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Sport Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing sequence with the aim of shedding mild on particular design, artwork, or technical options inside a online game as a way to present how seemingly easy, elementary design selections aren’t actually that easy in any respect.
Earlier installments cowl subjects corresponding to classes realized from ten years of improvement with Ingress engineering director Michael Romero, how legendary Dwarf Fortress programmer Tarn Adams up to date the sport for its official Steam launch, and the way architect and solo developer Jack Strait made a whole horror sport in PowerPoint.
On this version, indie developer Devon Wiersma takes us via the upgraded visuals of Bombing!! 2, and the optimization course of they went via to get it operating easily whereas nonetheless permitting the participant to color on each floor within the sport.
Howdy! I’m Devon Wiersma and I’m a solo indie sport developer. I’ve been self-funding and self-publishing my very own video games as a pastime for roughly 5 years now, beginning with tabletop RPGs and regularly working my method into bigger digital initiatives. At present, I’m making a sport referred to as Bombing!! 2: A Graffiti Paradise.
Bombing!! 2: A Graffiti Paradise is a inventive graffiti sandbox sport the place one hundred pc of the sport world is paintable. It’s additionally a sequel to my earlier, pared-down model of a sport of the identical vein referred to as Bombing!!: A Graffiti Sandbox.
So far as I’m conscious, the Bombing!! franchise is among the few video games in the marketplace striving to make a sport the place you may actually simply paint wherever. There are different video games on the market corresponding to Kingspray Graffiti VR, SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator, or Roblox Spray Paint which try and do related, however these kinds of experiences regularly restrict your portray to sure surfaces on this planet. My aim with Bombing!! 2 has all the time been to make the likelihood house for portray within the sport world be as broad open as it will probably probably be.
As I’ve labored on the Bombing!! sequence, I’ve slowly uncovered the the explanation why different video games don’t assist you to paint in all places: because it seems, portray in all places is a technically costly factor to do, and it may be very troublesome to realize if you happen to’re not solely targeted on it as a aim of your challenge. On this deep dive, I’m going to stipulate some strategies I’m utilizing to assist optimize my worlds in Bombing!! 2 to empower this paint-anywhere expertise, some limitations I encountered, in addition to spotlight among the struggles I’ve confronted designing a sport that permits gamers to color throughout.Background On Bombing!!
I began constructing Bombing!!: A Graffiti Sandbox (or Bombing!! 1 as I name it now) as a facet challenge knowledgeable by my very own experiences making graffiti, and it shipped in 2020 as my first premium digital sport I made solo, so naturally a lot of my expertise constructing Bombing!! 2 was knowledgeable by my expertise constructing the Bombing!! 1.
Whereas Bombing!! 1 is analogous in gameplay to Bombing!! 2, it was a lot smaller in scope, with maps solely the scale of a room or so and paint decision so low that many individuals have likened it to creating pixel artwork. In Bombing!! 2, I wished to comply with this up by taking the concept and making it greater and higher in each world measurement and gear scope, which is the place my concentrate on optimization got here in.
For the technical facet of issues, Unity is the sport engine the Bombing!! sequence is inbuilt, alongside a plugin referred to as “Paint in 3D” made by Carlos Wilkes (who’s a tremendous asset developer; I’d extremely suggest testing his work). The Bombing!! Sequence on the entire is extremely depending on that plugin, so that you’ll see it referenced a couple of occasions all through this piece.Textures, Textures, Textures
Writing a texture change will be an costly operation to run if it’s accomplished regularly, and this compounds; the bigger the decision of the feel, the costlier the operation will get. Each time you paint in Bombing!!, a texture receiving the paint occasion is getting re-written.
In Bombing!! 1, I deliberately saved texture resolutions low (~128x128px) as a stylistic and PSX-looking alternative. Some customers likened it to creating pixel artwork as a result of the resolutions have been so chunky trying, whereas some customers wished them to be greater decision, because the restricted measurement made it troublesome to create extra advanced artwork. In the end, the low decision detracted from the likelihood house that freeform portray afforded the participant, and I wished to enhance this within the sequel.
In Bombing!! 2 I additionally wished to see how far I may actually push these texture resolutions to strike a stability between texture measurement and efficiency. The problem is that if an asset’s texture is simply too low then it makes the paint look too pixelated, whereas too excessive could make the paint really feel too ‘sharp’ and might make rewriting textures whereas portray insanely costly. Furthermore, when each asset in a map makes use of its personal texture with its personal complexity, discovering values which strike parity between them is vital as one object’s floor may look too pixel-y whereas one other may look too sharp in the event that they’re not balanced appropriately. It’s all about discovering a stability between what seems good and what the {hardware} can afford.
