Games (PC) Jurassic Extinction - World of Carnage

Hey guys! It now official...After the release of Jurassic Extinction, ive had time in between
teaching/dev time, to begin prototyping the next workflow. Heres a basic list:

• A large open-world dino game.
  
• A paid, on Steam/UE/Amazon, release, with expansions/DLC.
  
• Terrain chunk Streaming with SECTR.
  
• 3rd person controller, with a companion/pet (Invector is my current choice).
  
• More Advanced AI system.
  
• Animation will be root based (better movement), and more interaction.
  
• A quest/objective waypoint system.

Basicly, the smoothness/performance you see with JE (in 4K), into a large open world senario.
Many more creatures (turtles, flys, birds, crabs, flying Pteranodons, etc.) then was in JE,
highly realistic. Currently working on terrain/map. I will be posting full length videos, with
much more information (technical and other-wise).

Now, with that said, heres an example/test of what root motion is like, but your companion wont be a dog, lol, it will be a dino you meet!:

 

Sup guys, this is the terrain. Its a 4096 x 4096 created with Gaia. Ive added in a test controller, which is one that i can switch between 3rd person, or 1st person at any time, so that i can test out both to see what will work best. Controller is the least of my worries right now, lol.

By this weekend water will be added in, (Aquas, Crest, or LUX), and then begin on land/environment development. This is open world, so there will be many areas to develop, and will do so one area at a time.

 

I lied, lol, water is in (#NVJOB Simple Water Shaders). Needs some adjustment (shore line foam, etc.), but not right now, must keep moving forward. Remember, things will change as the project progresses, so water, controller, and etc. will change. So far with controller and water, its at 3 MS. As ive said, want to share much more info of the dev process, optimization, etc.

Ive also spent a few hours (yes hours, lol) and imported my go to assets for the project (tropical forest pack, dinos, rocks and boulders 2, custom textures, palm trees, skybox megapack, Beautify, EmeraldAI, etc. and the list goes on). For me its a long weekend in the USA (labor day), so alot of work will be done.

Im very excited for the project, and to continue JE as a series (as alot of you have suggested). Heres a water vid:

 

Progress, ive added the crater at the center of the island, and adjusted the scale. In the bottom right is the character, should give you an idea of scale:

 

Ok, anytime you create a map/terrain for your game, its wise to plan it out. Easiest way is to take a SS of the map from an "above" perspective. Now take that screenshot, open in Gimp (my fav) or Photoshop, and plan out your layout as you will see.

Also, Aquas has won for water, i know it inside out, is performant (once you strip out certain features, and use only needed ones, then optimize), and gives me underwater effects, as well as lenz water that you see in JE. The lake water hasnt been added in this SS, its only for a planning purpose.

The terrain is now scaled correctly to 2048, and still at 3 MS. Now please remember, once all objects have been added (and at the end of the project), i have at least a 30 FPS+ window by using SECTR, for terrain chunk streaming). Here it is, with locations marked:

 

Heya, right now ive been working on terrain mods, and textures. Starting to shape up. Heres the updates:

• Added Aquas water, stripped it down, hues adjusted, with underwater effects.
  
• Moved the beach area to the east side.
  
• The lake is now added in.
  
• Added the arid/desert area.

 

Work done tonight:

• Added watering hole/oasis in desert area, (not Aquas, but a surface water shader for now).
  
• Got rid of shiny terrain textures (remove alpha on texture import settings).
  
• The crater now has an entrance and exit, and finished the ground texture.
  
• Re-shaped the swamp terrain.
  
• Faded in terrain textures. Example: you cant just hard-line a texture like sand, it must slowly/gradualy fade into the next texture (beach, desert).

I really like the way the workflow is unfolding. With terrain changes, brings ideas/concepts for testing...

 

Something id like to touch on is...Prefabs. Alot of devs/new students, dont really use them or understand them. What i teach is this: Prefabs should be used for any objects that you will use many/multiples of (rocks, trees, foliage, etc.). And heres why...

