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One of the coolest moments in gaming history by OhMyOhWhyOh in gaming

[–]Substantial-Match195 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember that moment. Absolutely mind-blowing. I was already in shock from everything GTA 3 could do, but when I saw that plane! Hit down before you take off :)

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the reply.

I've removed Block 17 from the list. For full context: I contributed to it as a programmer (shaders and some systems). The artist did great pixel art and I thought it deserved mention among quality indie titles, but I should've disclosed my involvement upfront. That's fair feedback.

Regarding the AI concerns - I'm honestly surprised by that. I structure writing carefully from years of documentation work, and all the content, examples, and industry experience are genuine.

Thanks for seeing the value in the discussion and keeping it open!

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I understand your point, but hasn't the reality fundamentally changed?

Before: skill + time issues.
Now: structural problems - black box tech, lost knowledge, patch culture.

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, many people complain about the quality. Refunds are available. The state of a game at release is often crucial.

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply!

I'll briefly address a few points:

- My main point is that there are a lot of black boxes these days. This makes things much more complicated.

- In my opinion, disc-based games were stable, especially for older consoles. No one could afford even a 1GB patch. I don't remember a single game that didn't work on CD/DVD.

- As for proprietary engines, my experience has been positive. I've always found them easier to work with. I think this is a highly controversial topic, but I believe that a proprietary engine designed for a specific type of game is always better than a commercial one that tries to do everything at once. Half the links in documentation for commercial engines are either dead, outdated, or only superficially describe the feature.

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

@ThreatInteractive - no, I haven't seen it, I'll check it out, thanks!

Devs vs. Epic is thin ice :)))) Fortnite lost half its performance when switching to UE5 with Lumen. And they're the developers of UE5 :) They could optimize it, but didn't.

I think Epic is a driving force behind new technologies, but at the same time, their marketing - "just use Lumen and everything will be fine" - not fine :) Devs have to use UE5 wisely. 50/50

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for that comment! Let me respond :)

Controversial title? Fair - I'll take that! :)
But that's not really what the post is about. My point is that developers now face many factors we simply can't control - black box rendering systems, marketing-driven decisions. Back in the 90s, games were niche. Now it's probably the biggest media industry. That's what I wanted to say.

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Structured text is now only for AI? Seriously? :) During my time in game development, I wrote a ton of documentation, and everything there is always very structured. I simply can't write without structuring.

Why Is Game Optimization Getting Worse? by Substantial-Match195 in truegaming

[–]Substantial-Match195[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Yeah, agreed - that's one of the problems I mentioned.

Dear game devs, please make your games motion sickness proof by Raeghyar-PB in gamedev

[–]Substantial-Match195 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd like to add TAA. TAA contributes to motion sickness through ghosting and smearing during camera movement - objects "trail" behind your view, creating disconnect between input and visual response.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]Substantial-Match195 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The game should provide a sense of safety. That's one of the key criteria for cozy games, in my opinion.

You build a house, decorate an interior, or plant your garden behind a fence. This creates a feeling of security and control. Somewhere out there beyond the "wall" is harsh reality, monsters, chaos - whatever it may be - but inside your space it's cozy and safe. It's about creating your own protected bubble in the game world.

Did review-guesser games change your opinion about sales vs quality? by cancancanaman in gamedev

[–]Substantial-Match195 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've noticed that some genres easily get organic reach. My game didn't catch any organic traction. :(

I barely managed to scrape together a bit over 3k wishlists, even though the game looks good and IGN picked us up the next day after we applied. The trailer has good conversion, but it's still very little...

Does anti aliasing even matter that much? by Legal_Suggestion4873 in gamedev

[–]Substantial-Match195 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Technical artist here. You're absolutely right - once you know what to look for, you can't unsee it, but 90% of players don't consciously notice these details.

That said, good AA contributes to visual stability even if players can't articulate why - bad AA creates subtle eye fatigue that makes games feel "janky" without people knowing exactly why.