Getting this stability requires plenty of trial and error and normally includes me testing out a bunch of various iterations on every asset I’m bringing into the sport. Ultimately the values which felt greatest to me have been someplace round 512×512 for less complicated property and 4096×4096 for bigger property. Nevertheless, something greater than 2048×2048 normally sees diminishing returns and infrequently ends in slowdown when portray on older {hardware}, so it not often turns into price it at these bigger values.
On the left, a texture from Bombing!! 1. On the best, from Bombing!! 2.
UV Unwrapping
The best way Paint In 3D works is that when an asset receives a paint occasion, it writes to the feel on the level on an asset that it receives the occasion on. For instance, if you happen to paint on the pole of a Cease signal, the feel at that time on the pole will probably be painted. Because of this an asset can’t have overlapping UV areas or else the paint will probably be utilized to a number of locations on an asset that texture is being shared on (because the occasion applies to the UV house of the purpose of contact).
This naturally results in an enormous slowdown in my asset pipeline: I supply my property from on-line sources just like the Unity Retailer and Sketchfab, which regularly means I’ve to unwrap and rebake every asset I’m going to make use of within the sport if it doesn’t match my specs (which is ~90% of the time). Moreover, because of this textures in my sport which can be extra advanced are going to take up extra texture house on the entire, as every bit of the feel’s UV must be unpacked correctly to keep away from unusual visible glitches when portray.
I supplemented a few of this work with a Blender plugin referred to as SimpleBake which allowed me to set parameters and rapidly rebake property that aren’t UVed to my wants. It nonetheless slows down my workflow when incorporating new property into the sport, having to rebake all the pieces, nevertheless it a minimum of permits me to streamline the method so I’m not left doing tons of 3D work by hand.Map Measurement Workflows
Bombing!! 1’s map measurement was tiny.
Like, actually tiny.
You would see to the alternative facet of most maps, and lots of contained not more than a handful of property to color on. This was one thing I used to be decided to push to the restrict in Bombing!! 2, however carried a hefty share of issues together with it.
First off, when an asset is painted in Paint in 3D, it creates a brand new materials occasion for mentioned asset, because it turns into a singular materials with its personal textures. This implies I can’t use some built-in Unity options like Materials Instancing to get away with displaying plenty of supplies on display. Moreover, the extra a participant paints on this planet, the extra materials situations the sport must render individually, which in the end implies that the extra objects the participant paints, the extra demanding it turns into to render a sport scene on the entire.
Once I realized that gamers may probably tank their very own framerate by portray an excessive amount of, this was an enormous stopping level for me in manufacturing as I labored out the very best technique to get round this limitation.
Initially, I experimented with combining map geo collectively into giant ‘chunks’, hoping this is able to alleviate the variety of materials situations that wanted to be rendered. Whereas it did, I ultimately got here to the conclusion that such an strategy merely wasn’t possible for manufacturing, because the bigger and extra advanced geometry not solely resulted in plenty of 3D optimization work however would additionally dramatically enhance the required texture decision of property on this planet and, by affiliation, find yourself simply being extra technically demanding for me otherwise. I wished to attempt to retain the ‘package’ primarily based strategy that I utilized in Bombing!! 1.
This downside felt daunting, prefer it was going to nip my entire concept of large-scale maps for Bombing!! 2 proper within the bud. Nevertheless, I quickly remembered a key characteristic I hadn’t tried utilizing but: Occlusion Culling.
As an alternative of enormous, advanced geo, I made a decision to fully change my strategy and take a look at the alternative route: a workflow that consisted of plenty of small, easy geo. I had dismissed it earlier than fully resulting from my materials instancing issues—in spite of everything, why would I need extra objects if having too many situations was the issue?—however with occlusion culling, I may restrict the variety of these situations that have been seen, thus counteracting the issue fully.
On the left, occlusion off in Bombing!! 2, on the best, occlusion on in Bombing!! 2.
I fully forgot about occlusion culling as I not often am ready the place I construct video games with scenes giant or advanced sufficient to require its use, however on this occasion, it felt completely necessary to forestall a person’s GPU from blowing itself up making an attempt to render a scene.
And it labored! With correct occlusion culling settings and cautious map design, I landed on a workflow of constructing bigger maps out of a group of particular person smaller planes. As long as I restricted the variety of areas a participant may see your complete map from, the variety of supplies that wanted to be drawn at a time shrunk considerably, and thus allowed me to construct giant maps even when tons of of fabric situations existed within the stage.
