Early Access Schedule

I know! Where's that Unlike button!

Yep, it would be great to hear if that Dec 12 date is on track. I'm sure some people need some lead time to submit PTO requests.

 

For R1, I see housing will be available for testing. Does this include basements? It was interesting that in the latest video walkthrough we see the house and we see the basement, but not the transition between the two. I'm curious if this is a seamless transition or if going to the basement takes you to a separate scene. Do the stairs leading down to the basement take up space in the house? It would be interesting if so to see the default village lot shack with a basement. The entry way for the stairs might take up a good chunk of the floor plan

 

I didn't see any seamless transition between house and basement. Are you referring to the Town Tower home? If so, the entry room is raised, so that the lower floor is actually at ground floor. All other shots of the basement show the player initially already in the basement.

The transition itself will likely be simply a magic door or hatch and you pop into the basement after the map load.

 

I didn't say I saw a seamless transition, I was saying we didn't see anything one way or the other. They haven't said, AFAIK, whether transition to the basement is seamless or whether its a teleport so we don't know. That's one thing I'm curious about.

 

They mentioned it would require a screen load, they'll make it as brief as possible. so I think you are stepping into a new "scene" when you enter a basement. how that occurs, if you go through a doorway or click on something or stand at a particular point I don't know. I'd imagine it would work much like exiting town.

 

Yeah, and they can get really elaborate with it or not. If you look at the 6-month video, there's a shot of the avatar standing in front of a pretty tall ladder with a hatch at the top. They could make it really simplistic such that you click on the hatch from either end and you just pop into the house or basement without any animation. Or, they could animate the entire thing showing you going up and down the ladder to make it more seamless despite the map load.

 

It won't be seamless, because the terrain in Unity can't have holes punched in it without other problems.

Teleporters to the basement below the scene or a reload into a different scene, we just don't know.

There are tricks they can do if it's in the same scene, like using cameras to project the other side of the teleport on the wall and make it seem like they're connected.

 

Well, you're more of a Unity expert than I am, but my impression was that going down through the terrain wouldn't be a problem as long as the space was completely closed in. The basement is enclosed, so there's no problem seeing under the terrain since you're in a completely interior space.

EDIT: Although maybe you're referring to just the surface where you'd have to pass through it? I guess that would be an issue.

 

Terrain doesn't work like that. It's a plane with a height map applied, so there are no holes in it. Think of it as a blanket over a bed with the cat underneath. There is no way out from underneath it without traveling to the edge.

There are some things that people have done to trick Unity. For example, you can set a small plane with a touching trigger that removes the collision detection of the terrain so you can pass through it. After you leave the small plane, the collision detection returns. That isn't a great solution for multiplayer.

As I said above, you can use a camera on the exit, pointing into the basement, and project that camera on the wall at the end of the hallway in the house. When you touch that wall, you are transported to the camera location, facing the room, and the illusion is that you never were transported.

The simplest solution is to just have a trap door and ladder or a staircase that you go down. The camera freezes position, you go out of sight around the corner. The system transports you to the basement behind a corner, the camera moves to show that corner and you come around it. It would work for both basements in the same scene, or if they were in a different scene.

Chances are really good that basements are instanced individually on your machine and your friends connect to you if they visit. It makes for reduced load on the clients and less communication to the servers, since no basements are loaded until in use.

 

What if you had the area around the stairs have a minimum value in the height map. Sort of a local depression in the terrain. Then build the stair case in there. Once you were below ground level you'd be in the basement area and could ignore the terrain.

 

This is true, however, really large changes in height over a short distance look like crap. You'd have to have set the terrain plane's resolution really fine to do that, and since that means more triangles, it requires more processing to draw.

 

Well, I guess we'll see what they come up with. Pretty sure there's a clever way to make it work though. If its a teleport so be it.

 

Mmhh does that mean that all underground areas (caves, dungeons, etc...) will require a loading screen?

There are many engines using a heightmap which still allow seamless underground areas.

 

Unity can support it to. The built in free one just doesn't. There's lots of solutions you can program yourself or even buy compatible with the unity engine. I'm sure the devs will tailor their own solution. This isn't a 48 hour scene jam where they have to make do with what is on hand.

 

I didn't say it couldn't. Portalarium investigated and one of the reasons we got basements was because there was no elegant way to punch holes in terrain, at least to their satisfaction at the time.

 

Who the what now?
Explain that logic.

 

Check out this post.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/player-cellars-and-dungeons.3189/

 

Okay that's a better explanation then 1 + 2 = Banana.

Looking forward to see what the team comes up with. I wonder which release will bring basements in so we can try to break them.

 

Will everyone who as pledged but may not use the forums be sent an email with the details to take part.

 

When the Release 1 does drop sometime on Thursday, they'll probably post it on the Forums first (and perhaps in Chat). As weekly Updates are only sent on Fridays, all backers will receive that notification the following day, along with a publish to the website. I hope they do a KS update as well.