Night Dive Twitch Streams

[6647032ad1aaeicemann]

Never seen that before. How odd are those guys. A sign of the times I guess.

[6647032ad1f28ZylonBane]

* There are plans for an original game for GamePig.  He discusses some of the cool things they're still finding like an Ultima-style game in the original (Overworld Zero).

SS2 Already had Overworld Zero, so what the heck would SS1 have? Overworld Minus?

[6647032ad2260Marvin]

What about SS1 Enhanced? Kinda like Maniac Mansion in Day of the Tentacle.

(God damn that Ack button)

[6647032ad23fdvoodoo47]

I want SS3 to have a gameplayer where you would be able to play SS2 which would also have a gameplayer where you could play SS1.

[6647032ad24fdMarvin]

Shockception!

[6647032ad2770ZylonBane]

I want SS3 to have a gameplayer where you would be able to play SS2 which would also have a gameplayer where you could play SS1.

And in the SS1 game MFD you could play Ultima Underworld.

[6647032ad2858voodoo47]

obviously.

[6647032ad2b47sgupta]

06.11.18 Dev w/ Daniel

* More greyboxing, this time of the Groves (antenna rooms)

* Only Daniel for the first hour, then Karlee comes in a little over an hour in

* Some random E3 discussion as it's on in the background and he's been following - Daniel is fairly excited about Doom Eternal, Spyro, Beyond Good & Evil 2, and Elder Scrolls VI.  Karlee is excited about the Nintendo announcements coming.

* Some talk of the System Shock Enhanced Beta - still a lot of work to do, but he's happy with it being solid for a beta.

* Some more weird level ceiling heights and issues he has to work around, along with some weird shapes

* He answered a question about light bulb icons vs ones with red X's over them.  This has to do with shadow detail.  Lightbulbs mean complex shadows.  The X'd ones mean too many light sources, so shadows must be simplified.  This isn't a big deal in greybox - it'll mean more later when they actually do finishing work on the levels.

* He has to be careful not to miss various secrets when designing the levels. 

* One of the purposes of Greybox is, once greyboxed in, things are much easier to edit/modify/change things up later (to either fix issues or presumably enhance levels).

* A story about how a weird invalidly shaped block messed up the Reactor Level and he had to spend half a day going through block by block figuring out which one it was as it was making other geometry disappear

* The current level (Executive) is about 90% done, so getting close!

* Use sunscreen liberally when out in the sun, people.  =oP  Also, try not to melt.

* There's going to be an E3 stream coming up on Wednesday (talking about E3) instead of Karlee's usual gaming stream.

[6647032ad2d6asgupta]

Special E3 Stream - Stephen, Daniel, Karlee, & Matt (A System Shock Programmer)

* Mostly watching E3 trailers and commenting - I won't summarize that stuff here and only list Shock-related stuff, but it's a fun stream with a LOT of trailers, a LOT of salt =oP , and discussion of what's at E3. 

* Stephen made a joke after seeing some physical starship controller addons for Starlink.  The System Shock remaster will come with a mandatory implantable neural implant you need for all future DLC and loot boxes.  =oP

* Question asked about a mod kit for System Shock Remaster, and he said they'd have to talk to Epic about that (who I think owns Unreal Engine).

* Moddability support is being built into the new System Shock: Enhanced Edition build.  (And there's a community-built level editor as well.)

* Some talk about a discussion Stephen had with a System Shock: Enhanced Edition developer about what to do next.  Brief ideas about an isometric-type prequel to SSHOCK, but it seemed more of an amusing conversation than serious (but who knows).

* When asked when the System Shock: Enhanced Edition sourceport release would be finished, Stephen roughly estimates (no guarantees or promises) mid-September or so.   

* Stream tomorrow (14th) featuring remaster art from Jonathan.  (From what's been said in Discord, texture work on a door is one thing you'll see.)

[6647032ad2e9eicemann]

Video 14 - Stephen - 09.06.18

Just going to note what Shaun Gupta did not mention.

* When talking about the source code and the various branches. He talks about the Mac version vs PC, and of how some people prefer the DOS assets over the Mac ones. He goes onto say that there was originally System Shock Portable, which the enhanced edition is HEAVILY based on. And that SSP may still be offered on GOG to give people choice on which version they want to use.

[6647032ad2f9csgupta]

I sometimes forget a few things as I'm often doing other things and taking mental notes, so thanks for catching this! 

[6647032ad309cicemann]

All good.

For many of these videos its best to do something else while it plays. Otherwise you'd fall asleep. I usually read my retro gamer magazines or work on my game during that time.

[6647032ad3638dertseha]

Thank you for the summary again!

* Moddability support is being built into the new System Shock: Enhanced Edition build.  (And there's a community-built level editor as well.)
...
* When asked when the System Shock: Enhanced Edition sourceport release would be finished, Stephen roughly estimates (no guarantees or promises) mid-September or so.   

