Here's a quick clip of the .50 cal - https://www.twitch.tv/offworldindustries/v/64356318?t=6m11s
***Official Squad Thread***
- Thread starter Xcept1
- Start date
April 2016
Spring would not be spring without Squad.
Hi Squaddies,
April has come and gone, time to update you good people in the Squad-space about whats been happening behind the scenes! For those still unfamiliar with Squads Monthly Recaps, they are a way for the developers to bundle up the major developments that have happened throughout the month and show them off to YOU, the faithful Squaddie.
Systems
Emplacements
HEAPS of progress has been done on Weapon Emplacements over the past month. Building on the gigantic strides we made in networking with Netmove, the first of a larger system in emplacement deployables is nearly ready to go and we are aiming to release this in the next major version.
At the moment the final hurdle is bug-fixing and polish with the prototype M2A1 Browning HMG emplacement, but once the pipeline is established, we can iterate very quickly on this new feature and put out more emplacements suitable to the different factions. Another big plus from this is that a lot of the artistic and programming hurdles overcome in getting this system together are ones that we would also encounter when dealing with vehicles. Two birds one stone.
Mapping Tools
A good while back Epic Games added a new cable component to the engine.
We have spent a bit of time internally revising the code of Epic's awesome cable component, and we now feel that we can use them as a new awesome tool that works within our map sizes and large amounts of players.
http://i.imgur.com/IA9ShlL.webm
The original component continuously calculates throughout the game (and is thus not feasible for our use) but we have utilized the numerical solver and are now using it for dynamically calculating power-lines for our maps. All the mapper needs to do is to place a sqcable component or an actor using it in the map and then set where the cables should go, after this the slack in the cables will auto calculate out of the box, this means that power pole systems etc. are really quick to add to maps, and that mappers are no longer limited to pre-built meshes that limit them in cable distances and slack amount on the cable.
Unreal Engine 4.11
Epic released a new groundbreaking version of their engine at the end of last month and the all-star programming team has been hard at work dissecting the update and upgrading Squad to this new version of the engine. Chief among the updates this new version brings are Multithreading and Performance improvements, LOD bone removal to help with animation performance with a large number of players as well as improvements to way the engine handles rendering. We will be releasing a more concise list of changes when we release the next version of Squad that will contain Unreal 4.11.
Squads Modding SDK
We are also happy to announce that we have soft launched our Squad SDK with the initial release including all of our current mapping assets available for everyone to dig into and rip apart.
This release will follow in approx 8 weeks with Squad being added as the second mod-able game on Epic Games Unreal Editor Launcher. We are hoping this is the first step to making Squad the premier high profile mod-able Military FPS on the market.
You can get more details HERE.
Or join our Discord modding group HERE.
A few shots of what people have been cooking up already!
Art
Foliage Collision Implementation
Over the past month we've been working hard to network and add more bells & whistles to the foliage collision system. As in the demonstration video below the system is taking shape and is being made more practical and less network intensive.
IAV Stryker
Further progress on the US Armys IAV Stryker APC has been made, and is almost ready for texturing. Initially equipped with a Remote Controlled M2A1 Browning .50cal, this vehicle will ferry men and material to the front with enough teeth to take down most infantry and light vehicle threats.
M110 SASS
The M110 rifle is in its final stages of modelling and will be going through a texture pass very soon. It is a semi-automatic Designated Marksman rifle firing the larger 7.62x51 NATO round, giving US Army squads that little bit more power and reach with their arsenal.
Kord & DshK
Both these heavy machine gun assets have seen the start of production earlier this month and have made significant progress since then. The Kord is a massive 12.7x108mm Heavy machine gun designed for the Russian Armed Forces. The DshK is a much older Soviet era Heavy Machine gun firing the same caliber, intended for the Militia and Insurgent factions. Both of these machine guns will begin their lives as being deployable Emplaced Weapons, once the prototype M2 Browning HMG has been fully fleshed out and the pipeline established.
Mapping
Fools Road
Fools Road has been undergoing less a make-over and more of a make-under (Ed: feel free to shoot Chuc for that pun), with a lot of work going into fleshing out the underground tunnels running underneath Fools Road. The cramped hallways of the Militia subterranean network will provide some extremely chaotic firefights as flanking options are cut while traversing under the soil.
