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ABSOLUTE TERRITORY DEV DIARY MAY 2019

Whilst perusing the Unity Asset store for spaceship ideas I came across an interesting asset pack. The Ultimate Spaceships Creator. A large collection of spaceships with modular components. Meaning I can customise quality models to my hearts content and “build an infinite number of spaceships!”. I really like it. Therefore I dumped my old models in favour of these.

Click to watch: Shelton Slide – Indie DB

One draw back to this is that this particular asset pack does not have any cockpits. The good news: the same creators of USC are working on a modular asset pack that includes cockpits which I will be looking to add upon release.

I always liked the idea of dying spaceships spinning out of control before exploding. And now they do! Once your target hull buckles it will randomly spin out of control before disappearing in a glorious explosion.

I’ve added a third person camera. I really liked that perspective in certain space games. I think it really opens up the view and of course you can see your own glorious looking spaceship getting shot up.

A new heads up display was needed this 3rd person view. A lot of work went in to it and its now fully functional. I just need to add some new indicators to the cockpit view (for the new slide and speed match functionality). Of course all the graphics are still considered place holder until they are firmly set, then I’ll add appropriate improvements.

Plenty of other features and changes have been gone in over the last month, here are some off the top of my head:

  • Improved indicators for target bracket, hits and leading shots.
  • Lead targeting on ship components.
  • New missile models (blink and you will miss them)
  • Shelton slide
  • Match speed – with 3 range modes (long, medium and short)
  • Refactoring code for hot deployment (still needs plenty of work) which will allow me to make code changes while the game is running.
  • Numerous bug fixes!

Absolute Territory Dev Diary April 2019

This is going to be a short dev diary. I have to admit it feels a little strange to be writing one so far in development and as a first on here. I’ve been posting GIF’s like the one below on Twitter and IMGUR and a few people have been making references to Wing Commander and X-Wing games.

Hit and run

Back in the 90’s, Wing Commander was my goto game. You can make a lot of comparisons on this GIF alone. However, while I may be aiming for a similar art style I want game mechanics that are more modern.

One obvious to spot modern mechanic is the lead targeting. The X-Wing games where a frustrating experience to me, trying to shoot down fighters without knowing where to lead my shots against fast moving targets. The guns will also swivel, to a degree, so you don’t need to have pin point accuracy. Just put the yellow marker close to the cross hairs and start firing.

Lead targeting and gun tracking

The game also has Newtonian physics for movement and rotation. Now I can hear some groans but let me assure you this is not realistic Newtonian physics. Sure it takes time for your ship to start travelling on a new forward direction after making a 90 degree turn but I’m aiming between realism and arcade so you can have fun with drifts and use directional thrusters to evade weapon fire and line up perfect shots without having to perform another bombing run.

If you ever played the Freespace series of space combat games you’d remember the dizzying amount of keyboard controls. While AT hasn’t quite reached that amount or complexity there are quite a few. I’m not sure how I will handle this with Joypad users, as currently using button modifiers is not an option, but for HOTAS users it shouldn’t be too problematic if you have enough buttons. I will have to see and make considerations once all features have been locked down.

Currently I have been working on adding visual effects for weapon hits against shields and armour and engine trails. Next up will be adding more choosing and adding more suitable sound effects, I’m no sound engineer, which directed me to purchase several sound FX packages. Once in I’ll move from GIF’s to short video’s so that the audio can be shown off, which will also improve the visual quality which gets nerfed by GIF compression.

1.4 Patch Notes (Released 3rd January 2019)

Additions:

  • Log files will be deleted after a defined number days. Default is 1. (Under Options)
  • Define custom path’s for video file, video thumbnail and twitter media when selecting files. (Under Options)
  • The m4v file type can be added as a YouTube video upload.

Fixes:

  • When adding Twitter media, opening an invalid media file type and clicking cancel prevents further media from being added.

VuMe Product Page

Space combat action game Absolute Territory in development

Today I officially announce here that Digitum Software is working on a space combat action for for the PC. Using a 3D flat-shaded polygon style Absolute Territory is aimed toward the space combat enthusiast who enjoy the thrills of space dog fighting from a cockpit perspective. Easily accessible to newcomers and offering challenges for veterans, Absolute Territory aims to please fan’s of the space combat action genre.

For more details keep an eye on the Absolute Territory page and be sure to follow @abs_territory on Twitter for progress updates and news.

Absolute Territory is expected to be released in 2019.

 

Light fighters attacking the player
Light fighters protecting an enemy transport

1.3 Patch Notes (Released 29th October 2018)

This 1.3 release does not add any new features and fixes several known issues.

Fix: Stopped from attempting to update a video with pending changes before a videoId was received from the YouTube API.

Fix: Race condition whereas multiple threads can try and activate same profile service at the same time.

Fix: Profiles being queried before they were initialised.

Fix: Extra whitespace character removed from tags when editing a queued video

https://digitumsoftware.com/vume-product-desc/

YouTube SEO added to VuMe 1.2 update

Are you looking for engaging keywords to use on your video titles, descriptions, tags and hashtags?  VuMe has you covered!  The latest 1.2 update adds YouTube Search Engine Optimisation discovery to help uncover effective keywords for all your video uploads.

  • Perform a search to find popular keywords and phrases.
  • Narrow down results using the powerful filtering tool.
  • Export your final results for future reference.
  • Export results as CSV for easy importing into other applications.
  • Export results as an Excel (XLSX) file for further data analysis.

Help yourself to improve your video ranking and discovery by using SEO discovery in this free VuMe update!

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VuMe Demo Download and Installation Instructions

1. Click here if your VuMe demo download does not automatically start in 10 seconds.

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2. When your download is complete click the VuMe DEMO Setup.msi file, located at the bottom of this browser window, to install. Or find and run the setup file from your Downloads folder.

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3. If the Windows protected your PC message appears, click More Info then Run anyway.

Click More info > Run anyway

Click here for more information about Windows Defender SmartScreen

4. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.

5. When installation is complete, run VuMe (Demo) from your Desktop or Windows Start Menu.

6. When your first run VuMe the User Guide will appear.  You can access the User Guide at any time by the Help > User Guide.

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If you have any problems with the installation or getting started then feel free to contact us for support.

Don’t forget to check out the VUME FAQ for any problems and further information.

VuMe 1.1 Patch Notes

Released 15th August 2018.

Additions:

  • When authorised, VuMe will automatically post on your Twitter feed for uploaded videos.
    • Include media (up to 4 images or 1 animated GIF or 1 video)
    • Also works with Video Templates

Bug Fixes:

  • Timeout message no longer displayed when linking a YouTube account after linking for a 2nd time.

Windows Protected Your PC

If you try installing the VuMe Demo on a Windows 8 or 10 machine you may come across the message “Windows protected your PC”.  And Seemingly, it prevents you from installing the VuMe Demo.

However, it just hid the install button behind More Info. Click on More Info and you can click the Run anyway button to continue installation.

Why does Windows do this? It’s a security feature designed to help protect your PC.  It can help prevent malicious software from being installed and it also stops unknown software from being installed.  VuMe is classed as an unknown application, because Windows SmartScan is does not yet know about VuMe.

What about viruses? The VuMe demo and full version are hosted on the BMT Micro servers.  BMT Micro are a vendor whom have been distributing software for over 10 years.  Any files you download from their servers (including VuMe) have been virus scanned and confirmed to be clean.

More information on Windows SmartScreen can be found below:

Windows 10 Defender SmartScreen (Microsoft.com)

Windows Defender SmartScreen: How to Deal With ‘Windows Protected Your PC’ Warnings (TekRevue.com)