Time for another Intel Report, where we go over the latest happenings in development as the upcoming GROUND BRANCH update V1033 continues to evolve.
📅 Be sure to check out last month's Intel Report (#011) in case you missed it!
GROUND BRANCH on GeForce NOW soon
As mentioned last month, GROUND BRANCH is coming to GeForce NOW — NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service — which will make the game accessible to a whole new audience of subscribers.
NVIDIA has confirmed that this will happen sometime this month:
We’ll be sure to make a quick announcement when it goes live!
New coder in the house
Last month we announced the addition of VFX Artist Charles Schmidt and Sound Designer Zack Reagan to the team, but some of you may remember that we still had a vacant senior programmer spot. And this month we’re very happy to announce that is no longer the case, as Christoph Bockhahn joins us in a Senior Programmer capacity!
Chris’ resumé is too humiliating for us to fully cite, but it should suffice to say that he was working for Acer before and has a master’s in astrophysics. In addition to his general programming background, Chris has industry experience in UI, tech art, gameplay engineering and, of course, the mandatory Unreal Engine skills.
The biggest benefit of getting Chris on board is going to be speeding up AI development, which is of course great news for most of the GROUND BRANCH player base.
Let’s all welcome Chris to the team! We’ll take a quick look at some of his initial work next.
Though implementation is still very much under-the-hood at this point (meaning nothing cool to showcase, unfortunately), Chris has taken the time to start prototyping a friendly AI ordering system:
Patches and callsigns
Continuing the work on patches for headgear and shirts, we now have callsign patches in-game, for ease of identifying operators on the field.
Players can choose a three-letter callsign code, or have one generated automatically when changing name. Servers can also apply a callsign patch policy, for example to force players to have callsigns based on their chosen element (A, B, C, D), to override any selection by each player. There is no need to choose a callsign patch in the character editor — these are added automatically whenever a callsign is used.
Depot is getting a visual update
Environment artist Will has moved on to giving Depot a thematic art pass to get it more in line with Storage Facility, which is set in the same region.
Here are some preview shots:
New Storage Facility previews
The Storage Facility map overhaul is done, so why not appreciate some ultrawide shots of that beauty in a different lighting?
Audio optimization continues
This month we have further optimized the audio side of things by lowering the amount of memory usage by at least half, based on performance testing on Small Town with 30 bots.
This was done by optimizing how the weapon sounds were loaded. Now, instead of all weapon sounds being stored at all times, only the ones in use during a particular mission or round are stored.
This method will also allow for easier audio modding in the future, as you only need to edit and rebuild the sound bank for the weapon you want to mod instead of rebuilding the entire weapon sound bank for just one weapon.
Combined with the CPU optimization that we detailed last month, we’re looking at roughly a 50% gain in audio performance so far — not too shabby.
🎧 Weapon tails and other sounds are also continually being reworked and improved alongside the optimization work.
Doors: a game designer’s nightmare
Doors are having part of their logic redone to address one of its main issues: getting both players and AI stuck in them.
Some degree of physics simulation is also being added in order to once again allow cracked doors — that is, partially open ones — to be pushed by just walking into them.
We’re also hoping to get a nicer looking effect for exploding doors while we’re at it.
More VFX progress
Work on particle effects continues as Charles converts all of the existing VFX to the newer Niagara system before reworking and improving them.
He has zeroed in on bullet impacts and has recently started improving the breaching charge explosion:
Animations
Though we cannot showcase it at this time for various annoying reasons, we can confirm that some basic new manipulation animations will make it to V1033.
Players will actually start seeing their character flip magnifiers on and off, flick the Specter DR’s lever to the front and back, and pull their night vision goggles up and down.
🚪 A basic "magic hand" type of animation for door interactions may also be present as a placeholder. That still beats telekinesis, right?
Mike has also been busy with hand poses and reload sequences to fit the new and updated weapon models, which we’ll cover next.
