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Post by kulu on Apr 19, 2017 8:28:54 GMT
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Post by indiedev on Apr 19, 2017 13:19:59 GMT
congrats on release, kulu. but a few issues: 1. videos look very low fps, does not give me [or potential buyers] much confidence in it. 2. unless this game is performing better than before [which looks unlikely given the video] $10 seems a bit much, you should aim for the low budget under $5 market. -------
edit: 3. [just remembered] your game uses too many text prints, this week i re-read the old rad forum archive 'Optimization Tips' which is only 6 pages of subjects, and said many times should only use ONE textprint per level or load times/playing lags, you should check it out, and use sprites or pre-rendered textures for text instead.
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Post by Power Supersport on Apr 19, 2017 16:48:23 GMT
My personal opinion is that there are way too much effects... There's so much bloom that it's literally killing framerate and any kind of experience... I definetly respect your decision for putting a price, but I kinda don't want to spend $10 on a game that cannot hit 60fps mark... Additional thing is that cheaper games have more of a possibility for a purchase and you can kinda get more sales... Because even the trailer doesn't have a stable 30fps... So, if people like us don't want to spend $10 for this game, you're probably not gonna get any sales at all... Or in case you get someone, he might not be happy about his decision and may never buy anything from you again... As indiedev said, $5 could be more affordable and appropriate, although for me it's still overpriced... Please, take all of that as a constructive criticism, not as some kind of personal attacks to you... You have to prepare hearing that from a lot more people when selling a product, because when you sell, you really need to outstand certain standards to make your game really worth the price...
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Post by indiedev on Apr 20, 2017 3:37:27 GMT
..also no min specs listed, at the very least you should have a demo of say 1/2 of 1 level, or 1/4 of 2 levels so people can try before buying, that way there's less risk to them, and less risk to you of a customer backlash due to lagging.
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Post by Thunder on Apr 20, 2017 15:06:52 GMT
Sorry if you are taking TOO much criticism but I don't have any clue what's going on in the trailer (I mean the white spot in the center that never goes out and thkes the whole screen). The trailer should drive the player to buy your game and it has to tell briefly about the game visually but for me - I don't have any clue what this game is about from the trailer.
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Post by kulu on Apr 21, 2017 6:31:01 GMT
Thanks for the input guys. Ive tried to adjust accordingly.
here is hopefully the final video for Caged photon, Ive tried to be as transparent as possible with the video.
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Post by indiedev on Apr 21, 2017 12:45:44 GMT
kulu, the sound is really bad there -constantly cutting out for a split second, it seems you lowered audio quality to squeeze out more fps?
still does not give me much confidence in it.
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Post by indiedev on May 10, 2017 4:04:56 GMT
I see you added specs to it but 'Caged photon is known to run better on Nvidia GFX cards'? don't you mean on intel CPU's? i was using nvidia gfx 4x better than your gt9500, the amd cpu was the issue.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2017 11:56:19 GMT
Not to be giving you too much critism here kulu, but rather take it as suggestions for improvement. If what the others are saying, and your game runs worse on an AMD cpu (which most of the time should EASILY run any game made in 3DRAD as well as any Intel processor made in the last 10 years), I really think you should add an option to disable all the post processing effects, especially since these are VERY processor intensive, more so than graphics intensive. Reducing the quality of the sound effects is pretty much guaranteed to make no noticeable impact on the frame at all whatsoever, the only thing you'd be doing is reducing load times and memory usage.
But, what I could suggest that would most likely improve the average framerate is to remove the valueprint / textprint objects (I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet) , and start using the iPrint function if you haven't already. I find that having more than one of these two objects drags down the framerate quite quickly, as well as making loading take MUCH longer.
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Post by indiedev on May 10, 2017 14:27:50 GMT
well said doc, but i did point out the text print issue in the 1st reply, i'm surprised that iprint would make much difference as it's still rendering from the same font sheet which i think is the issue - as each letter has to be cutout and rendered realtime instead of from a pre-rendered text sprite or texture which is the best option where suitable [as in all non-dynamic texts such as 'press c to shoot' etc]
the ONLY time text prints should be used is for dynamic things like speed/score etc.
...and the sound issues i mentioned were more to do with the video recording rather than the game running by itself.
