Operation: Harsh Doorstop News

Welcome to the thirty-fourth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of May 2023.

Maps

[h3]Map Redesigns[/h3]
We have no images to share for these just yet, but currently the maps Lam Dong and Khafji are receiving some redesigns and tweaks. Khafji is starting to be expanded back up towards its original size (4x4km) in anticipation 5AE9N of being a testing ground for the future vehicle framework update. Lam Dong is having portions of the map completely redesigned to better improve the overall flow of the map, and take advantage of some of the spaces that have not been utilized very well in prior versions (in other words, there will be more playable space and should be less flag QFLAM layers that devolve into the frequent choke points that are commonly seen).

[h3]Saint Quentin[/h3]
Saint Quentin continues to receive further detailing and expansion. Support trenches in the back were widened with the grassy fields and communication trenches leading towards the fire trenches at the front towards no RPNIZ man’s land, and forested areas will provide cover for advancing infantry in some places (tanks should work well in these fields).

Vehicles

Last month the 54VXR team pushed more heavily into developing the vehicle framework prototype by creating several armored fighting and transport vehicles with basic functionality. The GIF displayed below shows a ricochet mechanic that some of the vehicles will have when shooting each other in specific locations and angles, and also demonstrates that all players that are inside of the vehicle will die once it is 7QCVM blown up (which then spawns a wrecked version of the vehicle in its place).

Animations

[h3]Stance Transitions (Crouch)[/h3]
We have now MZH99 started to work on animations for stance transitions. To start, we are working on crouching:





Next up will be prone.

[h3]First Person Movement Cycle Improvements[/h3]
Additionally, we're 55AVR working on improving the first person movement cycles with a new blendspace that allows us to seamlessly blend multiple looping animations together to produce more fluid and dynamic 4Z7H0 movements:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
The overhaul to our bots/AI is now more or less completed and can be fully tested on the developer build of the game. All of their past behaviors—the ability to use frag and smoke grenades, shoulder 6MNWI mounted and underbarrel launchers, and so on—have now been reintroduced in addition to their new cover seeking behaviors. The only feature from the previous AI that is technically missing at this point is their ability to crouch and go prone, as these systems are going to need to be recreated from the ground up to work with the overhaul.

The new AI combat behavior (which is triggered by either taking contact or seeing enemies that they decide to engage) essentially has bots seeking cover and popping out of it to attack. They will now search for a "safe spot" if their current 6BFTQ one is no longer providing cover/breaking line of sight, and the same goes for their "attack spot"—if they want to attack but can't see the enemy from their current position, they will now move around until they can. They will also periodically reposition themselves to get closer to their current objective (on a per squad-basis). In the future, this same underlying system will be used for further "reposition actions", like pushing forward, retreating/breaking contact, flanking maneuvers, regrouping, and so on (at the moment, HLQME we have only implemented "move closer to objective").

[h3]General Optimizations[/h3]
A handful of general optimizations have been made to further improve overall performance:

Various assets and decal materials (which every projectile creates when an impact decal is spawned) were optimized in order to reduce draw calls. In addition, quality switches were added to master materials for “Low” settings (all normals on this setting will now get replaced by a flat normal texture which heavily 4W07P reduces texture memory and draw calls), as well as for particle effects (which achieves the same thing noted above).

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Thank you for checking out this month’s devblog!

Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and be sure to follow our Steam announcements to track updates. See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter




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Discord
Website

[h2]Multiplayer[/h2]

• Fix "+connect " command line arg not working (used by steam to cold start the game into a server from the command line)
  
• Security fixes to client authentication procedure when joining a server
  
• Fixed player name/score stats (steam server info) not getting updated initially for a newly connected player
  
• Preserve in-game player stats (kills, deaths, etc) for players that disconnect from and subsequently reconnect to a server within the inactivity threshold established by the game mode (5 minutes by default)
  
• Fix issue with character movement replication breaking the intended send rates for client moves when game time was dilated
  

[h2]Miscellaneous[/h2]

• Update Steamworks SDK to version 1.57
  

[h2]SDK[/h2]

