Ok great! I have a few questions to answer today. I'll break the the posts up. Not yet certain. I may add more or delete some, like .22 caliber weapons. I may modify some of the names, but all currently has a real world counterpart. The current build has: Magnum Shotgun FN F200 M4 Super 90 Shotgun 1911 AK 47 AK 101 AK 74 AK 74 SU Galil Saiga .308 Cal P90 Bizon Calico .22 LR Famas FN 5.7 Groza Jackhammer L85A Tech KG 9 Model 83 P2000 Protecta QSZ92 Ruger MP9 Sig 551 Sig 552 Sig P250 SopMod M4 Spas 12 Spas 15 Sphinx 3000 Steyer TMP Type 95 USAS 12 Notice there are no sniper rifles. I haven't added any sniper rifle functionality yet. But, I will once I get proper scopes and zoom working.
Frame rate is dependent on the device you own, players online, whether your the host or client, or what's going on in scene. It fluctuates, of course and is not consistent. Naturally, the lower end the device, the lower the frame rate. hi. It works on 4S yes, at low resolution and the lowest level of detail(LOD). This is not entirely a Barren Roads issue as much as it is a hardware issue. One of the more frustrating aspects of developing Survival: Barren Roads is keeping it current with 512MB devices. Working with iOS 7 you only have about 200-250MB RAM to work with before memory issues will terminate your applications. Thats iOS 7, not Barren Roads. It actually works better on iOS 6. Through my experiences new OS have not been kind to gamers. I am not certain how long I want to support low end devices. As of now it works, but its much more developer friendly to build a one all app instead of device specific app.
As of now, I have no MFi support. However, if I have enough users that want it, I see no issues adding it. I'll just buy a MFi controller, add the code necessary...BAM!..MFI will work. Easy!!!! Interestingly enough, we do have plans on extending to other platforms. Matter of fact, I've already tested it. I often test the multiplayer functionality using my Mac as a host and connect my iOS devices to it. Thats right. You can play PC/Mac vs iOS devices. I might be the first to do this. I haven't tested android because I haven't made any builds for android yet, but I don't foresee any issues. Its mono, uses the same network library and scripts. The only difference will be the performance based on the hardware. I hope
Multiplayer LAN works like this: One device clicks a button to host. Others click a button to join as a client. I haven't stressed test the max number of devices yet, and I may not. I might leave it as is and allow you to have as many players join until your game crashes or your phone lags. I'll see based on player feedback when I do more testing or release. For online multiplayer games, I don't have a final product yet, but this is what we are doing: We are going to provide a few files to download. You can download the files for free (whether you own the game or not) and set up a server on PC/Mac and use it as a host. Better performance than a phone. If you got a server in your bedroom closet or you host other games on a server, upload these files there, open the required ports allow connections and host your game from there. We feel allowing players the freedom to host games however they want is more appealing and cost efficient for players and us. We are likely going to put in a lobby type server where you can meet and grab your online player. I need a little time to put all this together. Also, let me know your thoughts. We are flexible. We don't have anything in place as of now to regulate how you play online. Thats up to you to decide. We got a big online world filled with destroyed buildings, weapons, bullets, survival items, hazards, and a player who needs to be sheltered, fed, and watered. What you do with these things are up to you. When you fire a bullet it will damage what it hits, friend or foe. If you want co-op team up with your friends, share loot and defend yourself. If you start or join a server with unfamiliar people, expect the unexpected.
I am not certain the exact pricing yet. I may seek publisher assistance and they will decide the pricing. And they may not want me to write on here anymore. I am not very good with websites, pictures, making videos, and marketing. This is a niche game. There is not another game like this on the app store. And its a big game with tons of content and multiplayer. Its not a big empty desert to walk around in with nothing to do. However, its a work in progress with still much to finish. When you have a giant open world game like this, I constantly feel like I need to keep adding more things to the world. But, I gotta bring it to a close at some point and get it in gamers hands. We'll see.
Now will apples metal API help with ram issue?? It seems the dev community is really excited for metal. Can you let us know why this will help you guys build better games?
Beta Tester Im the guy who commented on you're Youtube video, and im a pretty early supporter of this game. I would love to test the game more using the iPad 2 since there is TestFlight. I would love to participate into the testing when its ready to be!
Well I'm upgrading to the iphone 6 so there shouldn't be any problems with this game when it comes to framerate. Maybe 60 fps? And can we lower the resolution in order to increase fps ? Like: native resolution at 30 fps with max Gfx or 60 fps with lowered resolution?
So far this game sounds great and looks good from the video you showed but I have another question? Will this soley be a multiplayer game or will there be an option just to play by yourself? I'm just wondering becuase I travel a lot and won't always have an internet connection.
Don't worry. I travel extensively myself. You will see my posts show up at random times of the day, pending on what side of the globe I'm on. There is a single player game. An internet connection is not required for single player games. Single player will play exactly like multiplayer, except you won't have any "live" players to deal with. I've focused on multiplayer because its much harder to do and there aren't many open world multiplayer games on the iOS store. Except, maybe Minecraft and its clones.
To be honest, I haven't even looked at Metal until you asked me. After browsing a few articles on the internet it seems metal focuses on rendering and speed, thus increasing performance and frame rate. I didn't really see anything that would relate to RAM performance. But, like I previously mentioned, I haven't really looked into Metal. Not always the case, but generally choppy gameplay is frame rate related and crashes are RAM related. The best way to know is to profile/test it. But, I haven't done it yet. Like iOS 8, I haven't really did much research on the iPhone 6. I am just going to throw assumptions out there. It seems to have a bigger screen, so I am going to assume its going to have better resolutions to accommodate the screen size. Thats great for pics and photos, but I don't think so much not only for Barren Roads, but FPS like games. The iPad 3 has 2048x1536 resolution with millions of pixels to draw. Doesn't that seem like quite a bit to draw? Again, when I get one and test it, I'll have a better answer for you. In Barren Roads, at some point I'll expose some graphic options for you to adjust for your playing preferences. I just haven't got there yet. Still much to do.
I've thought quite a bit about putting vehicles in game for quite some time. I have roads crossing all directions across the world of Barren Roads that are littered with ruined vehicles. It makes sense to search these ruined vehicles for parts in an effort to put together a working vehicle. For single player, I can have vehicles in game in minutes. Yet, I am trying to be consistent with single and multiplayer. Good vehicle play needs to have a certain level of physics. Particularly, if the map is not flat. You want your vehicles to be able to jump over ramps and hills. I have little doubt, I can get this working and synced for multiplayer. However, the more features I add the longer it takes to release this game. I want to bring what we got to the table and let players have a blast in Barren Roads. I am likely going to add some type of vehicles at some point. But, I'd prefer not to list a whole bunch of promises in updates. This much I can assure you: I am not promising an open world DayZ like apocalypse survival game for iOS...I already have it.
Will you continue improving your game by updating it and adding from minor to big updates to the game if it will become successful?Oh and I am sure it should be successful considering it will be the first 3d zombie survival game on ios(unless the wild will be released earlier but it is more of the Rust than DayZ).
Hey, it's your game, do what you want. I'm sure everyone will be just as happy whatever way it turns outs.
My bad. Maybe my last post was a bit lengthy. I just wanted to give some insight and share some of our thought process. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. We use it to gauge features and interests. Yes. I will 100% support it with improvements and bug fixes, successful or not.
