What's in the Retrovirus Update for next week

[Mobius]

I have just spent some time with Jonathan, the audio technician for Cadenza and Retrovirus. I've also had word from Spencer about an update/patch which should be available some time next week. Currently 4 members of the team are in Seattle giving a presentation at PAXDEV where they are talking about their experience developing custom game engines; something they have done for both of the games they've created.

Anyway...
In-game Chat is IN
Non-graphical Dedicated Server app is IN
New weapon sounds and effects are IN

I've seen the proposed new Gravity well effect, and it is awesome. It seems likely the strength of the gravity well will also be much higher. New Shotgun, and Minigun sounds - which are very cool indeed. There's a new feature for "Bullet Whizz-Bys", where if a round misses your ship, but comes quite close, you'll get a proper, positional "whizz by" sound with a heavy dopler shift. (All sounds in the game have native dopler shifting.)

An "Intensity-dependent" music layer is also in the offing.

It looks like the Missiles might get a trail of smoke, too - but as yet the performance hit looks big.

Also coming soon, but not necessarily in the coming update are: player joining and leaving sounds. Collision sounds. Cycle recharging sounds. "Can't fire" sound. "You have been scanned" sound. "Scan expired" sound. Range-dependent Missile Lock sounds. "Boost" and "idle" sounds.

Jon was nice enough to play a little with the new sounds, so I could hear them in use: and what a difference! Many of the in-game sounds now are placeholders, or leftovers from SolSurvivor, and the new sounds make the game much MUCH more intense! It's incredible how a new set of sounds change a game almost completely. The rather weak sounds of today will yield to some really kickass sounds fairly soon.

I have also been given access to two new music tracks which Jon hopes to get into the game soon: to say they rock is something of an understatement. I am confident you will like them. A lot. BTW: the full soundtrack for the game will be available when the game goes gold in December. Your subwoofer is going to get a real workout in Retrovirus, I assure you.

A Windows App for chatting outside of the game plus a server list and game launcher (Like "Gate" in the good old days) is planned, but there's no date for this as yet.

Perhaps not all of what I've seen and heard may make it into the final game: it's entirely up to the team at Cadenza to decide what goes in, and what doesn't.

If you haven't grabbed a copy yet, then please do - and if you have feedback, please provide it at the forums: http://cadenzainteractive.com/SolSurviv ... m.php?f=17

[Gekko71]

Oh God-dammit Mobius!!


...I was all set to get some work done this year, then you have to go a make a post like that.


(/starts downloading latest version/)

Oh well... there goes all my spare time and my marriage.... still, what's a guy to do?

[Isaac]

At first I was like, .

Then I was like,

Only for Win dohs

[Mobius]

Gekko71 - I am sure your wife can be placated with gifts of flowers, jewelry or cars.

And that spare time, well, by definition it is "spare". And hey, a game is just a game - if your wife shouts at you, then you can step away from the joystick.

Isaac - yes this is a windows game, BUT (and this is a big butt) the team have not excluded the possibility of a Linux version if the game does better than expected. Can I ask you though: what's the issue with dual booting Windows and Linux so you can play straight away? Hell, if Descent 4 were made for Linux, and nothing else, I'd install Linux in a heartbeat! And I know nothing about Linux except that my Dad hates it. He tries it every year.

[Isaac]

and this is a big butt

I can not lie. You other brothers can't deny.

I have a 16GB SSD netbook. Once windows is installed it kinda takes over everything.

[Top Gun]

You could, like, buy a real computer.

[Skyalmian]

Isaac - yes this is a windows game, BUT (and this is a big butt) the team have not excluded the possibility of a Linux version if the game does better than expected. Can I ask you though: what's the issue with dual booting Windows and Linux so you can play straight away? Hell, if Descent 4 were made for Linux, and nothing else, I'd install Linux in a heartbeat! And I know nothing about Linux except that my Dad hates it. He tries it every year.

Gaming on Linux will most likely have a major spike in popularity if Valve's current experiments to get the Steam client and games on Linux succeeds.

[Isaac]

You could, like, buy a real computer.

To switch to Windows for games seems silly. However, my two favorite games run in Linux, so I really can't complain.

[Top Gun]

Well I meant more in the sense of having a netbook with a minuscule hard drive, but if you want to go that route, I've never really understood people who choose to go with OSX or Linux as their sole OS. I mean, you're kind of just setting yourself up for grief if you don't have a Windows box/install somewhere.

[Isaac]

In the past 3 years of only having Linux? yeah. There have been issues. I look them up and fix them. Anyone who likes doing this should switch to a Linux distro.

Honestly, I wish I never had windows. I wish I was brought up on Linux.

[Skyalmian]

Mobius, there's a report that the game demo is not running for someone on Windows XP. Full quote:

No joy for me. Demo doesn't run on XP. Think final version will?

It doesn't run for me. I have run games with similar 'required' machine specs, like Modern Warfare 3 and Crysis 2, with no difficulties and very playable framerates at 1920x1200 with most of the goodies at normal levels. But the Retrovirus demo gives the logo splash for a few seconds then just evaporates.

[Top Gun]

I played the alpha demo just fine on XP here, so it's not endemic to the OS.

[Mobius]

Hi Skyalmian! Yes, there are some reports of the game failing to initialise correctly. The two issues I am aware of which can cause this are a screen resolution mismatch in the INI file, and possible sound engine crashes.

The game is pure Alpha right now, and these are the exact issues which an extended Alpha + Beta program are designed to identify and resolve. Most certainly is will run on all windows boxes, but you will need a good GFX card.

Currently I only have an i5 with 8GB and an old AMD 4850 - but the game is very playable with this, just a little framey. The multiplayer maps have better performance than the singleplayer - or at least it seems that way to me, because I have no way of knowing how many FPS are being delivered.

I'll be upgrading to a 7970 shortly, and an additional Samsung 226BW so I can play at 5040 x 1050, and I am very much hoping the team will implement a Rearview option, and allow it to be popped out into a window. I'd like a 1280x1024 rearview on screen #4...

But yeah - there are issues at present, but for most people it seems to run OK.

I'd go and get a copy of the demo to see if it runs, and if it does, then buy it at Impulse so you are in the pipeline for all updates, patches, and the full game on Steam. Any and every bit of feedback provided now makes it easier for the team to resolve issues quickly. So, if the demo will not run, please do swing by the cadenza technical forums and post! Thanks.

[Mobius]

An Alpha update/patch is out: 0.57.3678

It's just 15.6MB. If you have not updated, please do so. Included are many bug-fixes, and some new sounds. Which rock.

Next update *should* be around the end of next week: 27th or 28th. The team are trying to get out a patch at the end of each sprint. My understanding is that in-game chat may make it's first appearance then, too.

If you haven't already, please do swing by my server, at 7pm or mid-night, PST, as I am usually there - and give me a right old thrashing.

The Retrovirus Help web site will also be available before the next update, too.