BlastZone 2 News

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.0) The biggest part of this update is a completely new packet compression system for online multiplayer games. The primary benefit of this is a significant reduction in latency and CPU usage, and packing higher precision floating point values while keeping bandwidth usage about the same. The amount of latency reduction varies depending on CPU power. The time to generate a packet with the old code ranged from 2-16ms, but the new code ranges from 0.25-0.75ms, a huge difference! The old way to compress packets was done by a zLib post process after each packet was created. This was a very CPU intensive operation for the use case. The new compression system has been created from scratch and is done while each packet is created. It uses fast bit-level compression specialized for the way BlastZone 2 packets are constructed.

Another notable part of this update is a new command ship to defend in both of the Classic game modes. This gives better context for the goal of the game, instead of abstractly needing to prevent enemies from passing by the player. Now, the game plays like an escort mission; if too many enemy ships crash into the command ship behind you, it explodes, causing a chain reaction making your ship explode as well. This in combination with the new weaving enemy type in the previous update makes the Classic A and Classic B modes more engaging and fun to play.

A few other fixes and improvements have been made in this update as well. Here are the full release notes for v1.29.3.0:

• Created a completely new netcode packet compression system
  -Reduces latency by 2-16ms depending on system specs
  -Significantly reduces CPU usage during online multiplayer games
  -Uses similar bandwidth to the old system, but with higher data precision
  -Uses lightweight specialized compression logic as each packet is built instead of running an expensive post operation
  
• Added a command ship you need to defend in Classic A and Classic B modes
  -Converts the game mode into an escort mission instead of abstractly preventing enemies from passing you
  
• Updated Classic mode help screens to reflect the new objective to defend the command ship
  
• Added support for the Classic A/B death sequence on the client side for online multiplayer
  
• Corrected kill counts for Survival and Blitz modes in the help screens
  
• Fixed a few rare multithreading crash bugs
  
• Fixed the disconnection option not working correctly in the gameover screen when playing a Steamworks multiplayer game
  
• Improved multithreading concurrency in a few areas to improve performance
  
• Optimized the final death explosion sequence
  
• Added "Help", "HighScore", and "Credits" main menu options to the Kiosk version
  
• Renamed the "Config" menu to the "Options" menu
  
• Removed bonus lives and unlock messages from the Kiosk version
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest version, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.3.0” or higher. Enjoy!

Also, the new website for BlastZone 2 has launched! It includes an improved design, interactive buttons, bandwidth saving features, and better news page navigation. The leaderboards page has been significantly improved as well, with better category selection and data caching. The website has been brought up to modern standards in many ways and thanks a lot to Kevin Edzenga for all the hard work to bring this to fruition!

visit the website here:http://www.BlastZone2.com

A big new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.2.0) The biggest part of this update is to add a new ship unlock progression system. New players will now start with the A2, A3, and B1 ships, with the rest of the ships being locked out. Players upgrading from a previous version will have additional ships unlocked if they have Mission Veteran mode or Blitz mode unlocked. To unlock a new ship, the player needs to surpass Wave/Area 8 in Mission, Survival, or Blitz mode, and this can be done multiple times until all the ships are unlocked. Also, unlocking a ship in one game mode will unlock it for all game modes. This way, the player can focus on their most proficient game mode to unlock ships to help out with other game modes. The goal of this update is to make the content progression more gradual by making the player earn the more powerful ships through proficient play. This also helps newer players focus on the more basic ships to start with to build up gameplay skills.

This update includes a new enemy type for Classic A and Classic B modes that moves up and down. This new enemy is introduced a few waves in to the game and gradually increases spawn frequency as the game progresses. This mixes up gameplay by having to track enemies in more ways than the old horizontal linear movement.

This update also includes emissive lighting improvements for the OpenGL 3.0 renderer. Item drops now have the same emission animation as the OpenGL 1.5 renderer, as this capability was previously missing from the GL3.0 renderer. The new emission maps for enemies and bosses are now animated as well, improving visual fidelity. Each item drop, enemy, and boss now have their own unique emission material that can work independently of each other.

