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Don't Die: A horror game...

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Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Friday, May 22, 2015

Starting a new thread for this one so as to not clutter the Spritehaven one with unrelated nonsense more than it already has been.

Anyways! Big news!

I'm releasing the demo of the first full level for Don't Die (working title...), and you can now download it from the Don't Die subdomain I setup at dontdie.spritehaven.com at this page >>>here<<<.

I'm limited on computers that I can test this game with, so I'm looking for any kind of feedback possible on how the game runs, what your system specifications are if it's running slow, and other related information. Currently, all I know is that you need at least Windows Vista (according to the compiler) to run it, and at least a DirectX 11 compatible video card(according to my failed attempt to try running it on my brother's Windows 7 computer with a fairly dated graphics card...), so any other input I can get on what can/can't handle running the game would be helpful for including minimum/recommended specifications in with the ReadMe file...


About the game's purpose:

I spent approximately just over a week putting this together as a test of my skills. The game was made partially by recycling some 3D assets from other projects(The hand mesh that's holding the flashlight), but mostly by assembling new assets(not all of which are included in this level sadly as there just wasn't time). I gathered a handful of textures from CGTextures.com and edited/repurposed some of them for this project, and assembled the main level over the course of about 3 and a half days. The game mechanics and UI elements took about a day and a half, and the creature which I've taken to calling Timmy, took about a day to model, rig, and get working in-game.


The Game itself:

You're trapped in an old abandoned lab facility, and the door you came in through locked behind you, so you need to find another way out. But careful, monsters be stalking you!

There's a number of "documents" scattered throughout the level which gives small insights into game's story, but are not required to "win". All you need to do to "win" is survive, and find the exit! Can you make it out alive?

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Friday, May 22, 2015

CUUUUWL

Testing right now. :p

Edit:

IT LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGS, so much.

Pentium dual core 2.3GHz
Intel HD Graphics
4 go ddr3

I have like 5 fps.

You should add graphic options.

Didn't see the mob before 4/5 minutes of game and it wasn't that surprising (maybe because of the lags *intense laughter*)

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, May 23, 2015

Wh1t34Gl3(SAS) wrote : CUUUUWL

Testing right now. :p

Edit:

IT LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGS, so much.

Pentium dual core 2.3GHz
Intel HD Graphics
4 go ddr3

I have like 5 fps.

You should add graphic options.

Didn't see the mob before 4/5 minutes of game and it wasn't that surprising (maybe because of the lags *intense laughter*)



Hmm... I'll see what I can setup to help with that. Probably the Dynamic lighting is what's causing it, but it's the only way I was able to get the majority of the map to actually build lighting... I'll see if I can maybe add some resolution and quality settings in an options menu for a future update...

The odd thing is I don't get much if any lag on my laptop, and it's not exactly the most powerful machine by today's standards.

AMD A6-4400M APU with Radeon HD integrated Graphics 2.70GHz, and 8GB of RAM...

My computer screams when playing some other modern games forcing me to have to crank the settings all the way down to near-minimum... Don't Die? Almost negligible load on my laptop...

Regardless, I figured I'd have to make some adjustments for lower-end computers, I was just not sure how much... Thanks for the feedback. Smile

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, May 23, 2015

HDR, anisotropic filtering, anti aliasing, camera blur effect, bloom effects, particles, high quality lighting, high quality shading. Each of them can already decrease the fluidity of the gameplay.

Start with less effects as possible and see what you can add.

The map seems to be a real labyrinth. And since it was slow, I couldn't even see where I went, couldn't pass doors. I even saw the map rendering toward me. *intense laughter*

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, May 23, 2015

Alright, I found some documentation on setting up a "settings" functionality to a menu, so I'm going to start working on that today.

Unfortunately, I have no internet at home right now (can't afford the bill until Friday next week...), and because of the holiday this weekend, I won't be able to upload a fixed version until maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. (Library is closed tomorrow and Monday, and I'm not sure how long it'll take me to set this new menu up today...)

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, May 23, 2015

Don't worry, waiting for something is an usual thing here. Take your time. Smile

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Monday, May 25, 2015

Version 1.0.3 is up with the newly added graphics options screen.

