Developer's Notes #2: End of the Closed Beta Part I
[p]Hello, this is the Chrono Odyssey Development Team.[/p][p][/p][p]We want to thank everyone who joined the recent closed beta. Your support, curiosity, and genuine feedback have meant a lot to us. It’s been a privilege to watch players explore what we’ve built so far, and your input allows us to take an honest look at where the game stands and shape our next steps.[/p][p]We were excited to see that many of you enjoyed the core experience of Chrono Odyssey. However, there are also areas that fell short. We heard consistent feedback on animations, motions, combat responsiveness, performance, optimization, graphics, etc. All forms of critique, whether big or small, are critical to the development process, and our top priority is to address these shortcomings accordingly.[/p][p]To that end, we’re carefully reviewing all the feedback you’ve shared. Some of it will be addressed here in Part 1, while the rest is being thoroughly reviewed and will be covered in detail in Part 2.[/p]
[/p]
- [p]Animation/Motion and Combat Experience Improvements (1/2)[/p]
- [p]Performance/Optimization[/p]
- [p]Lighting and Other Graphic Enhancements[/p]
- [p]This was a major issue during the closed beta test. Some actions felt sluggish or disconnected, with attacks, dodges, and blocks occasionally failing to register as expected. We believe this stems from packet desyncs between the client and the server, and will accelerate packet transmission to improve timing accuracy, redesign packet intervals, and refine the packet structure.[/p]
- [p]Currently, motion and combat packets are interconnected in a shared data stream, which may be contributing to sync issues. We plan on separating these into distinct systems, actively reviewing and resolving all collision detection inconsistencies to ensure combat interactions feel consistent and responsive.[/p][p][/p]
- [p]While each class has a wide range of abilities, we’ll be introducing a new system called the “Matrix” in the next test to give each weapon a more distinct identity. This system will allow you to choose from four progression paths per weapon (twelve in total) as each class has three weapons.[/p]
- [p]We aim to diversify skill usage of each weapon based on progression paths. Even if two players are using the same weapon, their primary skills may differ. The same skill can also produce different results depending on builds. Our goal is a wide range of playstyles, whether you're focusing on chaining skills, switching between weapons, or exploring other tactical options. Farming will become more dynamic, and players will need to find gear with stats that match their playstyle.[/p]
- [p]With added playstyles, we’re creating new animations to ensure each weapon feels distinct and expressive in combat.[/p][p][/p]
- [p]We are fixing an issue where the camera angle affects visibility when you’re too close to walls or certain environments.[/p]
- [p]The following issues with the lock-on system will also be addressed:[/p]
- [p]Abrupt screen change when changing targets[/p]
- [p]Camera getting too close to the target during melee combat[/p]
- [p]Camera reset after combat[/p]
- [p]Skills being cast based on the direction the player is facing rather than the camera’s[/p]
- [p]We’re also addressing an issue where the camera shakes vertically in certain areas.[/p]
- [p]To enhance the overall feel of combat, we’re redesigning hit reactions by increasing the reaction duration from 1 to 2-4 seconds. This provides clearer timing for follow-up attacks and adds a greater sense of risk and reward when taking damage or landing hits.[/p]
- [p]We're also reviewing and fixing unnatural character movements and collision inconsistencies that caused characters to appear as if floating.[/p]
- [p]We’re restructuring how assets are rendered to reduce GPU load and improve real-time performance.[/p]
- [p]High-resolution Nanite geometry will only be applied where necessary, while frequently repeated assets will rely on Instanced Static Mesh (ISM) or Hierarchical Instanced Static Mesh (HISM) to minimize draw calls and reduce GPU strain. Assets will be managed in batches, and draw calls will be consolidated to minimize CPU–GPU communication overhead and maximize rendering efficiency.[/p]
- [p]We're shifting level design toward reusable environmental assets to improve development efficiency and runtime performance to speed up production and simplify maintenance, while reducing memory, disk, and rendering overhead.[/p]
- [p]We're also minimizing redundant materials and textures by standardizing our art pipeline with trim sheets, ensuring high-resolution visual variety.[/p]
- [p]We're restructuring the loading system by separating rendering data from collision data to reduce memory usage and improve system stability.[/p]
- [p]We’ll be refining our Garbage Collection (GC) and memory allocation structure to manage unused areas more efficiently.[/p]
- [p]Unused cells and actors within the World Partition system will be automatically unloaded, and the garbage collection timing will also be adjusted to remove unnecessary references more quickly.[/p]
- [p]Resources will be managed based on their data layer state with only active layers remain loaded, while assets in inactive layers are prevented from loading altogether. This ensures that only relevant assets consume memory, resulting in better performance and system stability.[/p]
- [p]We’ll be designing a dynamic loading system that adjusts based on the player’s hardware: high-end systems for broader areas and higher-quality assets, lower-end systems for nearby cells and lower-resolution assets. This ensures a balanced experience between performance and visual quality, regardless of system specs.[/p]
- [p]We’ll be reducing unnecessary calculations and streamlining the rendering pipeline without compromising visual quality.[/p]
- [p]Redundant material shaders will be consolidated into unified master materials, managed entirely through instance parameters. [/p]
- [p]By improving ocean surface shaders and wave rendering, we aim to enhance realism while minimizing GPU load.[/p]
- [p]To further optimize performance, we’ll be reducing reliance on World Position Offset (Vertex Animation), simplifying material functions, and replacing screen space reflections with a mix of cubemap reflections to achieve a better balance between visual quality and performance.[/p]
- [p]We’re working to improve overall screen quality by delivering high-resolution visuals and smoother transitions.[/p]
- [p]By adjusting and migrating our Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) settings, we’ll be reducing motion blur and ghosting artifacts. [/p]
- [p]Additionally, we’re adding support for DLSS (NVIDIA) and FSR (AMD) to enhance both performance and visual quality.[/p]
- [p]Upscaling options will be available on compatible graphics cards to ensure players get the most out of their hardware.[/p]
- [p]We’re working to reduce unnecessary lighting calculations by removing unused lights and limiting the excessive use of Stationary and Movable lights.[/p]
- [p]We're also transitioning to a cluster-based light management system to reduce rendering costs, light overlap, and shading complexity, resulting in more efficient rendering.[/p]
- [p]To improve the overall quality of lighting, we’re standardizing exposure values and redefining the priority and range of key lights to improve contrast fidelity and maintain consistent exposure across the scene.[/p]
[/p]