Okay, I'm going to call v0.23 finished at this point!
Anyone is welcome to try out the latest version, v0.23, by downloading it here:
[EDIT] Please see the next post for the new link!
[/EDIT]
As for the new stuff, here's the list!
1)
Completely changed the landscape/terrain engine for the game. The landscape, which used to be from one file, is now broken up into an 8x8 grid for a total of 64 mini-files. The result is that we have a ton more control over things like detail levels and only drawing what we see. This improves control over performance and load times, big time. We also changed the textures for the landscape.
NOTE: Only the "very low" detail option is available at this point. I'm willing to manually post up the other detail levels if people are interested but I haven't programmed in a way to change it in-game yet - you have to edit the code manually to change it. I chose "very low" for the release to reduce RAM requirements and load times.
2)
Shadows are now functional on both the terrain and the characters. The position of the shadows do update in realtime based on where the "sun" is in the sky. NOTE:
The lighting on the dinosaurs is backwards: what's light should be dark and vice versa. I know what has to happen to fix it but the procedure is causing big problem at the moment. I will talk to Razzie, our modeller, about this.
ANOTHER NOTE: The sun does not move in this game. I tested it by moving it manually but there is no day/night system in the game yet.
3)
Introduced a functional save/load system. You can choose a game to load from the character select screen. Just click a portrait of the dino on the screen and click the arrow in the bottom right to start!
If there are no saved games, hatch a new dino, type in a name and click in the bottom right of the screen to start!
The game automatically saves your stats and location every few seconds, as well as an autosave when you quit the game. The in-game saving every few seconds seems to be slightly buggy, not always saving. It works most of the time but as far as I can tell the save when you Quit the game does work properly....as long as you Quit the game and don't just click "Main Menu".
There is also an issue if you make more than about 10 save files..they go off the screen on the character select screen. I haven't put in a "scrollbar" system yet to handle that situation.
4)
Fixed some bugs where the game could crash if you went back and forth in the menus enough times. I know, there are some issues with this release. Mainly, I wanted to demonstrate the save/load feature, as well as the new landscape. Don't mind the things like the floating tree. I know it's there. I'll deal with it when the landscape's shape is more finalized.
Enjoy!