This update also includes many other improvements, bug fixes, and tweaks. Here are the full release notes:

• Added a ship unlock progression system
  -The game now starts with only the A2, A3, and B1 ships available; the rest are locked out
  -Surpassing Area/Wave 8 of Mission, Survival, or Blitz modes unlocks new ships
  -Unlocking a ship in one mode will make it available for all modes
  -Anyone upgrading from a previous version will start with additional ships unlocked based on other progress
  -Having Mission Veteran difficulty unlocked will unlock an additional ship
  -Having Blitz mode unlocked will unlock an additional ship
  -If one of the above conditions are met, the B2 ship will be unlocked
  -If both of the above conditions are met, the B2 and A1 ships will be unlocked
  
• Integrated all unlock text displays into the general messaging system
  
• Added new unlock text displays for each ship unlock event
  
• Added a new EnemyB type to Classic A and Classic B modes that also moves up and down
  -Gradually introduces this new enemy type in later waves
  
• Added per-object material emissive lighting support to the OpenGL 3.0 renderer
  -Light emission now works correctly for item drop models, just like how the OpenGL 1.5 renderer behaves
  -The amount of light emission can now be different for each enemy model
  -Light emission is now animated for enemy and boss models
  
• Disabled the "kills left" display during the outro screen for Survival/Blitz/Classic modes
  
• Optimized matrix operations for several object types, such as particles, bullets, and enemies
  
• Improved packet loss tolerance in a few areas, including ship selection, ship size, current health, and boss/player state
  
• Reduced multiplayer item drops by 25% overall and by 50% when one player runs out of lives
  
• Fixed a bug allowing ship changes after selection in the local multiplayer ship selection screen
  
• Fixed a broken lighting bug when switching from the OpenGL 3.0 renderer to the OpenGL 1.5 renderer
  
• Fixed screen shakes not affecting the player booster
  
• Fixed screen shakes affecting the wave splash screen and dialog box when it is not supposed to
  
• Fixed a wave progression bug for online multiplayer games
  
• Fixed incorrect player 2 animations for some wave splash screens
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest version, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.2.0” or higher. Another update is in the works that greatly improves the netcode and improves the Classic game modes. This will be released within the next week or so. Enjoy!

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.1.0) The main additions in this update are 4 new enemy spawn patterns for Survival and Blitz modes. These include curved or angled waves of fast enemies, or large groups of seeking enemies.. There have also been a few balance changes for general enemy spawn patterns for Survival/Blitz modes and increased kill counts per wave. The goal of these changes is to increase progression of complexity to keep gameplay interesting.

This update also includes lighting improvements and optimizations for Player/Enemy ships and cave background. All Player/Enemy ships now better display normal mapped specular highlights and enemy and boss ships now use emission maps to improve visual fidelity. The cave background lighting now has corrected normal values for each vertex, which better calculates how lighting should look based on the position and orientation from the camera and light source. Specular highlights have been added to the cave background as well.

This release also includes updated 3rd party libraries for things like texture loading, fonts, music, and leaderboard communication. Since the last set of library updates were integrated, there have been a number of new releases to fix security issues, improve performance, and fix bugs.

In preparation for AVideoGameCon, improvements have been made to the Kiosk mode of BlastZone 2 to make it more accessible on the show floor. The main improvement allows for a second player to join midgame without waiting for the current player to be done first. Also, the game trailer now automatically plays when the game is idle for a while. For more information about this convention, check out the website here:
http://www.avideogamecon.com

Here are the full list of changes for v1.29.1.0:

• Added 4 new "enemy wave" spawn patterns for Survival/Blitz modes
  -New pattern #1 simultaneously spawns several quick enemies in a symmetrical angle shape
  -New pattern #2 spawns many quick moving enemies sequentially in a curving wave
  -New pattern #3 spawns many regular heatseeking enemies
  -New pattern #4 spawns many vertical tracking enemies
  
• Made several balance changes to the Survival/Blitz game modes:
  -Adjusted the proportional frequency of each enemy spawn pattern to be more evenly distributed
  -Adjusted the times when each new enemy spawn pattern is introduced
  -Increased the overall frequency of enemy spawn patterns by 67%
  -Increased the kills count per wave
  -Survival Singleplayer: 40->50
  -Survival Multiplayer: 60->70
  -Blitz Singleplayer: 80->100
  -Blitz Multiplayer: 120->150
  
• Made numerous realtime lighting improvements
  -Added Emissive lighting to all enemies and bosses
  -Improved interaction between diffuse and ambient lighting for all objects
  -Improved specular highlights for player ship rendering
  -Corrected cave background vertex normal values, fixes how lighting should behave relative to the light source and camera
  -Added specular highlights to the cave background
  
