Development blog

2017 January 20th

Added shadow settings to graphics options screen.

Fixed performance issue when the chunk cache became large.

Increased number of chunked meshed as one job and greatly improved world meshing speed.

Fixed bug where unneeded chunks where being generated and meshed.

2017 January 13th

Multithreaded the code that converts cube voxels to meshes. This should eliminate lag/stuttering when editing areas with a large amount of cubes.

2017 January 6th

Another great year for Brutal Nature!

We have released versions 0.60 to 0.64 in 2016 and added a ton of new features, graphical improvements and new models.

2017 is going to be a great year for Brutal Nature!

This week, I have done some more polishing on the shadow system, getting it ready for release.

2016 December 30th

Finished a basic cascade shadow map implementation.

Added shadows to world objects, NPC's and players.

2016 December 23rd

Started work on support for cascade shadow maps.

2016 December 16th

Added support for different sized maps.

Fixed being able to see through ceiling when traveling through certain voxel passages of near 6 foot in height.

2016 December 9th

Fixed not having the same weapon equipped when you login as when you last logged out.

Improved avatar selection screen.

2016 December 2nd

Fixed F not closing battery menu.

Fixed buildings being able to be placed at extreme distances if the ray test hit a cube voxel.

2016 November 25th

Finished adding winch upgrades to the game.

Now there are 6 different winches you can build and switch between each with different rope length, acceleration, top speed, braking strength and weight.

2016 November 18th

Started work on adding winch upgrades to the game.

2016 November 11th

Fixed Fox and Panther meat not completing tutorial quest stage.

2016 November 4th

Rewrote how CD keys work to allow tagging CD-keys with information like demo or promotional key.

2016 October 28th

Back from Full Indie Summit. Great conference. Lots of useful information from the talks they had.

Removed the buy game button when a paid account is detected.

2016 October 21st

Added 3 more high quality gun models: Sako 85, M16 and HK UMP

Added a safety timer so NPC's won't attack you just after login or respawn.

Added per-weapon barrel tip offsets for muzzle effects.

Added Emissive, Ambient Occlusion and combined roughness/metallic texture support to smsher.

Renamed Metalness texture to Metallic in smsher.

Packed up a new release of Brutal Nature!

Got new business cards printed and getting ready to head to Full Indie Summit 2016 tomorrow! Very excited.Hope to see you there!

Released: 0.64

2016 October 21st, Brutal Nature 0.64 is now released:

• Fixed all known bugs
• Added Metallic maps for existing weapons several weapons: Axe, Pickaxe, Knife, Sword, Colt python
• Added Weapon model: Beretta PX4: 9mm Pistol.
• Added Weapon Model: Beretta CX4 Storm: 9mm Carbine.
• Added Weapon Model: S&W Stealth hunter: .44 Cal Revolver.
• Added Weapon Model: Mossberg 590A1: Pump action shotgun.
• Added Weapon Model: Beretta DT11: Double Barrel shotgun.
• Added Weapon Model: MP5: 9mm SMG.
• Added Weapon Model: HK UMP: 9mm SMG.
• Added Weapon Model: M16: Assult Rifle.
• Added Weapon Model: Sako 85: Sniper Rifle.
• Added a safety timer so NPC's won't attack you just after login or respawn.
• Added per-model barrel tip offsets for muzzle effects.
• Added Emissive, Ambient Occlusion and combined roughness/metallic texture support to smsher.
• Added NPC: Black Panther
• Added NPC: Red fox
• Added Doors you can open and close.
• Added per-mesh setting support to the model files.
• Added per-mesh collision setting.
• Added Fresnel effect: The effect of when an object is viewed at an angle its specular reflectivity increases.
• Added Metalness texture support: Objects can now use a metalness texture as part of the new PBR shader to describe reflective metal surfaces.
• Added Roughness texture support: Controls size and brightness of specular highlights as well as how clear reflections are in metals.
• Added Environment mapping: Reflections of the world now appear on some shiny surfaces like the metal parts of a gun. the reflections are lurred by roughness of the material.
• Added Irradiance mapping: Calculating the ambient light contributed from the environment map for every possible angle and using it instead of a flat ambient light.
• Added support for submeshes of a model to be animated by script on client and server side.
• Added World objects collision with the player and collisions respond properly with submesh animations.
• Increased fuel capacity of campfire by 100% and reduced fuel used by campfire light recipe by 20% so it can support the longest burn times.
• Improved shader compilation speed and moved pixel shader compilation from load time to run time. Now only the shaders actually used get compiled and are multithreaded when compiled for faster compilation speed.
• Changed Light falloff: Light attenuation over distance has been changed to a new more physically accurate model to provide a much softer and more accurate fall off.
• Changed fuel efficiency readout of generators to make more sense.
• Removed all guns that did not have a model
• Renamed Metalness texture to Metallic in smsher.
• Fixed bug where you could get more energy from burning hydrogen then it took to separate it.
• Fixed normal mapping direction.
• Fixed underwater effect image sometimes disappearing.
• Fixed minor bug with terrain textures at boarders between terrain types.
• Fixed bug with multisampling when objects where in front of water, some pixels where not rendering correctly due to depth testing not reading the correct sample.
• Fixed loading of cube maps. They where not being properly loaded as cube map textures. this will help improve the waters reflection and the new environment and irradiance mapping.
• Fixed bug where ray collision with animated models was not working correctly because the vertex format was changed when I added normal mapping.
• Fixed bug that would cause the user to hop into the air at random sometimes.