Weapon models
Weapons and related assets continue to be created and revamped as needed by our trusted contractors, which — between brand-new items and replacements — has so far allowed us to add over a dozen new weapon models to V1033.
Let’s make a quick list, starting with the new weapons:
MK17 CQC / DMR
Wz.88
AK-105
PKM
PMM
M24 SWS
Speaking of which, here’s how that last one turned out:
Now for the replacements/updates:
M1911A1
AK-74M
AKS-74U
AK-105 Alpha (replacing the AK-74 MI)
AKS-74U Alpha (replacing the AK-74 MI CQB)
SVD
M16A4 (currently in development; the old model has issues in both scaling and quality consistency)
And that’s not even mentioning extra parts and new/updated attachments that will make their way into the game as we go.
As promised, here’s the new AK-74M, as well as the AK-105 with tactical Zenitco furniture:
More renders of the AKs on the AK Productions ArtStation right here.
We can also confirm that an “A2” carry handle is finally coming for the M16/M4 series of weapons. That’s right. We caved.
⁉️ WHY THE FOCUS ON VISUALS? WE WANT BETTER AI!
From time to time, part of the player base questions our priorities, which is understandable: why are we putting resources on models, effects or any other superficial thing when there are areas of development in more urgent need of attention?
Well, that is simply because not everyone on the team can do everything. For example, telling our art guys to shift their focus to gameplay code will only result in neither art or gameplay seeing progress.
So while progress may be slow in certain areas, others may (and should) continue to develop normally.
That said, AI has seen little progress in the last couple of updates, but is now getting worked on intensively, beginning with the integration of the new Kythera middleware. AI is one of the harder aspects of game development, and the results won't be immediate — it's an ongoing task that will be spread over the next few updates and beyond — but the key takeaway here is that we are now "all systems go", in all areas of development.
This has been Intel Report #012!
We hope you found this post informative and interesting enough to make the soul-crushing wait for V1033 a bit more bearable.
Thank you very much for reading, and we’ll see you on the next one!
It’s been around a month since our last dev blog (#010), and because we are now aiming for monthly entries, the time has come again to showcase some more progress and talk about other recent developments.
Intel Update is now INTEL REPORT!
We are renaming our series of dev blog entries from "Intel Update" to Intel Report. The reason is that some players would simply glance over the title, spot the word "update" in it, and immediately proceed to type "did we get an update?" in the nearest text box, prompting confusion and aggravation in an otherwise incredibly peaceful and welcoming community.
New dev team members
As some of you will know from our recent job ads, we have been looking for reinforcements in a couple areas: VFX (visual effects) and programming being the main ones.
We hope to have news on the programmer role very soon, but in the meantime, we are proud to introduce new BlackFoot Studios members Charles Schmidt and Zack Regan!
Charles is our first dedicated VFX Artist. He was previously a gameplay designer and visual effects artist for Operation: Harsh Doorstop, and is now giving the particle effects in GROUND BRANCH some much-needed love. He will be working on making hit impacts, muzzle blasts, smoke, blood and all kinds of visual effects in the game look and perform better.
Zack’s joining us as an additional Sound Designer whose skillset nicely complements Mikson‘s, with valuable Wwise and Unreal Engine integration experience. Formerly a member of Code Blue Games, Zack is also a composer, so we might be seeing some new tracks in GB down the line.
Welcome to the team, guys!
💡 We'll be checking out some of their initial work in a bit, so read on!
Performance optimization
As a pre-alpha game on Early Access that also happens to have a handful of fairly unique features, GROUND BRANCH is bound to have its performance fluctuate over the course of development as we add, remove and generally change things around. And although we always keep track of the worst performance offenders, fixes are rarely straightforward and may take some time to figure out.