Ok, so this gives me the summer to get the new editor ready.

[6647032ad3d04unn_atropos]

Dev - System Shock - Stephen Kick - 06.1.2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK2Jy_9PdN0

Zbrush and Q&A w/ CEO Stephen Kick.

---
Notes by sgupta

June 01 Dev Stream w/ Stephen

* A movie club is starting for Stephen's stream - each week, there'll be a movie recommended, and then a bit of discussion during the next stream.  This week's assignment is The Animatrix.

* They talked about Underworld: Ascendant by Otherside, and it was just announced it would be coming out sometime around September.

* When asked, they said they are planning a few scripted scenes.  One example is a SERV-BOT appearing to work on something, but when it notices the player, turning around and having bloody claws from mangling/harvesting a corpse.

* New enemy type planned called Cyborg Surgeon - essentially a unit that goes about its business unless you attack it similar to how the Borg operate in Star Trek.

* After being asked, they said they hope robots/cyborgs/etc. are a bit more chatty to the player saying uncomfortable things (ie. "May I help you?").

* After being asked, they think in-fighting between enemies that accidentally damage each other could be cool.  It might depend on enemy class - ie., mutants and cyborgs fighting would make sense.

* There's some talk about various systems in place and how they might work differently.  One example they're playing with is cameras spotting you sending/spawning enemies to near your location a bit like System Shock 2 did instead of only being related to security level.

* He worked on the mutant's mouth for the majority of the stream.  Much of the focus was reducing polygons to make the character model more efficient, but also some work on aesthetics.  Vert count went from 9,226 to 257.

* The Robb Waters art stream should still happen at some point; Robb is still down for it.  The next update will include more information about stretch goals.

* It was asked about when we'd see the hacker player model to see what he (she?) looks like.  There hasn't been much focus on that yet since he isn't seen much apart from cutscenes/promo art.

* There's some talk of GitLab (sp?) that uses SVN to keep files on the cloud and among the different developers synced up.

* Some fun discussion about what cyber-enhancements people would have in real life if they only could have one.  A popular selection was one that kept finger and toe nails trimmed at all times.  =oP  Other suggestions were cloak re Deus Ex and an auto-makeup mod or a mod to prioritize body functions (ie. burning fat instead of growing nails).  Shells and stacks from Altered Carbon was also mentioned, but I didn't get the reference as I hadn't watched it.

* Work was done to try to apply UV's and textures, along with some discussion of how UV's and texture baking works and how you know if you have a good one, relative size of body part textures, etc.  Also some Marmoset baking...which sounds either more or less appetizing than it is (it's basically baking it into a chrome model).

* Anticipated size of the final game in bytes was asked!?  Hard to say at this point.  =oP

* Character models generally take around 2 weeks from start to finish.

* Upcoming streams may finish this model up and texture him.  Also the possibility of putting him into the level.

* Question about when guns will be modeled; all proxies are already done (facsimilies of the original SS1 versions for testing) - they plan to work on and texture these once they get the combat feeling good.

* Some discussion about Noctropolis (which was given away) because it was ported from the Assembly source code.

* They showed a video rough draft promo trailer for a game unrelated to System Shock called Forsaken (a classic being rereleased for at least XBOX One and PC).

[6647032ad3fddunn_atropos]

Dev - System Shock - Daniel Grayshon - 06.04.2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayWJT4mXpos

Daniel doing some dev!

---
Notes by squpta
06/04/18 Dev Stream w/ Daniel

* Daniel alone at first - Karlee jumps in too around an hour in, and Stephen jumps in with about 35 minutes to go.

* Working on Level 7 (Systems Engineering) Greyboxing
 
* No level 8 yet; that will start after 7 is finished.

* Lots of notes on the wall about various traps in this level, because SHODAN is evil =oP

* Level blockout of the Reactor is confirmed finished (he responded to this question, though it was finished on-stream weeks ago).

* Possibility of remake of Thief asked about, but no real answers right now

* Level blockout is now planned to be hopefully done by the end of July, faster than the original plan to have it done by the end of August (still tentative of course).

* Changing ammo types and how that will work exactly is yet to be determined.

* More level weirdness with floors/ceilings not working with the rest of the level layout since they must have a thickness now; he was able to rectify this by lowering that part of the level (which he feels works as well or possibly better anyway).

* Once Stephen joins, there's a discussion about reaching out to someone named Ezra (?) - I'm assuming this pertains to some more System Shock source code out there as discussed in a previous stream, but I'm not 100% sure on that.  Apparently, communication was established briefly, but the person disappeared again.

* Regarding System Shock Enhanced, it's asked and confirmed that the source-based version will have widescreen support!

