So, how's it going?
- Thread starter Scouse
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EiKON-Mike
EiKONEER
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2011
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Right then... update (and thanks Meg for pointing me at this 'cos I totally missed it 
)
Sooooo.... We had a crappy 2012. The engine we were using (Torque 3D) started givng us horrific "this shouldn't be happening" problems... primarily serious crashes for no easily discernible reason and the performance wasn't good enough when it was stable.
Admittedly we were chucking a lot at it but we also needed to be able to chuck a lot more at it in the future and didn't want to be dealing with such hefty problems this early on (we're a small team, limited resources and time) so we took the difficult to decision to swap engines to something that whilst more expensive also has better support and a much more active, vibrant and supportive community of developers working with it.
So we're now a Unity house.
As with all things it's never a clear cut black and white thing and whilst Unity offers us many advantages it also lags in other areas ...most notably native in-built network support (which is something T3D did very well).
However ...we do now think we have a solution for that and we've had it working in some small regard with 3 of us running around on a beach as our main player character.
In the very near future we're looking at doing a much bigger "friends and family" network stress test with as many close friends as we can muster in the same server just to see what happens.
Right now we're using the free version of Unity which lacks a lot of shaders and extended functions that we really need. To stump up for one Unity License is around £1000 so I need to be sure that this is definitely right for us before we move forward on that but once we have a licence or two we can start making it pretty.
As of right now ...here's a real quick breakdown of what's in the game feature wise:
So ...as I mentioned, once I'm happy I can safely stump up for a licence or 2 to get us rolling properly in Unity 4 Pro then I'll get some screenshots sorted out.
It'll still look a little rough round the edges at this stage obviously so be gentle
If you want to see the sort of thing that Unity can do then have a play with this:
http://unity3d.com/gallery/demos/live-demos#bootcamp
Thanks for you interest - I can't tell you how much we appreciate someone who isn't one of us asking about Epoch. If I fail to answer in a timely manner again I promise it's not deliberate ...I'm just a dopey sod so feel free to email me (mike[at]eikon-games[dot]com) and give me a nudge ...but I'll try to make sure I check back here more often.
)Sooooo.... We had a crappy 2012. The engine we were using (Torque 3D) started givng us horrific "this shouldn't be happening" problems... primarily serious crashes for no easily discernible reason and the performance wasn't good enough when it was stable.
Admittedly we were chucking a lot at it but we also needed to be able to chuck a lot more at it in the future and didn't want to be dealing with such hefty problems this early on (we're a small team, limited resources and time) so we took the difficult to decision to swap engines to something that whilst more expensive also has better support and a much more active, vibrant and supportive community of developers working with it.
So we're now a Unity house.
As with all things it's never a clear cut black and white thing and whilst Unity offers us many advantages it also lags in other areas ...most notably native in-built network support (which is something T3D did very well).
However ...we do now think we have a solution for that and we've had it working in some small regard with 3 of us running around on a beach as our main player character.
In the very near future we're looking at doing a much bigger "friends and family" network stress test with as many close friends as we can muster in the same server just to see what happens.
Right now we're using the free version of Unity which lacks a lot of shaders and extended functions that we really need. To stump up for one Unity License is around £1000 so I need to be sure that this is definitely right for us before we move forward on that but once we have a licence or two we can start making it pretty.
As of right now ...here's a real quick breakdown of what's in the game feature wise:
Realtime (or variable) day / night cycles including sunsets and sunrises etc.
Dynamically updating weather (including rain and reduced visibility)
Character stances (crouch, prone etc.) these also effect movement speed
A basic HUD element with some of the more advanced data being displayed on it
Basic gunfire and player health modelling
Client / Server Networking
Basic vehicle physics modelling (yet to be network proven ...but we have a vehicle rumbling around)
So ...as I mentioned, once I'm happy I can safely stump up for a licence or 2 to get us rolling properly in Unity 4 Pro then I'll get some screenshots sorted out.
It'll still look a little rough round the edges at this stage obviously so be gentle
If you want to see the sort of thing that Unity can do then have a play with this:
http://unity3d.com/gallery/demos/live-demos#bootcamp
Thanks for you interest - I can't tell you how much we appreciate someone who isn't one of us asking about Epoch. If I fail to answer in a timely manner again I promise it's not deliberate ...I'm just a dopey sod so feel free to email me (mike[at]eikon-games[dot]com) and give me a nudge ...but I'll try to make sure I check back here more often.
EiKON-Mike
EiKONEER
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2011
- Messages
- 43
As this is The Internet, you really should think about implementing kittens. The Internet looooves kittens!
But more seriously, it is starting to look really good and very interesting
Kittens, yeah?
K, I'm writing that down ...this is gold I tell ya!
Cheers for the feedback, hoping to have some new screenshots soon.
CorNokZ
Currently a stay at home dad
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2004
- Messages
- 19,779
I haven't had time to read an awful lot about the game just yet(only just discovered this section today..), but will it be class based like other shooters these days? With snipers, marines, medics etc EiKON-Mike?
EiKON-Mike
EiKONEER
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2011
- Messages
- 43
Hi CorNokZ
The plan right now is not to restrict players to specific roles as such but rather give them access to weapons and kit that will allow them to perform specific roles - the idea being that you can mix and match. We obviously need to place some restrictions on what you can carry with what and how much of anything you can carry less every player become a one man army.
Should you wish to change roles mid game then all you need do is visit an ammo / kit depot and change what you're carrying to suit the new role.
The plan right now is not to restrict players to specific roles as such but rather give them access to weapons and kit that will allow them to perform specific roles - the idea being that you can mix and match. We obviously need to place some restrictions on what you can carry with what and how much of anything you can carry less every player become a one man army.
Should you wish to change roles mid game then all you need do is visit an ammo / kit depot and change what you're carrying to suit the new role.
