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PURE ONYX - May 2, 2019 Test Release
🕑 Added 2019-05-03 03:21:47 +0000 UTCHey guys!
As promised, I'm posting our most current build of Pure Onyx! That being said, we simply ran out of time and still have a couple of days worth of work to fix issues that were left for last, We'll therefore be releasing another build in the next few days that should be a lot more presentable, and I strongly recommend waiting for that.
P.S. if you intend on leaking the release, wait for that one >_>.
PLEASE READ!
This is by all means still a test release of basic mechanics and, well, probably isn't fun yet -- especially with all the cosmetic/input issues. Mr. Kittyhawk has put in a real Herculean effort on back-end stuff and it'll take a bit to realize the value of it. Admittedly though, we bit off too much for one release and spent way more time debugging than I wanted to. There are some serious bugs and a lot of cosmetic issues, so here's the bad news and known issues up-front so that you can temper your expectations :D.
KNOWN ISSUES / BUGS / TO DO
- If the game does not start and you get a "Unable to switch screen resolution" error, we believe it's because your display is set to 120 hz. As a temporary fix, try setting it to a 60 hz mode and the game should start.
- The H system will break if your Windows date/time/number format locale is not set to English (US). We only discovered this today and haven't had time to debug it. If this issue affects you I honestly recommend waiting for the fix that we will hopefully have in a few days.
- Characters may come coated in an ugly green and red noise. Let us know if you experience this. We know it's related to the Vulkan API but haven't pinpointed the cause.
- Enemy animations are very ugly at the moment because they haven't been tweaked for the new physics engine. It was simply low on our priorities and we didn't get to it. Their movement speed does not sync up with their animation playback speed. There are some visual glitches in their death animation. When knocked down they appear to pause in mid air briefly.
- The H system is functional but not at full quality. There's only one H scene instead of the intended two for this release. Transitions are not in place yet and animation quality isn't 100% yet. H sounds are basic until we extend our audio capabilities for the H system. Enemies don't have a grab animation yet, and there's no cue to avoid it, so it's very jarring when it happens.
- We've temporarily disabled returning to the main menu after the game level has loaded. This is due to some AI issues we haven't gotten to tackle yet.
- There's no kind of lust system in place yet, so for now grappling difficulty is randomized. It's currently much easier on a keyboard.
- Onyx's move set animations aren't in yet -- we're still using the old ones from last release. It will be a major focus of the next major release (the old and new skeletons are incompatible).
- For now, when an H scene ends, it loops back to the struggle portion.
- The input system is in transition while we adjust for the physics engine. In general it does not feel good yet. For now there's a small but noticeable lag in movement that exists to prevent physics anomalies, and Onyx flickers between some poses (this is where transitional animations will happen once her actual animations are in place).
- Jump and knockdown physics haven't been tuned.
- The draw order on the characters engaged in an H scene is incorrect. They currently display in front of everyone else.
- Enemy AI occasionally hangs in Idle state until they are hit. This happens most frequently after getting up from being stomped while on the ground.
- Jump kick only damages enemies immediately after it's triggered, as opposed to the standard behavior of hitting all enemies in the way as Onyx falls.
- Punches thrown immediately after a struggle scene do not land.
- Enemy punches sometimes miss Onyx.
- Enemy AI produces some anomalies during H scenes.
- Onyx's first stomp attack will sometimes miss a knocked down enemy.
- Sometimes Onyx plays two vocal sound effects at once.
- Punch/damage sound effects do not play when a character dies.
- Onyx can get launched way into the air if she gets knocked down right as she jumps.
- Onyx teleports to the ground if she gets killed in mid air.
- H attacks won't connect with Onyx while she's standing up from being knocked down (the short period in between knockdown and idle poses).
- Onyx being knocked down in the air can cause some anomalies.
- Enemies can stunlock Onyx by attacking while she's standing up. They need additional behavior logic for this case.
- Missing the dust cloud effects when Onyx jumps/lands/characters are knocked down.
- Splicers that spawn after the first wave do so in their defensive pose instead of idle.
