Was running into issues with NPC vehicles when they would overlap. The RVO (Reciprocal Velocity Obstacles) was working, but looked awkward. Instead, I came up with a custom solution: on overlap, the NPC will search for an unoccupied nearby position #ue5 #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Testing things out after all the movement enhancements, visual feedback upgrades, modified booster speeds, and improved enemy AI evasion - the current combat pace feels pretty good! #ue5 #mech #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Redid AI evasive behavior. Previously, projectiles would always trigger an evasion (exploitable) New system: projectiles have threat value. If projectiles threat values aggregate exceed a threshold, then it will trigger an evasive response #ue5 #mech #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Expanded the evasive boost capabilities: now, the boost propels the Mech in the direction the player is viewing. This should raise the skill ceiling a bit. Also, when firing weapons and requesting vertical boost, additional vertical lift is included #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

More new rotational system integration things ~ For all weapons: if your Mech is not facing the desired target, then upon activating your weapon, an auto-rotate will occur first before continuing through with the firing process #ue5 #mech #indiegame #indiedev

Given the new rotation animations and vfx, integrating those into the existing evasive boost system was a little tricky. In the end, I decided to execute the evasive boost first (for responsiveness), then follow up with any necessary rotations #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Added in a turn animation to help give the player feedback on the Mech's movement. If the turn is sharp enough, it will also trigger a vfx #ue5 #mech #screenshotsaturday #indiedev

Finally got around to some Mech movement polishing. Added in a variety of animation feedback. Most importantly: directional animations for evasive boosts. This feedback helps the player track their own dodges and telegraphs enemy dodges (oh yea also happy nye!) #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Got rid of the Mech's movement dust visual effect I was using before since it was an inefficient placeholder. To replace it, I found a nice emitter from a pack of Fab assets. After some modifications, I like how it turned out #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

While testing, I was having issues recognizing when my health was low. So, I added in a visual effect on Mechs when their health drops below 20%. This should help the player understand when their own Mech or an enemy Mech is low on health #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Added a fade when getting in/out of your Mech. This allows for two things: less jarring transition for player between modes and I get to load soft references without it being obvious (frame drops) #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

It's always the little things that end up being the trickiest. Luckily some YT vids helped out. I implemented a system so objective markers stay to the edge of the player's hud when they are no longer being directly looked at #ue5 #indiegame #gamedev #screenshotsaturday

More Ultra Dynamic Sky things ~ UDS has special nodes available that you can hook into your landscape material which allows for snow coverage. Additionally, it supports snow trails! I think that's a wrap on the UDS integration... for now #ue5 #mech #indiedev #gamedev

More fun with the Ultra Dynamic Sky plugin! I really liked the stormy weather at night (because of the lightning vfx), so I threw that weather in my usual test scenario - the results felt very dark and chaotic #ue5 #mech #ai #gamedev #indiedev

More testing with the Ultra Dynamic Sky (UDS) plugin ~ At night, by default, it applies a nice auto-exposure filter. Weather also generates light effects. I'm sure I'll be tweaking lots of these things, but it's great that it's functional right away #ue5 #indiegame #gamedev

Months ago, I updated engine versions and it broke my sky. I finally decided to address the issue by adding in the Utlra Dynamic Sky and Weather (UDS) plugin. Out of the box, it's incredible! I'm really impressed with what it can do #ue5 #gamedev #indiedev

With all the recent improvements from the past month (target scanning, vfx, actor tick queue, etc), I can finally engage the test scenario as a player Mech. Definitely feels like a milestone #ue5 #mech #ai #screenshotsaturday #indiedev

benchmarking fun ~ Setup a test scenario I never thought would be possible: 500 shooter NPCs (with complex logic) and 100 targets. Was really surprised it ran above 30fps on my rig! #ue5 #ai #gamedev #indiedev

Given the recent round of performance improvements, I ran through my typical test scenario and was very happy to see an increase of about 15-20 FPS! I love how chaotic and cinematic everything is starting to feel #ue5 #mech #ai #indiegame #gamedev

AI pathfinding improvements - humanoid NPCs were getting stuck behind vehicles. DetourCrowdAIController and RVOAvoidance weren't working, so I came up with a solution where NPCs will move if they detect they are stuck. Ended up working great #ue5 #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Noticed some big FPS drops on the grenade launcher VFX, it was from my previous implementation being horrid - I was spawning an emitter for each fireball explosion. I redid the system so a single emitter spawns all the visuals, ended up improving performance a ton #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Next optimization: player Mech target scanning Original design did not scale with hundreds of targets. I rebuilt entirely, with similar concepts as prev posts, processing groups per tick instead of all at once. In the test there are 600 scanned targets #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Cont. of my last post: movement from your Mech inflicts damage to any enemy you collide with. If your Mech is boosting during movement, it will deal more damage #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Added in Mech movement damage. Now you can stomp around and destroy things like your enemies #ue5 #mech #indiegame #screenshotsaturday #gamedev

Optimization things (again) ~ I created a pub/sub system for actors where their tick, component ticks, and animation rate can be scaled depending on their distance to the player's camera. This allows hundreds of actors with complex logic to function pretty smoothly #ue5 #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Added in a spectator mode for AI Mechs! This proved to be pretty tricky, but the end result was so entertaining to experience. I love being able to watch how the AI behaves and fights each other. #ue5 #mech #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Final piece of player weapon stuffs (for now) ~ Added in ADS! When active, the camera smoothly increases its field of view and shortens its displacement. I also limit the player's movement speed appropriately. #ue5 #gamedev #indiedev

