Status Update, March 2025
Added 2025-03-29 13:48:08 +0000 UTCOverview
Shinmera: released cl-mixed/xaudio2
Shinmera: released several hotfix patches for Kandria
Shinmera: released the Monitor web app
Shinmera: implement support for animating scene nodes
Shinmera: implement support for attaching physics primitives to rig bones
Shinmera: upgrade to latest PromptFont in Trial
Shinmera: fix issues with models that have morphs but no rig
Shinmera: implement dodging, basic enemy damage behaviour
Shinmera: implement invisible paintable geometry
Shinmera: implement stage hazards
Some Details
I spent quite a while this month fixing various regressions and issues with Kandria, to once again bring it up to date with latest Trial changes, and fix some remaining audio issues on Windows. Thanks a lot to the people that tested and reported bugs, though part of me feels super unhappy with myself for still having to fix issues with Kandria two years after release. I know a lot of that is just a result of a lot of things in Kandria being implemented ad-hoc and now that Trial is maturing I have to go back and remove kludges and so on, but still.
I also implemented a monitoring solution for my web services. It's super simple, just measuring some stuff using the machine-state and machine-measurements libraries, presenting that as a graph, and optionally sending out alerts if a threshold is breached for some duration. That's all I really wanted and needed anyway to make sure my services stopped going down in the middle of the night because the server ran out of disk space or something. All the "serious" platforms to do this kind of stuff are wayyyyyy too bulky and complicated for my needs, so I made my own. It's a Radiance web app, so it can live alongside all the other radiance services I already host.
Then, a lot of stuff was done in Trial to fix bugs and add support for further animations. Models that only have morph group animations and no rig are now properly supported, and scene nodes can also be animated via tracks. This includes animating physics primitives that may be stored in the model, and also animating physics primitives that are parented to bones. We need this stuff in Weiss in order to implement enemy attacks and animate their hit and hurtboxes to match.
Then in the past few days I finally got around to implementing invisible geometry that you have to reveal by painting it. There's also a nice dither effect applied when you walk on it, to make sure you don't get frustrated falling off without being able to see the edges and so on.
And just today I started implementing a stage hazard mechanic. The weird goo damages you if you walk into it, and reaches for you ominously if you get too close. Still some bugs with collision and rendering to work out for that, but it's a nice start.
Dominic has also been at work making some more animations and polishing others. I'm really pleased with what he whipped up this month:
Then I've hired a voice director to do a casting call for Weiss. The announcement can be found on bluesky and mastodon:
https://bsky.app/profile/thecandacemarie.bsky.social/post/3ll5mbgw4nc2l
https://mastodon.tymoon.eu/@shinmera/114219370399869490
I'm honestly a bit concerned about whether we'll be able to find someone good for this, as the role is quite challenging. Still, gotta remain optimistic, I suppose! If you know any voice actors, please share the call with them.
Finally, I've also started up a very basic domain and website for Weiss:
You'll still get updates about the project on Patreon here of course, and the mailing list there will be used for bigger announcements.
Right now we need to work out the remaining kinks of the combat behaviour, and then it'll be on to finally, painfully building a real level instead of a mere test arena. Once we have a rudimentary version of that, Mikel can also get to work figuring out music that fits for the mood and feel we're going for. I'm really looking forward to having some proper ambience!
Anyway, in the meantime I'm also looking for apartments as I'd really like to move out. I know that isn't really within my means, given what I'm earning, but I'm just feeling increasingly trapped still living at my parents'. Then I also got another minor surgery coming up on Tuesday, and the motorcycle license test at the start of May. Oh and I'm trying to push myself out of my shell and meet new people, participate in events, and so on. So yeah, lots of stuff also happening in my personal life, which I try my hardest not to let interfere with making progress on the game and all the open source projects.
Aside from the games, something I'd like to get done soon-ish is the replication mode of Redist, my Quicklisp dist management system. Having that would let me publish a "quickerdist", a mirror of the same set of projects as the mainline Quicklisp, but released at a fixed monthly interval, regardless of the state of the ecosystem. As Xach has been getting busier and the ecosystem bigger, I think the approach he's taken so far has shown its toll. I think we need to have some alternatives available, and while Ultralisp exists, I decidedly think it is Not It, as it snapshots way too frequently.
Anyway, who knows what my whims will let me carry out in April. As always, I'm hugely thankful for all of your support, and so dearly wish I could just keep doing this stuff indefinitely.
— Love, Shinmera ❤️