Gorodok
Gorodok has undergone a lot more changes since last time, with the map almost ready for full scale playtesting by the next version. Bear in mind that visually this map is still in its early stages, but once internal testing commences its progress as a playable map will dramatically accelerate.
We hope ya'll enjoyed this months recap, and please stay tuned to the website and forums for more in Squad development!
Offworld Out.
Join the Discussion
Spring would not be spring without Squad.
Hi Squaddies,
April has come and gone, time to update you good people in the Squad-space about whats been happening behind the scenes! For those still unfamiliar with Squads Monthly Recaps, they are a way for the developers to bundle up the major developments that have happened throughout the month and show them off to YOU, the faithful Squaddie.
Systems
Emplacements
HEAPS of progress has been done on Weapon Emplacements over the past month. Building on the gigantic strides we made in networking with Netmove, the first of a larger system in emplacement deployables is nearly ready to go and we are aiming to release this in the next major version.
At the moment the final hurdle is bug-fixing and polish with the prototype M2A1 Browning HMG emplacement, but once the pipeline is established, we can iterate very quickly on this new feature and put out more emplacements suitable to the different factions. Another big plus from this is that a lot of the artistic and programming hurdles overcome in getting this system together are ones that we would also encounter when dealing with vehicles. Two birds one stone.
Mapping Tools
A good while back Epic Games added a new cable component to the engine.
We have spent a bit of time internally revising the code of Epic's awesome cable component, and we now feel that we can use them as a new awesome tool that works within our map sizes and large amounts of players.
http://i.imgur.com/IA9ShlL.webm
The original component continuously calculates throughout the game (and is thus not feasible for our use) but we have utilized the numerical solver and are now using it for dynamically calculating power-lines for our maps. All the mapper needs to do is to place a sqcable component or an actor using it in the map and then set where the cables should go, after this the slack in the cables will auto calculate out of the box, this means that power pole systems etc. are really quick to add to maps, and that mappers are no longer limited to pre-built meshes that limit them in cable distances and slack amount on the cable.
Unreal Engine 4.11
Epic released a new groundbreaking version of their engine at the end of last month and the all-star programming team has been hard at work dissecting the update and upgrading Squad to this new version of the engine. Chief among the updates this new version brings are Multithreading and Performance improvements, LOD bone removal to help with animation performance with a large number of players as well as improvements to way the engine handles rendering. We will be releasing a more concise list of changes when we release the next version of Squad that will contain Unreal 4.11.
Squads Modding SDK
We are also happy to announce that we have soft launched our Squad SDK with the initial release including all of our current mapping assets available for everyone to dig into and rip apart.
This release will follow in approx 8 weeks with Squad being added as the second mod-able game on Epic Games Unreal Editor Launcher. We are hoping this is the first step to making Squad the premier high profile mod-able Military FPS on the market.
You can get more details HERE.
Or join our Discord modding group HERE.
A few shots of what people have been cooking up already!
Art
Foliage Collision Implementation
Over the past month we've been working hard to network and add more bells & whistles to the foliage collision system. As in the demonstration video below the system is taking shape and is being made more practical and less network intensive.
IAV Stryker
Further progress on the US Armys IAV Stryker APC has been made, and is almost ready for texturing. Initially equipped with a Remote Controlled M2A1 Browning .50cal, this vehicle will ferry men and material to the front with enough teeth to take down most infantry and light vehicle threats.
M110 SASS
The M110 rifle is in its final stages of modelling and will be going through a texture pass very soon. It is a semi-automatic Designated Marksman rifle firing the larger 7.62x51 NATO round, giving US Army squads that little bit more power and reach with their arsenal.
Kord & DshK
Both these heavy machine gun assets have seen the start of production earlier this month and have made significant progress since then. The Kord is a massive 12.7x108mm Heavy machine gun designed for the Russian Armed Forces. The DshK is a much older Soviet era Heavy Machine gun firing the same caliber, intended for the Militia and Insurgent factions. Both of these machine guns will begin their lives as being deployable Emplaced Weapons, once the prototype M2 Browning HMG has been fully fleshed out and the pipeline established.