Luckily, I'm at a friend's house today, and he's letting me mooch off his WiFi, otherwise you'd have to wait another two days for the fix... Hopefully, it'll help with the lag you're experiencing.

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Thursday, May 28, 2015

Wrong link. It downloads the 1.0.1.

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Thursday, May 28, 2015

Sorry, must have been a typo when I pasted the link... Try the above link again...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Thursday, May 28, 2015

Better, I run it now at.... 10 fps. Very Happy

Everything is lowered to minimum, seems like it's not enough. You should disable every effects on the lowest settings.

As for the gameplay, I ended up going in a room where I found a note, I was reading it and waited like 2 minutes with the head in, and at the second I went out, I have been killed by "Timmy" if I have well understood. Razz

Pro tips: doodle the story, rush 'til the end. Laughing

Postscript: apparently, fraps isn't welcomed by the game. (I reassure you, it was just for fps display)

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Thursday, May 28, 2015

Wh1t34Gl3(SAS) wrote : Better, I run it now at.... 10 fps. Very Happy

Everything is lowered to minimum, seems like it's not enough. You should disable every effects on the lowest settings.

As for the gameplay, I ended up going in a room where I found a note, I was reading it and waited like 2 minutes with the head in, and at the second I went out, I have been killed by "Timmy" if I have well understood. Razz

Pro tips: doodle the story, rush 'til the end. :*laughing out loud*:

Postscript: apparently, fraps isn't welcomed by the game. (I reassure you, it was just for fps display)



Yes, Fraps is apparently known by Epic to cause UE4 to crash. It'll still run, but it's suggested that you disable it before running their engine.

And as it was pointed out on the Unreal forums, part of the issue may be lag from the physics based chairs in the map having no culling properties set, although personally, I think it might actually be the dynamic lighting that's the most expensive resource wise, as nearly 90% of the world meshes are lit by dynamic lights rather than static...

I'll see if I can make some more adjustments to reduce the lag more...

Oh, and the notes... Some are randomly boobytrapped, and some are always safe. If you want to read the full back story from the notes, you're probably going to die a few times trying to find all of them. They're not necessary for finishing the game though.

Rule of thumb, watchout which rooms you go into. If it looks like it may be a dead-end, you're probably going to meet a dead end... Okay, I'll stop with the bad puns...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Friday, May 29, 2015

You should just leave simple mapping (no shaders or other effects), low poly, low res, simple lighting etc... for lowest settings. The real minimum. It will be beautimus, but more enjoyable.

As for the story, from what I have seen, I'm a bit intrigued now. A pity I can't read the notes without getting surprise buttsexed by "timmy".. Laughing

It's a real labyrinth by the way, nice work on that..

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Friday, May 29, 2015

Wh1t34Gl3(SAS) wrote : You should just leave simple mapping (no shaders or other effects), low poly, low res, simple lighting etc... for lowest settings. The real minimum. It will be beautimus, but more enjoyable.

As for the story, from what I have seen, I'm a bit intrigued now. A pity I can't read the notes without getting surprise buttsexed by "timmy".. :*laughing out loud*:

It's a real labyrinth by the way, nice work on that..



Well, Timmy should only be popping up when you "leave" the trigger volumes, so as long as you stay still while reading the notes, you should be fine to finish reading/grab screenshots to read later.

And the geometry is 99% box meshes, or planes(the decals on the walls). And there are no "effects" going on per say, just the dynamic lighting, and the physics on the chairs. Both of which can actually be very expensive to render in real time.

From what I understand, the real issue is the engine is currently processing every asset in the map all the time, instead of only processing and rendering what's directly visible, which is where the issue is. I need to add in some level streaming for the decals and room objects to load/unload them when they are/aren't needed, and that alone should help a lot with performance.

Another helpful thing will be to rebuild lighting with mostly static mesh lighting instead of dynamic lighting which is what it has currently. Again, dynamic lighting is expensive to render, where as static lighting is significantly less expensive since it's all pre-processed as opposed to being processed in real time.

Fixes should be up within a week or two, but keep in mind this game's not a priority anymore... It was suppose to be a quick game with a short release window, not a prolonged continuing project...

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