CHIEF CHAT BRIEF SUMMARY FROM THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2021
==== MAIN POINTS ====
► Unreal Engine 5 testing today [Thursday, August 19, 2021]! Backers are able to play in Unreal Engine 5 using the current demo the Dev Team ported over – “Whitebox Thumping”. UE 5 is great for the art pipeline.
► Grummz showed the Feli (neko) concept art, 3D render, and the character demo video in Unreal Engine 5, running in real time with Lumen. Poly count is about 100k with LOD (Level Of Detail) at zero. The textures are at a full 4k on the Feli model in the demo. This is what would be used for Photo Mode and then scaled down to lower resolution textures for use in-game (images posted at the end of this summary).
► The Feli skin is up for sale in the General Store until Friday, August 27, 2021 and then it will be gone again for a year!
► Grummz said to keep in mind, Unreal Engine 5 is in “Preview 2”, not in full release.
==== GENERAL POINTS ====
► One thing we’re debating is character height. Character height is tricky for us because we have Omniframes that your character needs to fit into; especially the medium Omniframe. And we have interiors that are physical.
► Hover Truck: There are concepts for the Hover Truck itself, the Engine room; Cockpit – holds 3 people; break room; rest area complete with a bathroom and shower.
► Updated version of the Emberdon plushie prototype (3 images). Third party approached Grummz about making plushies for Em-8er. The question is, does the community want these? The factory needs an order commitment of 1,000 Emberdon plushies before they will make the plushies.
► Grummz showed the Feli (neko) concept art, 3D render, and the character demo video in Unreal Engine 5, running in real time with Lumen. Poly count is about 100k with LOD (Level Of Detail) at zero. The textures are at a full 4k on the Feli model in the demo. This is what would be used for Photo Mode and then scaled down to lower resolution textures for use in-game (images posted at the end of this summary).
► The Feli skin is up for sale in the General Store until Friday, August 27, 2021 and then it will be gone again for a year!
==== FUTURE PLANS ====
► Next week we plan to have a build with nanite meshes.
==== Q & A ====
► Question: Can the MEKs be nanite if they're destructible? Wasn’t the golem in the UE5 demo made of nothing but nanites and didn’t it break at the end?
Grummz: The golem in the UE5 demo is completely made out of nanites and it’s not a skinned mesh. That’s what gave me the idea. Hey, why can’t we do this with mecha? Because mecha aren’t skinned meshes. So why don’t we see if we can use nanite with mechs; and it turns out we can. We potentially don’t have to build any low poly whatsoever. UE 5 will handle that seamlessly and do all the LODs.
► Question: How excited has Epic been to have one of your games going to UE5?
Grummz: I don’t know. Part of this is I want to approach Epic and apply for an Epic Mega Grant. I know the VP of Epic, Mark Rein, and the CEO, Tim Sweeney. But I didn’t want to go to them with our whitebox graphics that we have now. And I didn’t want to go to them with our older graphics, I wanted to show the graphics in Unreal Engine 5.
► Question: Would that kind of grant include exclusivity?
Grummz: An Epic mega grant does not mean that we’re tied to the Epic store what so ever, I want to point that out. If we were to accept an Epic Mega Grant, we would not have to sign any exclusivity. We would not even have to be ON the Epic Store.
► Question: What’s a Mega Grant?
Grummz: An Epic grant is a no strings attached grant. Believe it or not Epic does a lot of good stuff for game devs.
► Question: Will Em-8er be on Steam as well?
Grummz: We plan to be on every store – Steam, Epic, GoG, and direct from us obviously.
==== FUN STUFF! ====
► FAI’s thanks raffle winner! ♦ Livvy ♦
Twitch VOD Link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1123248160
CHIEF CHAT NOTES FOR THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021:
Today Grummz live streamed some early testing of UE5 level building using the new nanite system!
==== FUN STUFF! ====
► FAI’s thanks raffle winner! ♦ Neoporter ♦
Last edited:
Likes:
Wyntyr and Pandagnome
