Release Raptor:Pre-Early-Access Release Notes

Pre-EA Demo 9

(This isn't done yet, we're still working on it.)

• Fixed an editor exception that could apparently happen after deleting objects and then trying to T-select them.

• Fixed an exception that was being thrown in the prior version of the game when you clicked the save button in the editor. Since a lot of us use Ctrl+S instead, we hadn't caught that...

• Put in code to help find malformed skin data for objects in the editor, and to also prevent those from crashing things during a save.

• Added a new very large-scale chandelier for huge spaces.
  • This is now used in Brandon's first corridor, since it fits the space better than the fluorescent lights, and can be used in half the numbers and thus avoids causing the extreme slowdown -- while still looking really cool!

• Really substantial improvements to how compound objects can fracture, making much more satisfying results there and with less setup work required.

• All in all added 12 new chandeliers, with 2 variants each of 6 types (a super bright and large version for huge spaces, and a smaller version for smaller spaces). Credit to 10th Planet for awesome assets.
  • All of the huge variants do NOT cast shadows, by the way, so will cut through walls if present. Done in the name of efficiency on the GPU, so these really are only for large spaces. The smaller versions are plenty bright for anywhere else, and are much less heavy, and use shadows.

• Added seven distinctive new floor lamps to the game, in a new floor lamps category. Lighting possibilities is getting so much more varied tonight!

• A new warm set of wall lamps that are a different kind of decorative have been added.

• 10 new industrial lights have been added.
  • Two of them are colored warning lamps, one for the ceiling and one for the wall. These have a number of options, different between the two.
  • Three of them are bright white wall lights of various distances and shapes.
  • Four of them are hanging industrial chandelier type lights with different colors and ranges like the other chandeliers are.
  • And then there's one on the wall that is a kind of industrial brownish light for dim accent areas.

• Another 22 lamps have been added to the game. These are mostly modern in style, and there is a mixture of wall, ceiling, floor, and table amongst them.

Hotfix

(Released July 22nd, 2016)

NOTE: This version has been released as windows-only since it only has benefits for the level editor crowd, and they are all presently on windows. These changes will be rolled forward into the OSX and linux builds next version.

• Fixed another bug in the prior version that was putting the save textbox in the save as menu partially under the save button. Sigh. ;)

• Fixed a bug where the code for duplicating an object that did not have a skin explicitly chosen was throwing an error in the last two versions.

• Fixed an issue where the interior slashed walls were not matching up to other walls positionally.

• If you try to R-click or Shift+R-click something that doesn't use skins, previously it was selecting a TON of extra stuff. Now it selects by type instead.

• Fixed an issue where R-clicking objects without a skin set (aside from the default) would cause them to select way too many things.

• Fixed up the paper box light, which was incredibly too bright before.

• You can now see the name of the skin of single objects you have selected, or of all the objects you have selected if they all share a skin. Note that un-set skins don't show.

• The editor no longer shows the messages when autosaves are happening. They are so frequent as to be distracting, as well as being unclear when actual saves have happened.

• The editor now makes a lot better efforts to be SURE your content is saved before you go into the testing mode.

• Fixed an issue where skins from duplicated objects were not saving properly.

• Added the first apartment by Craig!

• 21 new "rocky concrete rubble" objects have been added inside of a new Debris palette.
  • For information about how to use the rubble: https://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Release_Raptor:Level_Editor_Basics#Rubble.2FDebris_Is_Misaligned_On_The_Tile_Grid.21

Hotfix

(Released July 22nd, 2016)

NOTE: This version has been released as windows-only since it only has benefits for the level editor crowd, and they are all presently on windows. These changes will be rolled forward into the OSX and linux builds next version.

• Fixed a bug that could cause an exception to pop up at random times when switching between the editor and the playtest mode.
  • Actually, two.

• Updated Amplify Color.

• Updated the in-editor highlighting of objects to be a bit less harsh.

• Fixed a bug where the save as menu was not providing a place to actually type a name!

• Fixed a bug where the door textures were sliding across them as they moved.

• Stairs now reach properly to the top of the next floor, and now fit in 2'5 spaces, which they did not before. This will likely mess with existing levels a bit, since now the number of tiles in these is smaller (5 wide instead of 6). Sorry about that -- seemed like the least-destructive thing to do overall, in the end, still.

• Fixed the head of the double beds not being properly aligned to the top of their tile cells, meaning they would either be distant from the wall or clip into it. Most likely existing beds are placed wrong and need to be adjusted.
  • Same deal with the single beds, actually.