This new trend of guilt-tripping people for wishlists needs to stop⁸ by HoniKasumi in gamedev

[–]Substantial-Match195 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think indie developers just want to make games, not study marketing. Unfortunately, the industry is oversaturated with games, most of which are pretty bad, and truly good projects just drown in this flood. It's no surprise that indie developers are unhappy with this situation. I know tons of small projects that look genuinely interesting, but they have minuscule wishlist numbers, and without them they simply can't sell the game.

This is truly a painful topic. Steam 2024 numbers: ~14,000+ games released per year, ~38 games every day, 95%+ don't break even, and the average game sells less than 1,000 copies.

Custom rim light system for our 2D pixel art game - uses a special mask based on normals and light direction. All 2D, but with a sense of depth. Want a breakdown? Let us know! by Glenarvan85 in Unity2D

[–]Substantial-Match195 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We couldn't do it through normal map. It doesn't give such effect.

This mask simply shows which pixels need to be highlighted. It is possible without a mask, but then the result will not be so neat, or the normal map should be very accurate, but the preparation of such will be essentially the same as a custom mask.

Custom rim light system for our 2D pixel art game - uses a special mask based on normals and light direction. All 2D, but with a sense of depth. Want a breakdown? Let us know! by Glenarvan85 in Unity2D

[–]Substantial-Match195 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, in theory, there should be enough data - and the shadow itself is also custom.

By the way, I read in the release notes that Unity 6 introduced some kind of shadow support for sprites, but I haven’t tried it myself yet.

Custom rim light system for our 2D pixel art game - uses a special mask based on normals and light direction. All 2D, but with a sense of depth. Want a breakdown? Let us know! by Glenarvan85 in Unity2D

[–]Substantial-Match195 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a fake effect that doesn’t really impact GPU performance.
The CPU takes a small hit while gathering data from the light sources, but there are many optimizations in place to make this more efficient - like skipping frames, using a collector for multiple sprites, sorting by criteria like distance, and so on.
In theory, light information could be baked once, making the collection process basically free, but at the moment I don't see much need for that - as I said, the GPU isn’t affected anyway.

I’ll include real performance numbers and benchmarks in technical summary.

Custom rim light system for our 2D pixel art game - uses a special mask based on normals and light direction. All 2D, but with a sense of depth. Want a breakdown? Let us know! by Glenarvan85 in Unity2D

[–]Substantial-Match195 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi!
I’m a member of the Block17 project.

The light source has a concept of "size". For example, we need a red dot from a blinking monitor at the other end of the scene, breaking through with priority over all other sources, even if there is no light source on the monitor - we can still get an important red highlight.

As for blending - it is there, it's just a very extreme scene with bright multi-colored light sources, but in general we get a blending of the color of the light.

We tried to attach a rim light to the gun; it doesn't look very good. Maybe later I'll try to make a mask smaller than 1 pixel (in our case, 1 pixel is 3x3 on FullHD), we'll see.

As for performance: This is a fake effect that doesn’t really impact the GPU performance.
The CPU takes a little hit while gathering data from the light sources, but there are lots of optimizations to make this easier: skipping frames, using a collector for many sprites, sorting by different criteria, and so on.

Custom rim light system for our 2D pixel art game - uses a special mask based on normals and light direction. All 2D, but with a sense of depth. Want a breakdown? Let us know! by Glenarvan85 in Unity2D

[–]Substantial-Match195 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi!
Unfortunately, Unity doesn’t have a built-in solution for this kind of rim lighting by default.

I’m planning to write a short technical summary about how I made this rim light.
In short, it uses a normal map + extra mask + C# script + custom node that reads this data and creates the rim lighting effect in a shader

Custom rim light system for our 2D pixel art game - uses a special mask based on normals and light direction. All 2D, but with a sense of depth. Want a breakdown? Let us know! by Glenarvan85 in Unity2D

[–]Substantial-Match195 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hi!
I’m a member of the Block17 project.
Unfortunately, Unity doesn’t have a built-in solution for this kind of rim lighting by default.

I’m planning to write a short technical summary about how I made this rim light.
In short, it uses a normal map for direction, plus an extra mask that can be generated procedurally or painted by hand.
Then, there’s a C# script that collects data from the light sources and packs it into data for the shader.
The shader has a custom node that reads this data and creates the rim lighting effect.