I've looked at Godot before, more that two years ago I guess... afterward I went to work on a game using the Blender Game Engine(many of us here have)...I went quite a while without updating that project...it's unfortunate..it was near complete(full quest, inventory, story and rewards system), but with the game engine dropped from blender I felt a total lack of motivation...I possibly let some people down as it was an open world rpg that was going to be given away for free.. I have regrets about that...

with all that being said I've been tinkering with Godot again over the last three weeks...maybe more or less...didn't count...but I'm getting distracted. I am happy to say Godot is quite capable of doing open world 3D games....the people who say it cannot, clearly don't know how(and that's ok) but I am working on a project now simply titled "tiny RPG".

Tiny RPG may never come to a full game, but I enjoy working on it...I'm keeping things simple, it will be somewhat zelda inspired gameplay and instead of gobbling up loads of items in your inventory you will be limited to only a few spells and weapons. These will be skill based, as in you will be able to level these up and put points into them. So, I'm going for a very basic look and feel, somewhat cartoon-ish and low-poly looking..it's the cool thing now-a-days :)...here are a few shots of the work I've done over the last few weeks...

worked on some actors, that can share the same armature and animations worked on a lot of animations...something like 40..I think. and some in game shots, nothing drastic, just trying to get the feel of the world and did some basic movement, some lod and instancing and a day and night cycle...not many images because I am keeping this short.. I'm still ironing out the story a bit, I have a rough, rough, rough draft. Most of the mechanics are thought out, but I stll need a few more animations(in the range of 3-4, not many) and after that I can get to actually working on it more...I just thought it might interest some, and it makes me happy to share things I work on.....

Nice job. I think Godot is still trailing if you are talking about AAA-style games (which are probably out of reach for indie devs anyhow) but if you use simple graphics or limit the scope it is totally doable.

Thank you...still playing with it, even now..as far as AAA quality games, ok, yes...unless you write some sort of culling wizardry :)

The book "foundations of game engine development 2" discusses culling in detail. I don't think it would be too hard to implement in Godot (maybe the developers are already on it, I don't know).

This looks really cool, would love to see more updates!

I'm implementing some animation state stuff now...first run...it will probably need a rewrite tomorrow, but hopefully I can figure out how to use two animations at the same time, or I will need to redo a lot of tedious animations :(...

probably post something new before monday...so tomorrow evening...fingers crossed.

So, I've been really lazy since yesterday, getting the going back to work blues...but I did manage to do a very short and very poorly encoded, non edited video :)

Other than the super slow movement speed(or is it sneak?) it's looking good. :)

it's an in between movement....a generic placeholder, he does have sneak walk run but it's not setup...so yes, his speed is a bit slow.

Looks cool. But is the performance really that bad (maybe it is the recording)? Seem like a pretty simple scene, what video card do you have?

I'm not concerned about the frame rate this is my testing world, but it's a wierd combination of things causing the appearance of a very low fps...

first off, I recorded at a low frame rate(screen recording) I think 15 fps, maybe 20...there is a spike or two in the video and those are definitely from in game.

second, Godot always drops a few frames when you cap the frame rate...e.g I set it to 60 and it gives me 55-61...if I remove that limitation I get over 100 fps(adding the SSAO really brings it down)....I tested this...if I set it to 70 I get 60-65...could be my system or an issue with Godot..???

third, my system is pretty old, not ancient by my standards but for modern gaming yes...prehistoric.. GTX650(1GB dx11), AMD Phenom xt 2(6 core)??? and 8Gb system ram...speed unknown..I could check, but let's be honest with ourselves...it's old :)

lastly, nothing is really optimized....all those models are simply placed there by hand, no instancing or batching being done. LOD's are the only thing I've done...it may or may not be noticeable.

Ah, I see. That machine is pretty old, I'm surprised it even holds up that well now that you mention it. Do you want a new video card? I can send you a GTX 1650 Super or something in that price range. PM me if you're interested.

