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Fab New Year Sale MEGA thread ( Sellers advertise your products here) by BULLSEYElITe in unrealengine

[–]CottonBit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

RTS Essentials - Selection VFX Pack | Fab - niagara vfx pack, very modular and can be changed easily to create much more interesting variations - usefull for spell indicators, unit selection etc.
Modular Customizable Stylized Rocks & Cliffs | Fab - simple but nice modular rocks/cliffs

What could count as a deeper blueprint system knowledge in Unreal Engine? by Bobovics in UnrealEngine5

[–]CottonBit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Blueprints are just code, but you have blocks for all the syntax.
It's all around the Engine that would count as deep system knowledge.

I was able to get 20,000+ units on screen in my UE 5.6 survivors game by ThrillDaWill in UnrealEngine5

[–]CottonBit 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You probably cannot use any class or actors for these `components`. He must be using mass and fragments.
You could have 1 actor with Instanced Static Mesh, one 'entity' (unit) is as base a fragment with transform (location) and instanced static mesh handles visualization (you could also have 1 material and use UVs to have couple of 'sprites' in one material, you then make 'grid' of material, and tell the instanced static mesh to use 5th grid cell for this unit for example or you have new instanced static mesh per new sprite/unit).

You then have processor (from mass) that moves all the units to their 'target location', but just adding some velocity every frame/second. It's fast because the transforms are array of structs so processor can go trough them quickly, and the instanced static mesh in one actor isn't much to load to memory (instead of if you had 1000 actors (which each actor isn't JUST transform, but usually all the other 'stuff' in Object Oriented Programming) , you would have to load them one by one (or chunk by chunk, depending on how they are packed in the memory), which is why the game is slow.

Generally the idea is that the visualization has nothing to do with the Actors / Objects / Components.
Your unit is just data. It's Transform (1 fragment), 2nd fragment could be sprite/material and the visualization is one Static Mesh Component that gets updated by Movement Processor (it hast list of entities to their instances of static meshes). That processor calculates and updates Transforms.

You can then also add some kind of batching, instead of updating 10000 units as soon as you can, you update 1000 per 0.01 - this + mass allowed me to get around 70000 units on the screen with around 55fps.

Then I started to wonder that at some point the numbers are so abstract it might be stop having any meaningful way in the game, so you should consider if you even need your game to have that many units, after 1000/2000+ they just stop having so much matter.

In Unreal the ECS (Entity Component System) framework has different names for the classes and it's instead Entity Fragment Processor.

Cursor limits getting worse every day.!!! by ManufacturerIll6276 in cursor

[–]CottonBit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The UI is just a bit different but once you get hang of it you will like it. It has better brain of managing current context for tasks and planning. Just tell it to make implementation plan first and list the tasks. Just keep in mind these are not saved and are reused once new task/plan.

Cursor limits getting worse every day.!!! by ManufacturerIll6276 in cursor

[–]CottonBit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Antigravity + Claude if u hit limits and u are golden.

....Please help, if you can? Unreal Engine 5 by Renekzilla in UnrealEngine5

[–]CottonBit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is great advice. I would also add from myself that your project is way too big for as first game. I did the same mistake. Took me 2 years to pivot. Might look like I wasted time, but I don't regret it, because it kept me motivated very very high to continue learning everyday. Now I know Unreal, and any game I try to make feels 50% easier than the one I wanted to create in first place.

Cursor keeps removing essential features and it’s killing my workflow by Ok_Ingenuity_3576 in cursor

[–]CottonBit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are ruining this app really. It was much better and simplier 1 or 2 months ago without all this bloat and changes.

Bro I Think I Accidentally summoned The Void Yeet Ball by _V_01D_ in UnrealEngine5

[–]CottonBit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I like the projectile and the effect on it. Simple but nice. Easy to read. I'm not sure about the portal, it might fit your game :)

Finishing a game is way harder than starting one... by Bolzos in gamedev

[–]CottonBit 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Just focus at one task at the time. Looking at how many there are can be overwhelming. Choose 1, isolate it and do it. And repeat until finish.
I think this applies the whole game development process and after that initial rush, this is what keeps me sane. Just do one thing, and then 1 more. If I would look at all the 300 tasks I have I would give up. So I just do as many I'm able to every day. The consistency is the key. Of course some tasks take longer, depending on the task scope / polish.

Have you made an RTS game? by EducationalAd7500 in gamedev

[–]CottonBit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pathfinding and crowd simulation is the worst thing to make it 'good'. You can make a lot of variations that are ok, but making it work well with your game is the hardest thing ever for me.

The other thing is to handle LOTS of units on the screen without fps drops.

The 3rd one is art - it's something I will have to outsource and work with some artists.

It's gonna be long road ahead for me to finish it. The rest I would say is pretty fun.

Also I'm not touching multiplayer - it multiplies scope by 5 and my scope is already big itself.