It’s no secret that performance in V1032 is less than stellar, with certain aspects of audio and asset modularity being some of the major culprits. Here are some of the steps we have been taking to address them so far:
M4, MK18 and HK416D asset optimization
Though beautifully modeled and textured by Bakr Asaad, the M4 and HK416 families of carbines are using around 12 texture sets per weapon as of V1032. The models were created with very granular customization in mind, with each individual part having its own texture set.
If you go online and your team is using an assortment of different M4- and HK416-based weapons — easily some of the most popular guns in the game — that could be loading upwards of 30 texture sets for those weapons alone in your GPU’s memory. Not ideal when you already have in-depth character customization, meaning a whole lot of other assets to render.
For V1033, we had those weapon models rebuilt to use only 3–4 texture sets each, while preserving as much of the quality and fidelity of the originals as possible. This change may not be as impactful as the more CPU-intensive issues such as those caused by dynamic lighting and audio, but every bit helps and it had to be done at some point.
Updated HK416 with optimized texture sets
Audio optimization
Zack has been working closely with Mikson to address one of the biggest performance issues in the game: audio complexity causing excessive CPU usage.
To better understand the problem, think back on all of the different sounds your character makes in GROUND BRANCH when moving around or firing a weapon. There’s the footsteps, the rustling clothes, the crackling gear… And when shooting, there’s the mechanical weapon clicks and clings, the muzzle blast, and even a dedicated sound effect for distant gunfire in case someone hears them from afar. These sounds are individual audio layers, and every time a character moves or shoots, all of these layers are “broadcast” to everyone. Needless to say, the more characters in the game, the more demanding it becomes.
To tackle the problem, the duo has rearranged the entire audio project to support first-person perspective vs. third-person perspective sounds. In practice, this means they can significantly reduce the amount of simultaneous sounds and layers that are played by determining when to play each of them.
For example: the player firing the weapon doesn’t need to hear the layer for distant gunfire, so we can now tell the game to only play it as a third-person sound, i.e. for other players. Conversely, other players don’t need to hear (and are unlikely to notice) the mechanical weapon layer of your shots, so they will no longer be played for them.
As another example, movement sounds can be preserved as layered audio in first-person, but for third-person playback we can now play an optimized version where all of the layers have been combined into a single sound effect. So you’ll still hear a high-fidelity, multi-layered playback when you move your own character around, but the sound generated by other players will be a simplified version of that. That’s far fewer sounds to play.
🎧 Audiophiles using high-fidelity equipment may notice subtle differences, but the vast majority of us will only notice the glorious gains.
First pass results
After this initial optimization pass was done, Mik and Zack ran a profiler on maps Run Down, Small Town and Tanker to see how CPU usage responded to the changes.
Each map was ran three times in single player (Terrorist Hunt) with 30 AI bots, first in V1032 and then in V1033 to compare. Here are the average peaks:
MAP: RUN DOWNV1032: 53.38%
V1033: 36.28%
-17.10% CPU usage (~32% decrease)
MAP: SMALL TOWNV1032: 46.34%
V1033: 37.07%
-9.27% CPU usage (~20% decrease)
MAP: TANKERV1032: 46.17%
V1033: 22.03%
-24.14% CPU usage (~52% decrease)
The peak average for these maps in V1032 was 48.6% CPU usage, which was brought down to a 31.8% peak average in V1033 — or a 34.6% decrease. Not bad at all for a first pass.
It’s worth noting that these numbers are strictly for CPU usage — not framerates — and we’ll be running more tests as the optimization continues. There’s more performance to be gained on the audio side of things alone, and certainly more scenarios to test on (e.g. multiplayer).
NVIDIA GeForce NOW
While not directly related to optimization, cloud gaming services allow players with low-end PCs to enjoy games that their machines can’t natively run. And with GROUND BRANCH having an ambitious array of features that can test lower-end hardware, we have received a lot of interest in GeForce NOW support.
