Games (PC) Jurassic Extinction (Released)

Ive been using built in/standard renderer for most of the project, was no prob, and i didnt have to watch ms and fps all the time, or worry about performance impacts. And theres alot you can do to beef up the gfx aspect with it to.

Looks like there will be smoke coming out of my ears for the rest of the night...

 

oh ok i just read you setup je3 server so assumed it was networked. I will try networked when i am more experience so no need to worry just yet.

 

Yes as game dev is quite overwhelming. Even making prototype for level and movement is killing me today.

 

Ok, had some time to think things out logicly. Even though i love HDRP, i gave it a shot with JE and it just didnt work for a few reasons.

The breaker was the NavMesh, a nightmare, and that effects EmeraldAI, and i will not do without it, its the best AI for my dinos, and i know it inside and out. HDRP is great, but for JE, its too much work and time to get it to comply with HDRP, and i just cant waste any more time. Im not wasting any more time:

• Using built in renderer (will beef up the gfx with better shader support).
  
• Using UFPS v1.7.5. (a wise man said "i like the fps controller, makes me feel it could be me). Point taken.
  
• Using Gaia for terrains, textures, etc.
  
• Levels will be more open-world type/feel.

Im so sorry ive wasted so much time trying HDRP for JE. Im sort of mad, and im not messing around any more. Its time to get my sh** together and finish the project, its over due. After the 1st level is finished, a demo will be released. All i can say is im sorry for the delay, and the 1st levels terrain is already done, and im not stopping till its finished.
Please forgive me, i can be wrong, im human... and i really care and feel for everyone even remotely interrested in the project. I refuse to let you or myself down.

Warthos

 

once you get on the graphics train you can't get off without real conviction!

 

Sounds like you mean business. Good luck @warthos3399

 

For Users Of Gaia

Ive solved a prob that myself and other users of Gaia have had, with NavMesh. Heres the prob, and the solve (also applies to HDRP):

Every time i created a terrain with Gaia, no matter what i tried, when the terrain was done, and i spawned ground textures, or spawned trees, NavMesh wouldnt bake right. It would only bake small pieces, here and there, and not cover the areas completely.

The answer is: right after you stamp the terrain stop. Dont spawn textures, or change anything. Bake your NavMesh right away. If you dont bake it right after you stamp, navmesh stops working, or doesnt cover.
I dont know if its a compat issue with unity 2019.3.8f1 (what im using), or an issue with unity's navmesh system, or its Gaia itself. Ill backtrace and figure out the root cause as i have time.

 

Im so excited that i cant hold back!. This weekend ill be posting video of the current and FINAL workflow for Jurassic Extinction. I promise you, you wont be disappointed. Im actually looking at the 1st level in awe. Its so good that i just cant believe i created it.

Some info: Gaia terrains with full ground textures, tree spawning etc., and navmesh working great. PPE is fully implimented, and with a finished 1st level we are at 115+ FPS! (7.0 ms). Things have fallen into place like a glove, the exact workflow and look i imagined since i started this project. Hard work has paid off.

Work flow: Set up terrain with Gaia, bake navmesh, spawn ground textures, trees and grass, Modify terrain where needed, add in dinos, props, and UFPS controller. Add and adjust PPE, and complete with a hue pass on vegetation. Thank you all for the interest and inspiration, love you all, now lets get this damn thing done, lol. Finally hit one "out of the park", going out in my new truck, and time to celebrate

 

Heya guys, wanted to show the teleportals that will be at the end of every level. These are your ride to the other levels in game. Note PPE is shut off in this SS, as i was deving at the time, as i usually shut off PPE during dev work:

 

looks really cool. don't forget if you struggle with planning you can use something called 'trello' and excel for time keeping.

 

Ok guys, heres a video of the final workflow for JE. The 1st level is a forest type environment (trees, ferns, grass, etc.). Not all visual (PPE, adjustments) are done, but the hue pass and basics are there, and looking great. As you can see grass, trees, and foliage are hue/color matched. Everything is there per storyline, and level 2 is already in progress.

