World of Diving News

We hope you are enjoying the recent updates to World of Diving. There were a lot of changes in the last update, and while we do our best to test all of these changes, some problems might still arise after a new build is live. This update is primarily focused on improving stability and fixing bugs.

We really appreciate all of the feedback we get from you guys. This feedback helped us a lot in identifying some of the problematic parts of the game (ex. not being able to interact with objects with your right hand while you have the tablet equipped in your left while using a Vive).

New Feature: You can now print a 3D model of your in-game character and have it shipped to your front door through our partnership with Eucl3D. These models are available in three sizes and can be ordered directly from the customization screens in the game.

The complete list of changes:
- Ray now looks at you when you are close to him
- You can now interact with objects with your right hand while the tablet is equipped in your left on the Vive
- You now run faster on land
- Air no longer depletes while the tablet is opened (except for the photo camera view)
- Improved performance so all areas are now rendering at 90 FPS on VR on an Oculus minimum spec PC
- Created a new quality level 'VR minimum spec' which is configured so you get 90FPS on VR on an Oculus minimum spec PC
- Texts like the 'Leaving the area' message are now displayed in world space instead of being stuck to your head in VR
- The player nameplates are now displayed in world space instead of at a depth that was right in front of you in VR
- The inflator is now more to the side in VR
- There is now a fade to black after loading
- You can now also skip the splash screens with the Xbox controller B button
- The Vive now has its own control scheme image
- You now see other player's tablets on photographs you made
- Going one level up in the Oceanopedia now selects the item you previously had selected
- Pressing back or escape in the 'view picture' mode now takes you to 'take picture' mode
- Increased the size of the Xbox controller back icon
- Some sequential settings now cycle
- Fixed linking to divegame.net
- Fixed a memory leak while the Oceanopedia was open
- Fixed a bug where opening the tablet for the first time displayed a message about keeping the current settings
- Fixed a bug where typing 'w' or 's' in the account link screen caused another text box to be focused
- Fixed a bug where the mission bubble showed the interaction help when you couldn't start the mission
- Fixed a bug where a photo would be taken while clicking a tool in the tool selection while the photo camera was equipped
- Fixed a bug where some message boxes could not be closed with the escape button
- Fixed a bug where the first button of message boxes would not always be focused
- Fixed a bug where the captured photo displayed in the game was too bright
- Fixed a bug where you could not use fast swim when the fast swim setting was configured as 'toggle' and you were playing with a gamepad
- Fixed a bug where a part of the tablet interface was visible in the loading screen
- Fixed a bug where the loading screen did not take account the roll of the player, causing the loading screen to visually rotate slightly
- Fixed a bug where the loading screen position lagged behind the camera position
- Fixed a bug where the disclaimer was displayed in the main menu when coming back from a level
- Fixed a bug where the new under water color extraction effect showed a seam at the horizon when the flash light was on
- Fixed the low pass audio filter when going under water
- 3D printed models of your characters are available for order in game

The new WoD version is live. There have been a lot of changes (and a lot of time..) since the previous version.
We have made some really big improvements performance wise. All levels are now running at a solid 90fps on an Oculus mininum spec PC in VR mode.
For this, almost all art has seen a complete overhaul which you will be able to see once we put the new build live today.

Additionally, the following major changes can be found in this update:
- A complete re-do of fish rendering
- Fish AI improvements
- Tablet for most interface interaction
- Story-mode which guides you through the game
- HTC Vive & Oculus CV1 support
- New fish density setting

You can find more information about the changes in the devblog below.
Let us know what you think!

The new WoD version is live. There have been a lot of changes (and a lot of time..) since the previous version.
We have made some really big improvements performance wise. All levels are now running at a solid 90fps on an Oculus mininum spec PC in VR mode.
For this, almost all art has seen a complete overhaul which you will be able to see once we put the new build live today.

Additionally, the following major changes can be found in this update:
- A complete re-do of fish rendering
- Fish AI improvements
- Tablet for most interface interaction
- Story-mode which guides you through the game
- HTC Vive & Oculus CV1 support
- New fish density setting

You can find more information about the changes in the devblog below.
Let us know what you think!

Johann



It's been about 3 months since our last Development Blog. There's been a lot of developer activity on World of Diving in that time.

First of all; we've made some really big improvements on the performance side. All levels are now running at a solid 90fps on an Oculus minimum spec PC in VR mode. For this, almost all art has seen a complete overhaul which you will be able to see once we put the new build live today. We have also added HTC Vive support.

Personally, I've been doing lots of work on getting everything working again since so many systems have been changed to provide a smoother experience in VR. Next to the systems that have been changed, a lot of systems have also been added:
- A complete re-do of fish rendering. Small fish now all have trailing so their turing is smooth instead of jerky, as it was. Also, a lot of changes have been made to the AI so the fish appear more natural. The improvements for the bigger fish in the game will come soon.- A story has been integrated into the game. Instead of only the first tutorial mission being in the game, the game now guides the player through the game.
- A tablet has been added which now features a lot of the interfaces in the game which did not really have a good place.

Of course we're really excited to have you play this new version of World of Diving, and are eager to hear your thoughts about it.


Trevor



Over the course of the last couple of weeks I have been working on the finalization of features and bug fixes in order to get the game in a proper playable state.Tasks include the implementation of existing UI in the tablet, and the implementation of the redesign of most of these UI's. For this I have been working closely with Bjorn.

There were some interesting challenges with the implementation of the new UI on the tablet. For example, we display some 3D objects in certain interfaces, such as the Oceanopedia and the new mission view. If we were to display these on the tablet, they would appear pierced by the tablet's screen. I have worked on a few solutions to this problem and we finally ended up with creating custom meshes for the screen in the case there are 3D objects displayed on the tablet. Additionally I worked on the blur script which we apply on the screen to blur everything behind it.

