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Tunnel vision

Welcome! At the moment we are all intensely focused on a single goal: reaching closed beta status. Which is the phase preceding the pre-release (at which point you’ll get a chance to experience the game for yourself). There’s still some work to be done but we’re definitely nearing the end of the tunnel!

We’re testing things all the time, making sure one change doesn’t break anything distantly related. So when we do release, bugs will not be of the kind anyone can see within the five minutes of playing. No, they’ll be much more devious than that… 😀

As you probably know, Ghost of a Tale relies a lot on tessellation. Now tessellation is great because it creates micro details based on a texture while the base mesh (the original “flat” model) remains quite simple (and thus does not tax CPU or memory as much).

In the following pictures you can see the base (Maya) meshes for the set. Their density is kept quite low and mostly uniform:

ScreenShot 2016_04_07 14;51;14001a

And here’s the final in-game picture, with textures and lighting (although the torch’s fire particles are turned off):

ScreenShot 2016_04_07 15;18;10001small

One of the issues with tessellation though is that it’s not “stable” by definition. Meaning it constantly re-evaluates the subdivision level, usually depending on the camera’s distance to the mesh.

The result of which can lead to “swimming” textures artifacts; the details created by tessellation seem to constantly morph in an almost organic way. It’s quite distracting and can look frankly rather poor.

But not long ago I have found a way to fix this issue and now all the environment feels rock solid; no more wobbly textures! Yay! 🙂

Here is an example of Tilo walking near that tunnel area.

 

On a different topic I’ve just integrated the new sound effects provided by Nicolas (www.nicolastiteux.com), the foley artist helping on the game, and they sound awesome! It’s a delight hearing Tilo scamper from a ground surface made of earth to climbing steps made of stone to plodding on a wooden floor, etc…

Jeremiah has also been delivering soundtracks and they’re (as usual) terrific; they blend in super nicely when talking to characters and bring another level of immersion.

Finally here’s a little time-lapse type video of the day quickly going by over Dwindling Heights. It looks far better in the game because you can see braziers lit around the tower but I thought you’d like to see it anyway.

 

And with that I’ll go back to work and end this update. Thank you for reading it and for your patience waiting for the game, of course. I think you’re all going to be pretty happy when the time finally comes… 🙂

Seith
Seith

49 Comments

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    Johan
    May 9, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    It looks absolutely gorgeous!

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    Eisfuchs
    May 9, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    Excuse me, while I mop up the drool from my desk.

    🙂

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    Alex W
    May 9, 2016 at 6:46 pm

    Looks incredible!

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    evilkinggumby
    May 9, 2016 at 6:46 pm

    OMG this looks exquisite. thanks for the update. I love the breakdown of details you give and the game.. well.. it went from the original pre pre pre alpha looking fairly impressive to this which is.. BEYOND imagining. do you ever sit down and look at whats done and just want to cry art your awesomeness? *highfive*

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    Akryum
    May 9, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    Fantastic work! This is going to be a very beautiful game! 🙂
    But I think the cave stills look too angular despite the tesselation, kinda like an hexagon.

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    Dragonhead
    May 9, 2016 at 7:09 pm

    WOW! Looking fantastic!

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    KwisatzHaderach
    May 9, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    The game looks stellar! Loving the roots breaking through the cave walls and ceiling! Loving Tilo’s fur too and the sound of him switching to the lantern is nice as well. Can’t wait fo hear more of Jeremiah’s soundtrack, the OST from the campaign is STILL in my daily music rotation 🙂

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    Akusativ
    May 9, 2016 at 7:57 pm

    Tilo is really cute. 😉 And game looks amazing. 🙂

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    Evan
    May 9, 2016 at 8:18 pm

    Glad you sorted out the tessellation issue. Looks amazing.
    Thought the engine for the game will handle all the drawing for each frame without having to worry about such details. Interesting.

