Witness Protection - 11/19/2016 - Lock n' Load!

11/19/2016 - LOCK N' LOAD!

Hey guys! Don't worry, we've been working a lot on the game, we just haven't had the chance to cover everything new.

Here's some videos to keep you decently up to date:

NEW MAPS

We're getting new maps - one of which is already finished and implemented!

Urban

Urban takes players into a reimagining of the original cityscape that started it all.
The map is a breath of fresh air not only for seasoned followers, but also newcomers.
We aim to create an experience that not only keeps a balanced gameplay style, but provides beauiful visuals.

Urban has been implemented in-game, and you can check out the video above for a little tour!

Biotic

Biotic is a pristine, bleak facility, with but a few lights still turned on.
This is the first map to have true interiors.



Biotic has actually required us to switch our rendering to deferred lighting.
What this means is Unity "waits" to calculate the frame's lighting.
A single frame of a game can have multiple different "passes" for various tasks, such as the 3D geometry pass.
Deferred lighting tells Unity to do the lighting in a second pass, after the geometry has been rendered.

So, what does this mean for the game? This means that we'll be seeing a huge boost in framerate.
Biotic ran terribly because of how many lights we were using, even after optimizations.
Now that we have further optimizations, as well as deferred lighting, the map runs perfectly fine.

Notably, things such as Unity's native fog and anti-aliasing are not possible with this system.
Thankfully this can be remedied with post-process AA and fog methods, so we're in the clear!

NEW ANIMATIONS

Thanks to modern medicine me, we now have all-new animations for primary weapons.
In addition, I've fully animated/sound designed both sniper rifles.

Sadly I can't embed Gfycat links so you'll just have to click these:

VL-47 full reload
Heavy Sniper draw
Heavy Sniper fire
Heavy Sniper reload

The C3A1 and shotgun have received a treatment to fix the arms being in an awkward position:


The C3A1 now has a slower reload as well.

FINAL NOTE

Thanks for sticking with us, everyone. We're as excited for the game as you are, and we're hoping to get into a public alpha by...mid-2017, I'd say.
We want to make our first public release the best it can be, so please stay with us and be patient. We promise we won't mess this up.

- Landy