development update #120
Hello everyone,
Build 81 has been uploaded to steam and it contains three major new features that we have been talking about for a long time.
Snails:
Yes snails are now a part of the game. We just have one species for the moment, the zebra nerite snail, but more will be added. They work pretty simply. Players drop them into the aquarium and they slowly move about minding their own business. They crawl over everything including the glass and make your little ecosystems feel that little more complete. They grow over time and when they have grown enough they will breed. Also now that we have a good technique for achieving this sort of creature navigation it does open the door for us to eventually add sea slugs ;)
Multiple substrate paint materials:
Using the same technique that we used for painting algae onto everything we are now able to apply multiple substrate materials to the substrate model data. For the time being players can choose to have just two substrate materials applied to the substrate at one time but we will most likely make it possible to add three or four. It is not difficult to add but we need to do some testing about how it may impact performance and see if players actually want more than two.
Choosing substrate materials:
Substrate materials are no longer chosen via the shop/inventory but now have their own UI where players can choose the layers used. The substrate materials button can be found in the bottom left toolbar and that will open up the special UI.
Defining where layer 2 appears.
Players will then need to use a spherical substrate paint volume to define where layer 2 shows up on the substrate. These volumes are placed like any other object.
Paint Volume Settings:
The settings for substrate paint volumes are identical to algae volume settings. Players can define overall strength and spherical falloff of each volume. There is a maximum of 32 volumes that can be used.
Our next step for substrates is redefining how the actual model data works in terms of adjusting it's shape and resolution. We would like to go beyond just having a sculpting brush and have a more fine tuned set of tools for modifying the substrate's shape. I cannot say exactly when it will be added into the game but it will be relativly soon after we have ticked off a few more important things from our to-do list.
Camera bookmarking:
We have added a nice little tool for saving camera positions so the it can be set back to those positions in the future at the click of a button. The 'Camera Bookmark' button is placed next to the 'Reset Camera' button in the bottom left toolbar. It will bring up a UI where camera bookmarks can be created, managed and activated.
The code that governs how cameras work has also been improved. When the camera is set to orbital mode, which it is by default, it is now a lot less fiddly to rotate the camera and get nice positions. When the camera is framed in and following a fish, which is done by double clicking a fish or selecting it and pressing 'f', the mouse wheel can be used to zoom in and or out and it wont stop the camera from following it like before. In general camera interactions should be less tedious and fiddly overall.
The Lower jaw of the T.Rex
We wanted to add more coral, plants and other decorations into this update but the snail navigation code took a little longer to get right which meant that this update only has one new decoration unfortunatly.
There are also various bug fixes including a bug that made it so shrimps more or less never breed. The crystal red shrimp texture was also reworked to better resemble it's real life counterpart.
The next update will most likely focus soley on adding in-game tutorials because it really is well past time that we add them especially since some of the newer features are a little more complicated to set up like substrate painting.
It is also getting very hot in our part of the world and when things get really hot it can affect our productivity so working on something relativly simple like in-game tutorials/help is preferable because it does not require a lot of intense brain activity and we have gone without good in-game help/tutorials for far too long.
We hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend and enjoy the steam summer sale.
The Fishery Team
Build 81 has been uploaded to steam and it contains three major new features that we have been talking about for a long time.
Snails:
Yes snails are now a part of the game. We just have one species for the moment, the zebra nerite snail, but more will be added. They work pretty simply. Players drop them into the aquarium and they slowly move about minding their own business. They crawl over everything including the glass and make your little ecosystems feel that little more complete. They grow over time and when they have grown enough they will breed. Also now that we have a good technique for achieving this sort of creature navigation it does open the door for us to eventually add sea slugs ;)
Multiple substrate paint materials:
Using the same technique that we used for painting algae onto everything we are now able to apply multiple substrate materials to the substrate model data. For the time being players can choose to have just two substrate materials applied to the substrate at one time but we will most likely make it possible to add three or four. It is not difficult to add but we need to do some testing about how it may impact performance and see if players actually want more than two.
Choosing substrate materials:
Substrate materials are no longer chosen via the shop/inventory but now have their own UI where players can choose the layers used. The substrate materials button can be found in the bottom left toolbar and that will open up the special UI.
Defining where layer 2 appears.
Players will then need to use a spherical substrate paint volume to define where layer 2 shows up on the substrate. These volumes are placed like any other object.
Paint Volume Settings:
The settings for substrate paint volumes are identical to algae volume settings. Players can define overall strength and spherical falloff of each volume. There is a maximum of 32 volumes that can be used.
Our next step for substrates is redefining how the actual model data works in terms of adjusting it's shape and resolution. We would like to go beyond just having a sculpting brush and have a more fine tuned set of tools for modifying the substrate's shape. I cannot say exactly when it will be added into the game but it will be relativly soon after we have ticked off a few more important things from our to-do list.
Camera bookmarking:
We have added a nice little tool for saving camera positions so the it can be set back to those positions in the future at the click of a button. The 'Camera Bookmark' button is placed next to the 'Reset Camera' button in the bottom left toolbar. It will bring up a UI where camera bookmarks can be created, managed and activated.
The code that governs how cameras work has also been improved. When the camera is set to orbital mode, which it is by default, it is now a lot less fiddly to rotate the camera and get nice positions. When the camera is framed in and following a fish, which is done by double clicking a fish or selecting it and pressing 'f', the mouse wheel can be used to zoom in and or out and it wont stop the camera from following it like before. In general camera interactions should be less tedious and fiddly overall.
The Lower jaw of the T.Rex
We wanted to add more coral, plants and other decorations into this update but the snail navigation code took a little longer to get right which meant that this update only has one new decoration unfortunatly.
There are also various bug fixes including a bug that made it so shrimps more or less never breed. The crystal red shrimp texture was also reworked to better resemble it's real life counterpart.
The next update will most likely focus soley on adding in-game tutorials because it really is well past time that we add them especially since some of the newer features are a little more complicated to set up like substrate painting.
It is also getting very hot in our part of the world and when things get really hot it can affect our productivity so working on something relativly simple like in-game tutorials/help is preferable because it does not require a lot of intense brain activity and we have gone without good in-game help/tutorials for far too long.
We hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend and enjoy the steam summer sale.
The Fishery Team