Note: the controller isnt tagged as "player", so i could move around without being attacked (thank god, lol). Integration with EmeraldAI is there, and working nicely. Also note, the website/blog will be updated very soon, using PHP Fusion, enjoy:

 

Heya, sorry for late update, been working on level 1 and 2, all weekend. Alot of things have changed, for the better. One big thing to note, all dino AI has changed, they act much better. Some will warn you (with different animations/sounds) if you get too close, some will hide, etc., all per behaviors.

Level 1 is a forest scene, with lots of trees, grass and ferns, running at 80-90 FPS. Not much left to do, just round out the terrain foliage, some texture and lighting tweaks. The whole level is done (all areas). So its onto level 2

 

Had to laugh at myself earlier tonight (you can laugh at me too, it was funny). Was working on level 2, terrain done some foliage in, decided ill add a dino in, and i forgot to check his "Static" tag in the inspector. So i set up lighting, dino AI, and bake my occlution culling.

Start up the game, and when i look at the dino at certain angles..he disappers! WTH! So i start checking things looking for the mistake, freaking out, and then it hits me…you idiot, the dino is tagged for static occluder/occludee, and you baked occlusion culling, LMAO. Uncheck them, re bake, all good. lol.

 

A little in-dev SS. This is a Gaia generated, textured, and navmesh baked, terrain for level 2. Alot of plans for this level, will be a tropical foliage area, with water based dinos (fish eaters, baryonyx, plesiosaurus, and xenacanth). Will be using Aquas for ocean/water:

 

Heres the level 2 terrain in-progress, which is a water/tropical environment, and swimming isnt a good idea. Water will have the early shark "xenacanth" in it, and death is a sure thing:

• Aquas water added.
  
• Non-AI dinos added (so i can see scale).
  
• Final ground textures done.
  
• Clouds added in.
  
• UFPS controller added.

 

looks great, i think dropping hdrp has really improved your work rate!

 

Heres level 2's terrain with kupok trees added. Next will be grass, then on to tropical foliage. Having alot of fun deving these levels. Once again my formula is spot on, right now with trees, textures, controller, water, and clouds, its running at 132 FPS, once level is finished, we will be around 80-90 FPS:

 

Also wanted to add in, since this is the final build of JE, ive updated the studio website, to a gaming type theme. And at the pace im currently at, level 2 will be done by this weekend, and next week will be the 3rd level, which is where i was, with the previous version (before HDRP got a hold of me, lol). Remember, JE will have 6-7 levels.

So time frame is good, and its so nice to work with all your assets pre-optimized and set up, you just get to create, develop, place, and not worry

 

Had about 2 hours after lessons tonight, to add grass, crashed plane, and Gastornis (flightless bird). Tomorrow night will be adding tropical foliage. Cant wait to add Xenacanth (early shark) to the waters

 

A nice update to level 2, performance is great, love the workflow. Next up will be dino AI Heres the latest footage:

 

Did alot of work on level 2, looking good and performing great (90 FPS). Not much left to do, add dinos AI, adjust them, add in pickup crates, and a few props. Heres the changes:

• All foliage/plants are in.
  
• All trees finished.
  
• Cut off unused parts of the terrain.
  
• Removed reflections on Aquas water, was killing performance.

Tonight ill be working on the dinos, AI, adjusting textures, and getting them set up.

 

Had to share, the workflow that ive worked out has been great. Im really loving it, with everything added in, which is done (final scene), we are in the high 80's FPS/ms wise. Ive never had a workflow this good before.

As i predicted earlier, the 2nd level is now complete, only tweaking and small adjustments to AI left. Ive started terrain stamping out ideas in Gaia for level 3, which should be done by this next weekend, and that means JE will be 50% finished (will have 6 main levels, and a 7th level for the ending).