• The bathroom counters have been adjusted in their tiles so that they are now naturally the right height above the floor if the tile bounds are placed at the bottom.

• The shower stalls are now properly aligned at their back left corner of their tile cell. Note that they will only line up against walls in that orientation, but they will properly line up when in that orientation.

• The intensity of the editor lights has been cut in half, so that they are no longer blinding on light-colored surfaces. They still help you see just fine.

• Fixed some very strange issues that could cause all sorts of UI issues in the level editor in the prior version.

Pre-EA Demo 8

(Released July 21st, 2016)

• Fixed a rare error that could happen during fracturing some objects.

• The way that the raptor reacts to obstacles when it gets near to them is now more physically accurate, which keeps it from the old version having issues going through small doors because the player was misaligned visually vs physics.

• Tons of new corridors and apartments from Blue, Brandon, and Misery.

Level Editor Updates

• The code for fixing the location of doors in the level editor is now back in place, so that it automatically jumps doors to the appropriate location relative to the occlusion bounds whenever you hit save. This helps folks find errors in their levels whenever they hit save, rather than it being something that is discovered much later.

• Whenever you hit playtest, it will DEFINITELY save your progress now. It is possible that in some edge cases it would not do so before.

• Now when you hit Quit, it will autosave your level to a new Autosaves folder instead of saving over the file you were actually working on. This way if you meant to exit without saving you CAN, but it also won't lose your progress just in case.

• Now when you hit New, it will first autosave your level to that same Autosaves folder. Before you could still hit Undo anyway (I think), but this is more cautious in approach.

• The editor now autosaves you work every 1 minute to that same Autosaves folder, so that even if you've never saved your level you can't completely lose it.

• The save and load file windows are now waaay taller in the level editor.

• There is now waaaay more room in the file editor save and load screen, and it's in two columns, etc.

• A variety of the lights in the level editor have had their levels adjusted to work more appropriately with the new lighting chain, and just in general.

• In the level editor, the raptor that is drawn is now easier to see in light or dark situations.

• In the level editor, the game is now vastly more effective at selecting objects during drag-select.

• The following new selection commands are available in the editor:
  • Hold T + click to select all objects of type.
  • Hold R + click to select all objects sharing skin.
  • Hold shift + R + click to select all objects sharing skin groups.

• Fixed an issue with Window X1 where the light box was slightly peeking through the mesh of the window wall.

• Substantially improved the underlying capabilities of skinning so that more skins can be available for multiple sets of objects, but with colorization and sub-listings for groups of sub-objects to keep them from being too complex to find anything in.
  • One thing this lets us do is remove the explicit rugs that are the same size and function as floors (as opposed to sitting on top of the floors), and wrap all of that up into one skins list. This allows for a bunch of things to happen that previously could not, such as having rugs with holes in them to other floors, etc. It also paves the way for a lot of other content in the near future, but keeping it organized.

• Fixed issues where blankets, pillows, and carpets/rugs sometimes had a slick plastic look, and where rugs in particular did not properly tile with themselves.

New Content

• A new "Wall Pole Double Light Bright" variant has been added, in order to make a version that is substantially brighter and use for in dark halls, versus one that is for use as accent lighting in better-lit apartments.

• There are 8 new "rust metals" available for usage on walls and floors.
  • The setup of these and some other stuff was made vastly easier by some new toolset stuff created internally for the Arcen Object Manager, incidentally.

• Five new "fine wood" options have been added for the floors.

• Brick and stone wall skin options have been added, and a tan rough carpet and wall style.

• A variety of concrete styles have been added, many of them based off of procedural substances that are baked.

More Revisions To Existing Lighting And Related

• Huuuuge numbers of changes to the lighting model once again, but this time mainly in the area of post-processing and ambient light. The end visual effect is pretty different once again, but again getting more refined -- and staying just as performant as the prior version.
  • This also no longer requires the light adaptiveness in dark areas, because that was feeling pretty strange in practice after a while.
  • This has taken pretty much all day, which was a huge pain in the rear. However, it was important to get this done so that the lights in the levels that we're doing can actually be done properly.

• The shader for the raptor is a new completely-custom one created in Shader Forge. This one uses a tiny bit of rim lighting, a generally-specular workflow, and leads to a look that looks good in a variety of kinds of light, although fairly wet in some of them (such is life -- this raptor is apparently pretty wet).

• The base diffuse texture for the raptor has been updated a fair bit to remove some of the unpleasant red highlights that were looking strange in a variety of color/lighting paths, including the new one. It also burns out some of the highlights along its top and back, which gives a better profile combined with the new shader.