- Onyx can appear in both Defend and Walk poses simultaneously.
- Liquid particle FX in H scenes currently do not render at the correct depth. They render behind all characters right now.
- The camera doesn't center on the action in an H scene yet. We'll adjust camera controls once we add that capability.
- The probability for new bugs is *very high* since we've done so much work on the back-end. We really need your feedback! If you notice anything not on this list, especially graphical errors or issues with starting up / crashing / exiting, please let us know!
CHANGELOG
Now for some very good news! We know how to fix pretty much all of the above issues, and just need the time to do it :D. We can do much more frequent bite-sized updates and fixes now that we're past the major back-end overhaul. At any rate, here's a list of the positive changes for this release.
- Enemy AI has been added! They will no longer home in on you like punchy torpedoes, but will instead juke, charge, and even attempt to flank Onyx. We will add more behavior patterns in later updates.
- Replaced the "arcade mode" with an "infinite wave" mode for now. Enemy AI will become increasingly aggressive and more difficult up through about Wave 20. The wave # is displayed in the upper left corner.
- Pressing F1 will enable the developer UI overlay, which currently shows actor states, enemy AI behavior, hitboxes, and collision geometry.
- Updated enemy animations. As mentioned above, this will be much more positive once we actually tune them to the physics engine :D.
- Re-coded combat from scratch and removed virtually all third party code. Don't expect huge changes on your end yet -- our goal this time around was to get it back into a playable state (we're almost there >_>).
- We now have true dynamic physics, and have retooled combat to function around it.
- Added physics collision to enemies / Onyx (characters now bump into each other instead of clipping through them).
- Characters no longer hang up or fly into infinity when they collide with borders.
- Reworked animation queuing system so that characters can’t be in multiple states at once.
- The combat H system has been added
- Added a combo system (now we just need combos for it <_<). Input can now receive complex commands for things like special moves.
- Particle FX for H scene liquids have been added
- Added an H scene for Splicer Thugs
- Added 3D positional audio
- Added additional SFX for combat
- Stomp is now performed with Down + Kick
- Added Vsync to prevent microstuttering and physics anomalies
- Hitboxes have been adjusted, but keep in mind Onyx's real animations aren't in yet.
- Collision system is much more robust and can handle things like multiple colliders for AoE attacks.
- Updated to Vulkan and Unity 2018.3. May change to DirectX 12 pending bug reports.
DOWNLOAD LINK
Pure Onyx - May 2, 2019 Test Release on MEGA
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Currently only Windows 7/8/10 are supported. We plan on adding additional platforms if there is a demand.
8 GB of RAM and at least a 2GB graphics card are heavily recommended. If you get poor performance please let us know and post your system specs (or send to eromancergames@gmail.com ); we’re still in the early stages of gauging system requirements.
CONTROLS
Keyboard:
- Movement = Arrow Keys
- Menu Controls: Confirm = X, Cancel = Z
- Punch = Z
- Kick = X
- High Kick = X + X
- Ground kick = Down + X
- Defend = C
- Jump = Space
- Zoom In = Left Shift
- Zoom Out = Left Control
- Skip H Animation = Z / Space
- Escape = Pause Menu
- F1 = Toggle Debug Overlay
- F2 = Toggle Vsync (not recommended except for testing)
- Quit = F12
Currently Supported Controllers: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Dual Shock 4**
** The popular community made DS4 Windows drivers cause Unity to recognize a DualShock controller as an Xbox gamepad, and we can't tell them apart in code. This means that you'll be gifted with the untold joy of having your controller mapped by default with the wrong controls. You can fix it by rebinding the PS4 controller map, or removing the DS4 Windows drivers. (The latter is HARD, a simple uninstall isn't going to be enough)
BUG REPORTS
If you find a bug we haven’t listed in our known issues, please post the following with your description of the bug.
- Operating System (if Windows, tell us 7/8/10, etc.)
- Screenshot if applicable
- Can the bug be reproduced? If so, tell us how!