If you use prefabs for your objects, you can make 1 change to the root prefab, and it will automaticly update all of them in your scene at once. This saves you time, as imagine seperatly updating each one, lol. Im just now starting to add palm trees, rocks, etc, and i can change anything i want at anytime to all of them, very easily.

Save yourself a boat-load of time and please use prefabs...

 

Had some time to add in the palm trees to the desert area (prefabs). Next will be rocks, dead trees, etc. What im doing to start off is less dense foliage for now. Heres why, less overhead performance-wise, and leaves more room for dinos to move around. Now as the project progresses, if performance allows, ill add more denser foliage.

Once the rocks are added, it will look great, a good starting base. Some of you may have noticed, ive changed/darkened the basic terrain texture. Ive studied island terrains in the area of costa rica, and its a dark type soil. I will have greener areas, as forest, jungle, etc. but the darker soil will prevail in alot of areas. This is a close texture to that, with an increased normal map scale:

 

Ive added the windzone, and something different to JE, a new Kapok tree. Now, it needs shader work, as the alpha cutoff, and texture culling/face support, needs to be addressed, and will be. But heres the current render, alot better than JE's orig Kapok. Vines that extend down the trunk, and hanging vines are just long enough:

 

Heya guys, to save dev time, what i have done was take the final build of JE, stripped out whats not needed for JE-WoC, and import the new terrain into a single scene. So that all of the JE assets are exactly the same detail and quality as JE, but now in a open-world senario.

Im hoping to have the desert area finished enough this week, so i can move on to the lake area. Heres a SS of the palm trees and new kapok tree being put in as we speak:

 

Wanted to outline alot of the features/info about the project:

• There will be trails to follow around the island. Now you dont have to follow them, but is advised.
  
• There will be ocean and lake creatures, so anytime your in the water, theres danger.
  
• Enemy para-military will have a main base, and remote bases around the island.
  
• In the north they have a harbor and storage facility.
  
• The HUD will be totally re-designed, with as little on screen as possible.
  
• I have so many more creatures, (dinos, sea creatures, birds, flies, crabs, spiders, etc.) than JE ever had. All pre-tested (40+ models).

Ive been working all night long, and the oasis/desert is roughed out (palms/plants will only grow around the water supply), and the lake is also roughed out (kapoks added, Aquas water added), next will be the waterfall on the northern side. Right now i have the stock JE UFPS controller in, so i think a FPS view will win, no matter controller choice, lol.

 

I work too much, lol. Heres some real progress, the desert oasis (WIP):

 

This is the waterfall i added in, which is on the north end of the lake (has great sound effects, and misty fog particle effects at the bottom). At the bottom of the weaterfall will be a river or swamp area, with dinos, but be careful when in this area, its close to the enemy base camp:

 

Sup guys! Had time to dev out the waterfall area. Started adding in secondary rocks, and kapok trees. Now this has most all PPE added in (including Beautify), accept for tone mapping. Reason is im having an issue with tone mapping and Aquas underwater effects.

I have it solved, but may use a different water/controller asset, will have to see, but not a problem (it has to do with caustics/camera support for multiple water planes). Im real happy with the workflow, and its results. Has actually been real fun.

Ive been thinking about doing a dev-log/teaching type video series, starting with the bare basics of Unity, and then into the dev process of 3D realism, and the dev of JE-WoC itself.

Heres a video of the waterfall areas progress:

 

Yo, did alot of work to the waterfall/swamp area, and its really starting to look good. Next will be foliage (dead trees, stumps, water plants, grass, etc.). Heres the updates:

• Finished all rocks, might add just a few on raised areas.
  
• Adjusted the waterfalls audio cutoff range.
  
• Swamp floor has its own rock ground texture, and raised areas have the normal jungle/forest ground texture.

