Developer Update Current Source Code Progress

[Seiichi]

Because we have gotten to a point that there is more than minor updates to announce, I figured I'd do an actual development update.

As mentioned in the last response I had to the prior update, we have fixed the major bugs that were found and are now having testers go through to see if there are any more issues that need to be resolved. We are now having testers look for any other possible bugs to see if there is anything game breaking that needs to be addressed before we polish up the update and start working to release it.

Of the bugs that we fixed, one was related to cosmetic wings not displaying or equipping properly, and that they did not work as expected when swapping costume slots. This required a lot of reverse engineering as the implementation was completely changed to other wings, and required accounting for many edge cases and variables.

The other main issue that we have had to work on is with applying new stat values to hatched Dragons, and accounting for changes we needed to make to do so. The biggest change we had to make is that we are no longer applying a bonus stat to hatched Dragons, and are instead going to have them use the new stat values. For people who are panicking about losing stats, the new maximum stat value for wild and hatched Dragons is 9/11.7 vs 6/6.96 (wild) or 6/10.44 (hatched). To get this done a lot of changes had to be made on the backend, and we have also made it so that rare Dragons are no longer arbitrarily set to a lower stat value. When we release the update we will be removing all bonus stats from existing Dragons; we will be doing a stat adjustment for rare Dragons that have a maximum bonus value, otherwise they will use the base stats they had.

We are also doing some experiments to see if we can increase the performance of the client, and have found some avenues to do so but we're unsure of just how big an improvement it will be. For comparison, my setup with every setting maxed out (Using FXAA and medium textures) the current live client is around ~31-35 FPS. The new experimental client (Using FXAA and high textures) has 35-46 FPS. This is obviously reliant on individual hardware, but there should be some improvement for everyone.

Other than source code development Aiden has been working on of the pony concepts from the White Stallion/Frightmare coloring contest (including a concept Vipera had submitted on the side as an avatar).

Prince of Autumn (Or Wafflecone Rapidash)

Skyhammer War Charger

Royal Destrier

Unnamed Concept (Original)

 

[Faleah]

I know you guys have been working a long time on this. It's not easy work. Thank you all very much for your efforts! They are appreciated.

 

[Seiichi]

Forgot to mention, FPS testing is done in the middle of Laedis so it is literally the worst for FPS.

 

[Barracuda]

All these new dragons will be sold as exclusives in pack for 7,500 diamonds. Or will there be some other way to get it?
(very interesting - Skyhammer's Battle Charger and the Royal War Horse)

 

[Exceddius]

PONIES!!!!

 

[Seiichi]

All these new dragons will be sold as exclusives in pack for 7,500 diamonds. Or will there be some other way to get it?
(very interesting - Skyhammer's Battle Charger and the Royal War Horse)

These and the unreleased Phantoms that Aiden touched up are all planned for free release as expanded content once we finish the system(s) we have planned, which will be after the source update.

In general, the majority of contest entries will be released as free content, though some will be sold as exclusives.

The plan is to eventually get rid of all marketplace Dragons other than our exclusives and maybe a few select Dragons, and make everything else available in game through new systems that encourage exploration or interactive gameplay. It's why we have no plans to add the half baked Soul Gaze system, and why I want to encourage less usage of the hatching system. I also plan on doing some things to make the capture system a bit easier for people who have handicaps or trouble with them.

 

[Dryadia]

Hooray \o/
Thanks for the update, and hard work ya'll have done!
Can't wait for the new dragon ponies! Bring 'em on!

 

[Seiichi]

Hooray \o/
Thanks for the update, and hard work ya'll have done!
Can't wait for the new dragon ponies! Bring 'em on!

You're just happy that there's a good green pony, be honest.

 

[watson]

Because we have gotten to a point that there is more than minor updates to announce, I figured I'd do an actual development update.

As mentioned in the last response I had to the prior update, we have fixed the major bugs that were found and are now having testers go through to see if there are any more issues that need to be resolved. We are now having testers look for any other possible bugs to see if there is anything game breaking that needs to be addressed before we polish up the update and start working to release it.

Of the bugs that we fixed, one was related to cosmetic wings not displaying or equipping properly, and that they did not work as expected when swapping costume slots. This required a lot of reverse engineering as the implementation was completely changed to other wings, and required accounting for many edge cases and variables.

The other main issue that we have had to work on is with applying new stat values to hatched Dragons, and accounting for changes we needed to make to do so. The biggest change we had to make is that we are no longer applying a bonus stat to hatched Dragons, and are instead going to have them use the new stat values. For people who are panicking about losing stats, the new maximum stat value for wild and hatched Dragons is 9/11.7 vs 6/6.96 (wild) or 6/10.44 (hatched). To get this done a lot of changes had to be made on the backend, and we have also made it so that rare Dragons are no longer arbitrarily set to a lower stat value. When we release the update we will be removing all bonus stats from existing Dragons; we will be doing a stat adjustment for rare Dragons that have a maximum bonus value, otherwise they will use the base stats they had.

