Universal Nimian Legends : BrightRidge HD (by Robert Kabwe)

I wish i could afford an iPad pro to test the performance. Ive included a lot of options so you can ouch the detail beyond what your device supports - kind of future proofing it, which is a difficult balancing act. On iPhone 6 it works well with low shadows and medium quality grass, bt on the iPad Air you can pump almost everything up to max. (you get REALLY lush vegetation far as the eye can see on that) - its really all about the ram - devices with 2gb of ram handle everything so all the upcoming devices will be able to run it maxed out and more. I am also testing the inclusion of high resolution texture option fo certain devices. Ive tested in on iPad Air and you can double the texture size and still run it great.

 

Thank you I dont know how good it looks but i do find it fun/intuitive to place rocks and items in a way that "feels" real - mess is a big part of it and also the details.

The new version has some amazing butterflies and flocks of real birds you can fly with - it makes things a lot more immersive

Im looking forward to getting the "engine" finished with this release so i can focus on the quests, and then those other land areas for the expansions - i think the thing i learned most about on this is id like a more larger scale land for the next ones, more like concept art brought to life, and ive learned some new world design tricks that will help me do that

 

Wood that lasts a century? Add a zero or two That's nothing. I've seen myself wood beams that are several hundred years old and look like they are from the last decade or so. And that's without anything magical in the mix. I'll dig around a bit when I have time.
Update: Insane... I expected maybe a few thousand years for the oldest wooden relics. But this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schöningen_Spears . See for yourself.

Really love this how we bounce off each other, and that I learn new stuff all the time on subjects I wouldn't touch without our back and forth.

Grinding the Sands of Time?
I heard there's a historian somewhere in these lands who might write a speculative treatise on the subject

And because I just read it, I'm sure you'll like the stranger stuff in there for inspiration:
http://scienceblogs.de/klausis-krypto-kolumne/2013/10/13/top-25-der-ungeloesten-verschluesselungen-platz-1-bis-25-im-schnelldurchlauf
The codices, the "devil's handwriting (Handschrift des Teufels)" , and of course / especially the Voynich manuscript really fired up my imagination with just a few minutes spent on them.

 

It's kind of open ended exploration, so it depends how much you like exploring There's about 9 square kilometres to explore, secrets and upgrades to your abilities and new shapechanging. Thats in both the current version and the upcoming HD version, and the HD version has a lot of new emergent options, like a full ecosystem of animals and beasts who can now roam the entire landscape, make decisions, even be you pet.

After i launch the HD update im going to focus on adding a storyline about 10 quests long, mostly no violent and nature based that tell a story about saving (or desecrating) BrightRidge, im aiming for like 1 to 2 hours of that

 

In the current version of BrightRidge animals patrol the same areas, in the same positions. Now in BrightRidge HD all creatures can roam the entire landscape, make their own decisions, form relationships between them (hostile or friendly) and even become a pet.

Here a pet Entling is emerging from the forest, towering above the hero below

 

Thanks President The lighting really helps set the mood. Here's another snapshot:

 

Do you have a backstory for that special wood/trees? Found lots of interesting info, would be nice to know what story/details you have on your side already.

 

Its actually indigenous to another planet, it was one of the first biodiverse compatible matches that was found when Nimia was scouted - there'll be more about it in the game perhaps so i dont want to give too much away Wow when i hear myself say this stuff with a straight face it makes me laugh

 

Outer-planetary? Interesting... Now I want to read your storybook. You could put it on iBooks, you know I'd pay big bucks for an art/storybook of yours right away.

Still got lots of stuff to process, will try to post it before the weekend. Just a quick teaser: One reason why I asked is because I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Járnviðr In Norse mythology, Járnviðr (Old Norse "Iron-wood"[1]) is a forest located east of Midgard, inhabited by troll women who bore giantesses and giant wolves. Reworked for Nimian, it could make some interesting lore.

 

That is so cool - bookmarked it and will look it over.
When i was a kid i read these books called Faeries and Gnomes, illustrated by Rien Poortvliet i believe - i loved them , they were pulled from northern myth and illustrated like Darwins guide to animals - it felt so real and its a huge inspiration for me. I love pulling from these myths and this looks really interesting- thank you.

 

Dynamic Animal AI

Whew - after a few days ive rebuilt the animal Artifical Intelligence and im really happy. They now explore their territories (you can watch them using spiritview) and also can dynamically explore the entire world, as well as be pets and hunt each other. Im really happy with it because my philosophy is to make each element of brightridge do its own thing, and then for all those elements to interact with eat other to create emergent unique situations, and this is one of those game updates that i feel makes a huge difference.