 

Heres the new base terrain ill be using for level 3. It will have the cargo ship (protoraptors), the lava/stone/t-rex area, and the ovi-raptors on the beach. Dont know if ill be putting the pteranodons in this level, might wait and give them a better area:

 

TLDR: It seems like a cool game idea but perhaps you have taken on too large a scope for one person to finish in a short time like 1 year?

Well... as far as I can tell skimming through you are one guy (or gal) working alone on this - so definitely don't beat yourself up over taking a year (or less?) and not having a complete open world dinosaur game that is ready to release and hopefully get attention - because that is just unrealistic looking at your scope from the early posts.

I've spent the same amount of time developing games with far far less included in them, and just polished smaller aspects until I was happy. And I've had games flop that I've invested that kind of time into. You don't want to release early with a poor product, and you don't want to release in a decade when your about to starve from not having worked on anything with a smaller scope. You need to find a nice middle ground between what you can realistically accomplish and what you want to see the final end product look like.

If you want it done faster, you need to lower your scope by quite a bit. But I would say keep your original vision instead though, and just set your expectations for the time it will take further out if you can afford to. Of course you could also potentially hire a team to help you if you have a budget.

Give yourself an entire additional year. Thinking of multiplayer? (I have no idea I've only skimmed through) If so - give yourself another year at least on top of that.

Thinking of a more intricate movement system for the creatures so they behave in a way that doesn't look like plastic toys spinning on a dime? Give yourself more time! This is one area ARK really dropped the ball in - they have such robotic unrealistic movements that its immersion breaking. Don't fall into the same trap! Use leg IK and foot placement so that they rotate on the point of their mass contacting the ground - this alone would look soooo much better than ARK.

Dinosaurs are cool! Make their movement look cool! Have them articulated in such a way that they can blend between moving, attacking, looking nearly 180 degrees from forwards, and don't let them turn on a dime, its really critical to get that part right because that will give them a much more realistic and hopefully scary appearance to your players. They need to move like they have velocity. I sure hate how the ARK dino's would accel to full speed like its nothing with absolutely no consideration of physics or their huge size. They acted like big floaty hollow machines. Now of course they cleaned some of that up and added a little bit better animations and such as time went on - but never truly fixed the sense of weight and velocity with them. They could stop nearly instantly and accel to top speed nearly instantly. It was ugly, it was jarring, and I hated it. The game had a lot to offer if it didn't break my immersion every single time I interacted with the stars of the show.

And consider that the guys who made ARK - they took freaking forever! I mean years and years before it even started to show some of the polish that you might expect from games out of the big triple A developers (keep in mind they were not a big triple A team but also not a one man team) - and it still ran like it was some kind of crysis on a potato in 2007. They frankly bit off more than they could chew at first and spent years playing catch up on performance and content. Nowadays its better to some degree, but the dino's never really felt realistic to me in their animations and movements.

You gotta be very realistic about what you can possibly accomplish in a certain amount of time, and I hope I've helped motivate you to not push yourself into burning out over a rushed timeline, and that you can focus on just inching closer to what you first envisioned the game should be. And if your finding you can't push yourself (or fund yourself) to keep working on the same project for several more years potentially, then dial back your vision, and focus on the MVP of your final game.

What I see is a game idea from an enthusiastic developer and it seems like it could be something pretty cool and potentially get a lot of attention because who doesn't love dinosaurs right? So take a step back and gauge what you have accomplished so far, and decide if you can push on like this for a lot longer in order to get it where you wanted it to begin with, or decide what gets put on the back burner so you can get the core of the game "fun" and interesting in the shortest amount of time - because nobody likes being in development hell forever (the time when its no longer fun and just a boring job of fixing the not fun stuff), so its up to you to decide which way to take things.

Anyway there are my two cents, I hope it helps you get motivated to either wrap it up in a meaningful way in the short term, or to push beyond the short term and endure potentially years more to reach the full vision.

