky", and "Leaves".
Added a stream of water to the Savage Lands map. Tech test. More to be added soon.
Recreated the player character controller to be able to collide with trees, rocks, and other decorations. Jumping has been temporarily disabled due to this change.
Bugs now have less health and do less damage.
The player can now move their creature with the Arrow Keys instead of the WASD keys if they choose. WASD movement keys still work.
Made some various optimizations to the creature code.
Fixed a glitch where creatures swimming in the ocean would teleport above the water, and fall down toward the water but not reach it, and then would repeat this process. This should now result in seeing more aquatic creatures.
Fixed a glitch where swimming creatures could go underneath the terrain and disappear. This should now result in seeing more aquatic creatures.
Fixed a glitch where swimming creatures would get caught on the surface of the water while swimming forward, resulting in a swim+stop repeatable loop.
Fixed a glitch where creatures entering the water would get stuck.
Fixed a glitch where creatures coming out of the water would get stuck.
Fixed a glitch where swimming creatures were getting stuck in their land-based animations after touching the terrain.
Fixed a glitch where some creatures' hunger and thirst were getting stuck as "Not A Number" and would appear to be starving.
Fixed a glitch with smelling that caused it to not work.
Fixed a glitch where the player couldn't damage the AI.
Fixed a glitch where creature AI would get stuck in place and would not be able to move.
Fixed various errors.

Ground Texture Update

Updated the ground textures in the Savage Lands map to be much higher quality.

New Physically-Based Lighting System

The lighting/sky/weather system has been replaced with a new one that uses physically-based lighting instead of the old cartoony lighting style. The result is more realistic looking ground textures, environments, and creatures.