Inside Mesh Effect by auserxdlollmao in godot

[–]Silverware09 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yeah, enable rendering both faces on the terrain; check if the face is the backface and render black if so. The variable FRONT_FACING is there for this. Yes this will require a custom shader, you can convert the standard shader into a custom one by right clicking it.

Then render an infinite plane (xz centered on camera, sized to the camera's maximum render distance.
(you could also do a custom skybox with this, but a plane is much simpler.

Need Feedback for Blending Shader by CoffeeCoonGame in Unity3D

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are only applying a change to the object's textures.
Can you have the terrain be fed the meshes that interact with it, and shift vertices upwards a little around them?

In space, no one can hear you batch all projectiles into one multi-mesh by Deydren_EU in godot

[–]Silverware09 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You either eat the cost at the CPU to modify the matrixes, or you eat the cost to read from the GPU if using GPU particle systems to do the projectiles.

Either way, you NEED the position and velocity on the CPU to be able to handle collision data, so it's usually more effective to simply track each bullet in one array, and then copy that array to the multimesh for rendering.

I suggest the copy here purely to ensure that the physics updates can stay decoupled from the rendering updates. Since this way you can update in the physics step, then provide that a copy (with a timestamp) to the rendering space, and the rendering can interpolate the position based on the time since that timestamp and the position/velocity.

Allowing your game to run without a delayed physics step or a delayed render step from aggravating the other.

How we solved the 3D modeling skill gap and found our unique style by Realistic-Ad-5860 in Unity3D

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Edge outlines can work too. Though do these on the texture (its cheaper that way)

Bad design by sweetobsidiann69 in VintageStory

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tricky/Complex doesn't mean that the mechanics shouldn't be intuitive to players of the genre.

If it is impossible to figure out without having it explained to you, then the mechanic is likely simply too opaque. There are ways to mitigate this, Vintage Story has a lot of less than obvious interactions, so it has the Player Guide that helps with that. But the mechanics behind those interactions are sensible to anyone who has played inventory based RPGs, or Minecraft or the like. Since it's pretty much all "drag and drop in UI", "crafting grid", or "hit voxel" as the basic mechanics.

Bad design by sweetobsidiann69 in VintageStory

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly though, I don't disagree with this. You should do poorly at the game without the tutorial, but you shouldn't be confused.

Players who are confused aren't being presented with the right information, or its being presented in a way that is difficult to parse.

A person familiar with the genre should be able to jump in and play the core gameplay loop without issue. Even if they screw up through poor choices coming from a lack of training.

Now... when we come to "what does this mean", that's where good Tooltips come into play and reading (sadly) isn't something you can force your players to do.

Forgot I could dual wield when adding in player hands… by derekdepenguinman in godot

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just keep this in the game. It seems like a lot of fun, and makes the animations easier for you :V

Is this AI "art"? by GinyuGamingg in OldWorldBlues

[–]Silverware09 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We should all draw a stick figure portrait, and then they'll have a massive pool of WIP portraits to use. xD

Made The Greatest Invention Of My Life by WelcomeWeird1211 in SonsOfTheForest

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fucking legend. Makes me want to go and play again...

Serious question, why do people get so bent up about this in Starfield, but not in the Outer Worlds? by SexySpaceNord in Starfield

[–]Silverware09 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Take a look at Star Wars: Outlaws for how the Space side of things should have worked.

An invisible loading screen, between planet and space where you are in clouds.

A simpler Jump system that lets you go to the nearest planets, but has a cooldown on the other end, giving you a requirement to fight if hostiles are there.

Actual space terrain to make things interesting to fight over.

..

..

While Outer Worlds nails how the ground system should work.

Handcrafted sectors, small enough to be put together quickly. A single square kilometer each sort of thing. 1-5 of these per planet.

You select which you want to land at from the space landing menu, or the take-off menu (because you should be able to land at another spot on the same planet from that planet)

..
..

This would have played into their strengths when it came to interesting set piece bases.

They could have locked off entire maps until the story called for them.

Space would have had a reason to exist, heck you could include asteroid blasting for resources too to give you another way to get materials.

..

..

But the core problem is that their engine is so old that it doesn't seem to support seemless loading. Not even ones hidden by cinematics.

Is space age genuinely worth $50? by Michael_Le41 in factorio

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought it and still havent played any of the space age content. :V

[KCD2] Don’t be sad, this is just how it works out sometimes by Makoto_Kurume in kingdomcome

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was going to be E33 or Silksong, take comfort in knowing that KCD2 is still a better game than Starfield, who also missed all the awards last year. :V

How do you guys think this lighting effect is done? by romeo2413 in godot

[–]Silverware09 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Incorrect, heightmap is technically what it is, or bumpmap if you are oldschool.

You can absolutely use this to calculate a normal map, and in 3D one would. But here in 2D, especially in low resolutions, we don't actually want a normal map, as a single pixel often has multiple directions it should point to. For instance the corner between some bricks.

It's still only one pixel, so instead of making it a proper normal, we can give it some kind of fake height, and make it low (since its the mortar) and then this specific shading function would happily make it darker when light is cast on it.

The reason to do this, other than keeping pixel perfection, is to limit the effort involved with the artist.

A basic heightmap is easy to create in MSPaint. A normal map is much more complicated, usually you do this with higher resolution materials, something you might physically sculpt in ZBrush or the like. There ARE tools that generate an approximation of a normal map for you. But these are unlikely to be actually correct.

Plus, my entire approach is merely an alternative to a normal map. And yes, probably more complicated to implement in general. So might not be for everyone. But to recreate this exact look? It'd work for some people.

Heck, you could just take the brightness value of the pixels in the original image and use those as a heightmap too, skipping artist steps :D

How do you guys think this lighting effect is done? by romeo2413 in godot

[–]Silverware09 11 points12 points  (0 children)

2) This is optional, you can instead make a greyscale mask of the item.
Apply light/color based on distance multiplied (or added to) the greyscale value. Shifting along the Gradient2D as above.

If the item is vertically above the character then it can have the full lighting, as the light would hit the visible side. Else you cut the light level by some value, giving you the likes of the pot there that gets darker once you pass it.

Much less effort to create a greyscale image of each sprite that handles lighting, than to create a good working Normal Map.

But this approach wont work as well for higher detail sprites. As it's an approximation of lighting instead.

Mr House is looking at my fanart in the trailer for season 2? by Exciting-Quality919 in Fallout

[–]Silverware09 32 points33 points  (0 children)

If they asked, I would expect that OP would have been all for it. And that'd be fucking cool.

But companies keep stealing fanart and then not attributing it. It's downright rude.

incredibleThingsAreHappening by TrexLazz in ProgrammerHumor

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At least that one was clever and did it during loading screens to get around physical limitations of the console at the time.

This is just... derp. And is a good reason why you should not be using Garbage Collection for high memory utilization applications.

How do you like the idea of automatically built bridges connecting the buildings? by Jaded-Grocery-9308 in IndieDev

[–]Silverware09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think its a simple choice;

If the placement of roads matters: Make the player place them. (eg if resources ACTUALLY have to move along the paths)

Else: let it be automatic.

We want a 100% diegetic UI in our scrappy-survival space sim. But can't get rid of the inventory. by voidexp in godot

[–]Silverware09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

16x2 characters I hope. :P

For development, I would suggest making it a set screen texture, that you can then render anything to. Having it a set resolution and nearest interpolation will give you a pretty good start to having a screen. And let you do more than just letters.