Mapping
Fools Road
Fools Road has been undergoing less a make-over and more of a make-under (Ed: feel free to shoot Chuc for that pun), with a lot of work going into fleshing out the underground tunnels running underneath Fools Road. The cramped hallways of the Militia subterranean network will provide some extremely chaotic firefights as flanking options are cut while traversing under the soil.
Gorodok
Gorodok has undergone a lot more changes since last time, with the map almost ready for full scale playtesting by the next version. Bear in mind that visually this map is still in its early stages, but once internal testing commences its progress as a playable map will dramatically accelerate.
We hope ya'll enjoyed this months recap, and please stay tuned to the website and forums for more in Squad development!
Offworld Out.
Join the Discussion
Possibly in the future there will be some sort of indicator. It's currently like it is as you could just spam the hell out of it and get an indication of how close the enemy are to you.
Lots of changes still to be done
Hope you're all enjoying the April Recap. Can't wait for you guys and girls to get hold of the .50!
In a match last night everyone in our squad who died towards the end of a match all waited until the match was over as to not take up spawn tickets.
THAT NEVER EVER HAPPENS! (in other games at least)
Did you win though?!
.50 cal will be an asset placed down by the SL like the sandbags/bunkers etc.
The 4.11 integration is mostly done. It's now just cleaning up a bunch of stuff and fixing a few bugs here and there
Oh and regarding shadows/settings...We will eventually have the lowest setting that will force shadows so users won't get the silly advantages they do now. As the engine/game is still being created and with pretty much no optimisation there's little point in doing this right now. Rest assured we know about it and will get there eventually
Oh and regarding shadows/settings...We will eventually have the lowest setting that will force shadows so users won't get the silly advantages they do now. As the engine/game is still being created and with pretty much no optimisation there's little point in doing this right now. Rest assured we know about it and will get there eventually
Just on our internal builds.
Hello everyone!
The QA team will be hosting a public pre-release playtest tomorrow (Thursday, May 19th) at 20.00 UTC. The purpose will be to do a stress test of the Alpha 6 release prior to it's launch, to help us catch any leftover crashes, bugs or issues we might have missed. Be aware that everything you see is still work in progress!
We will also be profiling the server to measure our success in optimization.
Please note that we will only have one server up, and access will be on a first come first serve basis. If the server fills up, we apologize in advance!
The testing will be done on a public-testing beta branch. We will be announcing the password for the test two hours prior to it.
The password will be provided in the newly created "prerelease-testing" channel on our community discord, in order to join use this link: https://discord.gg/0VcFH6sxVnrYWz9g
We kindly ask two things of those interested in testing:
1. Be sure to follow what is going on in the prerelease-testing discord channel before and during the test, in case we need to provide information or instructions.
2. If the devs or members of the QA channel broadcast anything in game, please be sure to follow their lead, as we may need to test or check certain things during the games.
Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you during the test!
Offworld out...
Note: Your "focus" key bind will be reset by default on Alpha 6. You will have to rebind to be able to use focus.
The QA team will be hosting a public pre-release playtest tomorrow (Thursday, May 19th) at 20.00 UTC. The purpose will be to do a stress test of the Alpha 6 release prior to it's launch, to help us catch any leftover crashes, bugs or issues we might have missed. Be aware that everything you see is still work in progress!
We will also be profiling the server to measure our success in optimization.
Please note that we will only have one server up, and access will be on a first come first serve basis. If the server fills up, we apologize in advance!
The testing will be done on a public-testing beta branch. We will be announcing the password for the test two hours prior to it.
The password will be provided in the newly created "prerelease-testing" channel on our community discord, in order to join use this link: https://discord.gg/0VcFH6sxVnrYWz9g
We kindly ask two things of those interested in testing:
1. Be sure to follow what is going on in the prerelease-testing discord channel before and during the test, in case we need to provide information or instructions.
2. If the devs or members of the QA channel broadcast anything in game, please be sure to follow their lead, as we may need to test or check certain things during the games.
Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you during the test!
Offworld out...
Note: Your "focus" key bind will be reset by default on Alpha 6. You will have to rebind to be able to use focus.