2016 October 14th

Added per-mesh setting support to the model files.

Added per-mesh collision setting.

Increased fuel capacity of campfire by 100% and reduced fuel used by campfire light recipe by 20% so it can support the longest burn times.

Fixed bug where you could get more energy from burning hydrogen then it took to separate it.

Fixed normal mapping direction.

Fixed underwater effect image sometimes disappearing.

2016 October 7th

Added metalness maps for existing weapons several weapons: Axe, Pickaxe, Knife, Sword, Colt python

Fixed minor crash caused by the new shader system.

Added 6 new high quality weapon models:

Beretta PX4: 9mm Pistol

Beretta CX4 Storm: 9mm Carbine

S&W Stealth hunter: .44 Cal Revolver

Mossberg 590A1: Pump action shotgun

Beretta DT11: Double Barrel shotgun

MP5: 9mm SMG

2016 September 30th

More work was done on the PBR shader.

Fixed minor bug with terrain textures at boarders between terrain types.

Fixed bug with multisampling when objects where in front of water, some pixels where not rendering correctly due to depth testing not reading the correct sample.

Greatly improved shader compilation speed and moved pixel shader compilation from load time to run time. Now only the shaders actually used get compiled and are multithreaded when compiled for faster compilation speed.

2016 September 23th

Started overhauling the lighting shaders of the game moving towards a PBR (Physically based rendering) engine. Added the following effects to the engine:

• Fresnel effect: The effect of when an object is viewed at an angle its specular reflectivity increases.
• Metalness texture: Objects can now use a metalness texture as part of the new PBR shader to describe reflective metal surfaces.
• Roughness texture: Controls size and brightness of specular highlights as well as how clear reflections are in metals.
• Environment mapping: Reflections of the world now appear on some shiny surfaces like the metal parts of a gun. the reflections are blurred by roughness of the material.
• Irradiance mapping: Calculating the ambient light contributed from the environment map for every possible angle and using it instead of a flat ambient light.
• Light falloff: Light attenuation over distance has been changed to a new more physically accurate model to provide a much softer and more accurate fall off.

Fixed loading of cube maps. They where not being properly loaded as cube map textures. this will help improve the waters reflection and the new environment and irradiance mapping.

2016 September 16th

More work on getting the new assets loaded and working in game.

Fixed bug where ray collision with animated models was not working correctly because the vertex format was changed when I added normal mapping.

Fixed bug that would cause the user to hop into the air at random sometimes.