- OS language if different than English
Short Term Future Plans!
I've decided tacking on small sections to an arcade mode each release wouldn't make for a very fun development cycle. It simply wouldn't add much playability to this kind of game. Instead, I'd like the completed Arcade Mode to be the major milestone for a retail release -- akin to how many games use the single player campaign for this road marker.
So, how do we get more content out of this style of game without needing a lot of additional assets? The current idea is a "Mission Mode". Bite-sized playable sections with a spread of different objectives. The objectives behave similarly to different game modes, and would include things like time trials, survival, and more unique experimental stuff. There will be a basic progression system, and once you reach certain goals you'll unlock new missions, including boss battles. If we have the opportunity to down the road, we can eventually adapt this into a full fledged story mode.
We can eventually construct the arcade mode from everything we produce for the mission mode. I feel the mission mode can be enjoyable and diverse enough to merit a pre-release on Steam.
Thanks as always guys, and please give us your feedback!
- EROMANCER
Comments
Jeno
My pleasure! I hope it helped :)
Glad you're not seeing off the edge of the map anymore Venus! I tested that with emulation, but sometimes things don't work out quite the same on real hardware
I have to say that's one of the stranger bugs we've seen, thanks for speaking up about it!
Jeno
Oh! I hadn't realised that's what you meant. Indeed, switching that to English (Belgium) fixed the issue :) the left-right prompts appeared
It's a possibility I'll ask the programmer about for sure! In the meantime though, date/time/number formats are actually independent of system language. It's changed here: <a href="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/418449471760891904/573706044530884649/unknown.png?width=958&height=441" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/418449471760891904/573706044530884649/unknown.png?width=958&height=441</a>
Jeno
Thanks for the quick reply! My system language is set to English but mashing left right does nothing (that was indeed my assumption based on similar games). I do not however have a qwerty keyboard. I have a French layout set... is that the issue? This is what I see: <a href="https://i.postimg.cc/cCymKJs6/onyx.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/cCymKJs6/onyx.jpg</a>
Mash the left/right keys or direction on controller. If the struggle gauge isn't present you may be experiencing a bug that can occur when your OS date format isn't set to English (US). Apparently works with English (UK) too. It has something to do with how Unity is parsing periods/commas in our H system metadata, but haven't gotten to tackle it yet.
Jeno
So I'm a bit late to the party, but how do you break free of a struggle?
John Smith
I appreciate that the gallery suggests you won't be making the mistake a lot of other games seem to make (in my opinion). They create an enemy and only assign one h-move to it. So the game ends up having 10 unique enemies and only ten moves. I'd much prefer a game that has 5 enemies and 30 different interactions, perhaps some based on damage or corruption or w.e. Anyway, just saying I'm happy it seems like enemies will have multiple h-moves. Such a waste when games design and build assets and only use them for one interaction.
The build I just posted may work for you. It may be slow though :X -- if you try it please let us know how it goes!
Also, could you give a bit more info on the sound you're hearing? There's no sound on the main menu @_@. Is it the level music?
Can you send your log file to eromancergames@gmail.com? Also your system specs? The log file is located at C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Eromancer\Pure Onyx\output_log.txt The previous demo didn't have a physics engine, which pretty much requires a discrete GPU. Integrated graphics would yield unpredictable results, so that's one possibility. Let us know!
Robert Dant
When I launch the program, the menu sound plays but I have a black screen, and the previous demo didn't do this. Sad.
MangoFishSocks
I appreciate you putting this build out there. You promised a release date after a delay and it wasn't working out, but you bit the bullet and kept your promise anyway, with the appropriate warning flags attached. Weird thing, people are having trouble with 120hz, but I ran the game on a 144hz monitor just fine. English UK system locale.
You can zoom with the right analog stick or Shift/Ctrl on keyboard. We will add a bone to the skeleton that the camera can track so that it centers on it better. We'll also probably have some scripted zoom when the scene starts, because I agree default zoom doesn't look good.
CrazyDiamond
Quick question: Is it planned to have the camera zoom in at all during H scenes? Right now the camera seems a little removed from the action.