Good luck!

 

As far as "giving myself another year", i can agree, as the other versions were "proto-type" stages. Even though its just me, i can handle the scope of the project no problem, and its because of my passion for the project. Its been more of a workflow situation. "Multi-player", have thought of that a few times myself. Is easily implimented, Just want to get the core levels finished 1st.

"Use leg IK and foot placement", im just now getting into advanced IK (from my teacher), so when im taught the correct way to address/use IK, i will add it in, again i agree.

On the way Ark addressed animation and AI, i totally agree, they were more concerned with "look", than animation "realism" (weight/velocity).

As far as performance, as i dev its always been in the 70-90 FPS range, or i dump the workflow. Everything is due to workflow and pre-set up of assets/systems.

I cant thank you enough for the great info and inspiring words. I do truly understand exactly what your saying. But i do know this... i can develop this, i do need to give myself more time, and it only gets better. I will follow through. Im here for long term, i have the funds, and the time.

You are right on so many levels, the same ones that go through my head, every day. Know where i am, what im doing, and what i want to do. But im a learning dev like all of us, you never stop learning, or your not working hard enough.

Thanks my brother

 

Heres the updated terrain for level 3. Theres a few things you need to know. As you can see, i take the orig gaia terrain, and once ive set up the layout of the level, i cut off any terrain that isnt used, or player cant see. The mountain you see?...its hollow, lol. I used the paint hole function in unity. and hollowed it out.

• Cargo ship with my protoraptors added, Oviraptors, compy's, and t-rex added (static for scale).
  
• The area in the NW will be the t-rex/lava area.
  
• Still have 1-2 more species to add.

This level is going to be real fun, and heres why: the level is a bit bigger, so youll be blasting away at alot more species, and the boss's of the level are the t-rex (x2), good luck, lol. The SS might look bright, but its because my directional light, skybox, shadows, and post processing is all pre set up and on.

 

Can I ask what hollowing out a mountain gives you? Isnt terrain already merely a plane with heightmap displacement?

 

I did it as a test, as in later levels im going to be adding a few caves. So it was cool to test out

 

One of my boys, love these guys...protoraptor, they are roughly 3x the size of velociraptor, and have adapted to their brown tree environment color, over time. Most of level 3 is finished. This weekend will be wrapping it up:

 

Ok guys, we are now at the last area of level 3, yay!. Ive just started building it, a cool but challenging area. Once its done, all thats left is dino AI, pickup crates, and small adjustments. Perf is great, 90% of the level finished, and at 95 FPS. I have headroom to add more Heres a SS:

 

The project is actually going better than expected. But... as has been posted here a few times, dino movement/animation needs to be addressed, been on my mind alot.

So the workflow is to complete all levels 1st. Then dino animation/movement. Im currently working with FinalIK, and PuppetMaster. Great systems (by the same author), and by the time the last level is done, ill have better movement system in-place.

Im really happy with this final workflow. So easy and fast to create whats needed, and with high 80's-90's FPS/ms, yes please, lol.

 

I re-textured the Troodon, to a dirty white hue. It fits with the environment (hard to see). Adjusting dmg-to-ammo as we speak:

 

Wanted to share what ive been learning lately. This is video of an "area" i did for a lesson. This is HDRP, full PPE's, with alot of attention to detail (scaling of rocks, trees, and foliage).

Now, this is a 128x128 terrain, all assets pre-optimized (HDRP shader support), and a custom wind/foliage shader. Emerald AI set up, and light, height based volumetric fog added. Performance is in the 65-70 FPS range:

 

In the U.S., where i live, every major city in the country is breaking out into large riots, people being shot, buisnesses destroyed, homes destroyed, people run over by cars, total unrest in its worst form.

So even though im still working on the game, its going slow, as im worried for my family and friends.

Hope everyone is healthy and safe, love you all...