Well, we have mentioned before that support for GeForce NOW is planned (it’s been on our Roadmap since around February), but we have recently discovered that we might be able to support it a lot earlier than expected! Steam has a feature that allows NVIDIA-approved games to be linked to GeForce NOW as long as Steam Cloud saves are setup and working. Which, by the way, they are now, and enabled by default — you can change that by right-clicking the game in your library and selecting “Properties”:
☁️ Steam Cloud saves will only be required for GeForce NOW users.
NVIDIA has yet to greenlight the integration, but our end is all setup and could potentially lead to GeForce NOW support before V1033 is even here. Fingers crossed!
Animations
As shown in the previous dev blog, V1033 will be introducing some new weapons, which require not only new sound effects, but also animations.
One such new weapon is the Russian PMM pistol, which has a fairly unorthodox reload due to the magazine release being located at the bottom of the grip. Here’s the non-retention version (sorry, no audio on these videos):
Next is the MK17 (SCAR-H), which was using the AR reload in last update’s Gunshot Audio Preview video. Notice the charging handle on the right side — this was done to reduce the likelihood of clipping with the supporting hand, as well as provide a more unique reload style:
Shotgun shoot and reload sequences are also being updated, with slight changes: you will be able to load 1–2 shells at a time (depending on how full the internal magazine is) while keeping it pointed downrange and ready to fire — so you can more effectively keep your weapon full while still being in the fight — or take the time to break the weapon down into your workspace to more efficiently load shells into the magazine until full. These two reload types will be done using the two different Reload inputs (tap vs. double-tap), just like in V1032, with their speed increased slightly.
Mike has also started working on basic door handling animations, which we’ll begin showcasing next month.
Visual effects (VFX)
Our new VFX artist Charles has also kept busy in his first couple of weeks, having put in some work on bullet impact and explosion particles.
Here’s a quick demo of the concrete hit effects that he’s put together so far. Notice how the angle of the shots affects the direction of the impact debris — shots will produce impact effects at a similar but opposite angle, rather than always fly out of surfaces at a perpendicular (90°) angle:
As the video shows, impacts will also produce larger secondary debris.
📈 These effects also have lower shader complexity than the previous ones, which could have a positive impact on performance in more intensive situations.
Charles has also started prototyping collision logic, with the preliminary goal of making explosion particles react appropriately to their surroundings and not go through walls etc. Here’s a quick demo:
Maps
Storage Facility has been receiving a makeover by Will since its layout redesign in V1032. This art pass adds some welcome character to the facility, with the concept of a repurposed Soviet-era mine, and adds a lot of background detail suggestive of its location.
Here are some shots of the map at around 90% completion:
A view from the dock area showcasing the distant backdrop art passThe open area right in front of the tunnel’s main entrance; notice the abandoned elevated conveyor belt structuresHigh ground section (warehouse)
John has also been working on a new map idea — working title “Docks” — that may or may not make its way into V1033 as well:
New weapon models
We showcased the new M1911A1 in the last dev blog, and you can see some new angles of that on artist Bakr Asaad’s portfolio here.
In the meantime, we have also ordered a new .45 suppressor from Cody to go with it: a legacy Ti-RANT 45S from Advanced Armament Corp. (AAC):
Other weapons are also getting some love in V1033, with the AK-74 family and SVD having received remakes by AK Productions. Be sure to check out their portfolio here for the full galleries and other work they have made.
Here are some previews of the AKS-74U (with both factory and Zenitco parts), as well as the SVD (with both wooden and polymer furniture):
📷 We'll be showcasing the new AK-74M, AK-105 and other assets by AK Productions in a future update.
As is the case with the upcoming MK17 (SCAR-H), these weapons will be added as individual pre-built configurations at first, though you will be able to swap out parts like stocks and handguards down the line when we set things up to support that level of modularity.
