DEV BITES #02

Dev Bites - Issue Two

Welcome to our second issue of dev bites! While our last update focused heavily on improving performance and updating the appearance of the police station, this next upcoming update aims to improve elements of the User Experience (UX) as well as the inclusion of various new features thanks to an update to our game engine.

Overview

• User Experience and Quality of Life Updates
  
• Grunt vampire visual update
  
• Unreal Engine 5.3 update
  
• Performance Features
  
• Sound Updates
  
• Anti-Aliasing & DLSS 3.5
  
• Lighting Improvements
  

This upcoming update contains a significant User Interface (UI) overhaul aiming to improve the overall user experience with changes to management of the players interaction within the game world.



We are currently testing the updated inventory and journal system. These UI systems have been replaced with a much slicker digital tablet which players can use to access their items and information gathered.



The journal specifically will be receiving some improvements including general reorganization to help players access the information they need faster.




The vampire grunts have also had a visual pass, with male and female versions of the vamps. We have given them more of a terrifying look with more expression and presence in the world.



We are also concepting different behavior for them to give them more of a threatening feeling. We will see what the outcome is in the next update.


[h2]Performance Features[/h2]
With this latest update comes the opportunity to incorporate additional performance improvements. Top of our list is the inclusion of Nanite Landscapes, a rendering technique which we were unable to implement until now. The landscape (the ground outside) can be fairly expensive to render. We use nanite to minimize the GPU cost of rendering assets in the game, so being able to apply this technique to the landscape is expected to help with GPU rendering times.

In a similar vein, we have improved the performance of our corpse models whilst also improving their appearance close up. The old bodies were a little low quality when searching them, so we felt it appropriate to improve their overall appearance. The new bodies have more Levels Of Details (LODs) which help to reduce the cost of rendering bodies at distance. Additionally, the new bodies have improved materials which are also faster to render without sacrificing visual quality.


[h2]Sound Updates[/h2]
One aspect of the engine upgrade which has required some additional attention is the sound system. The under-the-hood audio system has been reworked to be compatible with the latest engine version.

Thankfully, after a few days of wrangling the system, these issues have now been resolved. The game's audio is now mostly identical to how it was in the last patch with some additional improvements along the way. For example, some of the sounds The Noble would make could be fairly confusing if he was on a floor above or below the player. Now, his sounds travel differently so that players can better understand The Noble’s location.

More sounds are now binaural. These sounds replicate sound as a real person hears them, making them sounds more immersive and easier to track.

Furthermore, we are currently experimenting with several new sounds. New heavier footstep sounds for The Noble are being trialed which are more befitting a gentleman of his size, as well as new screaming sound effects for the other adversaries.


We can now allow players to change their anti-aliasing method. Players are now welcome to mix and match their anti-aliasing settings with other settings to find a healthy balance of visual quality and performance. Please check your game options to find the setting best for you.

The latest engine upgrade also gives us access to the latest version of DLSS. DLSS 3.5 offers NVIDIA card users additional performance gains. Notably, DLSS was only available for 30-series and 40-series GPUs, but is now available on older cards too.


We have had some success in reducing some of the visual rendering artifacts happening on screen. For players able to run the game with ray-tracing enabled, new shadow ray-tracing helps provide a significantly clearer image in darker areas.

We have also taken measures to reduce the blotchy effects that the Lumen lighting system can cause in some circumstances.


We were pleased to see that optimisation had improved from the last patch. However, we are still hearing many reports of performance related issues which we are keen to address quickly. We will be continuing to improve performance as much as we can in the coming weeks.

We’re also excited to start implementing our plans for challenges and difficulty sliders. These changes are going to let players have a great deal of customizability of their games.


We just wanted to let everybody know that the Blood Eater team is going to be taking a short break over the holiday period from the 23rd December to the 2nd January. Rest assured, development will be continuing with full steam ahead from the start of the New Year.


We are currently testing the latest build internally. There is a chance we may have a new patch ready before the end of the week. Keep your eyes peeled for an update this Friday or shortly after the winter break depending on our progress. We’ll keep you up to date as the week goes on.