Heres the eye candy:

 

Want to make a dead/dry tree from any tree asset (doesnt change LOD's) with leaves removed? Easy...

• Take your tree, place it in scene.
  
• In hierarchy, right click on the tree and "unpack prefab".
  
• In hierarchy, open the tree up, opening up LOD's and billboard.
  
• In each LOD, select and open "mesh renderer".
  
• Now under "materials", select the "leaves material" and set to "none".
  
• Now delete that entry by setting "size" (at top), 1 less (if its 4, drop to 3, etc.).
  
• Now drag it back into the project folder, and create a prefab.

You DONT have to go and buy any dead tree assets on the store, as this can be applied to any tree assset with LOD's. Now you may need to adjust the billboard shader, or shader settings, to get it to comply.

Note: If you want to do this with current assets in scene/game, you have to re-name and re-create a seperate asset, or it will change the orig/root asset. I took JE's orig kapok trees, and turned them into dead/dry trees, and they are still VERY performant, in fact a boost, with 1 less material/texture to render. I will be doing this to my current kapok trees/asset, as the workflow has been proven...

Example:

 

Foliage has started!. Heres the update:

• Finished adding in additional rocks.
  
• Added in coconut plants, and banana plants.
  
• Increased water level, as fish, etc. will be added in soon.

Scale has been a hard thing to percieve, but i finally have a grip on it. Will take a few days to add basic foliage (floor and around upper rim). I have decided that the waterfall/swamp area will be the actual starting area to dev, and showcase. Will take a bit, as my vision has dead trees, stumps, fish, and water plants added to what you see:

 

Well, things are starting to ramp up. Ive added in dead trees, and most all plant species. Next ill be adding fish in the water. To show scale and set up, im adding in the dinos as i go, but note they are not in EmeraldAI just yet, but are scaled correctly and still need some texture work (yes he looks like he just went to the dentist, lol).

The swamp area will have these guys Baryonyx (fish eaters), and the large gators, Sarcosuchus. Unlike JE, JE-WoC will have dinos fighting each another in different areas. Heres a progress shot:

 

Lookin bad ass. Just needs some polish and finishing touches.

 

Thnx, but will be some time before i can do that, lol. Large map, so im building things by areas, should be moving on to the lake by tonight

 

Did alot of work this weekend, and revised the swamp area. Much better, with lots of kapok trees with hanging vines, dead trees, and has a great look and feel. Ill be adjusting the kapoks leaves and vines color next, and adding in stumps, etc.

 

Wanted to show the new log/stump models being added in. In the center is the new moss log, which the color matches the tree vine color and looking great. Behind it is a rotted out tree stump, with a moss base. If you look to the left, between the tree and bush, you can see one of the baryonyx. Water and lighting has been adjusted and looks really good in game.

Ill be adding all the stumps and logs for the next few nights (lots of scaling/positioning), and soon ill be posting in game video footage. Once dinos are in EmeraldAI (animated), they are going to have a blast in this environment, lol:

 

Will the game mechanics stay mostly the same as in the free version of Jurassic Extinction?

 

No, alot will be different, as well as new systems, animations, etc., as its open world, so much more will be added.

 

Glad to know that! I hope you focus on the combat part more. Like, limiting the player's stamina, so there is no way to run circles around enemies, but give dinosaurs exploitable moves, for example, charge (with greatly reduced turn speed) or jump attack (with recovery pause on landing). This will force players to choose wisely when to shoot and when to dodge. Some kind of hit stun or knockback on the dinosaurs is also a must have, in my opinion. So smaller, lighter dinosaurs would flinch more easily, even getting knocked down by shotgun blasts, while bigger ones would require several shots to interrupt their current animations. Add in a weak point system (with headshots not being universal solution, if you are fighting something with thick skull or small brain), and shooting should feel way better.