The new M24 is also in the make. Here’s the latest progress shot, just before entering the low-poly stage:
The M24 will be fitted with the MIRS (Modular Integrated Rail System) and a threaded barrel for suppressor mounting
AI
We’re investigating how to address one of the most frustrating aspects of the enemy AI: their perfect eyesight at night, making stealthy gameplay nearly impossible.
Initial prototyping is being done using some logic to read pixels and check them for brightness. That is then hooked up to a render capture component attached to the AI, which will be taking snapshots of all the lighting currently affecting players.
The idea is that if you’re caught in one of these snapshots and the brightness reading is determined to be high enough for detection, then you get spotted and the AI reacts. Otherwise, it is told to ignore your presence. Remember that once you give bots basic abilities — like “when you see a player, shoot” — it’s a subtractive process of telling them not to based on a set of conditions, whether it’s because they shouldn’t be able to see through walls, or because they shouldn’t be able to see you in pitch darkness.
Unfortunately, we have nothing palpable to show at this time, but should hopefully have some kind of demo in the next Intel Report.
Modding
Modding in V1033 is still very much a work in progress, but there are two main developments we can talk about at this time.
Firstly, all current kinds of mods (such as game modes and missions) will now be packaged and uploaded to an online repository (details to be finalized), and this should greatly simplify the delivery of mods to users, and propagating updates to mods. Server owners should be able to select mods to be active on the server, and these should automatically be distributed to players joining the server. The days of players having to drop .csv files into their game installation should be over!
Secondly, there will be some new kinds of modding — most notably custom patches, as well as mutators. These mutators are Lua scripts (like game modes) that are intended to extend and/or replace basic game functionality, without requiring a more complicated solution using the SDK (which is still on the way). The full feature set is yet to be confirmed and is likely to be extended over time, but provisionally mutators will allow server owners to customize match structures, map changes, default/allowable player names, custom callsigns, and other server behaviors. They may also be able to do things like pistol-only modifications to any game mode, and so on. Much is possible, but not everything may make it to V1033.
We’ll share more details of the modding system at an appropriate time. But we know the community is clamoring for more modding possibilities, and we are doing our best to get this in-game at the earliest appropriate opportunity.
This is it for today’s Intel Report!
We appreciate you taking the time to read this post, and hope to keep a steady stream of previews and progress showcases going. Thanks for your continued support, and we’ll see you next month!
It’s been a hot minute since our last Intel Update, and although we have been patching V1032 for a while now, work on upcoming release V1033 has been ongoing for several months behind the curtains. Before we start teasing the goods, however, we need to talk about a couple things:
🔥 Summer Sale: GROUND BRANCH is 40% OFF until July 7th!
That’s right! GROUND BRANCH is currently a whole 40% OFF, which we think is a pretty dang good deal and our highest discount yet.
You can grab your discount copy directly on Steam, or you can…
❤️ CONSIDER BUYING DIRECTLY FROM OUR STORE
Buying the game from our Store ensures that we get the full cut of the purchase, as opposed to Valve taking 30%.
💰 Use code GBSUMMER at the checkout to apply the 40% discount.Please note the GB Store has no regional pricing — it can only use the base USD price tag!
You have exactly 2 weeks (until July 7th) to think about it or get that one friend (you know the one) to pull the trigger on this fantastic opportunity. Let’s get the word out and make sure to welcome the new players in!
We’re hiring: VFX Artist wanted for particle effects
This one is for any industry pros that might be lurking: BlackFoot Studios is looking for a VFX Artist to create awesome, realistic particle effects in GROUND BRANCH. For more details, click here.
Also, the Senior Gameplay Engineer/Developer position is still open. So if you know any Unreal Engine & C++ wizards out there (or happen to be one yourself), get in touch! Full job details right here.
So how’s V1033 coming along?
That’s what most of you are here for, so let’s move on to those sneak peeks we promised. Here are some of the exciting things currently under development.
New sky and weather system
GROUND BRANCH V1033 is being setup with a new system that allows for dynamic sky and weather effects, which means clouds, the moon and stars will be making a return.