Thanks Occlusion Culling!Portray With Particles
Paint in 3D permits the person to color surfaces utilizing particle collisions, replicating behaviors like portray with aerosol spray paint or spilling paint on issues. Nevertheless, having many particle collisions occurring on surfaces on the identical time isn’t low cost and when some textures will be 4096×4096 in measurement there’s simply the potential for slowdown throughout the portray course of if not dealt with appropriately.
Whereas particle collisions won’t be exceedingly necessary to get proper in most video games, my sport is catered largely in direction of graffiti artists who actually care concerning the really feel of spray paint. Plenty of time has gone into ensuring particles spray as authentically as a participant may count on, because it really has a direct impact on their stage of management on this planet, so it’s actually necessary for me to get proper—particularly in a sport the place particles create paint on something.
Unity has some limiters to forestall too many particle collisions from occurring directly, nevertheless it’s a tremendous line if that comes at the price of the paint not being utilized to the floor as a participant would count on. Too few collisions and the aerosol gained’t really feel responsive sufficient and can fail to fill in gaps gamers may count on it to, however too many simply ends in huge slowdowns.
I received a variety of suggestions after releasing the demo for Bombing!! 2 on the particle collisions—some gamers complained they suffered slowdown whereas portray resulting from weak {hardware}, whereas others famous there was no slowdown, however the aerosol portray wasn’t ok. After a variety of forwards and backwards optimizing them, I spotted there wouldn’t be a clear one-size suits all resolution, particularly as I spotted that customers could have vastly totally different high quality expectations whereas enjoying on totally different {hardware}, and on the entire, this disparity between person expectations and {hardware} necessities was proving to be an enormous step to beat.
As an alternative, I opted for a distinct resolution: Simply put the stability within the fingers of the participant!
Fairly than making an attempt to optimize my sport for a participant’s unknown {hardware} capabilities, I launched a gameplay setting that permits them to alter how dense their aerosol spray is. This manner, gamers could make an knowledgeable alternative and check the waters with how succesful their machine is, fairly than drive me to construct for each participant on a distinct machine.
It comes with a warning that it would have an effect on efficiency and may solely be accomplished on stronger techniques, however this empowered customers who felt that one thing wasn’t fairly proper to experiment with the optimization themself to discover a completely happy center floor for their very own wants.
Gamers nonetheless word some slowdown right here and there, however on my finish, it’s a minimum of a lot simpler to inform them to easily decrease this setting than it’s to attempt to reoptimize particle collisions for his or her {hardware}!Save Techniques
The save system in Bombing!! 1 was dangerous. Actually dangerous. It was the largest factor that wanted fixing.
Paint in 3D, by default, makes use of Unity’s built-in PlayerPref system to avoid wasting textures—I think about as a result of saves are such a contextual factor to every sport that it’s exhausting to create a one-size-fits-all resolution to them. Bombing!! 1 used the built-in choice, which labored for my restricted capabilities as a developer however resulted in me writing textures as picture information for painted supplies to the person’s registry.
Once more, I do know, it was dangerous. It was sufficient to show some customers away from enjoying Bombing!! 1 in any respect, which is completely comprehensible.
If a participant is enjoying a inventive portray sport, there’s a baseline expectation to have the ability to return to a bit and work on it once more after a very long time. In spite of everything, that’s half the enjoyable! Particularly with bigger maps and better decision textures deliberate, saving to PlayerPrefs wouldn’t work in Bombing!! 2—I wouldn’t let myself do this once more.
As an alternative, I wrote my very own system! I retailer a singular ID on every GameObject within the scene that may be painted after which I save a texture file to the file storage utilizing this distinctive ID. Whereas it makes for a big save measurement (totally painted maps can simply be upwards of 500 MB) it additionally permits customers to repeat/paste these textures to again them up or reload totally different variations of maps when returning to them later. Steam’s Cloud Storage is now not an choice resulting from measurement limitations, however hey, a minimum of I’m not blowing up folks’s registries this time.Conclusion
As you may inform, I’ve had loads of rising pains and studying factors all through manufacturing, however I’m pleased with simply what number of distinctive suggestions and tips I’ve realized about portray optimization via constructing the Bombing!! video games.
In the end, what I like about Bombing!! is empowering folks to create cool issues and replicate that have of portray graffiti from the consolation of your individual house. I hope a few of these concerns are useful to switch onto your individual video games, as I’d actually like to see ‘paint wherever’ as a method of gameplay develop to turn out to be a style unto itself sooner or later.
Whilst you’re right here, Bombing!! 2: A Graffiti Paradise releases on June twenty seventh, 2023—you may wishlist it as we speak on Steam and play the free demo to get a style of what it is received in retailer!
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