I'm glad we have been able to work on the game as a team again during the last period. This has been very pleasant and inspirational for all of us and we are finally able to deliver more of the game we had envisioned to make.


Bjorn



Hi there!

In the past couple of weeks I have been working on the user interface of world of diving. I started out creating a Tablet for use in game to show all the menus, For this I used a concept from our concept artist Bang. Right after that I have been working on a completely new User Interface together with Trevor, one of our programmers. At first I drew some blockouts to get the ideas out of my head and on the paper. After that, I built the new interface while Trevor built it up in engine. We also did a lot of testing in-game to make sure the interface works on multiple platforms and controllers. I really like how the interface turned out and I hope you will enjoy it as well! Below I have collected some screenshots from the new items I made. I hope you enjoy!




Jeff



During my last crunch in World of Diving I have been busy with optimization of art, making sure the performance remains steady on 90 fps.This means setting up Levels of detail for models, culling distance, combining textures and efficiently use the amount of polygons where they matter most.

Something else I have done is placing mission items through the levels; Collectibles; Ocean garbage; mission markers.


In between tasks I have spent a few hours on setting up a block-out of the community shipwreck level that is going to be released in a future update.


U-boat new modular interior


Modelling various new items



Yorick



Hello guys,

So I’ve been working on optimizing the levels to get them to 90 fps. I’ve done this by combining rocks with each other and make LOD’s for them. The meaning of LOD is (level of detail). We work with lod models, because, if you see a model in the distance, you don't want it to have 10.000 vertices. You want it to have 2000 vertices. The closer you get the more vertices you can see. This is how the LOD system works. I also made a lot of LOD’s for the 3d models in the level. I added more fish for the people that have a good PC so they can play in high mode and see more fish. I’ve also been adding new mission markers, instead of the air tanks it became a starfish. We’ve been providing the levels with garbage, for clean the ocean mission, and we’ve been placing the collectibles.

Greetings Yorick

Johann



It's been about 3 months since our last Development Blog. There's been a lot of developer activity on World of Diving in that time.

First of all; we've made some really big improvements on the performance side. All levels are now running at a solid 90fps on an Oculus minimum spec PC in VR mode. For this, almost all art has seen a complete overhaul which you will be able to see once we put the new build live today. We have also added HTC Vive support.

Personally, I've been doing lots of work on getting everything working again since so many systems have been changed to provide a smoother experience in VR. Next to the systems that have been changed, a lot of systems have also been added:
- A complete re-do of fish rendering. Small fish now all have trailing so their turing is smooth instead of jerky, as it was. Also, a lot of changes have been made to the AI so the fish appear more natural. The improvements for the bigger fish in the game will come soon.- A story has been integrated into the game. Instead of only the first tutorial mission being in the game, the game now guides the player through the game.
- A tablet has been added which now features a lot of the interfaces in the game which did not really have a good place.

Of course we're really excited to have you play this new version of World of Diving, and are eager to hear your thoughts about it.


Trevor



Over the course of the last couple of weeks I have been working on the finalization of features and bug fixes in order to get the game in a proper playable state.Tasks include the implementation of existing UI in the tablet, and the implementation of the redesign of most of these UI's. For this I have been working closely with Bjorn.

There were some interesting challenges with the implementation of the new UI on the tablet. For example, we display some 3D objects in certain interfaces, such as the Oceanopedia and the new mission view. If we were to display these on the tablet, they would appear pierced by the tablet's screen. I have worked on a few solutions to this problem and we finally ended up with creating custom meshes for the screen in the case there are 3D objects displayed on the tablet. Additionally I worked on the blur script which we apply on the screen to blur everything behind it.

I'm glad we have been able to work on the game as a team again during the last period. This has been very pleasant and inspirational for all of us and we are finally able to deliver more of the game we had envisioned to make.


Bjorn



Hi there!

In the past couple of weeks I have been working on the user interface of world of diving. I started out creating a Tablet for use in game to show all the menus, For this I used a concept from our concept artist Bang. Right after that I have been working on a completely new User Interface together with Trevor, one of our programmers. At first I drew some blockouts to get the ideas out of my head and on the paper. After that, I built the new interface while Trevor built it up in engine. We also did a lot of testing in-game to make sure the interface works on multiple platforms and controllers. I really like how the interface turned out and I hope you will enjoy it as well! Below I have collected some screenshots from the new items I made. I hope you enjoy!




Jeff



During my last crunch in World of Diving I have been busy with optimization of art, making sure the performance remains steady on 90 fps.This means setting up Levels of detail for models, culling distance, combining textures and efficiently use the amount of polygons where they matter most.

Something else I have done is placing mission items through the levels; Collectibles; Ocean garbage; mission markers.


In between tasks I have spent a few hours on setting up a block-out of the community shipwreck level that is going to be released in a future update.


U-boat new modular interior


Modelling various new items



Yorick



Hello guys,

So I’ve been working on optimizing the levels to get them to 90 fps. I’ve done this by combining rocks with each other and make LOD’s for them. The meaning of LOD is (level of detail). We work with lod models, because, if you see a model in the distance, you don't want it to have 10.000 vertices. You want it to have 2000 vertices. The closer you get the more vertices you can see. This is how the LOD system works. I also made a lot of LOD’s for the 3d models in the level. I added more fish for the people that have a good PC so they can play in high mode and see more fish. I’ve also been adding new mission markers, instead of the air tanks it became a starfish. We’ve been providing the levels with garbage, for clean the ocean mission, and we’ve been placing the collectibles.

Greetings Yorick