Universal Nimian Legends : BrightRidge HD (by Robert Kabwe)

Thanks Footage should come relatively soon, launch is goal of September, but in reality based on what i know, itll be November

The big problem is i need to upgrade to a newer version of Unity 5.3 to use the new tech im using to create the citadel and Vandgels landscape. But Unity 5.3 has worse performance on mobile than Unity 5.2 (Unity is actually getting worse and worse performance on mobile with each release, which is causing big problems for developers like me). So i am figuring out the best way to build vandgels in this situation.

Aside from that Vandgels is coming along great - ive been building the content in advance in Unity 5.3 and i will either port it backwards or just upgrade and optimize and hope for the best. I'm really looking forward to showing everyone some more of the game

 

I'm really glad to hear that, and I kind of feel the same way. I love my ipad but sometimes when i get a new device im like "wow everything is so fast", and i think it would be good for me to see how BrightRidge tuns on a newer device with my own eyes. If i can pump up the settings and run it , it will encourage me

I can tell you that the difference between the Air and Air 2 is HUGE - so if you get a new iPad 2017 or iPad pro, you're going to see a CRAZY jump in performance. On iPhone 6s and up and newer iPads you can run BrightRidge in high quality for many settings and it looks great

 

Thank you Nullzone! And thanks for all your good email advice too I will get on Discord as soon as i have some marketing footage ready.

I'm on fire doing client work and the game and exercising and getting rest - today i will hang out with my best friend who is in town for a day. I think im finding the right balance.

My big worry is the newer version of unity performs worse on IOS. So BrightRidge will just crash more often if i upgrade (which i kind of have to). Im working on two approaches - upgrade and optimize to death, because every device on sale as of today will not crash the upgrade, and the upgrade brings new features i need (apple tv, procedural buildings etc) - or stay on Unity 5.2 bit longer, build what i need in Unity 5.3 and export it backwards. I might do number two because i am getting to know Unity 5.2 inside out and its definitely possible to bring in Vandgels landscape and Citadel from 5.3 Anyways lots of tech stuff but things are moving forward fast

 

This last update is worse on my iPad Pro 9.7 I wanna go back!
It's more laggy! I had to turn down settings ��
It glitches in the ui I can't read certain settings
It crashes
It still does not save any graphic settings
Fix it please!
What happened it was glorious!
The setting still think I'm a iPad mini 4 ��
I'm a iPad Pro 9.7 I have 2gb of ram why am I lagging all the sudden I was playing fine before with high settings




Also the toucharcade app is broken on the ipad I can't upload pictures -_- can't do it on Safari ether it gives me a error HAD to go on pc to upload

 

One of my best friends lives in Jakarta There are sooooo many people there, and it looks very beautiful (and hot!)

I gave things a lot of thought, and im going to stick with the older version of Unity for now. I can build Vandgels in the newere version, and port back the terrain and buildings to my old version. The new ones are just too unstable, and i think for my health and peace of mind and for the user experience, it will be better to stay with my current version for as long as possible

Unity is great, and i know that they are working very hard juggling a lot of balls in the air - it can't be easy.

 

Thanks for the feedback shining jade, and especially for the screenshot - those always help a LOT becausethen i can see issues at a glance. Im sorry to hear about the performance but im glad this gives me a chance to take another look.

For general performance, ill take a look and see if there is anything ive overlooked.

For the UI most of your shots look good - i removed the words low/med/high etc and just replaced them with kind of filled up icons. Thats because im translating the game and need as few words as possible, but maybe i should try to find better icons to represent low to high (i put it on my list)

But i can see there's a glicth where the "exit game" screen and the "camera options" screen are overlaying each other. That happens sometimes if i mix up the buttons, but i cant find the right combo to recreate that here. Is there any chance you can remember or tell me which buttons you clicked to get there?

I did have quality presets added in, but there were too many problems with testers crashing - its because if you select a crash level of quality it will crash again when you return, and it wasnt clear to testers that you could reset the quality if this happens - log story short its really hard to figure out a way to save some of the quality settings without makinga crash loop, so i think auto setting the quality per device is the route i should follow.

