May 2021 Update (Patreon)

Another month has passed, time for an update. 😊

As we mentioned in last month’s post, we’re primarily focused on ONLINE NETWORKING.

Online Networking opens up a whole world of design possibilities: Matchmaking, ranking, multiple giants, more than 4 warriors, no more Parsec, and of course, QUEST support 👀.

Here’s where we stand:

Online Networking Dev Progress

We are currently porting over a large portion of our code to integrate it with our networking solution. This involves re-writing a lot of code so certain parameters can be sent back and forth between the client(s) and server. This also requires us to re-imagine certain designs so that they work effectively in a latent environment.

Along the way, we’ve been testing to assess the performance and latency under less than ideal network conditions (e.g. poor connection, using WiFi on both ends, on a Quest...). This is critical, since if our networking solution doesn’t perform well enough in these conditions, we’d have to reconsider our networking strategy altogether. Fortunately, testing has gone well so far.

Here’s an idea where we started, a bare-bones prototype environment that we can use to test latency, and get comfortable with a new coding paradigm.

https://gfycat.com/tediousignorantblowfish

Slowly, we’ve been integrating the features that will turn this bare-bones wasteland into the Davigo we know. We started with core features and core interactions (throwing, dodging, impacts), then started to move on to less important features and animations.

https://gfycat.com/dirtysinglecockroach

Along the way, we decided to try out two giants. While most of the time the VR player should act as the server, with two VR players, one is the client, and thus might be affected by latency. However, in our tests, we found this to be surprisingly playable.

https://gfycat.com/physicalcharminghydatidtapeworm

And finally, here’s one of our latest prototypes, bringing in Kairos and a number of features.

https://gfycat.com/acclaimedblindcoral

As before, we remain cautiously optimistic 🤞

Quest Support Progress

Quest support would be huge.

Developing for the Quest requires two things:

• Online networking (see above!)
• A game that can run on hardware similar to a smartphone

So if online networking goes well, we just have to ensure the game can play on a mobile device. Fortunately, we have always kept in mind that a Quest version could be possible since we started development back in April 2019, which is one reason why our visuals remain relatively simple, compared to some of the high-end PCVR titles out there.

Oculus requires Quest games run at a smooth 72 FPS, which appears to be their main requirement. Thus, even in its current form, visual aspects of Davigo need to be adjusted to get the game running smoothly on the Quest hardware. Our goal this month was to determine just how much effort that would take to accomplish.

We started experimenting with builds on the Quest, knowing we'd have to remove features one-by-one until we were confident we could achieve 72 FPS. Bringing the game in wholesale, the game runs at something like 10 FPS on Quest. So certain features will have to be remade. Post-processing was removed. No reflections on the water or shields, for now. We have to be more considerate on how many triangles are in the geometry.

Here’s an example. The warrior’s mesh has been decimated to drastically reduce the number of vertices it has. It’s less smooth, but it runs way faster on the Quest, and you’ll barely notice.

https://gfycat.com/friendlypalatableabyssiniangroundhornbill

In the end, we’ve managed to get the Quest build to run at 71 FPS without a major effort, so we are quite confident we can reach 72 FPS with decent graphics. Below is the latest example. Note that this doesn't represent the graphics quality we intend to have on Quest, just that it will be feasible to get the game running well on Quest.

https://gfycat.com/circularbruisedcorydorascatfish

And, of course, testing networking on the Quest has been key as well. Here's a clip. Not bad:

https://gfycat.com/terriblefoolishhare

Cautiously…. Optimistic 🤞

Odds and Ends

Want to see a very early idea for a mobile version of Davigo? Portrait mode seems like an interesting way to frame both the warrior and the giant, as you can see in this mock-up:

Gaming Bible posted a great overview video of Davigo on their Facebook page which got a lot of attention. They included some of our B-roll clips that didn’t make it into the Alpha 2 trailer. We love it.

https://www.facebook.com/GAMINGbible/posts/4697045190326086

That’s it! If you want to follow along with development more closely, we post regular updates in the Discord server, especially in the patrons-only #patreon channel!

See you next month!

-Davidevs