* There's a discussion about possibly including basic VR support in Enhanced, with feedback requested as to whether that's a desired feature.  Apparently, the original game even supported basic VR (a primitive headset of some kind) at the time.

[6647032ad4186icemann]

Got in before Shaun for a change :p.

Video 16 - Jonathan - 15.06.18

FINALLY someone different for a change. Great to see work on something different. Work on 3D props.

* Shows off new iris door. Does some work adding texturing to it. Shows off how various lighting effects will change the colors on it.
* Lots of discussion on how reflections of light affect light hues etc. How he does things in Photoshop etc.   - I do a fair bit of my art work for my games in photoshop so this one was of interest to me.
* Does some direct copy / pasting of things from 2D concept art directly onto 3D props.
* Get to see some other props he's been working on - 0:56:00
* You get to see: Medical cart, cans of drink, medical waste bag, nurse computer, triop mug, PDA device, tech pedestal, sanitation dispenser, test tubes, surgical tray, syringe, maintenance door, microscope, one iteration of the keypad, medical level logo

[6647032ad4279voodoo47]

that reminds me - are they now aware that patches are actual dermal patches, not tiny cans with flaps? the cans making it into the final release would be rather embarrassing.

[6647032ad43ecicemann]

Video 17 - Stephen - 16.06.18

* Mutant is now in the game apparently, though we don't get to see it.
* More looks at the mutant model in ZBrush. Looking good.
* First new look at medical in a fair while - 0:24:00. Lots of new stuff added in since the last look at it.
* Use of access cards is now needed to open some of the doors, unlike earlier on
* Rest of the video from 0:30:00 is just Stephen working on his own personal art projects and answering questions.
* Nothing of real interest from there on. You could get away with just stopping the video there.
* Daniel joins - 0:57:00
* This is one of the most boring videos they've put out so far. I stopped watching after that.

[6647032ad483dSynaesthesia]

that reminds me - are they now aware that patches are actual dermal patches, not tiny cans with flaps? the cans making it into the final release would be rather embarrassing.

We haven't started on patches yet. I think "cans with flaps" is referring to JosiahJack's Citadel Unity project.

[6647032ad4939voodoo47]

the pre-alpha demo had them, if memory serves.

[6647032ad4effsgupta]

Heya - glad icemann beat me to it and got some summaries up.  I can't always promise these will be same-day as sometimes I'm unavailable for a few days (in this case it was a family emergency, but fortunately things are okay).  So thanks for your understanding if once in a while these take some time!  (I'm also going to be out of town next weekend so will have some catchup to do when I'm back).


06.14.18 Dev Stream w/ Jonathan Holmes

* Starts off showing the iris-style door asset, art designed by Robb Waters, that he's working on.

* He worked on software used for foliage in The Jungle Book movie. They're trying to bring that same technology (Quixel Megascans) to Citadel's Groves.

* Door is already 3D-modeled and animated (opens/closes).

* He's showing how an object is brought from modeling to texturing.

* He shows off the pixellated retro-style (unfiltered texturing) even though using HD assets.  Things are being designed pixel-perfect with no filtering at all.  He feels it makes the art style really unique.

* He uses Quixel Suite, which he also develops for the company behind it.

* Door design is a little bit updated (by Robb Waters) from the original version; grebels actually make more sense and have a function, etc.

* He applies a Steel look to the door first and adjusts lighting. 

* He can't animate lights as that will need to be done in Unreal Engine.

* He uses Smart Materials that are layered - you can use these on multiple (different) assets to make them more uniform to the world.  In this case, he applies one to make the door look beaten/worn.

* He gets asked about Collision Detection, but he doesn't want to speculate too much - Chris question.  He thinks it's tied to open/close states as scripted events, but isn't sure if they could do something interesting with malfunctions, etc.

* Gets asked about different people using different tools to make their assets; he says that's not a problem as they're all artists and the diversity actually can help expand the way everyone thinks and what they consider as far as software sets/skills.   

* Next he works on getting some of the painted symbols from Robb's art on the door with Marmoset.

* Unreal and this game use Physically Based Rendering (PBR); helps with things like more realistic reflections. 

* He uses maps to determine what's metal (and has that reflection) and what isn't.

* This is being textured in 1024 pixel resolution.

* He really admires Robb Waters and credits System Shock as a lot of the reason he got into art himself.

* All his models are based on Robb Waters' art and trying to get as accurate as possible.

* Discussion about changing symbols to be less metallic looking and look more like decals

* Symbols are painted right on model so they move right with it just like in real life.

* Most everything we see in modern games uses Normal Maps to control lighting.  It basically is a map of how lighting works so that a low polygon model can look like a high polygon model.  He recommends learning about them on Wikipedia.

* High polygon models are made first and converted down to the low poly ones you'll see in the game.

