FPS Game Devlog | #29 - A Small Serving Of Blender Animation Hell

iceking_gfx · June 19, 2021, 8:32pm

Blender and me is a love-hate relationship.

Welcome back to another devlog! This past two weeks have been me struggling with Blender animation! In the meantime:

• I somehow made a ban system
• Replaced the realistic build with a traditional blocky build
• Replaced all the animations to fit the blocky rig
• Added a new gun
• Forced my barely 13-year-old brain to learn trigonometry with help from a few people in my discord server

all in two weeks.

Let’s get into this devlog, shall we?

If you’re new here I have a series of these devlogs. Go check them out!

Devlogs

Overview

This update was essentially just animation, animation, animation. I switched up all the realistic rigs with blocky ones, to stay true to the “Roblox” vibe of the game.

I have the realistic build still saved on my computer (because no i wouldnt waste like 2 weeks of work), so tell me if you want me to publish it to the game as a separate place from the main place.

New animations

I’ll just go straight into it here and show you every single new animation. Every one was made in Blender - enjoy.

M4A1

(yes i know it isnt very realistic i dont know how the bolt pull/release system works on AR-15 platforms)

M9

UMP-45

Glock-20

AUG

Deagle

Hopefully they aren’t crappy.

Other smaller changes

• Added a keybind menu for you noobs who don’t know how to play the game.

• Added an update thingy when you join the game to show the latest updates.

• Optimization changes on the client side

• Changed the running function in RenderStepped from sin to cos. (not much of a difference, just looks a bit better - i forced my seventh grade ass to learn trigonometry for this little thing i kinda hate myself now)

• Small UI changes like sound effects on mouse-click

• Added zoom when you ADS (Aim Down Sights)

• Changed starting loadout from M4A1 and Glock-20 to M4A1 and M9 because the M9 animations look better

Bit of a small devlog today, it was just kinda an update of what I’m doing so far so y’all don’t have to think I’m dead.

I’ll start working more on the core game mechanics next week.

Play the beta version here:

Join my comms server on Discord (server invite code is 5pc3tb2Zab) if you haven’t already!

Credits for contributors and stuff

• @FrigidYeti for building the office map in-game and constantly working on it as well lmao, also posting bug reports

• @dominik4242 for building the mall map prototype

Feedback in the replies would be appreciated. If you have any queries please do contact me via DevForum.

Join comms server: 5pc3tb2Zab

dominik4242 · June 20, 2021, 6:23am

I didn’t do anything of the map in ages and I still get credited

RobloxAnitkabir · June 20, 2021, 12:57pm

This guns sick keep working!

hundrethh · July 13, 2021, 9:15pm

Played the game it is very impressive however i would change the camera shake to be more like a wobble instead of just going left to right,

trueblockhead101 · July 13, 2021, 9:55pm

Overall pretty cool. Here are some things i like and don’t like:

Pros: The gun models are impressive; The GUI is nice and clean; Easy to play (not too complicated)

Cons: Maps are very small and not very detailed, including I can spot walls that are glitching into other walls; The arms are way too skinny; Lighting should be improved; The controls don’t respond on time (ex when I clicked shift it took 2 seconds for the character to start sprinting, this might be my computer though); Lastly, most importantly, there is no wow factor. You have to think, what will make people play this instead of the more popular games like counter blox or bad business. A tip for this would be that to go to those popular shooters and look at what you don’t like about it and maybe ask the players what they don’t like about that. Then find what you love about the games and what the other players like about them. Then keep that all in mind when developing your game.

Though over all your on the right track, keep up the good work!

D0RYU · July 13, 2021, 9:57pm

the devlogs are going great so far, just wanted to ask what you record your clips with
because they are a bit laggy

iceking_gfx · July 14, 2021, 6:14am

The map is actually temporary, and wasn’t built by me. @FrigidYeti built the first prototype (which is in-game) so I’ll direct the critique to him. He’s working on a second version in fact, but thanks for the critique anyways.

iceking_gfx · July 14, 2021, 6:21am

Gyazo. My laptop is from 2012. That should explain a lot.

KristopherVector · July 18, 2021, 6:19am

The animations are a definite step up from your previous ones. However the animations are so slow and feel really awkward. It’s almost as if the person reloading the firearm is trying to take as long as possible. Actions such as pulling back the slide take far too much time. This all adds up to the animations being about 5 seconds, which might not seem like much, but can kill the pacing of your game. Keep in mind that most games have an average of a 2.5 second reload or so.

The animations aren’t extremely accurate in some cases, either. The M4A1’s bolt gets raised up into the air during the reload, the bolts on the AUG and the UMP aren’t moving, and the M9 has it’s slide shoved in. If I notice anything else I’ll add more.

And if you ever don’t know how something works, don’t be hesitant to look it up.

iceking_gfx · July 18, 2021, 6:24am

About the animation time, I might just make a dry and wet reload system (tactical and empty reload) so that if the mag is not completely empty, the user doesn’t need to bolt-back and forward

KristopherVector · July 18, 2021, 7:32am

Still, 5 seconds for a reload, empty mag or otherwise, seriously slows down the pacing of your game. Unless you’re going for a slow-paced game, I really suggest cutting reload time in half. The only weapons that should have a reload that long are 1/2 shot weapons.