Development Update #5
[h2]First steps towards gamepad support[/h2]
We have been working hard on reimplementing the whole "input layer" in order to support different control methods. For the time being, the game is only playable using mouse and keyboard, but all this work will be the foundation to be able to add gamepad support in the future. And, well, if things go well and we decide to do a Switch version of the game... This foundation will come in handy!
You can see a quick test we've made to allow players to control the camera movement using a gamepad here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Star scores[/h2]
Thanks to some changes to the "end of day" report, players will now have a more accurate idea on how well their power company is performing. A 1 to 5 stars rating will be given for each category, in order to help players identify possible problems with their electrical infrastructure.
[h2]New buildings[/h2]
We've also added a couple of new buildings to the game: a redesigned petrol station and a new variant for the high rise apartment buildings. In addition, we've also created lightmaps for every single building in the game, providing more realistic lighting effects at night.
[h2]Performance improvements[/h2]
After lots of time spent profiling our code, we have identified a couple of issues in the way that the power grid was being simulated. When there are many large cities in a map with tons of power lines and power plants, performance used to decrease significantly. We still have some work to do, but we're in a much better position than before! Under some specific circumstances frame rates have increased by 200%!
We have been working hard on reimplementing the whole "input layer" in order to support different control methods. For the time being, the game is only playable using mouse and keyboard, but all this work will be the foundation to be able to add gamepad support in the future. And, well, if things go well and we decide to do a Switch version of the game... This foundation will come in handy!
You can see a quick test we've made to allow players to control the camera movement using a gamepad here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Star scores[/h2]
Thanks to some changes to the "end of day" report, players will now have a more accurate idea on how well their power company is performing. A 1 to 5 stars rating will be given for each category, in order to help players identify possible problems with their electrical infrastructure.
[h2]New buildings[/h2]
We've also added a couple of new buildings to the game: a redesigned petrol station and a new variant for the high rise apartment buildings. In addition, we've also created lightmaps for every single building in the game, providing more realistic lighting effects at night.
[h2]Performance improvements[/h2]
After lots of time spent profiling our code, we have identified a couple of issues in the way that the power grid was being simulated. When there are many large cities in a map with tons of power lines and power plants, performance used to decrease significantly. We still have some work to do, but we're in a much better position than before! Under some specific circumstances frame rates have increased by 200%!