Evening stalkers, I know being what we are curiosity gets the better of us so heres a list of additions and changes TK has undergone over the last month or so.
- All new digital and analog PPE filters for night vision.
The new effects have been designed to match their respective real world counterparts as closely as possible. The effects also have a small amount of filter noise which doubles with the idea that radiation and general anomalous activity hard to see with the naked eye is more visible in different spectrums. These effects also have a very small amount of blur (it won't screw your eyes up, but should be noticeable still) to replicate typical filters that don't display a perfect crisp image.
- All new Infrared "Predator" filter
I created this filter to bridge what I perceived as a gap between no NV and 1st gen (analog) NV. As such IR can be found on some lower grade armors such as some military suits, merc suits, the unique bandit jacket etc. This effect also has a small amount of filter noise and blur, as well as a more limited effective range compared to NV when being used as a make-shift night device. Again, I've tried to create something true to its real world counterpart which means if you use this effect for too long it will make your eyes tired.
- New anomaly PPE effects
Still doing some work on these, but they make for a much more interesting experience. The Gravi anomaly PPE effect is one of the more interesting ones. As you approach a Gravi anomaly your vision will gradually start to blur and distort. I got the idea for this from the basic principles of a black hole \ neutron star, which is to say as gravity increases pressure mounts, things would start to look distorted before you eventually get spaghettified \ incinerated \ generally die a horrible horrible death. Basically, I looked at the Gravi anomaly and thought "Hey, its kind of a mini black hole or neutron star!" Real science FTW.
- Changed PPE anomaly & radiation effect radius
I done this to hopefully add more of a paranoia \ fear factor. I'm sure a lot of you have noticed by default that the zone doesn't exactly feel very dangerous as PPE effects only really become visible when you are in immediate danger, not so anymore. Now its quite possible to not be all that close to something that would imminently cause you death but you would start to see\"feel" the effects much sooner. As a side note, I also added more noise to the radiation PPE effect to mimic the "seeing stars" effect in your eyes when in areas of high radiation.
- Some general tweaks here and there
Nothing too much to write about this one, I just fixed some balancing issues with various things such as some stash locations being given out too often as a result of the stash system being entirely overhauled and changed along with things like adding better granularity for rainfall and description changes for various armors and equipment.
- Brand new rain texture
Probably the best rain you will see in any stalker game, I always hated the vanilla rain as it looked like lasers\wax streaks. I've never been too keen on my previous attempts to fix this issue either, but now I'll concede the rain probably looks as good as its going to without direct DLL and renderer hacks.
- Addressed a few general non-issues
Just X-Ray making some "rattling around" noises in its logs, it bugged me, so fixed them. Well, mostly.
Thats about it, theres some other stuff I'm working on but their only about 50% done at this point, such as a pretty cool death cam effect that should kick in when you die (yes, notice I said when, not if :p ) the effect works, but it doesn't work when I tie it to the player dying so I have to look at that.
Love hearing about the new PPE effects. So many mods avoid this or just reuse everyone else's, making night vision one of the most predictable parts of any mod. The new rain texture also has me interested!
Great stuff now I know what the red night vision is for thank you.
I promise guys, when the final build is ready, or at least 95% ready, I'll let it out into the wild. It'll be the best purist SoC experience you can have, who knows, maybe I'll add levels but at this time I'm looking to complete TK to its original design brief.