• Added scripted fly in animation when starting new waves in Classic/Survival/Blitz modes
  
• The ViewDistance and ParticleDetail settings now default to "VeryHigh" to take advantage of recent optimizations
  
• Terrain positioning is no longer affected by the ViewDistance setting
  
• Optimized ship and cave background shaders
  -Eliminated a few redundant per-pixel calculations that can be calculated per-object instead
  -Eliminated multiple light calculations when only a single light is active for the cave background (ships already have this optimization)
  
• Reorganized and updated the credits screen
  
• Cleaned up a few areas of code to prevent potential bugs and memory leaks
  
• Combined separate color and alpha textures for all wave intro splash animation textures
  -Reduces startup load time
  -Reduces memory usage on some systems
  -Slightly reduces CPU overhead for rendering the wave intro splash animation
  
• Updated Kiosk mode to allow for the second player to join midgame
  -The second player gamepad needs to press the 'A' button to join
  -Added text to the HUD to reflect this
  -The joining player will start with the same number of lives the first player currently has
  -The joining player will be given the A3 ship as there is no opportunity for ship selection
  -This update does not apply to the standard game to prevent highscore exploits
  
• Updated Kiosk mode to play a trailer video after idling for a while
  
• Migrated to newer versions of a few 3rd party libraries
  -libPng v1.5.30; Used for loading textures
  -FreeType v2.9.1; Used for generating fonts
  -LibOgg v1.3.3; Used for music playback
  -LibVorbis v1.3.6; Used for music playback
  -cURL v7.61.0; Used for leaderboard uploading/downloading
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest version, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.1.0” or higher. Enjoy!

A big new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.0.0)

The flagship feature for this update is a completely new scripted particle system. It uses a powerful scripting system for advanced effects and highly customizable animations, and incorporates all the optimizations of the existing explosion particle system, simulating up to millions of particles at once. A simple example particle script has been included in the “test_pack_1” level pack, but isn’t used yet other than that. A huge update is in the works to fully leverage this new particle system. It will flesh out the battlefield of ships around you and add new effects, such as volumetric clouds, trees, and smoking fissures, among others. More details will be announced soon, so watch for it!

Also included in this update is a new level selection screen. This changes the layout of the screen, adds descriptions of each of the levels and bosses, and shows a background preview for each of the areas. These give much better context and information before choosing a level so the player has a better idea of the style of gameplay to expect ahead of time.

A number of netcode improvements have been made including a TCP_NODELAY parameter and timing adjustments for DirectIP multiplayer communication to significantly reduce latency. The Steamworks multiplayer UDP netcode has received a number of improvements as well to reduce latency and improve handling of high object counts. It now strictly complies with packet size limits on a broader range of routers to fix reported issues. There are also a few general bug fixes for both Steamworks and DirectIP netcode, including improved particle effect precision, corrected particle effect types, and improved packet error detection. All of the above improvements and more provide a much better online multiplayer experience.

There are a number of other improvements included in this update as well. Here are the full release notes for v1.29.0.0:

• Redesigned the Level Selection screen
  -Changed the level selection menu to use a smaller font and a smaller window at the top of the screen
  -Reorganized the layout of the level and boss selections
  -Changes the background environment to match the level the cursor is pointing to
  -Added descriptions for each level and boss
  
• Added a new scriptable particle system for Mission mode
  -This is a very powerful, completely customizable, and highly optimized particle system
  -Capable of up to millions of precisely designed particle patterns at high performance
  -Can be used for numerous effects, such as volumetric clouds
  -Particles can be attached to elements of the environment to improve immersiveness
  -Uses a texture atlas to increase variation between particles while maintaining compatibility with performance optimizations
  -Designed to work with files exported from powerful particle design software, such as Houdini
  -NOTE: This new particle system is not fully leveraged yet, content is being developed for it
  
• Updated the "test_pack_1" mission level pack to include sample scriptable particles
  
• Added a terrain positioning command to the scripting system
  
• Updated enemy definitions to include an option for localized environment positioning instead of absolute positioning
  
• Improved Steamworks multiplayer UDP netcode
  -Now strictly adheres to packet size and flow control standards for most internet routers
  -The server now sends all split packets as fast as possible instead of waiting for the next update tick to reduce latency
  -Improved packet error detection
  
