Year progress report (2022-2023)
Hello there! We hope you're having a wonderful day!
We're excited to present our development report for the past year. Enjoy reading about our progress!
Here's what we've accomplished so far:
EAX support and integrated OpenAL Soft to enhance sound quality. Both features are enabled by default, but Creative sound card owners can still use Creative's OpenAL by selecting their card in the sound settings.
Dynamic Audio Time Scaling from Shoker Weapon Mod 3.0, allowing us to introduce fully functional slow motion as a gameplay element. This feature is already in use, we've implemented time dilation when opening the inventory and PDA, allowing players to manage their inventory efficiently during intense situations.
New input context system that lets you assign the same buttons for different actions in various windows. For example, Q/E buttons for leaning left/right can switch PDA tabs when in the PDA interface, or perform other actions in different contexts.
We've exported new functions to Lua, giving modders the ability to implement advanced input features.
Added support for extended AI maps by abramcumner and SkyLoader, allowing for the creation of vast, populated locations such as Pripyat from the Living Zone project.
Implemented a built-in weather editor based on the original GSC editor written by Dmitriy Iassenev, providing real-time weather editing and support for saving LTX weather configs in both CS/COP and SOC formats.
Completed the development of the UI styles system, allowing players to customize the game interface's appearance and modders to manage styles through Lua scripts. The player will be able to install styles in a special folder and switch them in the game settings, and modders will be able to determine from Lua scripts which style is currently enabled, get a list of all available styles, and also switch the UI style directly from the scripts.
Implemented a UI debugger to assist modders in real-time editing of game interface elements, simplifying and speeding up development.
Implemented a multithreaded DX11 renderer, which is still currently being tested, to improve game performance.
Fixed a critical crash issue in Limansk. Now Clear Sky can be fully completed.
Improved gamepad support, enabling map control in the PDA, tab switching, and history scrolling in the NPC dialog window.
Ported various scripting features from Call of Chernobyl.
The engine is now compatible with macOS, and FreeBSD, and supports PPC64LE architecture.
Integrated RenderDoc for graphics development. This can be useful for those who work with graphics in the engine.
What's Coming Next:
Official support for Call of Chernobyl 1.4.22, offering expanded capabilities for modders and players to enjoy the classic game with enhanced A-Life features.
After support for CoC 1.4.22 is implemented, future support for Anomaly 1.5.2 will be considered, although the complexity is yet to be determined.
Steam Audio support to provide a powerful and immersive sound experience.
Full gamepad support, including features like sound dilation and slow-motion specifically designed for gamepad users.
Support for displaying game status in Discord, with modders having the ability to customize the displayed data.
Improved graphics with new shaders from Ascii1457, Kennshade, TheRealBeef, and the Anomaly Team.
Continuing work on multithreading to further optimize performance.
A comprehensive, full-fledged SDK for mod makers based on RedPanda's SDK 0.8.
We also have some exciting big features in the pipeline that we're not revealing just yet.
What else?
We're actively seeking sponsors to help us implement these planned features. Financial support is crucial and motivates us to continue working hard. We appreciate any support you can offer. <3
P.S. While we do have a presence on Patreon and a few other donation platforms, our Boosty page is the top priority for donations. This is because a significant portion of our developers are located in Russia, where Patreon isn't available.