For performance i have decided to roll back to my earlier version of unity. the new version has new features, but its just too unstable and more crashy, and i dont think i can take the chance for a worse experience right now just for tehse features. Ive figured out a way to transfer some of teh newer features to the older version so i will still be able to make Vandgels this way.

Tonight i am going to try and upload a new version to the beta. What i going to do is try and add custim detection code for your ipad, and see if it will detect it correctly. if it does, then i will just set higher dettings based on your feedback by default, so you wnt have to switch all the time.

Could you send me your email to robert at protopop dot com? ill add you to the beta list, and when i upload the update (probably tonight) we can test it out and see if my new detection code works.

 

OK Ive put a new versio 7.6 on the beta. If you send me your email i can add you to the list. It should detect your iPad Pro and auromatically set higher quality. If you help me figure out whats the best quality for ipad pro i can change those settings in code too - right now i just put a general higher quality than default. If you dont want to try the beta ill be submitting it to the app store soon too

here's whats new - version 7.6

+ Device detection now by device model - more accurate
+ Game will set different default qualities depending on device. You can check if your device is recognized in Options > Settings > Quality > Resolution at the bottom
+ Autodetect device and set appropriate quality for iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 plus, iPhone 6S plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 plus, iPod Touch 6th gen, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, iPad Pro 12.9 inch, iPad Pro 9.7 inch, iPad Pro 10.5 inch
+ Auto detect does not change resolution yet - need to test good values to set per device first
+ reduced memory for GUI Lines graphic
+ removed mip maps and read write for default black texture
+ Modified settings low - high icons to be clearer

 

Ok I tried to,exit the game EACH time that overlay happens do I put my email here ?
I think I can't save graphics cause I can't exit
And ok that makes sense on the fill up icons just wish there was a heads up o.o

 

Thank you - this is really helpful - you helped me track down a bug i didnt even know was in the last version. Ive fixed the overlay problem in version 7.6 b1 - its processing on the Beta and should be available soon, and then soon in the app store. You also encouraged me to finally get proper device detection in and thats in the 7.6 update too

 

I'm happy I helped ��

 

Ok where should I post screenshot issues? I have a few using the testing build. Motion blur causes black kid in love in tin I have the screenshots for that and the grass and dog clipping through things O.O dog got stuck in wall is that normal lol grass goes though the house ( I do have extra foliage on ..

Also yes fixed the label it now knows I'm a iPad Pro 9.7
Am I over thinking this device it sets graphics for it kinda low for a 2 GB ram device, but I can higher the settings in this test build and I don't get no lag. Where as the one I had from store oddly lagged with the same exact settings is there something I'm missing ?

I still can't save the graphics even after saving at the in playing love and tin trying both to save and then exit and just closing app it fails to save the graphic options I chose ..


I also gotta say I don't play the story normally every time I do it's nothing but frustration at least on the Love in Tin one trying to get those energy cubes from those dang blue beasts is a never ending frustrating pain one is bad enough but when two attack and pounce your dead in secs and then I end up to annoyed and I leave the game I'd rather only play exploration nor will I try the other story modes I hate when things are that complicating ...
But no matter what I do it will not save my choices of graphics and that is another thing pushing me away from this I hate having to re do all my graphics I just want to get in and play I pretty much no the settings I use by heart now given the massive amount of times I have had to re put them in.

 

Thanks again If you can you can post screenshot issue here - that way there's a public record that can help others. Or if its more convenient you can email them to me.

Yeah, the motion blur does that. I was planning to update to a newer version of the plugin, but for now i will still have to stay on an earlier version of Unity for stability reasons. Still i might be able to find a new combination of screen effects that interact better with each other. That wpuld be good becaus motion blur is pretty intense and when i started this game it was a bit of an afterthought because most devices couldnt run it. But today most every device can and although I know its not everyones favorite, i really like it. i have it on my todo list but i just added a new note to have another look at it as soon as i can - maybe i can solve it through a setting or give the player access to teh details of the motion blur in the options.

I think grass clipping will just happen because im more focused on the mechanics right now. But if this ever becomes more of a full time project ill have the time to fine tune issues like that.

