Glassix 2 v0.5 released (Patreon)

Hi everybody!

Download links

Changelog

• Added new attribute and skill icons
• Added new businesses and business menu
• Increased font size in various interfaces
• Added sun shafts and moon shafts
• Fixed light bleeding issue in small bedroom. All models will be updated later to fix light bleeding issues in the game.
• Added new memory caching game option
• Optimized texture memory usage
• Fixed issue with XML loading on setups using different number formats (Thanks Padd2212!)

I'm afraid there is no new content in this new version since I've been busy with stabilizing and optimizing the game. After the public release, which I advertised a bit on the F95Zone forums, I got some feedback about low specs having issues loading the game since it was not that optimized yet.

To fix this, I've reduced texture quality on low and medium settings which reduce memory usage by about 45% from what I tested (Classroom with 10 students and teacher was about 16Gb memory in High quality vs 8.5Gb in Low quality. That should help a little with low specs but overall, Glassix uses Unity HDRP which is aimed at high end specs so I won't focus too much on low specs problem. I've also added texture compression when possible to reduce size even more as well as added a new game option to toggle texture caching which can speed up transition time at the cost of memory usage again. By default, the game now launches in Low quality settings and texture caching disabled.

I've also started to look intensly into lighting issues which is a really complex topic. Basically, the game currently looks SUPER flat... This is due to how Unity handles lighting which is normally computed beforehand. Problem is everything in Glassix 2 is loaded dynamically so I couldn't use Unity default lighting system. I'm preparing a dev log to showcase the situation and introduce my current solution which I couldn't complete for this version but should be out in next one and increase the game visual quality.

Still on the topic of lighting, there was an issue of light bleeding through walls, like this.

You can see walls being lit up in the corners where it shouldn't. This was simply due to my model walls being flat. Making them thick fixes the issue like so.

I've only updated the small room model so far but will do with the rest of the game locations.

Switching to UI topic, I'm trying to make the game UI more game like rather than just walls of text and I've started with the attributes and skills to display them in a form of icons. Hovering gives more details and depending on the interface, will show which related attributes are required to max out the skill.

Finally, I've added the new business interface. Similar to citizens, you'll first have a list then click any row to go to the business detail. I've only added the branch interface so far, later on, there will of course be a financial interface with income/expense.

This new business interface also explores an important feature in Glassix 2 which are actions. Each job have its own set of actions, usually it would be a simple "Work" action but depending on the creator, we'll be able to create whatever actions we want which links to unique events. Among those actions, we have 3 classic actions which are "Hire", "Fire" and "Promote" which will allow the player to do exactly that if they have the adequate job so you'll be able to kick out citizens you don't like and create your own office harem long term after you've climbed through the ranks yourself ;) But be careful not to hire only hot and dumb chicks since it will in turn affect the business efficiency, a future feature which will affect the income, expense or reputation of the business. Having all those features work with each other should make Glassix 2 an interesting game to play in my opinion.

Aside from the UI content itself, I've also tried to pay attention to how easy it is to access information. The idea is to link most interfaces together. For example, in the business panel, the current employee name is clickable and sends you to the citizen page and clicking back will send you back to the business page. I'll try to keep this easy access everywhere in the game so the player can find what he wants easily.

That's about it for this new version. Starting from next month, I'm planning to release proper polls to let you guys vote on what I should focus on since there is a LOT to do and my current plan might not be to your taste. So keep an eye on future polls ;)

Thank you all for your patience and support!