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    Idzuna
    May 9, 2016 at 8:52 pm

    Looking great as always Seith!

    On a somewhat unrelated note, I’m curious to know how things are shaping up regarding the game’s localization. I have a number of Japanese friends and acquaintances excitedly looking forward to the game, but they continue to ask me if there are any plans for an official Japanese localization or if they will end up having to use fan translations. I’m wondering, what should I be telling them on that front? Have you made any definitive decisions?

    Keep up the good work!

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    Neverarine
    May 10, 2016 at 12:47 am

    the shadows! nice job, i cant friggen wait

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    Ramses Hernandez
    May 10, 2016 at 4:05 am

    Great, i didnt know this game, but now im very interested, it remainds me of the MouseGuard comics. Great job, keep it up. Saludos from Mexico.

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    lucky
    May 10, 2016 at 7:02 am

    In one word: amazing timelapse! Ok two words actually.

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    Yan
    May 10, 2016 at 8:44 am

    the visual insights are as usual breathtaking – also this update is amazing. I cannot wait to be able to experience the gameplay myself and I really hope that also the world interaction, handling and movement are as stunning as the footage.
    how vast is the initial world, which we will be able to explore and move around? how linear will the plot be, or do you want to create more a sandbox universe? I just ask, because other companies have a huge fleet of content developers for such environment rich games. don’t you fear that this will break the neck this beautiful endeavour? I really hope not.

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    lucky
    May 10, 2016 at 12:34 pm

    Just one question regarding the tesselation, did you use some distances check so that the level of subdivision is kept when the polygons are close? Just like normal LOD system.
    I’ve never tested Unity tesselation, but it looks very interesting.

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        lucky
        May 22, 2016 at 10:38 pm

        Ok thanks for replying Seith! Have to dig into it one day!

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    Axel
    May 10, 2016 at 3:42 pm

    Absolutely beautiful, mate. So glad I backed this.

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    GW
    May 11, 2016 at 3:53 am

    Holy Cats. This looks absolutely phenomenal. If weren’t always baroque, I’d give you all the money. I guess I could make copies of money and get them to you, but then I’d need a mouse to smuggle me a file in a chunk of cheese. Anyway, I’d only heard of this today, but it’ll get noted on the site at some point this week. Lovely work, this.

    g.

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    Tragik TK
    May 11, 2016 at 2:43 pm

    Awesome job everyone! Keep up the great work! Can’t wait to see this game in action!

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    Nico
    May 12, 2016 at 12:17 am

    Tellement bluffant de voir la quantité de boulot abattu à chaque nouvelle news, bravo encore !
    L’animation de Tilo toujours aussi mignonne et détaillée *(o.o)*

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    MundM
    May 12, 2016 at 6:21 am

    Is the game actually coming out soon, or is it all just a big tease joke that you milk as long as possible?

    Just kidding! Love the progress you made over the years, I’m sure this will be a gorgeous game! Can’t wait!

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    Gary
    May 12, 2016 at 4:00 pm

    This is my first post but have been watching quietly on the side lines from when i caught a glimpse of it at ms event..got to say its coming along beautifully and can’t wait to play ..is there any idea how long testing takes and which part of the year we can expect to get our hands on this master piece..

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    Roman
    May 22, 2016 at 7:07 am

    Hi Seith, game looks great, can’t wait to play!
    I am interested in how did you solve the tessellation “swimming” problem? You are probably very busy so just point me where can I find information about it. Thanks

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    Mahdi
    May 25, 2016 at 8:57 pm

    Shut up and take my money!
    About the tessellation, do you think it’s possible to give the player option to choose the maximum tessellation level to change the quality of the game, so that game can run smoothly on different hardware? or you used too many tricks to make it possible?

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    A
    June 10, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    The release is def not this year, right?

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    lucky
    June 26, 2016 at 9:09 pm

    Hey Seith! How is it going? Please give us some news, it’s been a long time 🙂

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