• The settings option for disabling beautify is gone, as that is no longer used at all.

• The settings options for editing brightness and contrast are now gone. Instead you can now edit exposure and the "raptor light" brightness. You can also still edit the ambient light amount, which was added in the prior build.

Pre-EA Demo 7

(Released July 15th, 2016)

• There is a new settings option in the main graphics tab called "Ambient Light Boost." This is a much better form of brightness increase, although it's something that can be combined with the other sliders that were already there to get really specific effects for any given monitor.
  • For very high quality monitors with a high brightness range, the defaults give the richest view; for anything with more muted whites, it may seem overly dark, and thus cranking it up by 0.3 or so can get a similar effect to the intended default. Or you can crank it up a huge amount and play in a super bright and colorful game if that's what you want to do.

Lighting, Performance, And Stealth Overhaul

• All of the lights available in the map editor are now MUCH more efficient, and also put off a ton less light. A lot more emphasis is on subtle lighting visuals rather than true illumination of the scene, basically.

• F-stop from 11.89 to 2.57, and then other visual effects have been tuned to make better use of the more sensitive camera lens.

• The first of the stealth mechanics is now in place. It detects when you're in a relatively lit area, and if you are AND you're not currently being seen by a robot that is already aware of you, then a little icon will show that says hidden. While that icon is there, robots that have never been aware of you will not detect you.

• While you are in the middle of an attack, your hidden status goes away. This way you cannot keep yourself stealthy while attacking anything (attempted or actual).

• The ambient lighting is now reactive to light, getting less when you are near other light sources, and getting more so that you can see in areas that would otherwise be dim. This is a lot like your eyes adjusting to the light, and it lets us make a lot of the wall and ceiling lights into something that is more a mix of decorative and gameplay-based versus being responsible for all the illumination of the level.
  • The overall ambient lighting has been reduced since things are so much brighter in general now, and it only adjusts up when the players are in dark areas.

• The raptor's claw swipe now reaches higher, making it easier to hit ceiling lights (or enemies) with it. Before the timing was a bit unforgiving.

• The entire lab demo level has had its lighting completely reworked for the new lens style. The framerate has nearly doubled in many cases.

• All of the enemies have been re-lit, as have their bullets, to work with the new lens. It looks a lot cooler and also is yet again easier on the GPU.

• The industrial demo and all of its lights and effects have been reworked to function properly in the new lens.
  • A ton of lights were removed, because now they are not so required for actually being able to see, and they were a big CPU/GPU hog. The original author was using baked lightmaps that remove that inefficiency, but since we're doing procedural generation elsewhere in the game, in our test scenes (the demos) we've also avoided using baked lightmaps. Makes for a better test that way, and since the demo scenes don't fully work properly with our occlusion system (it works, just not as well as it could), that makes it a better "hopefully closer to worst-case" load scenario, which is also useful.
  • Overall the industrial demo looks a fair bit different now and has less than half as many lights, but the lights that are there are more dramatically used. The overall effect is a more varied progression of a level. The total gain from all the many related changes here is that Chris now gets 90-120FPS steadily whereas before it was 40-80.
  • Also note that in the VERY front hall the lights have been taken out so that you start in a hidden state. This helps to show off the new stealth bits, which is good to have out there right in front.

Level Editor Features And Content

• Ctrl+A now does a select-all in the level editor, so that you can quickly move the orientation of your entire level chunk if you need to. This way if your raptor test starting point is in the wrong location, you can move the level around it. Note that this has absolutely no effect on the actual in-game level chunk when it's being hooked up procedurally into a larger level. Which is good!

• The regular windows now cast shadows again, and so don't cut through walls. They also don't burn with the intensity of a small sun, which makes them not tank the framerate. ;)
  • A more efficient version of the superbright versions that Chris wanted for his hallway are also now in place, also use shadows, and are also vastly more performant than before.

• Fixed a bug in the previous version where you could not properly type in the filename box in the save level window in the level editor.

• The sticking-out white parts of the windows (the lit part) now count as part of the occluder bounds. This prevents them from clipping into other level chunks when procedurally combined.
  • Bear in mind that this _strictly_ enforces the aesthetic rule about not having windows and doors in the same wall. ;)

• The level editor now supports a new function that turns on and off ceilings (and ceiling lights) so that you can edit as if they were not there if you care to do that.

• The editor lights are no longer so blinding when they are on, and the lighting is now fully accurate when they are off (before the ambient light was a bit too high).

