Game Dev Digest Issue #96 - Programming and preparing your game

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

Short but sweet this week. Tons of great tips packed into the list this week. Enjoy!

Game Programming: Time Slicing - What if the job takes too long to fit in a single frame? Or what if the job is just taking longer than we’d like? Then we can split the work across multiple frames. This is the core idea of time slicing, another optimization technique I picked up at work and one of my longtime favorites.
allenchou.net

Preparing your game for deterministic netcode - Deterministic netcode relies on each game client coming to an identical state given the same initial state and inputs per frame. [and the Hacker News discussion]
YellowAfterlife

Introduction to The P3 Optimization Framework - A framework that whispers in your ear what your best next step is at any given point in your Unity optimization journey. A framework that takes you from zero to 72 FPS, from 72 to 90 FPS, from 90 to 120.
The Gamedev Guru

GPU Mesh Voxelizer Part 1 - In this article, we’ll start porting my naive mesh voxelizer to a multithreaded mesh voxelizer that runs on the GPU through Compute Shaders. First, we’ll set up the compute shader to position all the voxel grid points. Then, we’ll draw the grid points directly from the Compute Buffer on the GPU. From there, we’ll discuss how we can use the Separating Axis Theorem (SAT) to test for collisions between voxels and triangles.
Bronson Zgeb

How To Use Every Node in Unity Shader Graph - Shader Graph ships with a lot of nodes. Over 200, as of Shader Graph 10.2! With such a vast array of features at your disposal, it’s easy to get lost when you’re searching for the perfect way to make the shader you have in mind. This tutorial shows you every single node in action, complete with examples, explanations of every input and output, and even best practices for certain nodes!
danielilett.com

8 Tips For Animating Active Ragdolls - Got asked for some tips about how I animate my Active Ragdolls so here's a list of some of the techniques that I have learnt over the last few months to help save everyone some time.
reddit.com

Moving platforms in a 2D side scroller Unity game - In a good 2D side-scroller game, moving platforms can pose quite a challenge to the player. They can be more tricky to pass since they do not remain static in one place. Their behavior changes over time and that often requires learning their movement patterns. It is a fun new element that you can add to your game. In this tutorial we are going to look into the implementation of reusable moving platforms. [also read this article by James West]
pavcreations.com

Videos

I Made The Legend of Zelda but it's 3D - I Made The Legend of Zelda but it's 3D... People seemed to really like what I did last time when I Made Super Mario Bros but it's 3D, so I decided to do the exact same thing again, but this time for the Legend of Zelda. This time I went all out because I recreated the entire overworld, including enemies and items.
CodyCantEatThis

How to Create Realtime VFX in Unity - Ever wanted to learn the full process behind creating realtime VFX in unity? In this video, Sandra Ferri breaks down her amazing realtime VFX, and shows you exactly how you can re-create your own!
Stylized Station

Basics of Mipmaps in Unity Part 2! Shaders, Bias, and Texture2DLOD! | Game Dev Tutorial - Mipmaps are scaled down versions of textures Unity generates which look and perform better when the texture shrinks on the screen. In this video, I wrap up this series on mipmaps by investigating how the renderer chooses which mip level to use and how you can influence this with SampleTexture2DLOD and mipmap biases. I also show how to sample textures outside of the fragment shader stage.
Ned Makes Games

Cloud Content Delivery technical workshop | Unity - Rolling out regular content updates is crucial for any live game in order to keep players coming back. Making sure that the right players get the right content at the right time is just as important, and using a combination of efficient content management, cloud storage and a trusted content delivery network can help you achieve that goal.
Unity

Assets

Mega Bundle Sale! Mega Bundles to chart your course - Save up to 95% on level-design assets to chart your course, create vast environments, and stylize your storytelling. Last days of the sale!

$14.99 Bundle - save up to 76%
This bundle contains: Loading Screen Studio, Swarm Of Bats, Umbra Boundary Builder, and Runtime Transform Gizmos.