I also took a few hours to create a new enhance Terrain Detail engine. It works with a pool of environment-appropriate elements (like mushrooms in forests) and proceduraly generates them on the fly, because its from a limited number of objects it add a great amount of detail to the immediate surroundings without breaking the CPU or texture memory.

 

Baedil and babies

Baedils have adaptive territories and can seek out new homes for them and their children, as well as comfort their babies. Just a quick screen capture of the mother Baedil wandering with her family. You can watch her and the other animals and creatures using your spirit view. You can also keep them as pets.

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Thanks redribbon for all your support I actually grabbed this from the Unity editor, but I have the same thing running on iPhone 6 at a steady 26 - 31 FPS, and faster with more detail on A9 devices. It will work on all 64 bit devices at this level of detail, but it's really cool to see it on iPad Air 2 running with more grass, depth of field, motion blur and more. I would really love to be able to afford an iPad Pro so I can see how it runs there.

I've found that RAM is the biggest bottleneck to mobile games, and the Pro has 4gb (!) so i can only imagine more mobile games will look like this. I'm sure Skyrim could run on an iPhone in the next generation or 2

 

That's really cool about doing 3d on the iPAd Pro. Ive been looking for a good modelling solution (i built the Baedil bugs in Max but im on Mac now) - depending on how intuitive it is maybe there will be a solution there. I buy most of my models now because I'm a one man show, but i like to build things from scratch whenver i need something i can't find (like the tombstones, baedils, rivers) or i need more flexibility (like my inn and windmill which i built from scratch). Especially the buildings because i am working on a procedurally generated village for the sequel Residi Bay and i really needed that flexibility. I saw people building 3d levels in VR the other day so there's probably a lot of new ways to look at creating content in the near future.

I cant believe i missed the Air 3 preview news - thanks! Even if it has only 2gb of ram it will run brightridge screaming - imagine if they give it 4?

Re: More people - right now im focusing on finishing the AI (done, and its cool) and the bugs (in progress - the worst part ) for a February release. My goal is to make it as rock solid to have a base world that i can add the story too. That said i think it can handle more people. Right now here's about 16 people in the world, most of them in the new inn. The other day i added more Beadil babies to follow the mother (6) and herds of deer (4), and BrightRidge handled it just fine. I think at this point its more about the amount of textures - once something is already in he ga,e the cpu seems to be able to handle new iterations of it pretty well, especially with all my optimizations. What i'll probably do is release the base world, and then see how much i can add in - i really like seeing herds of animals running around. Ill do it after because I know what i have now is working and it takes some time to test new large additions to the world on all the devices. I also want to get the Android version out asap after the IOS launch.

 

Just an update. BrightRidge HD is ready I am taking the remaining screenshots for phones tommorow, and have uploaded the build, and then will submit it. The stories are coming in the next update after this one and ive been working hard on something that tells a uniquely brightridge style tale. I'll post an update after I submit it. Meanwhile here are some iPad screenshots.

Giska is the girl/womans name and both are available to shapechange into. For the story version both young and older versions of each character will be part of the story.




Theres a lot of filters in BrightRidge's options. You can get very different looks, like this one with the gaslight filter.


If you can find the secret (or use the cheats) you can fly as a dragon.


Arbor Hill is one of my favorite places, in the ridge just past BrightRidge Inn


This was taken with the ingame camera. you can fly around and take pics, which are saved to your phones photos. Its a simple shot but i like the way the sunlight and atmosphere react in the new version


Spiritview has a new image effect that shimmers around the edges, so you can tell if youre in spiritview or shapechange at a glance


It's pretty CPU intensive and turned off by default but you can enable depth of field (and more) in the options

 

Ooooh, my precious! Release date? *drool*
Absolutely gorgeous, well worth the long wait. Welcome back, Protopop!
I really like the gaslight filter. My first idea - in combination with your "story mode" comment - was "ghost story, cool..."

Story mode alone is a fantastic addition. All the other great stuff is lots of extra sugar and sprinkles on top. And I'm very sure my little one will love the dragon

And I totally forgot to post the material I collected a while back about wood, when you commented that the special wood for the windmill can last hundred years or so.
Will do my best to make time for that today.

Oh, and of course we have to get Apple to feature you. StormbringerGT - who works at Obsidian Entertainment - mentioned in the Planar Conquest thread that he might have contacts. I'll ask him if you are ok with that.

 

Depth of field?! You know how to appeal to the filmmakers/video producers, don't you?!