• Cornerboards have been added as a new type of wall. You position these at the center of a wall intersection where clipping is otherwise happening -- or where there is light bleed. These block either, and you can select a color for these that nicely accents all of the sides that it sticks through (it is intentionally visible on all sides of the wall). Black often works great!

• The level editor now prevents rotations on invalid axes for doors, to keep them from being placed in wrong ways as easily.

• Wall segments with two door holes in them have been added, joining the wall segments with a door hole just on the left or right.

• Fixed a bug where the gray wallpaper texture was drawing itself in local uv-free space and thus blinking around crazily. Now it is properly set to world coordinate space!

• Nine new apartments from Blue have been added!

• The buttons at the top of the level editor have been rearranged a bit so that the name of the level has a ton more room to display.

• There is now a home furniture section of the level editor which is having the start of the furniture that will be available. Right now it has a bathroom counter, a bathtub, a shower stall, single and double beds, and and L-shaped sofa. There are many skins for each of them.

• The editor now is more sensitive to your dragging motions, making it easier to detail-place objects.

• There is now a slashed wall that you can use inside level chunks to make openings where otherwise there should not be.

• A new single-story staircase has been added, allowing for multi-story apartments.

• At some point scrolling in the load and save windows broke, and is being a real pain to fix. For now it allows for "unrestricted" scrolling that lets you go well beyond the content up or down, but you also have to use the mouse wheel to operate it since the scrollbars were messed up. Will fix in a future version. This at least functions (unless you have no mouse wheel).

Hotfix

(July 13th, 2016)

• Vastly more efficient window lights and sconce wall lights, but a different effect that those have as well visually. This more than doubles the framerate on the corridor by Chris, and reduces draw calls (cached or otherwise) 10x.

• Found a big bunch of uncompressed textures used in the new apartment scenes that were eating up tons of memory bandwidth. Properly compressed them for no quality loss and a dramatic (100x in some cases) drop in GPU bandwidth usage. Good for about 10fps on a really nice rig, and probably a lot more on lower end ones.

• Actually remembered to include the levels parts from Blue and Chris this time!

Pre-EA Demo 6

(Released July 13th, 2016)

• The level editor now has a little dropdown on the right-hand side of the screen that lets you choose skins for specific selected objects.
  • Objects must share the same type of skin for you to be able to multi-edit them, but the objects don't have to be the same type. Aka you can set wall styles on a bunch of different types of walls, but it's highly unlikely you can select a wall and a light and have them share the same skin. ;)
  • Tip: when choosing a skin, the easiest way to tell what the result looks like without selecting and deselecting objects over and over again is to hit Q to go into look mode, which hides all selection highlights. HUGE timesaver!

• Windows now have proper backgrounds rather than being hollow, and act as a light source.

• The lists in the level editor were often not sorted properly, making things quite hard to find in many cases. Fixed.

• Blue's awesome new ceiling and floor holes are now in place instead of Chris's cruddier ones.

• Two new tiny walls (one unit high), and some tiny stairs that are able to go up to them, have been added. These allow for some multi-level parts in rooms.

• Added a new interior buffet window wall, which is well big enough for the raptor to jump though. :)
  • The test apartment from Chris shows off these various new features.

• Six new edge-oriented columns have been added for the purposes of large spaces like the apartment corridors. These are being used in an example context now in Chris's corridor.

Pre-EA Demo 5

(Released July 13th, 2016)

• Fixed a rather horrendous bug in an interim windows build that went live last night. The spiders were self-colliding with their own guns and jittering up out of the level and so forth. In the process of fixing this, their physics were made more efficient, so it's not all bad at least!

• In the third person, swiping the enemy shots now sends them on a reflected arc again, rather than doing the first-person-style aiming. That was causing a LOT of problems for players in the third person who were zoomed back and playing in certain angles.

• Taking multiple hits within 0.9 seconds no longer counts as more than one hit. This way things like the red spiderbot are more likely to make you take a hit, but don't make you take like 12 hits when they get you at close range.

• Fixed an oversight where the GPU-heavy Cinematic Temporal Antialiasing was not properly being turned all the way off when it was disabled. This should help a bit with lower-performance graphics cards.

• Fixed an issue in some recent version (maybe just the last one?) where in the third person view the raptor being in front of the camera too close was triggering the depth of field effect. Yikes!

• Made a number of substantial performance optimizations in various scripts.

• Improved the accuracy of the occlusion system at long distances (doubles the number of raycasts, but in profiling these were a tiny tiny fraction of the performance of each frame anyhow.

Release Raptor Main Page