$29.99 Bundle - save up to 83%
This bundle contains everything from the $14.99 bundle, plus Dungeon Maker, Fog Volume 3, Jujube Map Editor | 3D Level Designer, VertPaint, and Simple Waypoint System.

$39.99 Bundle - save up to 95%
This bundle contains everything from the $14.99 and $29.99 bundles, plus Grabbit - Editor Physics Transforms, TerraWorld - Automated Level Designer, Mesh Deformation Full Collection, Asset Usage Finder, Medieval Village Environment, Impostors - Runtime Optimization, Advanced Terrain Grass, Fullscreen Editor, Mantis LOD Editor - Professional Edition, Sci-Fi Effects, Technie Collider Creator, TileWorldCreator, uContext Pro, Task Atlas, and DreamOS - Complete OS UI.
Unity

Fast Play Mode - Want to enter play mode faster in Unity? Starting with Unity 2019.3, you can disable a few options to enter play mode almost immediately. It is a big time saver during development. There are times when you still want to use the standard Domain Reload and Scene Reload options, so be sure to check out Unity's information below.
Watch the video, read Unity's Blog Post and the docs
DVGen Open Source

Asmdef Helper - Unity assembly definition utilities. This library solves inconveniences of assembly definitions in unity.
naninunenoy Open Source

Persistity - A pipeline based data persistence framework (a bit like ETL) for game developers for use with Unity, Monogame or other .net based engines/frameworks.
Its an async pipeline for handling complex extract/transform/load interactions for your models in any format (xml/json/binary out the box).
grofit Open Source

Unity HFSM - A simple yet powerful hierarchical finite state machine for the Unity game engine. It is scalable and customisable by being class-based, but also supports functions (or lambdas) for fast prototyping. It has a special focus on the temporal aspects of state transitions, making it ideal for timing and synchronisation sensitive problems.
Inspiaaa Open Source

LeoEcsLite - Lightweight C# Entity Component System framework - Performance, zero/small memory allocations/footprint, no dependencies on any game engine - main goals of this project.
Leopotam Open Source

HUMBLE SOFTWARE BUNDLE: MEGA SOUND DESIGNER LOOP CRATE VOL 2 - Loot Crate Vol 1 did so well, we’ve made another, featuring more than 13,000 royalty-free assets you can use to make music magic! Discover Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio, Voltage Modular Ignite, DCO-106 Synthesizer, and more in the new Mega Sound Designer Loop Crate Vol 2 bundle. Plus, your purchase helps support Little Kids Rock & Stop AAPI Hate!

$921 WORTH OF AWESOME STUFF
PAY $1 OR MORE
Humble Bundle Affiliate

HUMBLE SOFTWARE BUNDLE: ROYALTY-FREE RPG GAME DEVELOPMENT ASSETS - Creating an RPG but don’t have a deft hand at art assets? Not everyone can be an artist or visual designer. Not to worry, thanks to GameDev Market and the RPG Game Dev bundle you’ll gain access to thousands of assets like Omega Modern Graphics Pack, RPG Game 1700+ Icons, Medieval Fantasy Characters, and Customisable Pixel Art Character Kit to help add some spark to your creations! Plus, your purchase helps support Child’s Play, AbleGamers, and our May Charity of the Month, Active Minds!

$436 WORTH OF AWESOME STUFF
PAY $1 OR MORE
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Spotlight

Clan O’Conall - Clan O’Conall is a 2D art-led action-adventure puzzle-platformer rich with Celtic folklore. Players strategically switch between three siblings, heirs to Chief Ardan’s throne, as they fight through the evil spirits and deadly bosses to stop Caoranach, the Mother of Demons, from killing their father, stealing the power of the Crown of the Stag, and ultimately igniting a new war between the Aos Sí and the mortals. A beautiful foray into Celtic mythology set alongside a rich soundtrack by Moonwalk Audio.

[Get the game on Steam]
Hit Grab

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