Well, for those of you that have been watching or playing SYNTH video game, it’s been a long time since a release has been posted (with the exception of the 64 bit version) but that’s not to say that I’m anywhere near stopping development on SYNTH. This article is a brief outline at some of the things that have been taking place in that abstract electronic math marsh of SYNTH video game.
First I would like to tell you about SYNTH making it’s way to 2 major game development news sites, Gamasutra, and Rock Paper Shotgun, here are the links below:
Gamasutra.com
There is also the new Wikipedia:
En.wikipedia.org)
Over the last 6 months the following new features and graphical enhancements have been added to SYNTH:
Virtual level streaming, achieving a “super level” effect.
This was the most major and complex feature added to SYNTH, it really changes the game. In the Melbourne release version of SYNTH levels were fixed onto x number of plateaus, and the graphical detail was proportional to the size of these structural “plateaus”. Now SYNTH has the ability to create virtually infinite sized levels that have a much higher amounts of detail and graphics, due to a virtual level streaming mode. This mode is a type of “illusion” in which x number of sub-levels are re-used in a fashion where the super level seems almost infinite, and highly confusing / variant. This super level is often 1 GB in size, and has a “flight simulator” quality at times. Unfortunately, at present this super level takes almost 90 seconds to generate, but once I move the generation stage into multi-thread, it should cut it down to about 30 seconds.
Non-convex hull platform gameplay
SYNTH now has platform gameplay, featuring non-convex hulls that can be jumped on, with accurate collision detection. These platforms, are highly decorated, and have various functions, and will be able be destroyed.
Satan’s Sinful Texture unveiled
A whopping 70 meg texture is now featured as Satan’s beautiful background. This texture background has a horrifying mathematical complexity, and contains various faces of demons and body parts that a scared kid would see in a piece of wood.
New level construction algorithms
Several new level construction algorithms have been implemented using various symmetry based routines.
Fast Physics “Mode”
To help speed up the new “super level” streaming mode, a new physics routine has been implemented to increase the number of active enemies. Although the physics is somewhat less accurate, is indeed much faster.
So within the next couple of months, expect a new release of SYNTH will all of these features and more, including new entities, more decorations, new weapons, bug fixes (more accurate lasers for example), and new procedural particle effects.
Thanks, and stay tuned to SYNTH! I always love to hear from people, so send me a line with your thoughts.
- Rhys
Melbourne release?
What does that mean?
I just tried out the beta, and found it a little bit dark. Perhaps an adjustable gamma option would be good.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to the full release.