• Fix "X imported Y, but it was never saved as an export." log warning spam (that was benign) when packaging or otherwise cooking content for a mod
  
• Change Impact FX "DecalMaterial" property type from a material to a material interface to allow for decals to utilize material instances for impact fx
  

Please watch this video for all relevant information:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can download all the required files here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981595791

You can get information on the playtest server here:

Vehicle Playtest Server

Once vehicles are added to the base game, supporters will be able to playtest them prior to release. If you are not yet a supporter, please consider becoming one here:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/29860/Operation_Harsh_Doorstop__Supporter_Bundle/

See you on the battlefield.

Welcome to the thirty-third devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of April 2023.

Let’s get straight into it:

New Lighting System

The new lighting system has now been integrated into all of the currently existing maps, and nearly all of our existing materials and textures have been updated to better fit into this new system.

More specifically, the lighting system 5FWQB blueprint was updated to add more user friendly features to it so it is more of a drag and drop experience for our level design team (as well as modders), and requires fewer tweaks that have to be made to be implemented. In addition, lighting and fog cubemaps can also now be baked—a PDF explaining how to do all of this will be distributed when this next patch goes live on the main build.

All of our materials have been updated for the new lighting system as well. We adjusted all material specular, metallic, and roughness values closer to the proper PBR settings, and parameters and nodes were added to the master materials that should help metallic and specular values look proper under the new lighting. We are also preparing further optimizations to all material and texture sets as well.

Last but not least, all of the lighting layers/levels for all of our currently existing maps have now been updated to use the new lighting system, and multiple lighting layers have been created: Dawn, YPLFM Morning, Mid Day, Afternoon, Sunset, Overcast, Heavy Overcast.











There is still some more polish work to go on the above showcases (such as fixes to some exposure values and some of the ground materials), however, this should be a pretty good demonstration of the new lighting in various IPKGF environments/terrains.

Character Model Updates

Continuing with the work that was shown in last month’s devblog, improvements were made to the US and Russian soldier characters. Each character received more material slots, allowing for higher quality textures. The Russian soldiers received new MetaHuman heads and had some chest rig straps adjusted/fixed, and the US soldiers received some new gear to their belts/rigs 5ELAK as well.

Maps

[h3]Tan Binh[/h3]
Tan Binh was updated to receive the new lighting system (a noon layer for now), mostly as placeholder 63LEF until the next SDK update comes around to get the latest lighting templates and tweaks. More foliage types were also added to improve PTIXR detailing.


[h3]Saint Quentin[/h3]
The rest of the trenches were placed on Saint Quentin, including some improved trenches for the frontlines. This map also received a noon 5G4XJ lighting layer similar to the one shown on Tan Binh.


[h3]Omaha Beach[/h3]
Omaha Beach also received some G7T5N improvements to the foliage.

Vehicles

[h3]Turret Animations[/h3]
Our animator has finished animating the PBEG5 DShK for our vehicle prototype by completing the reload animation, and he is now wrapping up the whole animation pass for our technical pickup.

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
The new updates to the AI can now be played and tested in the Development Build of the game. At the time 5A3XX of writing this, their behaviors and abilities have been stripped back down to just their raw movement and attacking patterns so that we can fully test/verify their new line of sight behavior that they utilize in order to take cover from incoming fires. We are still working through a few kinks/bugs (such as one that is preventing them from properly being as aggressive as they need to be to push and capture objectives), then T079G once we resolve those we will begin working back in their other behaviors, such as being able to utilize grenades and launchers, and change their stance. We will also be doing a complete pass to all of their existing values (including accuracy) to make sure everything feels good with this new system, as their ability to now move in and out of cover presents a lot more unique and dynamic scenarios.

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Thanks for reading 85Z0Z!

Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and be sure to follow our Steam announcements to track updates. See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter




Twitter
Discord
Website

Learn more about the changes here!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can play with these changes NOW if you are a supporter! Install Operation: Harsh Doorstop - Development Build if you own the supporter DLC on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1307180/Operation_Harsh_Doorstop__Development_Build/