My Future Cold War 1945-1991 Sub Sim Project

[Chad]

I have subscribed to your YouTube channel.

You know i have failed and failed at completing my indie projects as well. It's too bad we couldn't come up with something unique that we could apply our skill sets to successfully just to say we 'completed' something.

[nsomnia]

That's one of my secondary channels. Actually its my smallest channel but surprisingly generates the most income/video of anything. People love to watch gaming videos.

Thats the problem with indie games. A 1 man team means it will take years to develop a game (WotA), a 2 man team means it will take a couple years to develop a game (Stranded Deep, Besiege). A 10 man team can actually produce games yearly and make profits to life comfortably from (Euro truck simulator 1/2 (used inhouse engine), farming simulator 13/14 (used inhouse engine), spintires, goat simulator, kerbal space program are all great examples of graet games made by a small team by industry standards, but large by indie standards.).

I learn fast and im basically just trying to remember what I forgot. (Before I took time off from Unity to build up my web income I could actually code what I wanted more or less as long as it wasnt something new to the indie world (aka a sub sim)).

But then I run into the problem of finding someone intrested in subs with coding experience (and preferably other experience), that can work as a team, and unpaid until the game sells. Good luck... Thats why theres thousunds upon thousands of Unity Pro licenses sold and hundreds of thousands of free users but only a handful of solid games, and a chunk of mobile games).

I'm really starting to think bout switching to C++ and UE4.

Either way. I love 3D modelling and always will (at the VERY least we are getting a USS Nautilus Simulator this summer, even if it means no camera of outside the sub, no periscopes, and no map (and no water for that matter)) and love coding (just need more practice and skills) and always will and estimate 2 years of unlimited, no job, no wife etc. free time. So I will complete this one way or another. Just not on the timeframe I initally envisioned.

It seems survival/procedural and crafting games are the in-thing right now. Make a good story (the forest and stranded deep have no story) to go with basic crafting and exploring logic and you've got a winner. I just love my subs too much.

[nsomnia]

I think im switching to UE4.

People are praising the visual scripting (blueprint) making whole games (and at least some game logic) without looking at a single line of code and I hate visual scripting, C++ is the most commonly used programming language, and models work just fine in either engine; add on the much better lighting and performance and source code of UE4 and its really really close. If UE had a community the size of unityforums I would be deleting Unity right now.

[nsomnia]

I bought 13 Unreal4 video courses. I think im gonna use UE4 since I've been slowly reading my c++ book I bought (Programming c++ by Bjorn S. (the guy who designed c++).

I just watched 2 courses on UE4 basics and going to do the projects when I get time. UE4 is so much different than I thought.

[Chad]

Best of luck with UE4! Those videos looked pretty sharp!

[nsomnia]

I know im going against what everyone says when they say pick a game engine and stick with it, but I have decided that a) I have only hobby projects from Unity to show, nothing public so im not losing anything
b) c++ will benefit me career wise

and after actually learning the basics of UE4 (I only played with it for about an hour before) I realize just how much more amazing it is than Unity. AAA quality game engine feature sets, plus source code... for 19$ a month! If UE4 took C# as an additional language, they would dominate Unity. (and its already been done 3rd party through Xariman (Monodevlop))

I'm still working on the model of Nautius since thats engine in-dependant as I learn C++ when I feel bored (its really quite similar to C#). But I'm putting some time back into my YouTube channels so that I can make more income so that I can continue living without a real job. When I took a 2 week break 100% for this project my profits leveled off instead of rising.

Expect updates eventually, I just have a lot of learning to do. I'm still determined to create a cold war sub sim as my first public project.

(I'm still going to do the standard hack n slashes, scrollers and 2D games that these UE4 games teach but I don't publish though, just like I dont publish the games I made following Unity courses infact I've deleted most of them).

That said Chad if you still want to collaborate im always game, learning C++ isn't going to slow down my C# skills they are really extremely, extremely similar, but I'm not cut out to make a profitable game yet, code wise... only art wise and I dont know your programming skill level and finding more if any team members is near impossible with such a niche idea.

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Chad

Best of luck with UE4! Those videos looked pretty sharp!

Chad see my previous post. Whats your coding skills? C# I assume? The blueprint system in UE4 is SO much more amazing than I first assumed. Someone with no programming experiance could flesh out a basic game using it and a little help from the community/google. Throw in the fact that UE4 allows for basic mesh block-in in the editor and the fact that UE4 is only 19/month I bet we could make a profitable project. If I could find 1 more modeller, one more coder and a artist, I bet selling early access copies on steam could be done within a year (remember I can work 24/7/365 on this plus I'm kind've a jack of all trades as it is).

Something to think about. Id gladly buy you a subscription to UE4 and some courses in a few months once I get my c++ skills up and learn more about UE4 if you were interested and had the time. Especially if I could find more team members. Then just make a private git-hub and good to go.

Microsoft realased a free version of Visual Studio 2013 (soon to be 2015) for teams of less than 5 people too. I'm not sure if your aware of that (I use VS for Unity for on-the-fly debugging and because the ancient version of mono that Unity uses sucks (and the 2011 version of PhysX for that matter) and then I can use plugins like VAssistX which has probly doubled my ability to output code both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also Xaramin (Mono) created a version of mono that lets you do some C# coding for UE4, I'm sure in a few months time it will just get better and better, remember UE4 just came out.

Btw I received the WIP character models from my character designer (I told him to pause work on it for now) will post some videos when I get some time to animate them.

[Chad]

Once upon a time I was a C++ developer, for about a 6 month stint, but have switched to C#.

I appreciate the offer but is not needed! Perhaps soon I can afford a couple of months subscription to UE and try it out.