You like this sky? Kinda makes you feel like operating. I kinda feel like operating right now *tears away civilian clothes*
We’re still assessing performance, but if it proves to work well, we may soon also be able to choose not just the time of day, but also whether the sky is clear, cloudy or overcast; whether there’s a moon out at night or not; and even if it’s rainy or foggy. The whole system is also being rigged up to inform the player of lighting and visibility conditions, as well as to allow a specific mission date to be set in order to emulate the real-life weather conditions of a certain area (where the map is set) at a given time.
This early prototype for the more advanced settings should give you an idea of the depth of the new system:
Although we are not yet sure how many of these options will be available to players (at least initially) nor exactly how it will all be displayed, the back-end to support it is already in place. Just keep in mind that it’s early days, and if the plugin’s performance hit during regular gameplay is too big, then we might need to pull it until we can make it all play nice.
Updated night vision effects + incoming GPNVG-18
One of the most requested items in GROUND BRANCH history — the famous (and sometimes infamous, particularly if you ask a GB dev) GPNVG-18 “quad NODs” panoramic night vision goggles — is finally making its way into the game, along with a number of enhancements to the overall night vision and IR laser effects.
Among the improvements, you may notice how the goggles take up a larger portion of the screen. Instead of simply expanding the NVG overlay mask, which would grant players an unrealistically wide field of view, this was done by switching the FOV (that is, by “zooming in”) in order to make the realistic field of view display at a larger size. This effect will likely be made optional as it might disorient some players.
Have a quick demo video (remember it’s all WIP!) from Fatmarrow to see it in action:
As you may be able to spot in the video: the noise speckle effect has being reworked; mask movement and lens shading have been added to give the camera a more natural feel; and the goggles now appear to bounce when running/sprinting (this will definitely be tweaked/toned down). The goggles are also using a white phosphor overlay, which will be available on the dual-tube NVG too (as will green be available on the GPNVG-18), and the IR laser has also received an update.
What do you think of these updates so far? Let us know in the comments!
Patches, but not the kind we had a bunch of for V1032
We’re talking velcro patches that you can place on your character’s shoulders, headgear and (eventually) vests. Like so:
Full-color US flag patch on ball cap
Patches will be making a comeback from the pre-Early Access days, and they should not only make customization more fun and authentic, but also start making IFF a little easier.
Another cool feature of patches will be a tint selection: in addition to the full-color version of each patch, 3 types of subdued tints — tan, green and grayscale — will also be available for those who don’t want no flashy colors spoiling their drip. Or their camo, sure.
Patches may not be the only new stuff in this image; note the subdued (grayscale) US flag patch on the helmet and left shoulder
Weapons
You have probably already spotted the MK17 SCAR-H in one of the screenshots above, so that cat is out of the bag. Modeled by the talented Cody Cudmore (aka ParallaxGameStudios), the MK17 will initially come in two versions: “CQC” (with the shorter 13-inch barrel) and “DMR” (with the standard 16-inch barrel and Midwest Industries handguard rail extension).
Cody has modelled several extra parts, however, that will be available when the ability to swap stocks, handguards and barrels is implemented. You can see most of the parts (along with some beautiful renders of the new MK17) in his ArtStation page.
Other upcoming weapon updates
Several of Cody’s models are being continually upgraded, so expect remasters of various attachments (including the AN/PEQ-15 and optics like the PRO, RMR, AccuPower and more) to have made their way into the game by the time V1033 hits.
Another new asset you may have spotted earlier is the new M1911A1 by Bakr Asaad aka Raider3D:
This modernized M1911A1 features a Picatinny rail for lights and lasers and a threaded barrel for suppressors, as well as 8-round and 10-round magazines. Aesthetically, it combines elements of various iconic 1911-style pistols used by American SOF over the last couple decades, retaining much of its classic look.