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Post by kulu on May 11, 2017 6:47:25 GMT
Thanks for the feedback. I did put the options to turn off the camera effects. turning off bloom , also turns off a number of particles in some of the heavier scenes. i did take your advise , and added an option to turn off shadows. this was done with the help of the 3d rad users here at 3d rad boards. every demo Ive shown , and every benchmark ive done {nvidia ones} has been , with shadows on and bloom on. Ive further adjusted Caged photon , by deleting unused shadow models. i did this because i was , again, advised to delete these shadow models. There is really nothing more i can do , without sacrificing what i wanted Caged photon to be. As discussed , there is nothing I can do if AMD cpus or GPus cant handle Caged Photon as well as my system can {seriosly my system is a fossil} . im sorry if Ive disappointed you guys , but I took everyones advise, and I see Caged photon as a success , both from my own artistic view , and again , from my technical expectations for Caged Photon. I know , that from a monetary perspective, Caged photon has bombed. but thats not why i made Caged photon. I use 3d animation , illustration and design for self expression. I feel Ive expressed my views successfully through Caged Photon.
I love the 3d rad program, because without it , Caged photon wouldnt exist. Thank you for all your feedback . and good luck with your own projects. I'll be posting a video of Caged photon , running at the max resolution of my GFX {9500gt } if anyone is still interested.
Technically , and artistically , my goals were exceeded 10 fold. and it is in part thanks to everyone who offered suggestions, scripts, tutorials, game-dev theories etc.
3d rad has great potential. and so does this community. Ive seen developments, like the script helper, and user made shaders, addons, tips and tricks , that show me that, even if 3d rad is limited , there are sometimes ways of getting around some of those limitations. thank you again for your particapation in the beta of Caged photon, and in the development of Caged photon . I will also be releasing the final ' optimised-even-further ' version of Caged photon , along with the video I mentioned above { running at my GFX max resolution}
I forgot to mention that , I didnt adjust any sound quality in Caged Photon , I just used low quality sound settings , when rendering the video from after effects { data costs a fortune in South Africa, and a dedicated internet connection is even worse , cost-wise }
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Post by indiedev on May 11, 2017 8:09:18 GMT
i'm glad you are happy with it, if you don't want to improve it further with text sprites instead of prints then at least starting to apply this knowledge for your next game would be a good idea, since it looks pretty text heavy too.
-------- edit:
sorry if i seem blunt kulu, but if your game lags it's not AMD or RAD's fault, as i can run other rad games [like that neon bike racer, etc] on my amd at full 60fps 1080p. but don't feel obligated to continue optimizing it for anyone on here, we are just giving advice so you can improve it if you want, rather than attacking you!
i suggest you put that disclaimer on itchio about it being unplayable on amd cpu's [amd gfx are fine] due to not having tested amd cpu's during dev.
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Post by indiedev on May 19, 2017 6:03:48 GMT
i also suggest you REMOVE the nvidia logo unless you got approval [should also notify them before commercial release] see my topic here: Use of nVidia logo needs approval
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Post by kulu on May 21, 2017 13:17:22 GMT
okay. no reply from my sent emails to nvidia though
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Post by bartyrocks3 on May 22, 2017 11:44:57 GMT
Hehe my i7 and gtx 970 could run the beta no problem.
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Post by kulu on Jun 27, 2017 18:58:37 GMT
Hi Caged Photon is now $1 and a new fix is also available on itch.io the fix should correct some bugs I didnt anticipate and improves performance on some of the heavier levels. Tell your friends. Happy gaming
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Post by indiedev on Jun 28, 2017 4:26:14 GMT
i see you changed the specs -but 6Gb ram? 4gb or less should be plenty for yours, as 6gb is an uncommon amount.
best way to check ram use is:
1. run game windowed at max res/detail then ctrl-shft-esc >processes>find your games .exe, then check amount reported used during loading/playing 2. close game and when pc is idle check performance tab for total ram used by the system 3. double your game use total in step 1 to allow some headroom, and add that to idle use = min ram needed.
--------- edit- specs still playing coy about your amd cpu issue - 'i3 or equivalent' is open to interpretation, as my AMD A8 quad can totally whip your i3 dual core in optimized games like GTA4, but lags well behind in your game -or have you solved your amd issue now?
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Post by kulu on Jun 28, 2017 13:44:38 GMT
I dont know anything about optomising for amd or any other cpu manufacturer. all i did was try and improve the framerate on my original pc specs. another month and ill probably delete the itch.io page. but im still happy. . dont ask me why. but im still a happy chappy
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 19:58:20 GMT
nice, how long did it take
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Post by kulu on Jun 30, 2017 4:12:38 GMT
started in 2014 . so 3 years.
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