I just feel so at-home with Unity now, but it does feel a bit clunky(not sure if right word for it) compared to some things I have seen with UE, but at what cost for support and familiarity with the app.

What is missing from UE that Unity excels as it is a walk through of project setups, how code is managed, etc. Perhaps you could record a video and upload to YouTube and share. I would like to see a simple import of a 3d model, and then a creation of a simple class or script that just for instance rotate the 3d model on the Y axis when space bar is pressed.

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Chad

I have subscribed to your YouTube channel.

You know i have failed and failed at completing my indie projects as well. It's too bad we couldn't come up with something unique that we could apply our skill sets to successfully just to say we 'completed' something.

You know what I was thinking the other day and is perfectly suited to Unity and a small dev team that doesnt need intense math in your code... a good city builder. Citles xl/xxl scale with the gameplay of simcity4 (which is still the most popular city building game out there with a huge community despite being years and years old).

I always come up with ideas at the wrong time ie: i got into game design right as I was getting great at modelling... I got into youtube for a job right as I was getting into game design. i was getting into coding right as i got health problems. i come up with game ideas when im busy with something else or dont have a certain skillset.

[nsomnia]

Been splitting my time between UE4 and C++ its amazing what UE4 can do at first glance I hated it now I dont know how Unity will survive. No updates to my models though, I havn't started Blender in over a week now.

Edit: Thats a lie, I did some normal map baking today because the 3000# HPA valve tree was around 60,000 polys and everything else was less than 30,000. Not interesting though unless you want to see pictures of random purple colored shapes.

Found a good idea for creating thermoclines

 public float GetOceanTemperatureForDepth(float depth)
    {
        return (this._oceanTemperature * ((depth >= 0f) ? 1f : this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.Evaluate(Mathf.Abs((float) (depth * 0.0078125f)))));
    }

    private void InitializeOceanTemperature()
    {
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.keys = null;
        float num = 0.0001428571f;
        float num2 = 0.01333333f;
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(0f, 75f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(500f * num, 68f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(700f * num, 53.6f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(900f * num, 46.4f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(1250f * num, 41.8f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(1500f * num, 41f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(2000f * num, 40.1f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(3500f * num, 39.2f * num2);
        this._oceanTemperatureThermocline.AddKey(7000f * num, 33.8f * num2);
}

Then we could just have static ones at set depths or lerping between them.

[nsomnia]

I'm currently drooling. This project just got revitalized!

I asked reddit if switching to UE4 would be the best choice, or if I should continue with Unity.

I got this (among a few others)
https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...ownloads/page1

That is a must see for anyone interested in ocean simulation. What the UE community has done in a few MONTHS has equaled and in some areas even surpassed Unitys 'Community Ocean Project' which has been worked on for YEARS.

Basically it is extremely organized and active, and they will have a build in underwater system, tiling system, Beufort scale, breaking waves, boat wake waves and wash, a weather system and so much more. Heres the features timeline https://trello.com/b/7dzOdkvw/ue4-ocean-weather-project

By the time I feel comfortable in UE4 to start work and get my C++ up to snuff I bet they will be far enough along that I can use that as a GREAT starting point. If they have made as much progress since October 2014, I cant imagine what they will have ready by Summer (my goal for having UE4 more or less figured out and be able to figure my way through most fundamentals of C++)


They also showed me some more cool stuff

generating oceans in UE4 using math only.
Add-on to the above video moving the water plane with the player so you can have infinite oceans when needed.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...hader-download the link says it all.

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Chad

You know i have failed and failed at completing my indie projects as well

Its not exactly the video you want to see yet (the video on importing a mesh, making a nice material, then creating a component to spin it on a mouse or key press will only be 5-10 minutes long) but for my Blender channel I made a 40 minute long video comparing Unity 4.6.2f1 to Unreal Engine 4.7. I go over all the basic functionality (asset importing, organization, hierarchy and inspector window and components and a few others) we are used to in Unity and where to find it or what its called in Unreal to show people how incredibly similar they are and where Unreal exceeds or doesnt exceed (only one thing I found so far: unreal imports assets slightly slower).

The first 25 minutes is the comparison. The last 15 minutes I import and material two meshes in Unity and then I do the exact same thing in UE4 for the first time ever.

If you have 45 minutes to blow throw it up on your TV otherwise I'll create that video tommorrow or saturday now that I know the basics of UE4 I can move onto blueprint coding.

I used to argue with everyone that said Unreal was better on my Blender channel, now im re-replying with apologies LOL.

The fact Blender exported the mesh just fine made my only worry go away.

This weekend I re-start the project in Unreal Engine and update the Git-Hub. Going to layout all the decks, bulkheads, and hatches and then import it into Unreal to start filling out with equipment etc. Then start some basic game logic and then start working on the ocean. Then start work on a map system (which is where I struggled before) and so on and so forth.

Procedural ocean floors is another feature thats going to be implemented, was directed to some ways to do it easily.

[Julhelm]

You do realize there have been node-based shader editors like that available for Unity for free since, 2010 or something?

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

You do realize there have been node-based shader editors like that available for Unity for free since, 2010 or something?

Yep but I'm now starting to agree that having it built into the editor from the get-go is just.... nice makes the pipeline smoother. Just plug your nodes in and go. You have to remember I'm an artist first, coder second.

That and budget. Unity was getting expensive.

[Julhelm]

You know, if you're going to make any serious project it's going to end up being expensive. That said, while it is nice to have such things built in from the get-go, I like that Unity forced me to learn how to write my own fragment shaders. It just gives me more control over final performance. All of the node-based editors output the same CG code anyway, but they do so using their own proprietary nodes which means it is difficult to edit or understand the code afterwards if you need to manually optimize calculations. Writing your own code makes this much easier.