roadtovostok

Terrain Improvements (Cliffs & Paths)

Hi!

One of the main visual feedback from the demo phase was that the environment seemed a bit flat and there were only straight roads / paths.

Today I upgraded the terrain system to support angle-based cliffs which means that I can make really steep angles in the terrain forming cliffs that blend with the terrain.

On top of this, I found a simple way to make curved paths that can twirl around the terrain and forming non-direct routes that deviate from the main roads.

I...

Bandit Van Audio / Rave (Preview)

Hi!

One of the upcoming Area 05 Dynamic Events is the Bandit Van which brings a bunch of AI enemies onto the map at once and sometimes even a boss (Punisher).

As for the soundscape, there's never a dull moment when this van arrives :)

Audio Design by Aki

-Antti (Developer)

Q1 Progression Update 2

Hi!

Q1 is ending today, so here's the second part of this Q1 progression update.

In general, developing the early access version of the game got an awesome kickstart in Q1 since the Support Patch sales (~950 sold) allowed me to utilize a lot of contractor work in multiple areas.

Thanks to this, all the Q1 milestones were easily achieved since I had total freedom to focus on those development goals and there were parallel tasks done through contractors.

Here's a list o...

Gunsmith

Meet Gunsmith.

Gunsmith was forced to "retire early" from the army after making illegal modifications to conscripts' weapons and was linked to suspicious case where bunch of firearms went missing after military training exercise.

Character by Claudia
Coming in Early Access.

- Antti (Developer)

New Weapon: Hebel

Hi!

Since it's almost Q2, I have already initialized bunch of contractor work for the Q2 and here's the first weapon related addition.

This is an old 1894 flare gun that Finnish army used during WW2 era called Hebel.

Flare guns are actually quite common in Finland since they are part of the common conscript service / training, so I though that this vintage model would fit the game quite well.

Barry is starting to work on these animations within few days and I'm hoping ...

Q1 Progression Update (Topics)

Hi!

Tomorrow I will be writing pretty lengthy update post since the Q1 is ending.

Is there something you would want to know about the commercial branch progression or something else info wise that you would want to know part of this update?

Let me know in the comments :)

-Antti (Developer)

Gunsmith Update (Part. 2)

Hi!

Here's a second update to the Gunsmith trader.

Claudia is now almost finished with the character, it just need few finishing touches like the hair details etc.

I will be sharing the full promo post of this character hopefully tomorrow :)

-Antti (Developer)

Gunsmith Update

Hi!

Here's a quick update related to the second last remaining trader for the early access called Gunsmith.

Claudia has been working on this character for a while now and it's currently at the retopology phase which is a gamedev term meaning the high-poly sculpt is done and the model is converted to game-ready version while baking the details from that sculpt to the texture maps.

The lore behind this trader is that the Gunsmith was a working on the Finnish military as a re...

Environment Overhaul (Preview)

Hi!

Here's some raw in-game screenshots of the nature overhaul and new rendering tech for the commercial branch.

I'm quite happy about the visual style and look this is leaning towards. It's not trying to be photorealistic and there's some quite pleasing "neutral" style going on which can be easily switched to more dramatic look with the dynamic weather etc.

-Antti (Developer)

Upcoming Dev Build

Hi!

Since I'm currently doing bunch of environment work so I can start building the commercial maps in Q2, I decided that early next week would be a good time to provide you a dev build related to the dynamic TOD and new environment stuff.

The goal of this dev build is to test whether I managed to squeeze all the dynamic lighting, new rendering tech, water reflections and updated nature assets to somewhat same performance as the demo.

I will spend this week finalizing the BT...

Grass Performance Tests

Hi!

I'm still working on the updated nature assets and one thing that I especially want to improve is the grass system since it's a major factor related to performance and "filling" the empty map spots nicely.

Here's some behind-the-scenes grass testing with new grass and improved blending tricks.

Since this nature topic is quite important, I will spend few more extra days with this, so at the end of the month I have a really good foundation to start working on the commercia...

BTR Audio (WIP)

Hi!

Since the previous WIP video was a bit underwhelming without audio, here's a little taste of that upcoming audio design for the BTR :)

-Antti (Developer)

BTR Testing (WIP)

Hi!

I still have to do some optimization for those updated nature assets but here's some BTR testing related to autonomous driving, steering, suspension, turret aiming and at the end some placeholder stuff for the smoke shield ability.

The stuff shown in the video is pretty underwhelming without audio elements but like mentioned in the previous post those are now being worked on by Aki (contractor)

-Antti (Developer)

Dev Update (21/03/2025)

Hi!

Here's a quick dev update.

I'm currently adding some finishing touches to the BTR (code-wise) and Aki (contractor) will now start working on the BTR audio since that will need a bunch of SFX to be immersive.

Since I have been doing a lot of coding related tasks lately, I decided to mix things up a bit and I started updating the nature assets, so working on visual stuff to get some development variation.

Pretty much all the demo nature assets are now removed and by ...

BTR Update

Hi!

Here's a quick updated related to the BTR that I'm currently implementing.

I started the BTR work yesterday and sometimes you have these magical development days where everything goes as planned and yesterday was one of those.

