Big progress update everyone, our first major prototype is officially moving into production
This includes our new asset bundle system and faster loading across the board.
One of the biggest highlights is native DirectStorage, recently added in Unity 6.4 Beta. This is a long awaited feature, and right now Unity is the first major engine to offer official, out of the box DirectStorage for loading things like textures, asset bundles, and models.
Here is what that looks like in practice:
Without DirectStorage: ~7.49 seconds load time, ~15 MB/s read speed
With DirectStorage enabled: ~6.1 seconds load time, ~530 MB/s read speed
Unity is continuing to expand DirectStorage support to more asset types, along with more performance improvements as we move closer to this year’s LTS release.
Alongside this, we are actively bringing our Avatar SDK online and beginning early system testing. DirectStorage paired with our new asset bundle workflow puts us in a really strong position to start enabling more features sooner.
A playable build is coming soon 👀
We now have a full ACES 2.0 workflow, from concept art all the way to 3D implementation
OpenUSD is integrated into our engine pipeline
ACES 2.0 will be used for textures until runtime HDR support lands in engine updates
We also have a working Avatar SDK prototype, including the build system, uploads, and live asset loading in scene view. This is a big step forward, with more work ahead before it is ready for public use.
On top of that, we are preparing native JPEG XL texture support, allowing much smaller file sizes while keeping excellent quality. This will directly benefit avatar uploads and builds once the SDK is ready.
Introducing devlog 3 Knot Audio Engine. Our own audio middleware for Anti-Extinction.
We have a working audio engine, no doc on it yet, but you can try it for yourself via our discord!,
Features of Knot Audio Engine (K.A.E.)
Fully Vulkan Driven, what does that mean?
Native Vulkan UI
No ImGUI
Custom UI Toolkit
Slang shader powered Keep application GPU Driven, leaving the CPU to handle SRC, and real-time audio more better, than traditional DAWs.,
Why GPU Driven UI, vs CPU UI?
Going with a full GPU Driven UI, allows the CPU to focus only on SRC/Real-Time audio processing, something other DAWs currently do not do, Almost all UI in DAWs run on custom or framework UI for web, QT (For C++) And other frameworks. Having the CPU do UI and Real-time audio, can cause performance overhead. We avoid that by having everything be a GPU Driven Stack.
This allows the CPU to fully stick to Real-Time audio processing!
What are the plans for KAE:
Well we are still building other core functions that DAWs need, automation being one, MIDI Sequencer, midi piano and others, we just have very basic level features, maybe too basic, creating a DAW/Runtime Middleware is challenging.
Beyond that, we are now running the game on Unity 6.5 Beta 1
this introduced major changes to programming, for instance, InstanceID is replaced by EntityID (This is part of the roadmap to Core CLR, and DOTS (Entities)
So we have to prepare a lot of backend/front end changes to the game logic to be useable fully in 6.5 Beta 1
We plan to release a content update using our audio engine, our own audio format and codec as part of the 6.5 beta 1 release by Unity.
This will also get you familiar with our AEF (Avatar Exchange Format) as well, as that is half way done, we are making it 1 click port to Anti-Extinction, so you can directly play as yourself on day 1 of the 0.1v release.
No user account system yet, but this is where I want to be, have avatars created by you be ready to use, before we move onto the other game systems.
We currently have a prototype electrical simulation in-game ready to be tested, so when AEF is stable and you can migrate your VRC avatars, you will be able to test out the Electrical simulation part of our game, which will be a foundational step towards simulating a core mechanic we need to make Anti-Extinction, be sim related while allowing you to experience a whole new level of immersion in a game.
There will be switches, transformers, sub stations and grids to manage, repair and upgrade, having our Electric sim in order, with AEF, will allow us to gather info and make changes to ensure we can build on top of it other vital game components we need as well!.
AEF will be published as a Unity 2022.3 package, drop into VRC project (make sure to create a copy of your avatar before importing) and find the Furr-Tec toolbar window, and find SDK, drag your avatar model onto it and watch it create the required files, which then you can use, the same day as our game content release so play as yourself!. Things are moving fast, and we cannot wait to get more of this into your hands soon
join our discord ( discord.gg/Ta3gh5BAGY )