The update will also include plenty of AK-74 and AK-105 platforms (both with and without Zenitco parts), new SVDs, a PMM pistol, the suppressor for the MK46 machine gun… But hang in there, we’ll be unveiling more of these in the future.
Characters
As those spoilery screenshots earlier showed, character assets will be getting some new additions as well. Namely, we’ll be adding a new character head, and beards will finally make their comeback. That’s not all, but since we’re not sure at this time just how much will make it to V1033, we kindly request that all readers exercise caution with their hype levels.
Let’s take a look:
Male 05 render, with and without beardHairstyles fit for each character, including headwear versions of the longer styles (to reduce clipping)
Hair color selection may not make it to V1033, but the assets have all been created to allow it once we get the functionality in.
Lastly for the character art department, another commonly requested item since V1032 has been tucked-in tops. Pau Peñalver is making the adjustments, and we’ll see how they end up in the game as far as selection goes.
Some shirts just look a little off when untucked, so we’re working on tucked-in versions
Audio and animations
Among other things that we’ll be discussing in a later update, Mikson and Mike have been busy getting the new weapons to sound and move nicely, respectively.
Mik has also been working on environment-specific “tails”, which refers to how the gunshot sounds reverberate differently depending on the type of environment. So in addition to sounding different depending on whether you’re outdoors, in a small room or a larger room, shots in V1033 will have distinctive tails for urban, marine and generic outdoors, with the possibility of a woodland-area tail in the future too. Here’s a little demo:
New unsuppressed gunshot SFX for the MPX, 5.45 mm AK platforms and other weapons will also be in the update.
Other developments
This is it for today’s Intel Update, but before we sign off: we are also working on AI features, modding, map updates, a new map and game modes for V1033 that we’ll be showcasing at a later date.
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.
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:
We have yet to figure out how we’re going to use the dirt/wound layers; whatever we go with, we promise these heads are going to have eyes
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:
We didn’t have any extra skins setup for the vests and carriers at the time of these screenshots, but rest assured they will be added (See? They do have eyes)
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:
Goggles (ESS® Profile NVG), high-poly model
Sunglasses (ESS® Rollbar), high-poly model
Eyeshield (ESS® Crossbow Suppressor), low-poly/textured model
Another view of the eyeshields
Always keep in mind that these pretty renders (for the eyeshields, specifically) are created by the modeler with complex rendering tools, and will not look as good in-game due to real-time dynamic lighting, resolutions, graphics settings and other engine realities
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):
how goggles ?
Decisions, decisions. Anyway, more shots to gawk at:
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:
Never Always go full MultiCam OCP…?
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:
High-poly model; clockwise from top-left: tray cover, belt pouch, view of the open tray, and a view of the full model
Low-poly model with suppressor
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:
Yep, that’s an FDE skin too
… and so has the EXPS3 holo sight, by the same author:
Also in FDE!
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.
Notice the trigger discipline finally adapting to the stance
⏳ 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.
New High Ready (primary weapons)New Compressed Ready (pistols)
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.
Make sure you’ve also checked out the STANAG vs. PMAG (metal vs. polymer) reload audio comparison from the last Intel Update here
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.
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:
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!
As underscored by last month’s publisher announcement, development for upcoming release V1032 is still chugging along, and as we work on putting the game back together with the new character rig, assets and animations, another Intel Update is coming at you with everything that’s happening behind the scenes.
Reinforcements are here
It is no secret that the development of GROUND BRANCH has been rocky, and in many ways too ambitious for its own good. Nevertheless, it has endured, and thanks in no small part to our community’s continued trust and support, we have finally reached a point where we can more comfortably go after professionals that can help us stay on track and take this project where it needs to be.
Tech backup
One such example is Bad Rhino Studios, an independent studio from Kansas City that we just partnered with as a means to get more eyes and hands on the game’s overall performance, code, online networking (netcode), and general implementation. As we progress, the studio will also be helping us fix major lingering issues and improve other areas of development.