Thanks a lot for the detailed report ^-^. This bug is caused by displays being set to 120 hz refresh rate. If it's possible to put it in a 60 hz mode that should solve it. We're going to look at solutions ASAP for this one :D.
Hammer
Unable to start. The specific error window is: Unable to switch screen resolution. It then says it is trying to lower the monitor resolution. But fails a pile of times before stopping the attempt. Reproducible every time just by opening the Onyx app. Windows 10 Home. Updated as of May 3. 11 GB VRAM, 16 GB RAM, 300 GB free HD space. NVidia GTX 1080 Ti. Intel i7-8th gen. 2560x1660 native resolution (apple 30" cinema display on Display Port). I'll email a screencap.
I'd like for more content to have been in the release also, but we need a stable H system before we can show the content :D. We definitely pushed too far ahead on the AI stuff for one release without having the physics engine stable yet, and it took a while to get straightened out.
Stuff like that is now possible since we have a behavior system in place :D.
We'll look into this one ASAP. I suspect however that it's due to your graphics hardware being integrated and not a dedicated GPU. I'm not sure if it supports Vulkan. I'll check with Mr. Kittyhawk as soon as he's back online!
Dee
Feels like they have been pretty transparent about this whole thing to me... I mean, it HAS been a long time since MatM content but they explained why like half a dozen times. It's still buggy obviously but the quality on this game seems pretty high and they are pounding through it pretty fast considering. When this game is done and the devs have their cash cow and MatM updates are STILL not happening, I think complaining at that time about lack of content is more appropriate.
Freeko Suave
Yet there has been no mention of MatM the last three months. Seems like a bait and switch to me.
Venus
MatM is not canceled just put on hold until PO is done. The updates for the inner circle is more regular but yeah we all wish to see the team output more work. Slave drivers the lot of ya!
Venus
Tested at 21:9 and its looking great. I see the AI is handling the button mashing a little better. I really wish they had a hard counter to button mashing. Like three punches and they counter attack. Still very rough though.
Craldo
Hey Ero, when i try to start the game i only get a pink screen on my windows 10 Laptop . Intel HD 3000 Graphic Card. Intel I-5 2520 M 2.5 GHZ.
Sorry, not going to lie I'm pretty disappointed with this release, I thought more content would have been added from the last release, and also, I don't know why you gave up MATM, the storyline was strong and was very keen for the next update but unfortunately, you gave it up. I love you guys but would like to see more content being produced having the time you have between updates
Yup there are a few glitches with their death animation depending on what animation they came from. There's another where their pants and hands have the wrong draw order. It's an easy fix and will be in the update :D. As for the date thing, it's likely unexpected behavior with how Unity is parsing our H scene metadata. H animations have a bunch of data we feed the engine so it knows things like what speed to play at, whether it should loop, and so on.
Velgarn
I tested out the bug and is quite hilarious to see turbo-H-content. I wonder why is the system date which causes that. Anyway i noticed that when you kill the splices and they fall with the face down, the spit particle of when you hit them remains in the death frame on the top right or left, depending on where they are facing
That's what I suspected due to the hz = 0 bit, and thanks for confirming :D. Right now vsync is forced to keep the physics engine wrangled, but this isn't ideal. I'll see what Mr. Kittyhawk suggests as we may need a more thorough temporary solution.
Gilver
i7-8086k, 2080ti. 120hz monitor. Looks like it's the refresh that is causing the issue. If I turn it down to 60hz then start the game it works, it seems to work fine back at 120hz after the application has started. But I have to set it to 60hz every time I start the game.
Good news, I was able to reproduce it on one of my laptops :D. Bad news, gotta wait for Mr. Kittyhawk to wake up to debug it ;(
Could you give us a bit of info about your system? Graphics card / monitor?
Gilver
Getting an error I try to start the game. "Switching to resolution 1920x1080 failed, trying lower one All resolution switches have failed" Screen: could not switch resolution (1920x1080 fs=1 hz=0)
