Zombie Hunter, Inc. News

Hi everyone,

as I already wrote, creating models is one of the most time consuming task of all. Below you will find a report of what I was able to create since my last announcement.

As you will see, there is still quite a long way to go before the Test Level is complete. I will try to finish it before end of summer 2018 and so far there is a decent chance I might make it. Note that no single object in the level has all the details I have planned for them, especially roads.

The test level is actually a real crossroads from Washington, which I modeled from Google Maps' pictures. Try to find it if you can!

Please treat these screenshots as a progress report rather than the sample of the game's graphics. I've spent very little time on Post Processing, the scene has only one light source and there is still quite a few tricks I have hidden up my sleeve to boost the game's graphics up to 11.

I was surprised to see that Unity handled all of my 4k textures quite easily (there should be around 40-50 of those already, most buildings have 2k just for one wall, sometimes 4k for one wall). The level takes around 40 seconds to load right now. This time might go up to 60-70 seconds when the test level is done. In the future these loading time should be brought to a minimum as there is a Unity "Virtual Textures" plugin that massively speeds up texture loading times.

Hope you enjoy the screenshots and stay tuned!

Click the image to enlarge:

Just finished texturing one of the houses for the test level and decided to post it here. This is the kind of quality you should expect to see in the game when it's done.

Click the image to enlarge.

Just finished texturing one of the houses for the test level and decided to post it here. This is the kind of quality you should expect to see in the game when it's done.

Click the image to enlarge.

As I started working on models I realized that they would be the largest time consumer for the project. I am getting faster over time, but the amount of work required is still colossal. With the way things are going right now, I believe I would not be able to create the test level before summer 2018. The reason for such lengthy delay is in the fact that I want to try everything planned for the game in the test level. Once the test level is ready a huge chunk of work required for the game would be accomplished.

Apart from the models I still have to work on finalizing hunter's functionality. I figured a way to introduce jumping and elevation into the game and that would take some time to both make jumping logic as well as recode the shooting logic to account for elevation properly. The guns and pickable items would also take some time as every object I add takes a lengthy procedure to be properly introduced into the engine.

A huge chunk of time would also be devoted to injecting all the assets I plan on using in the game. It starts with large things like animated destruction presets, ragdoll physics, cloth physics, soft body physics, 3d blood and liquid physics, touch-bending foliage; continues with optimization tools like a system that would allow me to pack hundreds of small objects into one object with a single set of textures to reduce draw calls; and ends with relatively small things like custom post-effects, lit volumetric fog, dynamic flying paper that omits buildings and rooms inside buildings. All these things need to be injected into Unity together and tested for possible bugs both inside the systems themselves as well as bugs that might spring out of the fact that so many independently developed system are forced to work together.

Character clothes need to be remodeled to improve their quality and make sure they take advantage of the cloth physics. Hair needs to be modeled and introduced.

As of right now I have almost finished creating 3d models of buildings for the test level (3 buildings left). Next stop is painting said models, then comes the stage of creating mid-sized models (lamp posts, traffic lights, bust stops, furniture, etc) and so on.

I am sorry for not being able to share any screenshots as everything is in complete disassembly mode right now. I will try to post a screenshot as soon as I can.

Mykhaylo

As I started working on models I realized that they would be the largest time consumer for the project. I am getting faster over time, but the amount of work required is still colossal. With the way things are going right now, I believe I would not be able to create the test level before summer 2018. The reason for such lengthy delay is in the fact that I want to try everything planned for the game in the test level. Once the test level is ready a huge chunk of work required for the game would be accomplished.

Apart from the models I still have to work on finalizing hunter's functionality. I figured a way to introduce jumping and elevation into the game and that would take some time to both make jumping logic as well as recode the shooting logic to account for elevation properly. The guns and pickable items would also take some time as every object I add takes a lengthy procedure to be properly introduced into the engine.

A huge chunk of time would also be devoted to injecting all the assets I plan on using in the game. It starts with large things like animated destruction presets, ragdoll physics, cloth physics, soft body physics, 3d blood and liquid physics, touch-bending foliage; continues with optimization tools like a system that would allow me to pack hundreds of small objects into one object with a single set of textures to reduce draw calls; and ends with relatively small things like custom post-effects, lit volumetric fog, dynamic flying paper that omits buildings and rooms inside buildings. All these things need to be injected into Unity together and tested for possible bugs both inside the systems themselves as well as bugs that might spring out of the fact that so many independently developed system are forced to work together.

Character clothes need to be remodeled to improve their quality and make sure they take advantage of the cloth physics. Hair needs to be modeled and introduced.

As of right now I have almost finished creating 3d models of buildings for the test level (3 buildings left). Next stop is painting said models, then comes the stage of creating mid-sized models (lamp posts, traffic lights, bust stops, furniture, etc) and so on.

I am sorry for not being able to share any screenshots as everything is in complete disassembly mode right now. I will try to post a screenshot as soon as I can.

Mykhaylo