Intel Update #009: Road to V1032

Alright, everyone, it’s time for another Intel Update!

These last few months have seen no shortage of setbacks — big and small, both inside the development and outside — but we’re chugging along like we always do. Humans are not built for waiting, and believe us when we say we absolutely hate how long this is taking, but we’re hoping this dev blog will give everyone another good taste of what’s coming.

➕ For those who missed it, our last blog post is available here: Intel Update #008: Reinforcements

Some will argue that the succulent previews you are about to see actually make the wait worse. To those, we say: scroll no further, for this shall be painful.

This is going to be media-heavy, so double-check you’re not on mobile data and let’s move on.

Optimization

In our last Intel Update, we introduced you to Bad Rhino Studios, a company that has been helping us with mostly under-the-hood development.

As part of our partnership, they have ran a thorough performance profiling on GROUND BRANCH and found that the biggest offender was indeed audio- and AI-related. More specifically, AI audio event calls causing big spikes in CPU usage.

Another performance issue we had was related to navmeshes (the areas of maps that bots are allowed to navigate on), and determined to be caused by how the AI interacts with doors within the navmeshes — hence maps Run Down and Tanker having the worst PvE performance, as they have the most doors.

Fixes have been applied to both issues, and appear to have yielded positive results in testing so far. Hell yeah, Bad Rhino Studios.

Further reinforcements

We cannot get into detail just yet, but we’ve recently gotten a tech artist on board. To put it simply, tech artists bridge the gap between programmers and artists (a job that Kris has so far been solely responsible for, on top of his regular coding duties), so we’re talking a very valuable acquisition for the team here.

There are a couple other positions that may be filled soon, but it’s a little too early to confirm. Bottom line is, we’re putting those sales to good use and will continue to build up the team.

Art assets

Character customization

One of V1032’s biggest attractions is, of course, the brand-new character assets. Even the heads are all getting replaced with much better ones, with more models to come later:

And here’s a little selection of loadouts you can make with the new gear, showcased with a new pose that Mike hooked us up with specifically for the Customize Operator screen:

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Although not 100% of the assets are new (we’re still missing a few items, like the Ball Cap and Headsets), they are all set to be updated within the next few releases.

In fact, here’s some upcoming eyewear — in various stages of development — that will be in V1032:

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And just as a little demo of how much complexity full customization adds to development, here’s a study sent to us by our trusty character asset artist Pau Peñalver as we try to figure out how to deal with goggle headbands vs. helmets vs. helmet accessories (e.g. ear pro/comms):

Decisions, decisions. Anyway, more shots to gawk at:

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Swatch system

As mentioned in a previous Intel Update many moons ago, most of the new character assets are setup to essentially take any color or pattern we want. As a result, the days of mismatched camos and inconsistent pouches will be over as soon as V1032 hits, and you’ll be able to MultiCam OCP the sh*t out of your kit:

In keeping with the authenticity that GROUND BRANCH is going for, we are for the most part creating skins that exist for the real-life counterparts of our assets. We may get more flexible as we go (OCP Black?!?!), but one thing we know for sure is that you’ll never see neon or brightly-colored skins in this game — not by us, anyway.

Y’all got any more of them new models?

New MK14 EBR (WIP)

We have a new MK14 EBR model under development by Cody Cudmore to replace our old Mod 2 variant currently in the game.

We know, you may not be exactly excited about a new EBR, but we figure these renders might help:

Here it is again, a little further along:

This new EBR is based on the US Navy’s Mod 1 variant (photo) — a better fit for the game overall, as it is fitted with a shorter 18″ barrel and an adjustable-length stock (which you will be able to switch out for other models in the future).

➕  Click here for a preview of another upcoming GROUND BRANCH weapon (that's for a later update, though!) at Cody's ArtStation page.

➕ For a list of all known upcoming weapons and more, see our Early Access Roadmap. Yes… a SCAR-H is coming. *sigh*

MK46 (WIP)

We’re also getting a MK46 Mod 1 light machine gun made to replace the old MK48, a model that is just as old as the current MK14 Mod 2 EBR. We aren’t 100% sure that it will make it to V1032, but here are some progress shots anyway:

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Much like the updated EBR, the MK46 is a better fit for the game for a few reasons: it is lighter, shorter, and more likely to be seen in a small, high-speed unit. The 5.56 mm caliber, however, means a firepower downgrade when compared to the MK48’s 7.62 mm round.

We’d like to get at least one additional stock made for this LMG, so drop your suggestion in the comments!

🔫 We have a new M1911 in the making, but that isn't far along enough to showcase just yet. It may or may not make it to V1032.

Updated accessories

The SpecterDR 1x/4x scope has been updated with a new, highly-detailed model by Cody:

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… and so has the EXPS3 holo sight, by the same author:

Other V1032 weapon accessory changes will include an updated AK suppressor, new/updated backup iron sights (BUIS), and a new MK4 3.5–10x scope to replace the old generic 12x.

Updated M4/MK18 assets

You have probably noticed by now that our M4/MK18 platforms have all been updated with entirely new models — including an FSP M4 Block II rail option — but here’s a close-up just to really get the point across:

The classic M4A1 SOPMOD is also being updated, but since the previous model wasn’t as old, the different isn’t quite as jarring. Still, it’s nice to have art consistency, the potential for cross-modability and, well, the correct barrel length:

Although these will be setup as standalone weapon platforms in V1032, we’ll eventually have a basic “gunsmith” feature where you’ll be able to (for example) select a base M4 platform and swap out the stock, handguard and possibly barrel; that will make customization more flexible and the UI cleaner.

