carinad3a

[carinad3a]

DevBlog #7 - Deferred Rendering

hi

This last month we’ve been spending a lot of our time on internal stuff that probably isn’t that entertaining to read about (optimizations and restructuring). However, one of the more interesting things was switching our rendering pipeline from “forward” rendering to “deferred” rendering.

In short, we get lights for much cheaper than if we were in forward rendering, allowing us to attach lights to stuff like projectiles, monsters, and item displays - which is fantastic for a game like Risk of Rain 2, which is full of projectiles. We also get access to a few post-process options like decals and sobel outlines for much cheaper. However, anyone who’s done a similar process knows its very difficult to get Unity to work with non-PBR(physically based rendering) lighting models in deferred rendering.

For the nitty-gritty for what that actually means, check out this link (https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/forward-rendering-vs-deferred-rendering–gamedev-12342). For those using Unity and wanting to know where to begin for their own custom deferred pipeline, start with (https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidLeon/20170519/298374/NextGen_Cel_Shading_in_Unity_56.php). If you’re comfortable with the built-in Standard shader material setup, you can stop at the end of the article. However, we wanted custom control over the information sent to our gbuffers (so we could have a more stylized rendering model), so we went a bit farther. In result, our gbuffer setup at the moment is:

RT0: Diffuse color (rgb), Occlusion/Unused (a)

RT1: Phong Strength ®, Phong Exponent (b), Ramp Information (g), Smoothness (a)

RT2: Normal (rgb), outline strength (a)

So we get lots of lights now, at a huge performance boost.

In the next weeks we’re planning on working more on the game outside of the run - things like custom input systems, pausing, menus, splitscreen, monster logs, and user profiles. Also, just so this devblog isn’t super stale, here’s a few more random .gifs. Cheers!

[carinad3a]

(Ten-ichi 8bit)

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/curse-level-3-redux-in-ym2612

[carinad3a]

Here it is, the public announcing of the game I’m working on. Say hello to Alpha Centaurus. It’s a 16-bit style throwback “shmup” (shoot’em up or shooter game). The music will be YM2612+PSG driven, i.e. Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.

It will feature both horizontal and vertical scrolling levels.

It’s been 10 months so far, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take until it’s released since I’m the only one working on it.

This will be released on PC (Steam) first, then Linux, then Mac. If it gets enough positive feedback, I will then aim for console releases.

Wish me luck!

[devlog post #1]

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/super-xyx-title-screen

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/super-xyx-stage-3

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/sms-black-belt-boss-theme-x-sf2-ken-stage

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/supaheavyfinalbossfighta

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/getting-the-bad-ending

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/deadbolt-blood-on-the-dancefloor

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/game-gear-shinobi-2-building-2

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/nes-contra-medley

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/04-shadow-of-the-ninja-boss-medley

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/shadow-of-the-ninja-bgm-1-remix

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/raystorm-geometric-city-area-1-100-ym2612

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/nes-castlevania-2-medley-in-ym2612

[carinad3a]

https://soundcloud.com/epilis/shovel-knight-strike-the-earth-plains-of-passageym2612-cover