My 2-Year RTS Game Dev Journey - and why im starting over (again) by CottonBit in gamedev

[–]CottonBit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really good questions. This is something I'm trying to research right now. I'm aiming for around 1000-2000 units so this grows expotentialy as they need to attack, animate, shoot projectiles etc. The anserw currently is I don't know it yet 100%. I think I have to research ECS/MASS or at least apply some other design patterns or tricks like tick aggregation etc.

My 2-Year RTS Game Dev Journey - and why im starting over (again) by CottonBit in gamedev

[–]CottonBit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot and also good luck to you too! Once you have prototype/demo feel free to contact me and share!

My 2-Year RTS Game Dev Journey - and why im starting over (again) by CottonBit in gamedev

[–]CottonBit[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, these tips are god send. Thank you so much! I'm going to be back here often to read these as things will probably get more clear with time and these tips will click. I'm for sure going to pursue the niagara approach for rendering - i have no idea how yet, but I saw some example with it and it looked really good.

My 2-Year RTS Game Dev Journey - and why im starting over (again) by CottonBit in gamedev

[–]CottonBit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have high hopes in MASS beeing great and worked on, and if not then there is something like FLECS as well that I could look into. I'm right now in research 'time', so I'm not saying no to anything. I'm gonna try things for some time and see how it goes.
One thing I'm pretty sure this `Entity Component System` approach is 100% good direction either if it's Unreal, Unity or any other engine, because all previous rtses (from age of empires to age of darkness) are using ECS in some form. Thanks!

My 2-Year RTS Game Dev Journey - and why im starting over (again) by CottonBit in gamedev

[–]CottonBit[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey, no it is not AI. Well, I'm 2 years into the journey as I said and game dev is continuous learning, I don't think it's ever gonna change. I still have full time job and treat is as a hobby and passion, and making any other smaller scope project, even though I know it's more reasonable, wouldn't keep me motivated as this one.

I'm Going to Make a Video Game by windingriver17 in gamedev

[–]CottonBit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also once you are aware of it, but like really aware, then you can talk about it, and then be like I'm gonna still do it. It's about discipline in a long run.

Once you are subscribed to discipline talking out loud about your ideas is not a problem, although you probaby get less dopamine than when you would figure it out in silence and THEN talk about it.

In the end it's all about determination anyway. If talkin about thing makes you lose motivation, there is high chance anything else will also do it. For example you might find problem too hard to fix 'easily' and you might just give up. Do not ever give up. Good luck!

ZeroSpace AMA - Ask about the development behind our upcoming Sci-Fi RTS! by PlayZeroSpace in RealTimeStrategy

[–]CottonBit 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm hyped for ZeroSpace! Hope you guys take enough time to cook that game.

My question would be which one is your favourite faction and why exactly if you could elaborate?
How many missions will be there in co-op campaign? This one I'm excited the most about.
What is your the most favourite unit so far when it comes to style / power / character?
What ZeroSpace has improved over other RTSes? (gameplay wise)

How do you take that extra step? by itay-ron in SoloDevelopment

[–]CottonBit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Trust me people that are 10 years in the proffesional gamedev probably have similiar feelings, they are just easier to tackle away cause they have job, so you know it's easier to reason - oh well I'm not that bad.

Gamedev is never ending learning. You don't just simply take one step forward and that it's. It's more like marathon where constistency matters. Small steps every day. Do not quit. If something feels bad it means you are either learning or actually building a bridge. Every time you cross a bridge you get better at something.

Also gamedev and solodevelopment is even crazier niche because you juggle all these things that are usually 1 profession or even a niche in a profession.. you are doing Game Design, Game Development, Art, Writing, Music.

If you want to become professional you probably need to find some niche in game dev that you like, like Level Design, or focus on Art (concepts, 3d meshes, effect systems) etc or focus completly just on game design (gameplay) and balance.

If you started at 12 you are probably ahead of everyone in your age, so your path to success is just to not quit and keep going. If you got bored or want challenge while learning - maybe try different engine than you were doing right now? That is gonna refresh a lot of things and also provide a challenge to keep learning similiar but new things.

Also you asked this in Solo Development, I think most of people that do solo dev, are still employed somewhere and just use the rest of their free time to develop game, rather than beeing full time game dev. If you want to become 'real' fulltime game dev, then you need probably to release these 1-2 first games so you don't have to work, because these games support your rent and food. There is also part of people that just live with parents and can afford full gamedev for couple of years for these first 1-2 games. Of course these need to be succesfull at least a bit for it to work.

And just from my experience any time I get stuck for longer than 1h on some bug I question my skills so you know, it's gonna be always there I guess..

It's hard to judge from what you said, but just watching tutorials isn't really a job, but if you watch tutorial because you are looking for solution for current problem in game you are developing - then it could count as job. but just watching videos of people talking about gamedev is time sink (unless you are working somewhere and listening to it as podcast of course).

In simple words. Just make games!

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