We are also doing some experiments to see if we can increase the performance of the client, and have found some avenues to do so but we're unsure of just how big an improvement it will be. For comparison, my setup with every setting maxed out (Using FXAA and medium textures) the current live client is around ~31-35 FPS. The new experimental client (Using FXAA and high textures) has 35-46 FPS. This is obviously reliant on individual hardware, but there should be some improvement for everyone.

Other than source code development Aiden has been working on of the pony concepts from the White Stallion/Frightmare coloring contest (including a concept Vipera had submitted on the side as an avatar).

Prince of Autumn (Or Wafflecone Rapidash)

View attachment 3684

Skyhammer War Charger

View attachment 3686

Royal Destrier

View attachment 3685

Unnamed Concept (Original)

View attachment 3689

View attachment 3687

View attachment 3688

View attachment 3690

wow nice. thank you for Your hard work^^. And the best wishes to you all, Admins^^. we wait to change deeper in game. My mean is Laedis 108 and other maps in game. ^^

 

[Seiichi]

wow nice. thank you for Your hard work^^. And the best wishes to you all, Admins^^. we wait to change deeper in game. My mean is Laedis 108 and other maps in game. ^^

That is still a long ways off, because we still need to fully get the map tool working (and learn all of it's quirks) and work out issues with the model exporter, which uses a proprietary format.

 

[DustyAngel]

Ponnnnnniessssss!!! Gimme, please. Omg they are so beautiful. Definitely love how the Sky Warhammer Charger and the Royal Destrier look. Actually at first glance, the Royal reminded me of a shire with the white feathering on the legs simply for the fact I'm playing rdr2 currently and I've run into similar shires a few moments ago, just not as shiny/clean looking



Liking the progress so far. Thank you for all your hard work guys!

 

[Iney]

what a cute pony , iwant it (*^‿^*)

 

[Seiichi]

We just recently fixed another bug that would corrupt string data, and also one that broke collision for objects and terrain.

We're currently looking at if we're going to change how the client is structured for data, and see about changing how data is packed (or potentially use it encrypted and unpacked). A lot of the performance issues are directly tied to how data is handled.

If we do go for unpacked data, the client size is going to become much much larger, so we are also looking at alternative compression and packing systems.

This decision needs to be made before we release the source update as doing so afterwards would require a completely new client.

 

[Seiichi]

With the move to the new data center we are temporarily having to pause testing while we source hardware for our development environments and also a dedicated test server for Dragon's Prophet. Due to the overall chip shortage prices are either insane, or in high demand, so we are having issues finding exactly what we are wanting at a reasonable price. This shouldn't take to long, as we only need to get the test server which has less requirements than our overall dev environment server.

While that is happening, we are making some further improvements to the patching process, so that it can support the large upscaled texture update I am also wanting to include in the testing. We've upscaled all non-exclusive Dragons to give a cleaner higher depth to the textures (some are noticeable, some are less noticeable). This will overall help with some of the muddy textures certain Dragons have at least until we can manually re-texture a lot of them.

There are a few things we are needing to fix or look at, and then we will have another pass done to see if there are any issues that testers can find again.

 

[Seiichi]

We should be getting the new test server delivered for provisioning later this week (more likely the weekend) and will probably resume the following week, depending on if thee additional changes to the patch system are completed.

 

[Seiichi]

So new test server is at the data center and is now installed, but I cannot fully set it up until after the next maintenance.

We're currently working on fixing an issue with swapping between branches on our new patching system (the second rewrite, this time in C++) so that I can release the upscaled Dragon textures.

There will likely be some artifacts on some textures, mainly where there is hair due to the way the textures are done for DP. We will be touching up and fixing individual textures in the future, as this is mostly just to get rid of some of the overall muddiness of textures on Dragons.

Upscaled textures are slightly higher quality than high quality textures on our beta client, which is really only a 5-10% improvement to the overall quality in game. It just defines lines a bit better, and gives more depth. If there are areas where the texture is not very clear, it won't do much to those textures until we go through and re-do the texture from scratch.

 

[Haildrake]

Man O MAN!!! i can't wait for this to come, thank you so much for the great news and thank you Aiden for stellar work!!

 

[Kitalia]

So Happy..ty ty ty for all your Hard and Difficult work...are we gonna still be able to get the Titles..."I working to get all the in-game transformations"..lol gotta reach goals..."just need the last 14 (the ancient ones)"

 

[JackTheHunter]

nice major update!

 

[Kitalia]

*note to self* (Get a helmet for Draggie and Collision Insurance)