In June we have continued working with Coatsink to address performance and stability issues and other annoyances, part of this work can be tested in the 0.5.7 Early Access build and associated server configurations (published with this post). The key patches and optimisations in the 0.5.7 build are specific fixes for the character distortion and freezing glitches introduced in the transition to Unity 5.6 (and other physics stability issues), a significant decreases in CPU use, numerous networking and matchmaking stability fixes, and reduced build sizes.
Other work included in the 0.5.7 build includes modified and optimised city geometry for the background of exterior stages (only in the blimp and girders stages currently), modified and optimised geometry for the girders, incinerator, and wheel stages, Rick and Morty character costumes and multiple new character costume parts [1], large enemy AI body types for enemy AI (in the current waves stages), an improved AI for the waves game mode (AI aggression and throwing still need additional work but can be tested in the grind and incinerator stages), and a modified colour tinting system to support more variation for costume customisations.
Other work that is partially exposed in the 0.5.7 build includes the implementation of a custom atlasing system for scene optimisation (this is the last stage in the stage optimisation workflow, only the gondola and wheel stages use this system in the 0.5.7 build but the other stages are being moved to the atlas system currently), a custom buoyancy system (only exposed on the wheel stage in the 0.5.7 build for testing but will be moved to the other stages that have water or meat paste volumes when the current buoyancy parameters have been modified and standardised).
Other work not exposed in the 0.5.7 build includes modified and optimised geometry for the alley, grind, towers, and roof stages, optimisations to the character and prop physics implementations to significantly lower the frequency of physics calculations made per frame and stabilise collisions.
14 of the 16 public stages support online in 0.5.7 build, the key priorities for July are to execute the current QA schedule, finish the last modifications and optimisations and add online support for the chutes and towers stages, finish the last modifications and optimisations for the alley and roof stages, make a last pass to standardise character, prop physics optimisations and climbing, fixes and improvements to matchmaking, game modes, UI, localisations, and post processing.
The list of modifications and fixes made in the 0.5.7 Early Access beta build are:
- added modified and optimised city geometry to the blimp and girders stages
- added 17 new costume customisation parts and cat, panda, penguin, and rhinoceros kigurumi costumes
- added food production worker 1, food production worker 2, boiler suit, and security guard costume presets for enemy AI on the grind and incinerator stages
- added large character body types for enemy AI in waves mode
- added modified and optimised geometry for the girders stage (with local and online support)
- added modified and optimised geometry for the incinerator (with local and online support)
- added modified and optimised geometry for the wheel stage (with local and online support)
- added multiple stage escalations to the wheel stage
- fixed a significant physics issue that made character geometry distort and freeze
- fixed an issue that stops clients from joining servers if they had previously disconnected from a server in the same game session
- fixed an issue where characters could pass into the grinders on the grind stage without entering the concussive state
- fixed an issue with trains SFX ignoring the game SFX volume settings
- modified and optimised city geometry to blimp and girders stage
- modified concussion SFX to only trigger if characters are subjected to a concussive blow (concussion SFX should not trigger for falling and sinking hazards)
- modified the colour system to support tinting (to support costume customisations variations)
- modified gondola and wheel stages to use a custom atlasing system for performance (this work is the last batch of planned optimisations for the stage geometry)
- modified server configuration to automatically restart less frequently (restarts is necessary for clearing memory)
- modified some trigger volume tests to optimise performance and make detect specific character interactions and events (for the achievement implementation)
- modified the climbing implementations for online and local games to standardise
- modified and optimised UI for the character selection and character customisations screens
- reduced memory usage
- reduced the game file size by approximately 40% / 1.25GB
- removed some redundant code from the client for optimisation
- replaced buoyancy with optimised custom implementation (objects float before sinking. characters float but lose stamina, concussed characters sink)
- temporarily removed the game over messaging for local single melee player games
- temporarily removed support for the waves mode for the grind stage
The list of key issues identified with the 0.5.7 Early Access beta build are:
- issues with camera on wheel stage (we are working on implementing support for the new Unity Cinemachine 2.0 CinemachineTargetGroup to improve the tracking of multiple characters)
- issues with colliders on the pier on the wheel stage (online only)
- costume parts can show through other costume parts in some context with some costume configurations
- the implementation for the bridge deformation in vents needs modifications to stabilise the bridge
- water implementation is not standardised
- modified and optimised Beef City geometry is not standardised for external stages
[1] the full list of costume parts FastFood_foodHygieneForageHat, FoodProduction_01_foodHygieneHat, FoodProduction_01_foodHygieneJacketWithGloves, FoodProduction_01_foodHygieneShoes, Garbage_hiVisVest Garbage_militaryCap, GroundsKeeper_overallsBottom, GroundsKeeper_overallsTop, Paremedic_bumbag, costume_tophat, costume_fez, costume_sombrero, costume_denimVest, costume_denimjacket, IceCreamVendor_iceCreamManShorts, Construction_hardHat, and Construction_dungarees