Deadlock 0.4.8 - We need your feedback

Deadlock version 0.4.8 is online and available to all Spearheads and Frontliners. Remember that you can get access to Deadlock and help speed-up the development of Interstellar Marines by upgrading your profile to Spearhead or Frontliner in our store.

Summary

Since the last build we’ve moved into our new (and smaller) office in an effort to save money and keep developing on the game.

After the move we started migrating the project to Unity 4 (from previously running on Unity 3.5), which unfortunately took a lot longer than we had planned for. Basically there were some fundamental changes in the new engine which caused a lot of small problems with our old pipeline and code.

As a result almost all of the time for the last 3 weeks have been spent cleaning up and getting everything to work again in the new engine. So this build turned out to be mostly about maintenance. Fortunately there’s been some nice optimizations in our workflow, and we fixed a couple of vital bugs in the process that had been around for a while.

But most importantly we are now set-up in new offices and on the latest version of Unity, so we can get back to progressing the actual game from here on out!

When we actually get to play the game will we be able to customize our suit. including helmet color, flashlight color. Will we be able to change the suit's vision like night vision, EM Vision, Infrared Vision, Thermal Vision, Optic Vision.

Does our suit include an oxygen Tank to supply air when atmospheres are depressurizing and pressurizing. Add a few air Dispensers and maybe add an Air monitor on the hud just in case you want to know the level of oxygen. Maybe include hazardous areas that require an air filter.

What about a zero-g environment? floating through air and dodging attacks while firing back. I mean people don't always want to walk but maybe float to make it a more real-like environment.

I just bought this last week. I have only ever seen just a single person playing though, and he was new like me. What gives? With this new update I expected some more people to play.
it's mostly crowded. today was the only time I found the servers empty. Better luck next time.

Unity4 is vastly improved for performance. That being said, there is still much that can be done.

Shader 1 (SSAO):
Much improved from before, though it is highly sensitive to dynamic lights (the klaxons for instance). In more static lighting conditions, it is only a 20fps drop or so. With the klaxons, SSAO gives me a drop of about 30-40fps
Can we get settings for SSAO quality and samples?

Shader 2 (Brightness/Color Correct):
No appreciable impact on FPS. Awesome.
However, this does seem to wash the color out a bit too much (for my tastes)

Shader 3 (Bloom/Coronas):
About a 5fps impact for me. Almost negligible.

Shader 4 (HUD Blur):
This seems far too heavy. I'm getting about a 7fps drop. Would it not be simpler to just change to a different HUD overlay with the feathering baked in instead of using an apparently costly shader?

Shader 5 (Vignetting/Vaseline):
Another pricey shader, costs me about 7-8fps in most situations. Surely, vignetting could be accomplished with less impact by using semi-transparent texture overlays instead of a costly shader, yes?

Shader 6 (Edge Smoothing):
About a 18-20fps hit for me. I find it also muddies up the ground textures, etc. I keep it off honestly, takes away the crispness of the things you've created.

Some performance gotchas:
The lightning. Oh, the lightning.

I typically play with shaders 1,3,5 enabled for what I think "looks best". For what works best for competitive play, I use everything off except Shader 2.

ATTENTION LINUX USERS i am not sure if this works but this might help with the not being able to play deadlock problem http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/20888/what-ca
n-i-do-for-linux-support.html basically it says install google chrome due to it supporting native client

The facts is that despite the obvious maintenance overhead ... we have talked about combining all images effects into one script ... to make it 3-4x faster overall as we do not have to recalculate each shader pass pr. image effect. (Hope this makes sense) ... That's the challenge of doing pre-pre-alpha development ... it's not always logical to do performance optimizations all the time! :)

Regarding the image effects settings in general ... you know that we're going for ultra high sci-fi realism and not glowing, colorful, lens flared madness ... "cough" Battlefield 3 "cough" Halo 4 ... but this is a process and we're still a long way from the expression we want ... and at that point not all images effects will be toggleable (for competitive reasons) as gameplay will saturate every artistic choice we make! (Exhausted from sprinting will distort your vision via DOF, color correction, vignette etc.) and so forth!

But, rest assured I/we will listen and evaluate carefully in regard to everybody's shit-filter on look and feel!

No problem Hicks :) I just wanted to point out how each one behaves currently.

If I run native (1280x1024 @ 75fps) on Fastest with everything off, I'm typically getting about 125fps solid. If I turn it up to Fantastic and keep everything off, I'm usually around 79fps or so.

In the previous Deadlock builds on Unity 3.x, I'd be at about 25fps on Fantastic with everything off and about 50fps on Fastest at native.

This represents a HUGE step forward in playability for myself, and I'd imagine most other people.

I realize you're going for a realistic vision for the game, and I completely agree with doing that. However, I think the color correct filter is a bit TOO aggressive. I have a high density of cone cells in my retina, as I imagine most other people do, so I see the world as a fundamentally colorful and vibrant place.

The effect of the color-correct filter is most prominent in the sunset period on the outside level. With it off, the world looks rich and colorful, as it should during the setting of the sun. With it on, everything gets very washed out and the visual impact of the setting sun is lessened considerably.

I just want to caution you against making the mistake that many make in that "real" has to look like 50 shades of gray & brown everywhere.

I do like the idea that you'll present a consistent visual experience for competitive reasons, though I do think you (when you get there) should discuss with the community exactly what VFX they agree should be mandatory, and what ones should be optional. For instance, SSAO is not something that will render player shadows into the world, correct? So I would say this should be optional as it provides no tactical advantage, and can be quite heavy for some. Things like that need to be considered. I do think that using desaturation, vignetting, DOF changes, possibly image smearing, and other "stress" effects when fatigued/damaged/poisoned would serve to add depth to the gameplay, so I completely agree.

If you combined all the various effects into one script, what would happen? Would we still be able to toggle each effect, or would it simply be a ON/OFF for all 6 shaders?

I know it would be a massive bit of extra work, but would you ever consider making multiple scripts that are combinations of the various settings users could choose? So a script with everything off, a script with everything on, a script with just 1,3,5 on, etc? Again, I realize there are a large number of combinations of the various effects, but in this manner, each option would be fully optimized to run well, correct?

In any case, I look forward to continued testing and experience with IM. I've been... dis-involved for a long time and it was really exciting for me to get back in and to think critically about the game.