* For lights on the door, you use an Emissive Map, where a material (plastic in this case) is mapped to something that can emit light.  He describes it like a light bulb in the world.

* Shows the model with the lights lit up in green and some bloom effects.  It'll also reflect off things like in-world fog effects, etc.

* He's looking forward to being dead in the reboot.  =oP  He likes to think he was sucked out of the flight bay.  Karlee wants her own room, and they both thing it would be cool to be cyborgs.

* He did some work using a Scrap Map to scratch up the metal surface of the door, then further work to scratch up the labels as well (which ended up a little too scratched up, which he's gonna tone down post-stream).

* The door is basically finished other than that. 

* He showed off a bunch of assets he's done:
   - Medical Tray Table, complete with syringe on top; also, the drawers in it are rigged so if desired, they'll be able to open and hold supplies inside.
   - Purple can of Tri-Op soda
   - Red Medical Waste bag
   - Coffee Mugs (which might be available as physical items at some point)
   - Nurse Station Computer (which is rigged so it can actually swivel if desired to be implemented; also, the screen is flat, but the Normal Map makes it look curved)
   - Personal Data Device (similar to a Star Trek PAD)
   - Pedestal (the one featured in the June update right under that first power station in Medical), also rigged to animate and allow a seat to come out of the center
   - Hand sanitation dispenser
   - Test tubes
   - Bloody tray & surgical scissor-like equipment
   - Closer look at syringe
   - Maintenance door (animated), which he showed depth of being chewed up like something was trying to get through
   - Microscope w/ customizable lights (possibility of something showing up on the little screen)
   - Keypad mockup, but one that probably won't be use as a better version replaced it
   - TriOptimum Medical Logo, complete with fluorescent neon lighting in back (possibility of seeing it depending on how it mounts to wall)
   - Mockup of brown tiles for maintenance level that he's actively working on; some may be missing as these are designed so you can get underneath to wiring, etc.
   - Some foliage he's worked on to show what that tech looks like

[6647032ad520bsgupta]

06.15.18 Dev Stream with Stephen Kick

* Showing off final supermutant model

* Showed several layers of mutant (bloody body, bloody face, blood rain, shadow detail, blue veins [may not use this as too busy]).

* Apparently Chris was showing Stephen the mutant model in-game, forgot it was there, turned around quickly, and scared himself a bit, which is a great sign =oP

* Mutant is in game, but changes to view it weren't pushed yet, so he couldn't show it yet

* Walkaround in Medical - as icemann said, the door out of the immediate medical area now requires the briefcase keycard to unlock.

* Asked about random skins on enemies.  It's a pipline thing they're working on, but as an example, mutants may have multiple skins for different variations - ie., a little blood, a lot of blood, etc.

* Asked about an in-game reason for why all enemies of a certain type are in the same place; no - no good in-game reason.

* Daniel's college education is actually in game design.  He had a story about knowing a lot about Unreal in a course that introduced it and finishing a whole deathmatch area in an hour.  =oP

* Nightdive became aware of Daniel because he had a modding guide for System Shock 2 up very shortly after release.  They approached him about guides for various mods, etc., and became impressed by his drive and work ethic as well as his ability to quickly learn any skills they needed to be a sort of jack of all trades.  For example, he didn't have a Mac, they sent him one, and he quickly learned to do some Mac work they needed.

* One of the biggest criteria as far as who Nightdive hires is self-motivation.  They like people who can get things done and learn what they need to do so on their own within the deadlines as that's their responsibility.

* Daniel also deals a lot with some of the older/ported titles on Steam.  Interestingly, Nightdive doesn't retain control of all titles after release, so sometimes they can't patch them after they no longer have ownership.

* One of Daniel's first releases was Wizardry V/VI, and they were very nervous about it as it was one of their first ported gamse.

* Daniel recommends playing Noctropolis as a great game.  (And they gave away some keys.)

[6647032ad5367icemann]

Daniel talked about his Unreal engine experience in the last video he did with the grey boxing. He tells some interesting stories.

I wonder why ND hasn't just been going for full un-timed licenses. Would = greater profit longterm. Short licences only = short term profit (obviously). If I ever watch one of the streams live I'll have to ask Daniel about ND's terrible port of Tex Murphy Overseer. I had to spend 2 days getting that to work right. LOTS of researching and playing with various solutions. Completely worth it in the end, as it's a great game. But just would have been nicer to just purchase from Steam or GOG, download, install and play without issue. It being a port released only a few years ago.

[6647032ad5489icemann]

My random notes for bits not mentioned for Daniel's latest stream (19.06.18):

* Does Night Dive have Terra Nova's source code - No
* Interactables will be added to all the blockouts soon.
* Daniel finishes grey boxing for level 7. So that's 2 levels fully done now for blockout.
* Next week work will begin on level 8 on screen in the streams and level 1 off stream.