More player weapon stuff ~ Little things part 2: added a standard hitmarker for feedback on dealing damage #ue5 #gamedev #indiedev

More player weapon stuff ~ Sometimes the little things are difficult (aka this was harder than expected). I added in an autorotation for the entire character if the player aims at a spot which would force their top body to rotate more than 90 degrees #ue5 #indiegame #gamedev

Starting the implementation for player weapons! Got the basics in: gun attaching to player, aim offset blendspace, projectile interaction, and some basic muzzle flash vfx #ue5 #indiegame #gamedev

Given recent Mech processing improvements, I setup another test scenario, with 250 SimpleNPCs and 4 Mechs to benchmark the state of combat. With the highest quality game/video settings, everything's running pretty smoothly #ue5 #mech #ai #screenshotsaturday #indiedev

More optimizations things ~ Profiler revealed another bottleneck on how Mechs scan (red in vid) their targets. I used similar techniques from my other post, to stagger their processing and alleviate total computations per game tick #ue5 #ai #indiedev #gamedev

With the results of optimizations, I've seen definite improvements in the test battle scenario. I am able to turn up the video quality to the highest settings while keeping a decent framerate. I still have plans for more refinements though #ue5 #mech #ai #gamedev #indiedev

More optimizations ~ I created an actor tick queue system. Actors can register to this through an Actor Component. The system works by only allowing a configurable number of actors to execute per tick (red in vid). This was a big optimization #ue5 #ai #indiegame #gamedev

More optimizations ~ Big CPU bottleneck happens if hundreds of NPCs have to determine their targets on the same game tick. I solved this by creating a groupthink system. When an NPC (red) identifies a target, it broadcasts (yellow) to nearby NPCs #ue5 #ai #gamedev #indiedev

Given the recent optimizations, I setup a scenario with 256 NPCs, divided into two forces, with each being complimented by a Mech. The results are good - running consistently at 60fps, with some dips into 45fps during the most demanding moments #ue5 #mech #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Made pathfinding improvements for NPC troops: when tanks are destroyed, I swap out their actors for an alternate. The new actor serves as a navmesh obstacle, so navigation gets updated and NPCs will path around recently destroyed vehicles #ue5 #ai #screenshotsaturday #gamedev

More optimization things ~ Profiler revealed quite a bit of computation involved with collision checks. I took a look at the tanks collision setup and realized I could make some improvements there before/after pics attached #ue5 #indiegame #gamedev

More optimization things (there's gonna be quite a few more) Similar to the tank's vfx, missiles ended up being unoptimized. So, I went and implemented more efficient missile visual effects. I'm happy with the result since it still looks good! #ue5 #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Optimization things ~ Profiling helped reveal that some of the vfx I was using were very unoptimized. One of the bigger culprits was the tank shell hit explosion. I ended up finding a more optimized hit vfx that still looks good #ue5 #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Was messing around, threw together a buncha NPCs types that I implemented so far, put them on two alliances, and let them fight each other. It ended up being pure fun chaos to witness. (p.s. it also revealed I need to make some optimizations) #ue5 #mech #ai #indiegame #gamedev

More progress on the Simple NPC shooters ~ Implemented the ability for them to shoot while running. Ended up being more tricky than expected, but the payoff was worth the effort since it expands their capabilities and creates more cinematic moments #ue5 #ai #gamedev #indiegame

More Simple NPC shooter features added: gun mesh, aim with arm anims, muzzle vfx, bullet tracer and hit vfx, death anims and vfx, and evasive behavior Red death vfx helps when in a Mech, since these NPCs will be tiny onscreen #ue5 #ai #indiegame #screenshotsaturday #gamedev

Working on a new Simple NPC type: the generic soldier. First up, I am working on pathfinding with crowd avoidance. Testing out using the DetourCrowd AI Controller with RVO (Reciprocal Velocity Obstacle) so large groups will not overlap each other #ue5 #ai #indiegame #gamedev

Final boost VFX changes: refactored the travel boost visuals. Similar to the other posts, I leveraged an existing well optimized emitter, which I modified to obtain the visuals I wanted #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Continuation of boost VFX changes: refactored evasive boost burst visual effects. I found a low overhead, very optimized, emitter to work with. Still had to tweak some things a bit to produce the visuals I wanted #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Ended up having to refactor the boost VFX due to discovering the previous emitter was very unoptimized. Similar to the prototype implementation, I leveraged a more simple approach that is pretty efficient and looks decent #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Addressing some demo feedback lately - I didn't like how enemy Mechs could instantly turn when a player would go behind them, so I added in configurable rotation rate for Mechs, that way it's possible to outmaneuver enemies and take advantage of their blindspots #ue5 #mech #indiegame #gamedev

Just more WIP stuff of the introduction area in Zenoken. Lost Eden hovering in the the distant stormy background. Trying to get a demo done sooner rather than later. So much work left though. #GodotEngine #MadeInGodot #Metroidvania #IndieGame #SciFi #SoloDev #VideoGames #Storms #Weather

More more tutorial things ~ When introducing a new system to the player, I always want to show them the benefits of it upfront. So, for the Travel Boost System, I have the player travel a pretty far distance right away #ue5 #mech #indiegame #indiedev