Within 8h work day I manage to implement the following:
- BTR drive and waypoint system
- BTR automatic steering
- BTR physics and "poor-mans" suspension system
- BTR turret mechanics
- BTR smoke screen system (special ability)
2025-03-20 11:16:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Airdrop Performance Test + Preview

Hi!

Here's a first preview of the Airdrop event.

This video clip is from one of my performance tests related to this event, so in-game there will be only one airdrop / flyby if the event occurs :)

I would say the Airdrop event is now pretty much game-ready and all the secondary features for it like the parachute mechanic, drop randomization etc.

-Antti (Developer)

Dev Update (18/03/2025)

Hi!

Here's a quick dev update.

Like showcased in the previous post, I have now connected the new animations to the magazine system and in general that whole system is pretty much game-ready.

Since there's quite a lot of weapons in the early access, these new magazine animations will be added in batches. Since I have the initial animation batch now connected, it's really easy just to connect the rest of those later on in the upcoming months.

Tomorrow I will continue on ...

Magazine Animations (Preview)

Hi!

The magazine system is now fully implemented with dedicated magazine animations for attaching, detaching and checking the ammo count (mag check).

In this video preview, you will see how the system works in practice.

There's also now visual cartridges that you can see inside the magazines.

-Antti (Developer)

Dynamic Events (Flybys)

Hi!

Yesterday I returned from my artic outdoor trip and now development continues with the Q2 features.

I have currently implemented all the flyby events and working on the airdrop event which happens with the CASA C-295 (shown in the first clip).

-Antti (Developer)

Greetings from Arctic Circle

Hi!

I will be returning back to the home office on Sunday and development will continue normally after that.

Have a great upcoming weekend!

I will give more dev updates right after I return since a lot of contractor work is still being done while I'm at this outdoor trip.

- Antti (Developer)

Day & Night Cycle | Feature Highlight

Hi!

Here's the latest feature highlight video covering the day & night cycle, dynamic weather, seasons and the simulations behind the system.

-Antti (Developer)

Dev Update (10/03/2025)

Hi!

Here's a quick dev update.

I'm currently working on the dynamic events and at the same time implementing the rest of the magazine system which is now based on those separated magazines.

This new magazine system will need few new magazine animations per weapon and there's also magazine checks coming to get rid of the "generic" weapon inspect UI. This magazine check feature (example anim. attached) will give you approx. ammo count in the magazine like ~1/2 or ~1/4 and you ...

Dynamic Seasons

Here's a little surprise that I had been working on with this extra Q1 development time.

Originally I planned to have the Winter Mode as a separate mode from the main menu, but since the dynamic word has been trending lately with RtV, now the winter / snow also support fully dynamic method.

This will be implement to the commercial branch like this:
- In the main menu, when you start a new game there will be 3 seasonal options.
- Option 1: Summer Mode (always summer)
- Opt...

Dynamic Events (Update)

Hi!

Here's a quick dev update.

For the past few days I have been working on the "Faction Events" which are part of Q2 milestones. I think the better way of naming these would be "Dynamic Events", since there are a lot more to these than just faction related.

These purpose of these events is that they are kind of randomized scenarios where the goal is to create some surprising situations which break the normal game rhythm. These events are randomized based on the game maps an...

Dynamic Weather (Preview)

Hi!

Here's a preview how the weather is now connected to this system.

This approach is really flexible and there's now much more randomization related to weather states and how those blend with the day & night cycle.

ps. I also overhauled all the nature related wind shaders, so they should look now more realistic.

-Antti (Developer)

Dev Update (02/03/2025)

Hi!

Here's a quick dev update.

My goal today is to integrate the weather states to this dynamic TOD system, so there's blending from neutral to dark / overcast when certain weather states occur.

I'm pretty confident that I can complete this task today, so tomorrow I will start working on some of the new environments and faction events related to those Q2 tasks.

I will share tomorrow a clip about that weather blending.

-Antti (Developer)

Dynamic TOD (Preview)

Hi!

Here's a little preview about the dynamic TOD and lighting system.

Key components of this system are:
- Universal game time connected to environment lighting
- Real-time water reflection system (Custom SSR)
- Sun / moon path simulations & gradients
- Simple editor & modding tools for modifications
- Takes ~50% less VRAM than the previous static system.

So yes, fully dynamic day & cycle will be part of the early access :)

ps. Recording was...

Dev Update (28/2/2025)

Hi!

Here's a quick dev update.

For the past few days I have been in the IRL Border Zone, giving interviews to the Finnish media and extending the day & night cycle experiment.

I went really deep with the technical art when it comes to that day & night and I'm happy to say that I managed to reduce pretty much all the drawbacks from this approach to 0, so were are definitely going with the fully dynamic approach for the early access.

I have super cool system for ...

Day & Night Cycle (Experiments)

Hi!

Since I have plenty of extra development time for this Q1, I have allowed myself to play around with some "non-necessary" features.

The current dynamic time that I have implemented changes the time of day only related to transitions when certain game time threshold is exceeded.

This approach is really easy to control visually but it lacks that dynamic component where you can truly see the time of day changing.

For the past few days, I have been experimenting with a...

Grandma's Cat

Meet Grandma's Cat aka Shelter Cat.

After certain events, Grandma is no longer able to take care of her cat, in which case you have a choice whether you want to rescue the cat in your shelter or not.

Model by Claudia
Coming in Early Access.

- Antti (Developer)