• Improved DirectIP(TCP) multiplayer netcode
  -Added the TCP_NODELAY parameter to reduce latency by eliminating Nagle buffering
  -Eliminated client-side wait timer to reduce latency; timing is now completely server-side controlled
  -Eliminated explicit server-side packet splitting to handle it through TCP without waiting for the next update tick
  -This improves the client side update rate when many objects are on screen
  
• Enemy bullet detail is now proportional to the "Particle Detail" setting
  -Enemy bullet detail is determined by the maximum total amount of "shadows" rendered on screen
  -Old static enemy bullet detail limit: 500
  -New scalable enemy bullet detail limits:
  -Off: 0
  -Low: 125
  -Normal: 250
  -High: 500
  -VeryHigh: 1000
  
• Changed behavior when the game loses focus
  -Disables sound and music
  -Limits the framerate to 20fps
  
• Fixed low precision client side positioning of foreground particle effects in online multiplayer
  
• Fixed incorrect client side particle effect when holding a level 1 or level 2 charge in online multiplayer
  
• Slight optimization for cloud plane rendering
  
• Increased the foreground particle limit for all detail levels by 67%
  
• Optimized rendering matrix calculations in many areas
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest update, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.0.0” or higher. Enjoy!

A huge amount of work went into update releases for BlastZone 2 over the last year and a half and beyond. This includes new gameplay content, as well as a technical and graphical overhaul. This essentially makes the current state of the game a “Remaster” of what it was at release. The game has reached a higher tier of content quality, bringing it to a new price point at $9.99.

I would like to thank everyone who supported BlastZone 2 all this time to help fund this development. In appreciation for this, we are working on another huge update to the game as a free addon. More info is coming soon about this, watch for it!

Below is a summary of the numerous improvements that have been made to the game since release:

• Added BlastZone 1 to the game; now totaling 6 game modes
  
• Rebalanced the entire game to use native 16:9 gameplay instead of the old 4:3 limits with widescreen viewing
  
• Added a new score multiplier system to Survival mode. This changes the way the gamemode is played by incentivising skilled play while still being accessible for new players
  
• Added a new long range bullet firing enemy type for Survival/Blitz modes
  
• Improved secondary fire controls; the Fire2 button can now be tapped to use it
  
• Numerous gameplay balance updates, including hitbox sizes, stat upgrade potency, and drop rates
  
• Created completely new ship selection menus for both local and online multiplayer
  
• Changed and rebalanced level selection so individual levels can be played in any order, and relevant stat upgrades are given for each area of the game
  
• There are now visual indications on the player ship when Hyper power is charging faster, and when each regular charge level is achieved, streamlining gameplay
  
• Added animation looping support for minibosses so they no longer leave the screen after the animation finishes
  

• Added 4k textures, greatly improving detail
  
• Added many new particle effects for charging, firing, impacts, item collection, attaining hyper mode and more
  
• Improved detail, lighting, and shadows for the home planet environment
  
• Completely redesigned the Outer Space background
  
• Redesigned the Alien Homeworld terrain, adding much more detail
  
• Improved multiple light support for enemies, bosses, and environments, including the Cave environment
  
• Added free DLC for extremely high detail terrain models
  

• Created an entirely new graphics renderer from scratch using OpenGL 3.0+
  
• Reworked the game simulation backend to be highly multithreaded, scaling up to 16 CPU cores if available, and making more efficient use of dual core and quad core CPU’s
  
• Created a new particle system, allowing for over 20x more detail at the same performance levels. Performance scales higher when more CPU cores are available
  
• Huge general optimizations, improving performance up to 300% without affecting quality
  
• Improved netcode, having better packet loss compensation, reduced latency, and added client side interpolation and prediction
  
• Created a new game startup loader, supporting new asset formats, asset swapping, and extreme quality assets. Also greatly improved multithreading support to reduce load times.
  
• Replaced numerous textures in the game with precompressed S3TC textures to improve quality and speed up loading times
  
• Greatly improved frame pacing and animation smoothness, also adding native support for high refresh rate monitors up to 240hz
  

• Complete HUD overhaul
  
• Added 9 new weapons and abilities to the game, including cluster bombs, force fields, wave shots, machine guns, close range melee attacks, and more; brings the total weapon count to 15
  
• Reworked every ship in the game to give each of them unique play styles and weapon loadouts and abilities
  
• Added 55 Steam achievements
  
• Added trading cards, emoticons, and more for Steam
  
• Added native Steamworks multiplayer support