5 days later

Thanks for breaking my computer!@ :) seriously, I got the card but decided the computer was overdue for a cleaning...yep..I broke something. It wont turn on at all...I checked the switch and the power supply...both fine, so I thought maybe the card was defective...no biggie, put the old one back in...nope...after taking everything apart and testing everything(as best I could) I assume the motherboard just took a dump...so looks like I will be out of the loop for at least two weeks. If worse comes to worse, I will go get a loan and buy a new one... I'll be back, my wife is kicking me off her computer ;)

Did you perhaps remove the cooler off of the CPU while cleaning it? Might need to reseat it then(not just the cooler, but the CPU too).

Oh man, I'm so sorry.

Maybe it's not dead, though. Did you check the power cables to the motherboard (it should have one small one for the CPU and a longer one for the motherboard). I've knocked this before and stopped my PC from starting. If you have a modular PSU, check the connections on the the power supply end. They might look connected but pull them out and make sure they are in good.

Might be a good idea to try clearing the CMOS. There is usually a clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard, you just move the jump from 2 of 3 pins over 1, leave it for a few seconds, and then move it back. If you don't have a jumper, just remove the CMOS battery for about 30 seconds. You can also just replace the CMOS battery altogether, you can buy these for a few dollars.

on my sons computer so I'll rty to keep this short:

I apreciate everyone trying to help :) but I did IT for almost 10 years in the military had my A+ cert and everything...I know a dead mother board when I swap out enough components(that's a joke btw) I do know what I am doing and I was in IT for the military.

No worries, I just ordered a new computer, nothing too fancy r5 3600, 16 gigs 3600 and an rx 5700 xt(not a fan of ATI/AMD cards but cheaper than an RTX 2070s)... it's the maximum we could do, it's not top of the line but I did go with an x570 mobo so I have a decent upgrade path...at least until the AM5 sockets come out(sooner than later)

So, I'll hopefully be back to it in another week. I want to thank you all for trying to help...you guys "rock!".

-see you soon, Justin

11 days later

Finally got my computer today, but I'm down in the shop making some furniture...give me a couple days to get everything updated and configured...and scrounge up my old files.

Then I can get back to work. :)

Just a quick update, nothing spectacular to report... I was able to get everything back to where I had it before the computer failure...just re-acquainting myself with what I've already done...there is some spaghetti code in the player movement..I was clearly just trying to use it as a scratch pad...I may need to rework that... The good news is I went from fighting for 60 FPS to well over 300 FPS...this is even after I added a lot more trees(just tinkering)...later I will need to properly place them proceduraly... I am also thinking of clumping them together in larger groups...a kind of "fake" batching. it will give them higher poly counts as a group, but less objects for the gpu and engine to deal with. I think this should be ok...they really serve no purpose for gameplay..but who wants to play a game like this without any trees?

I thought there were no collisions with multimesh instances? Because it has crossed my mind...I suppose it's possible to add them one at a time in a loop and then ad their colliders??? I have not messed with this stuff yet. I really don't know. I'll check out the link...it doesn't mention collisions..

21 days later

So I am uploading the worst video ever, enjoy?

Seriously it's bad, but I wanted to show that I am still working on this...slowly but surely. I'm still just working on the basics, there is no enemy / NPC AI or questing system implemented still just getting the player ironed out. I did however finally get some kinks worked out and fixed up some UI...but there is a video you can watch that is only @4 min long so grab some popcorn and have a giggle.

Ah, looks like it's coming together. Also the video is much smoother now. Good job!

I did nothing :) you helped it more than I did. Thank you. But the new computer is a life saver. I have to cap it at 120FPS currently.. and I implemented a simple menu since the video...it was killing me :)

for some reason the mouse doesn't show up in the capture, but no big deal...the buttons still need some sort of background, they are a bit too light.

7 days later

I have finally started working on the skills and magic system...as well as the sound system, ranged systems and death. I will try to get a video up tonight. It's all still WIP ofc.

New video showing some ranged abilities, skill system work, death system, menu system, potions and other WIP/alpha fluff.

please feel free to leave any criticisms here, please be critical of weaknesses and tell me what you like. It's the only way things really improve.