 

Hello, nice work but do you plan on giving the dinosaurs running attacks? Because in my opinion I don't think it looks very fun to fight dinos who can only attack while standing still

 

Glad you asked that. Well, i took the good advice from @MD_Reptile. I wrote down every aspect of the game out, everything, story line, hdrp (pros/cons), built-in renderer (pros/cons), systems, etc. etc. (it took 2 nights, lol). Ive sat down and seriously thought it all out, and realisticly. Also im not done, so i probably wont post for another few nights at least.

Yes the dinos have run attacks, they are assigned, i just havent adjusted those attacks yet, and heres why. One of the biggest changes ive made has been movement and behavour. My teacher asked me "you did real good, but you totally missed one giant factor...behavour... dinos dont just patrol, waiting for the player or another dino." hes right. 2nd one is foliage. Trees dont grow straight up like a stop sign.

The above video in HDRP with t-rex should be a big hint to you all, if you look. Thats a "visual scene" (not a game), that i did as a project for my lessons. Theres alot more detail, but its just the basic camera view (no controller) like many different scales of rock, trees that are randomly angled, etc, with a light ground fog, and behavour..t-rex is eating his latest kill (a Carnotaur), looking around and roaring warnings to anything around.

This is why i havent been posting much, as im working out the workflow. But i can say this, what you see in the above video is curretly being tested on a bit bigger scale (terrain scale is 256 x 256), with dinos acting like dinos, killing/eating of other dinos, some sitting on their eggs, co-ordinated attack patterns ive added to raptor species, etc. Movement and behavour is being addressed.

 

Wow that all sounds really cool !!

 

Ok, after serious thought and organization of JE, workflow decisions have been made. Built-in renderer will be the choice. I want as many machines able to play JE, and HDRP targets high-end PC/consoles, and i feel its not a fit for JE, and HDRP isnt really stable yet. Terrains are created by me, not using Gaia or any terrain generators. I can build better terrain.

What i can tell and show you is this:

• 256 x 256 terrain, optimized.
  
• Full PPE implimented, and hard shadows added.
  
• 2 types of trees, 2 types of bushes, ferns, and 2 heights of grass, done.
  
• Dead trees, and scaled rocks, done.
  
• Dinos added with behavior traits assigned.
  
• 2 audio mixers created, dino mixer and player/environment mixer.

Ive added ALOT of detail, the angle of trees, different scaled rocks, egg nests, dead dinos, etc. and everything is optimized as added. Performance is great, no lag, no stuttering or dips. Currently at 75-100 FPS, depending on view, area. Eye candy:

 

Great decision, what are your plans to work on enhancing the built-in graphics, so that people after looking at your hdrp trials will still be enticed to play. Do you have a timeline when you will approach this? Will you approach this? Or do u consider it non-important?

 

Got that covered. One of the big differences between built-in and HDRP are the shaders. The HDRP shaders are great. So currently im working on shader support. For overall camera effects, im using a mix of Beautify (great asset), and PPE v2.0. Between the 2, you can get some great results.

 

Ok, heres a few SS's of the current shader/camera effects work. One of the biggest camera effects from Beautify is the sharpness. Look at the detail to the dinos, foliage, the complete scene. Now the shader update will take a bit longer, as im adding 1 effect at a time and fully adjusting it before moving onto the next. I use quite a few different shaders, that accent the camera effects.

I have to say, the Beautify/PPEv2.0 combo is really good, what 1 doesnt have, or perform the way you want, the other has, and vise versa, (be wise people). This is some of the best work ive done to date. Without the gizmo's on in 1st SS, and the editor view, this looks damn good, think about current 3D FPS games out there, this compares, or beats alot of titles out there, on Steam and the like. Current WIP:

 

Ive pretty much finished camera effects and shaders. Below is a shader comparison SS, big difference. Heres the effects combo i use:

Beautify:

• Sharpen
  
• Tonemapping
  
• Bloom
  
• Sunflares
  
• Eye Adaptation
  
• Vignett

PPEv2.0:

• Ambient Occlution
  
• Auto Exposure

The Beautify effects/shader is better due to having more options. Use this combo in built-in renderer, and watch your game transform. So yes, ive beefed up the gfx, as i said i would. For built-in renderer, its damn good. Lighting and shadows are next

 

Run attacks for all dinos finished. Heres a video of the Dilo area, they have 2 run attacks, lunging forward bite, and jump up dew claw attack. They are nasty, they killed me a few times, lol The behavior is also finished, and came out alot better this time.