 

I like your input, ive been thinking along the same lines while working on the game. I have alot more plans for the controller. Right now i have the stock JE controller in (for dev purpose), but thats going to be changed. Also a less cluttered UI/HUD. Now some of the dino models dont have hit animation, which means, ill have to add them myself, or update to models that have them. Combat and animation will play a very important role in WoC.

Ill be posting a feature list as soon as i can (by weekends end), theres so much planned for the workflow, and the terrain scale is very big. So i dev it in areas, once most the main areas are basicly done, ill move onto features, AI, combat, and UI/HUD integration. Right now im trying to get the swamp area done enough, where i can move on to the desert, or lake area. Ive been working on a great scorpion model, and a spawn system for them, and have the Pteranodons that youll see flying overhead, in many parts of the island. So background work never stops, lol.

 

I lied, im a work-aholic, lol. Heres an updated workflow for JE-WoC:

• FPS controller (RFPS, UFPS 2.0 considered). (stamina, thirst, hunger system).
  
• Waypoint objective system (youll see a blue or green dot, leading to objectives).
  
• Text with voiceover audio sync.
  
• Root motion animation for dinos/enemy (run attacks, hit animation, and revised waypoint/roam radius updates).
  
• New underwater dinos/creatures ( Xenacanthus, Plesiosaurus, etc.).
  
• New UI, less cluttered (less on-screen).
  
• An escape end game senario.
  
• More story driven (intro, cutscenes, ending, etc.).
  
• More and better texture support.

Now, please remember things will change as the dev process progresses. I try to micro-optimize as much as possible (hence JE's great performance), and my #1 priority for WoC, but is harder with a open-world senario. I have at least a 30 FPS "buffer", once the project is at completion (all objects added). Ill be using SECTR terrain chunk streaming system, which ive used and tested multiple times, and fully worked out.

 

If you do not have access to 3d editor, Unity allows cutting the existing animation clips apart, or reversing them. I'm sure you can make some substitute for hit animation that way.

 

Another thing that felt wrong in the current JE: you have the flyers which do not have true flight (only hover above their navmesh agent). Nothing wrong about that by itself, I understand that pathfinding in 3d space is hard to implement, but at least try to hide it, and do not put them into situations that make the problem instantly visible, like that one area with the log bridges.

 

So true, and in the forum (if you look it up) i posted about that very problem, to see if anyone else had any answers, and none of us (including an animation pro) could solve it. That model/situation gave me the most problems. Now we all know that to have a flyer fly, and when killed, fall to the ground, you need to use a ragdoll, not posible with that model. I and a few others tried to create a ragdoll, and failed, we think it had to do with wing membranes. And you cant just use animation, as once the animation clip ends, it dies/stays in the air.

I couldnt waste anymore time trying, and delaying the game any further, to get it to comply, and didnt have a replacement. It will only be used as a visual in WoC. Alot of the models are being replaced or re-worked. To me the one thing that i didnt like was animation/movement. They worked well, but just not the way i wanted, not realistic enough (especially turning), hence why ill be using root motion. JE is good, the performance and environment is great, but dino movement/AI will be much, much better in WoC.

 

The swamp area is almost done, a few things to do. Ive also taken out the health and ammo that was on screen, as they will be moved and changed. Ill be starting on the lake or desert next. Heres a video update:

 

Just a quick update. Ill be working on the desert area for the next week, wanted to show you the scorpion model ill be using, which has 20+ root motion animations. Now ill be replacing alot of the dino models with new ones with root animations (current ones used in JE were static), but not sure how many species i can aquire and rework, time will tell. These guys are 3/4 the size of the character, should be fun:

 

Early WIP of the desert area. Decided protoceratops are best here, as well as scorpions and other random dinos that come for the watering hole. Lots more work to be done:

 

Sorry for not posting an update, im waiting on my video card (had a VRAM prob), and with the chip shortage, etc., takes a bit

 

its not correct for the waterfall sound to 100% pan from ear to ear, there should be a baseline ambient level.