Author: EsKa

No devlog this week

EsKa

So, no devlog this week. I am going to release Beta 2 very soon (hopefully sunday or monday) and most of my current effort is aimed at making sure I haven’t forgotten too many bugs while adding the finishing touches.

I am still aware that there’s a subset of the user base unable to make the beta 1 work properly. For those people it either crash after the initial loading, or the game graphics is corrupted, launcher included (which is weird to say the least). It’s hard to tell exactly how widespread the problem is, but it seems to be a rather small subset given the download count to bug report ratio. My main issue is that most of the bug reports arrived very late, the source code is a very different beast now making harder to find what could have caused the issue in the first place. It’s compiled with a newer compiler and graphic library, amongst with several critical bug fixes, so there’s a fair chance the issue(s?) resolved itself.

In any case, beta 2 will include a secondary executable with no shaders and some hardware accelerated functions disabled that may do the trick. Also, given I get new bug reports early enough and find the reason why the game crashes that way, I will publish a patch to fix the issue. Not much else I can do sadly, I can only test the game on so many hardware and software configurations before release.

Devlog: Beta 2 release is in sight

EsKa

Snap1348Hi there !

So, the issue with the hard drive wasn’t too bad after all. The only loss is a part of my source control (git). This barbaric term describes a program that keep track of all the changes I make in the source code and which usually come with the ability to compare files with their older versions, track changelog, restore previous versions and so on. Loosing part of it isn’t really a problem except that it makes writing this article a bit more difficult. While I do keep the changelog file up to date separately, changes are written in no particular order, so I may be a bit fuzzy on the things I added between the last devlog and the last 3 days.

Anyway, there’s still plenty to discuss so let’s get to it, shall we 🙂

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Grumbl

EsKa

If you’re looking for an Unending Galaxy article, sorry to disappoint, it’s coming out soon, but my main hard drive seems to be dying right now as I am writing those lines. I am analyzing what is lost but don’t worry, I do regular source backups, so nothing should prevent the beta 2 from coming out. I am still losing development time, and I may have to buy a new hard drive too. Read More …

Devlog: Pirate bosses, pilot traits and nebulae

EsKa

Snap1324Hi and happy new year !

This is going to be a difficult article to write as I am watching the Awesome Games Done Quick event (a week long speed running live feed against cancer) too, and I am much worst at multitasking than the programs I write. Anyway, there’s quite a lot of ground to cover despite having taken a week off.

Let’s start with what the screenshots are showing : the new nebulae (and background). As I quickly explained in the previous quick post, I am using a procedural generation algorithm commonly known as Perlin Noise to produce the clouds. Basically, you enter a few numbers, and it produces an unique cloud and that can be tiled easily. It has other uses that I will explain further down.

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Devlog: Piracy, Weaponry and Hives

EsKa

Snap1323Hi there !

This is going to be the last devlog of this year. It’s unlikely I will code enough to warrant a new post between Christmas and the New Year’s Eve. It has been a very rough year for me and my family and I couldn’t put as much time in Unending Galaxy as I wanted to. Still, I am still pretty happy with how things are going.

Barring any unexpected massive issue, Beta 2 should be available shortly after the next devlog in early January.

Anyway, let’s get to what has been done this week 🙂

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