Animations

New weapon positions and stance transitions

As teased a couple weeks ago on our Discord and Twitter, we have new animations and poses for the weapon positions. Although nothing is set in stone and this is all one big work in progress, we’ll be trying this style out and update as the feedback comes.

One thing we at BlackFoot Studios agree on is that they look and feel a lot better, especially with the smooth transitions.

⏳ More natural, full-body character movements will all come in due time.

We’re sure there will be justified concerns about flagging — and again, these are not final — but we’re looking into having collision act as the “safety trigger”, so to speak: if you get close enough to a friendly unit, your character will automatically point the muzzle lower (if you’re at Low Ready) or higher (if you’re at High Ready).

It’s also worth noting for these previews that things like animation timing and camera/head movement are TBD.

As we progress, Mike will also be creating variants of the new ready positions/transitions that account for weapon length and weight. As an example, bringing a machine gun to ADS will be slightly slower than a carbine, while longer weapons may use a more “tucked in” High Ready position to mitigate environment collision and clipping.

⏳ V1032 will be merely our first big animations update. It will lay the foundations for animations and features to be added and improved all the way to the v1.0 release.

IK foot placement

The magic of IK, or inverse kinematics, will allow character’s feet to conform to the inclination and height of the environment, as displayed by this silly screengrab from 3 weeks ago. We don’t have a more recent shot because something broke the IK since, but don’t let anybody tell you game development isn’t endless fun:

This initial implementation is guaranteed to create plenty of wonky moments, but that’s what iterations are for.

Reloads

All-new reload animations also mean all-new reload sounds. Sound designer Mikson has also been busy making sure the audio is in sync with the new motions, as well as improving effects all around as he went along.

Death animations

Another part of the animations update will be a first pass on death sequences. While the current method — a mix of ragdoll and hand-made animations — does not allow for the animations themselves to be as accurate as fully rendered ones, it lets the ragdoll physics maintain full effect, so bodies still react to falling against the environment or off platforms while the animation plays.

Here’s a little demo:

As the video hopefully conveys, enemies no longer drop like a sack of potatoes: they have animations for being hit in different parts of the body, and even the direction they’re shot from has an effect on how they drop.

There’s more to these animations than just that, but we’re not spoiling it all just yet. Not bad for a first pass, huh?

Maps

In addition to upcoming maps Compound (working title) and Rig, already showcased previously, Storage Facility is getting a revamp consisting of a considerable expansion of the outside play area, a new way into the tunnels, and a huge makeover of the tunnels themselves.

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If all goes well, the updated Storage Facility will have also received an extra art pass by the time you get to explore it.

Game modes

GROUND BRANCH V1031 brought us Lua-based game modes, which semi-officially opened up game mode modding to the community. Although development isn’t streamlined at this point, a few community-made modes have already been created:

Dynamic Take and Secure (DTAS)

Those who follow our Roadmap know about DTAS – Dynamic Take and Secure, a PvP game mode we added to the board a while ago. As it turns out, DTAS has been under development over the past several months by our friend and occasional collaborator fatmarrow, also known for his community maps (you can find his progress and tutorial videos here).

In DTAS, teams alternate as attackers and defenders. Once defenders set up the flag, attackers are free to start tracking it down. To win the round, attackers need to have more players inside the flag’s capture radius than defenders. If attackers are down to only one player or fail to capture within the time limit, defenders win. All parameters — time limit, capture radius, team balance — are customizable by admins.

It is currently in advanced testing, and will be available once the first V1032 CTE is released.

💡 DTAS was originally a game mode for Infiltration (aka INF), an old tactical realism mod for Unreal Tournament (1999).

Rendezvous

Fatmarrow has also helped create Rendezvous, a game mode by community regular V2. The description and rules for this scavenge/escape game mode can be found in this Discord link, and the download is right below:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/480702286943879168/858760420990648321/Rendezvous_20210628.zip

Kill Confirmed / Breakout

GB community member eelSkillz has created an additional 2 solo/co-op game modes, dubbed Kill Confirmed (a VIP assassination mode) and Break Out (another take on a scavenge/exfiltrate mode).

You can download the game modes from eelSkillz’s GitHub here and discuss them on the Steam thread here.

For a few demo runs of both modes (also featuring V2 and his Rendezvous mode), check out eel’s YouTube channel.

Nvidia DLSS & GeForce NOW

Just to make it official: GROUND BRANCH will support both GeForce NOW and Nvidia DLSS in the near-future!

GeForce NOW is the better-known Nvidia subscription-based cloud gaming platform where, instead of running on the player’s PC, games are run on powerful PCs somewhere else in the world and streamed to the player.

Nvidia DLSS (Deep Learning Super-Sampling) takes advantage of GeForce RTX technology to generate high-resolution, sharp, detailed images from low-resolution native samples via AI. This video offers a good demonstration of how it all works and looks:

This has been Intel Update #009!

We’ve just started internal testing, and although a lot of the game still needs to be put back together, dev builds have been stable and performing well. When we’re done with the major fixes, we’ll start rolling builds out to the CTE so you can all have a look and help us make sure we have a solid release.

As a final reminder, V1032 won’t be the ultimate animations update, but it will help us get there in a lot of ways. It’s all about paving the way for new features and a game that looks and feels better as development progresses.

Lastly, the only reason GROUND BRANCH has made it this far is our community’s continued support over the years, months, days or however long you’ve known about our game and talked about it with your friends, bought a copy, started a discussion thread, streamed it, hung around the Discord or even just followed us on social media.

And so as always, thank you for keeping us going, and we’ll see you on the next update!