Ive also started work on level 2, working on terrain layout. Once built up enough, ill update about it, as ive been working on the dinos alot, after all, they are the stars of the show The eye candy:

 

Most of the basic layout is done for level 2. Props are in, and dinos are in. Ill be working on level 2 for the rest of the weekend. Heres a teaser SS of the 2nd area (WIP), ya know whats funny?, every time i post a SS/video like this, 30 mins later, its old, lol. :

 

Level 2 is coming out real nice, and performing great for a larger scene. But wanted to show you the Carnotaurs, i have brought out just the right amount of normal map, added metallic alpha, and with custom texture hue/colors, they look great. The carnos are the second best looking dino in game, the 1st is the final boss...Spinosaurus Heres the eye candy:

 

looking great water and ship looks cool.

 

Ill be spending tonight upgrading unity to the new 2019.4 LTS build, dont forsee any probs, as JE proper is already converted/done, currently converting JE HDRP, (yes i still have and work on a HDRP version of JE, when i have time). Ill be testing and setting things up, should be back to work by nights end, and will keep you informed.

By the way, if anyone else has seen the news, they have discovered a new raptor species called the mega raptor (over 20 feet long, with dew claws on their larger fore arms), and some scientists now believe that spinosaurus was actually a water bound/swimmer type. Hmmm...

 

The conversion went flawless, not 1 single problem, even HDRP went perfect, in fact i see a performance boost with builtIn and HDRP. Glad to be back to LTS build

Just a heads up, everyone should grab the NavMesh Components (Github), i can do so much now with NavMesh, thats its actually silly, fantastic navmesh tools.

About 80% of level 2 is done, not much left: dino movement/adjustments, adding in pick-ups (guns, ammo, etc.), some foliage additions, etc. Ive also picked up my Rain and Lightning asset, as i plan on having a scene where its raining and night time (as some of you have asked for) Heres a video i took right after the conversion (WIP), its the Sarcosuchus area, these guys look great, and no, you cant kill them with a handgun, lol:

 

Tonights work was fun, alot finished up on level 2. Ill be doing a few last minute things, then im going to start working on the terrain for level 3. Now level 3 if you remember, is ProtoRaptor (on the cargo ship), oviraptor (on the beach), pteranodon and dimorphodons (suspended bridge area), and t-rex as the final boss's. This should be fun, lol.

Currently we are running at 80+ FPS/ms, and thats with a bigger scene, so optimization has gone great. Heres the current update, and SS:

• Added dead trees, stumps, Dropped the height of the ground fog, and added mud ground texture, to the sarcosucus area.
  
• Added dead trees, stumps, and bushes to carnotaur area.
  
• Optimized and adjusted underwater camera effects (Aquas) in the gastornis/ship area.
  
• Reduced audio level of ambient sound, again.

 

Thought id take a few minutes and let you know the current roadmap for JE.

• Plan is to create all levels 1st (there will be around 8 levels).
• Add in and create GUI.
• Cinematics (intro scene, cut scenes, ending scene, etc.).
• Promotional material (videos, screenshots, etc.).

Most of the roadmap is already in progress, but ill keep you all informed of progress as time and decisions are made.

Note: the new workflow is just so damn good, very easy to dev levels and content, and performance is fantastic. Currently all levels are performing at 80+ FPS, exactly where i want to be. The visuals/GFX are really good for a built-in renderer version.