Weekly devlogs: Rogue Legend 2
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The Joy of Painting With Math - February 6 Weekly Devlogs
Ok, I've got all my files back, gotten caught up on my code, and even got something done enough to be included in the update!
Most users seem to have performance issues be their major limiter, so that's been my focus. Unfortunately, it's both extremely hard to do and doesn't result in much but "performance is better." I've complained about that before, so let's look at the current issue.
Triangles! So many tris! Voxels create a lot of tris, because a flat wall isn't just 2 tris like it should be, it's 16x16 blocks, which results in 512 tris with no visual difference. So I've been putting together a mesh simplifier, and it doesn't really work yet. I did however get it working with the simplified collision mesh, so here's the end result of a more complicated piece that's been properly simplified:
You can see from the black lines the original mesh, and the green lines are the simplified version. Unfortunately, it has errors with more complicated meshes and I can't get the UVs working on the simplified mesh, but the physics engine needs neither of those things so it can go into this release. This is just fine because it's a noticeable improvement on performance, since physics was one of the major slowdowns. Not the biggest, that's still the draw (number of tris), but an improvement. On that note if you have ANY IDEA how to get the UVs and complex mesh simplification working then please contact me! It's probably the fact that it's producing non-manifold edges with more than 2 facets attached during collapse, and if that made sense to you then maybe you can.
Patch Notes * Improved performance. See what I mean?!
Tri More Things - February 13 Weekly Devlogs
This is the state of my UVs after multiple attempts and different techniques.
I couldn't get the UVs working, since simplifying the mesh made a mess of the order. After many searches using terms that SHOULD have revealed the results, a totally weird and random search landed me on triplanar mapping which is a technique for applying textures without the use of UV coordinates.
The good news is it works, mostly.
There's still some blurring/stretching at corners, but it's usable enough that I can put it in this week's build and apply my mesh simplifier to SOME geometry (mostly cubes and terrain). The other tradeoff is triplanar mapping is expensive, it triples the render to project each side. That said, it doesn't really affect performance on my machine as much as the reduced tris, so it should be a net gain overall.
While this reduces tris, my mesh simplifier doesn't work for more complicated meshes like houses, which means the tris are still high in town and performance suffers as a result. Still, it should be better than it was.
Patch Notes * Improved performance
Big Chunkus - February 22 Weekly Devlogs
This has been the toughest thing to get working thus far, but it also has the largest performance impact.
While it's not done yet, the performance improvements are big enough (and I'm late enough on an update) to put this up. In my tests, FPS more than doubled, and tris are halved. This isn't even with all the tilesets working yet, but the one in the screenshot above is the most common so it should have a very noticeable influence on your performance in game.
I'll be continuing to get all the tilesets working and implemented with this at which point I'll be done with performance (and the game should be running much better for everyone).
Patch Notes * Big performance improvement
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Shout outs: Stacey, Phil Mehl, Wesley Muncy, elijah D. maben, R., bruschkin, Vincent Drone, thea musing, Brian Nunziato, Matt Yates, Elisa Martinez, Ryan Flagg, Jade Arrowood, Angelo Anderson, Dave Walker, Rhonda Seiter, Alexa Hobusch, Jonathan Lekse, Katie White, JollyGamer, Tiernan Greenman, Burlyfighter, Gillian Tolbert, David R Abbott, ツ Htz_Michelle, Rick Marsh, Brittany DeNicholas, Phillip Hash, Amanda Kettles, John Trent Dumproff, Lou Bliss, Pythor Sen, Desedent, Michael Isberg, Nat, Thomas Wilhelm, Krueger82, Irate The Pirate, Mark L, Conall Reilly, Cam Largent, Siren, AstroLass, Lizzie, Michael Hamilton, Vedie V, Mylon Schroder, Nathan, Jordan Florez, Robert Rich, Rodney O'Dell, Robin Ellis-Foster, Jess, Lars Yell, Zee Livezey, Kevin, Kerry Melton, Mary Kieser, SallySparrow132, Naomi B, J, Millergendraft, Federica Frezza, Nick Soucy, Ellen Mitchell, Melanie Warga, Jeremiah Walker, Bryan Sheairs, Bryan Kempka, chris wilson, Max Hops, Sarah Holland, Joshua David Maddox, Jennifer Smith, Liz Fontain, Ray Bissonnette, Joe Dalby, Joline Tran, Nicholas Zamora, ShortyMcgibble, Mr. Vinclair, mtnman1979@aol.com, KFB_Patreon, eric sun, Kayleigh Sulin, Dani, Gundar Wez, Nahellion, Nicholas Hanke, bilbens baggo, Stuart, Brysen Packer, Maxwell Mayer, Gannon Dubay, Thobek, Aaron Teupe, Mage1X, XMrMonkyx ., Miss Zilla M, Jordan Brazeal, Kyle Clark, Jake Lane, Adam Ruiz, Phillip P Torchia, Stefan Gottschalk's, Remora Jewel, Alex Harford (VA7OMM), jeremy baisch, Daniel Edwards, Zealot23, Shane Andrews, Brandon Mußiq, CJMAXP, Dylan Rintoul, Lisa Tucker, KingHavok1217, Mx Charlie, Justin Snyder, Zachary Burgess-Hicks, Shazear, Steve Rosenlund, Ezzela1891, John Nazario, Gordon Alexander Fallon, Justin Stensgard, Jason Clark, Trey Vickory
Their contribution stands as a beacon of hope for all adventurers!