7 days later

magic is nearly complete, yet still a lot of bugs I need to squash before I consider moving on.

Sounds like some in the family might have a bit of a case of the sniffles. Hope you all get well soon and keep up the good work! :)

6 days later

A new video has been uploaded. showcasing a new bug :)..but also explaining the overally system and the finished spells and an accidental armor reveal.

5 days later

I may not have a new video up this weekend. I'm working on the enemy AI...writing pathfinding that works well for both open world and interior scenarios.. I have it working, but I would like to tweak it...Make it more robust overall. If my plans don't workout I will just dumb it down to a type of bread crumb system... so the enemies, at a minimum, don't get lost when moving away from their their spawn points.

I also need to get all the enemies to work with one rig and make a few more biped enemies. Quadruped enemies will have a different system and bosses, yet another...but I imagine I will do bosses on a one by one basis....

but my main focus in the immediate time is the pathfinding.

if anyone has ideas for enemies go ahead and let me know...I currently have 11 base types...ofc they all either can have or do have sub types...e.g. "Orc" / "Black Orc" / "War Chief"...

feel free to post ideas.

16 days later

I would have liked to do an update sooner..I would also like to do a new video, but TBH, I am in heavy edit mode..the way I need to build the world to keep framrates constant on all devices requires me to create everything in very specific ways...so I made the game simple on purpose. Aside from the ui everything is using a single shader(ok, particles and water use different shaders as well...sue me :) ).. BUT as far as characters, terrain, all solid meshes in general and foliage...all use one shader...anywhoo... here are some screen shots. Nothing too exciting, still under heavy construction...just some thing to show what I have been doing the last two weeks...when I have time. I am still working..no lockdown here or anything yet...I wish everyones safety and good health.

@justinbarrett said: BUT as far as characters, terrain, all solid meshes in general and foliage...all use one shader...anywhoo...

Yes, especially for the mobile platforms that is probably the best way to go. :)

7 days later

still working on the world...since it is all pretty resource efficient and using a single shader. My plan is to chop the world into 16-25 chunks each with a single LOD...if I need to use lod's the world seen here is @500K triangles..not sure how the math would work out for vertex count...most models do not have any splits or UV's, but some do...so ...no idea.. ...anyway all the trees. rocks, caves, buildings but not anything that you cannot clip/pass through will belong to it's chunk...not parented...one mesh...this should give me chunks that are manageable and easy to either work with LOD's or whatever I plan to do...the plus side is there will be very few objects to deal with. OR I may just parent them and iterate through checking the camera distance and make changes accordingly. I'm still thinking about it though...also still working on it...here is a less than fancy screenshot.

7 days later

Just uploaded another video...it's nothing amazing, but it does show a more complete world map.

8 days later

another dev log is up, more combat bugs show up :) but I finally show some AI..nothing spectacular, but quite functional.

6 days later

The following text was posted on another forum... Finished refactoring all of the combat…so everything is back to working normal…AFAIK? :slight_smile: eventually something will popup…so I am going to start working on more of the story driven aspect of the game…NPC’s…I may go dark for a week or two…I may not…kinda depends on how well it progresses…the ideas I have written down will hopefully work out as I expect…but more than likely not…I’ll see

I'm also starting work(on the side) for my beast(quadruped etc) models and AI...I have not come up with any fitting style for the models though...I had a wolf and it looked horrible...if anyone has some suggestions or mock-ups that they would like to donate I would be grateful.

I managed to get the basics in place for dialogue and simple shops...so I will keep the gems and consider them out of "alpha"..the gems anyway :)

5 days later

Put up a new video on a whim...and it shows...I'm so professional :)

The video quality is fine and I think it was fine before too, but your colors(esp. reds) in the game are super over-saturated. which is something the video encoder probably has a hard time with. You might want to try calibrating your monitor for sRGB.

I should actually be doing that to mine as well now that I think about it. At least it's easy for me, I bought a colorimeter half a decade ago. But make no mistake, a colorimeter might make it easier, but it is not necessary.

Heres a photographer explaining the basics on youtube and links to a good site to help out.