That's great about it recognizing the ipad pro and thanks for lighting a fire under me for that. Ive been meaning to add that in and version 7.6 (its in review at apple) will now recognize all IOS devices correctly which means i can set a custom quality for each device. i dont have an ipad pro so if you have some suggested settings i can try those. I want to keep it a BIT on the underpowered side - go as high as possible without creating a setting group that would crash the ipad pro. probably the thing i would do is use medium res and then i thoink it could handle ultra on everything else? I dont have labels anymore but you could just tell me how many 'bars' in the icons or if possible send a screenshot of your prefered settings.

The graphics will only still save six of the settings: Shadow distance, tree distance, terrain quality, draw distance, grass density, grass distance

Im want to move away from saving other settings though because its creating a real problem with people who set them too high, crash, and then restart and it crashes again. I am thinking to add a button that says "save these settings" so that people can save them only after they ahve applied and tested them. But more i want to move to just setting a better default quality automatically. that way you dont have to go and change a lot of settings because they will be already set on start.

Ive been speaking with another player who has given me some good advice about the difficult parts - some of teh solutions im working on include more arrows to show targets so its clear when there are multiple things to do in a chapter. Also i might add a note that you can skip and chapter anytime by going to Options > Chapters if you find a challenge too hard. I dont think most people know about that.

 

Ok I've supplied a picture with the settings I change into,every time I open I also supplied pictures to the clipping and a odd lighting issue possibly ?
Yea I was only on the first chapter I did great till I had to deal with the blue dragons then I got my butt handed to me and pulled off the platforms multiple times.
Well u can try to do what Minecraft does, when I install a texture pack globally and it has issues and crashes it Auto defaults to normal settings upon re entering the game it states a crash was detected and a reset was done
But if you don't crash it saves your settings.

Given the rules of the picture upload here I can send the full pictures through email I had to shrink them for the sake of things my iPad takes big screenshot pictures

 

Thank you Im going to use these settings to make the default quality for all iPad Pros (9.7, 10.5 and 12.9 inch) - i really appreciate this because i dont have access to those devices. Look for this in the next update.

A trick with the blue snakes - as long as you grab a power cell, even if you die you will respawn near the platform where you are supposed to drop it with the power cell still in your hand - kind of a mini cheat, but i am also working on ways to smooth out this section.

Thanks for the minecraft suggestion, and i looked into that, but the software i use wont reliably detect a crash. But i will see if i can find a workaround to do something similar because its a good idea. I think my solution of giving you a button to explicitly press to "save my settings" would work, because by the time you press it after selecting a quality level, if it was going to crash it would probably crash before that, so its kind of like a manual version of a failsafe delay.

I think if i start the game in the best quality for each particular device in the next update, that will go a long way to easing the "changing quality pain". ive also moved the quality button to the right so its easier to go options > settings > quality if you do want to change more of them.

 

To distract you a bit from the effort of getting the settings and saving them right, you got another frontpage mention
Looks nice, doesn't it?
And the blob going with it is really nice too:
Wow, this one got two updates last week. Hey, have you all played Nimian Legends yet? You really should, it's quite nifty. Anyway, these updates add a bunch of things to the game, including an expanded day/night cycle, improved quality settings, fireworks, falling damage, and more. The updates also included an assortment of bug fixes and other minor improvements. Seriously, it's only a couple of bucks, give it a go.

UPDATE: Ah, you saw it before me

 

For your issues with graphics settings and crashes, I have some simple code in my first Unity scene that detects system ram and then automatically assigns a lower quality setting if the ram is below a certain threshold. That way, if a user sets an unreasonable graphics setting and it crashes, the game automatically reverts to a lower setting during an empty scene that isn't rendering anything. I can share the code if you need, but it's pretty standard stuff.

 

Also, have you used the new post processing stack? It's awesome. My next game uses it and it looks great. Going to update my earlier games to use it too.

 

Can anyone recommend a setting for iphone 6s?
Fps drop to below 20 sometimes.

 

Thanks Nullzone TouchArcade is awesome, and I love being kept up to date anytime someone helps by mentioning the game. I'm such a small developer that its always a thrill to see my game mentioned alongside big names like Elder Scrolls and cool indie titles. It makes me feel like part of a game community, and so does you help and updates. I see you posting around so much and I dont know how you find the time, but you have a very caretaker approach to everyone and i think thats a good thing