The fine developers at Bad Rhino have previously lent their expertise to the likes of Epic Games (Unreal Engine, Fortnite), Bohemia Interactive (Arma, DayZ standalone) and even Facebook, so they are more than capable of helping us take GROUND BRANCH to the next level from a more technical standpoint.
Some of the companies Bad Rhino Studios has partnered with
It goes without saying that we’re very excited for this partnership’s future, and we’ll hopefully be seeing its repercussions soon enough!
For anyone interested, you can learn more about Bad Rhino Studios and what they do in their website right here.
Art backup
We have also gotten dedicated vegetation artist Paul Brousse on board in a contractor capacity. For starters, Mr. Brousse will be building assets for 4 different biomes (i.e. trees, bushes and ground cover): Eastern Europe, Horn of Africa, Middle East, and Mexico–US border.
Just a sample of Paul’s work in UE4, from his ArtStation portfolio (link)
In addition to granting environments an extra layer of authenticity, these new custom biomes will generally make maps look better and more consistent. If we’re lucky, they might even improve performance too.
Further backup
We are also looking for a dedicated VFX artist and a producer/project manager type, in addition to a few other roles we may disclose later. At this time, we are only considering close recommendations, but we’ll be sure to let everyone know if we end up expanding our search.
Other areas of assistance
GPU manufacturers
In order to improve performance in the future, we have submitted GROUND BRANCH builds to Nvidia and AMD for profiling. This may lead to potential assistance in optimizing the game, as well as GPU driver enhancements for better compatibility with it.
Localization
Our new publishing partner MicroProse has been helping us localize (that is, translate) the content of our Steam store page to several languages, so that non-English speakers can make better informed purchases and potentially have a minor positive impact on the player base.
Localization of the game itself will also begin as soon as we have a large enough portion of the UI locked down.
Some V1032 sneak peeks
Now for what you’re actually here for—taking a look at how V1032 is coming along and getting eyes on some sweet sneak peeks. We get it, and we got you covered.
Here’s some media, starting with this quick audio and animation preview:
Mmmm, crunchy
In addition to all these new reloads, our animator Mike has also put together this satisfying recoil animation that adds a lot of immersion to shooting:
Notice the more natural “bounce” to the recoil when compared to the basic back-and-forth motion currently in the game. Weapon stances are a work in progress and subject to change.
On the modeling front, trusty contractor and 3D artist extraordinaire Pau Peñalver continues to bang out amazing models to get our character art up to date, and to make sure we don’t have brand-new assets mixed up with really old ones.
Below are some of Pau’s latest creations:
The new Helmet (AF) …… and here with the camo cover (patterns pending, but they will be there)
Four new types of footwear
The new Combat Boots
New NVG arm mount on helmet shroud
Detail of the new NVG arm mount
Keep in mind that although these previews are already of the game-ready models (yep, no joke), they are generated from rendering tools that have lighting capabilities far beyond UE4’s real-time lighting. You know we like being transparent, so here’s what we really mean by that: they will not look necessarily this amazing in-game, but they will still look pretty good and certainly better than the assets they will be replacing.
In the level design department, Will has put some work on the night lighting and skybox for the still untitled compound map:
Really makes it seem alive, doesn’t it?
In case you missed it, there are a bunch of pretty previews of the upcoming compound map on MicroProse’s GROUND BRANCH product page (click). We know what you’re thinking and yes, it’s gonna be totally sick, lit and dare we say, based.
And that’s it for today’s Intel Update!
We know—waiting for V1032 sucks. But hopefully this helps ease the wait a little, and reassures everyone that we’re still here, working hard, and expanding the team so that we’re able to improve GROUND BRANCH’s experience at a faster pace.
We’ll have more details and previews for you in a few weeks, so stay tuned and don’t forget to let us know what your thoughts are on today’s intel.
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