Camera Archives - Fractured Veil

Glimpsea Expands “Lahaina View” Project

The Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources announced today that they would be joining the County of Maui and Glimpsea in their Lahaina View Project. Started last year, the program’s goal is to provide a live view of all of Lahaina through a network of cameras 24/7.

For the past year, Glimpsea has deployed its Comprehensive Aloha Security Helper Camera System (CASH) across large portions of Lahaina under the supervision of Mayor Cravalho’s office. Using a number of security cameras, the project currently covers most of Front Street and portions of the beach. The inclusion of the DLNR and their preservation zone drones will expand the program to a much larger area, but Vice President Simon Ike says that’s just the beginning.

“We’re really excited about the DLNR’s decision. Including their drones is a win-win situation for everyone. In addition to expanding our coverage in Lahaina, the drones can zero in on specific areas or tourists. It’s like having a professional camera crew following you around while you’re on vacation. As part of the agreement, we’ve provided the DLNR with a number of our mite-cams to be used in their tagging programs. We are hopeful that the shots provided by these banded birds will help conservation efforts and allow those interested an intimate view of the day to day affairs of Lahaina’s wildlife.”

While the new agreement will offer some exciting new areas of coverage, Lahaina is large. A handful of drones and birds won’t cover a significant range of the island. Ike says he is hopeful that the public can help the project reach its goal by downloading Glimpsea’s new app.

“The reality is that this new partnership will offer some interesting shots but we’re going to need the public’s help if we’re going to get a complete view of Lahaina. We encourage everyone who is interested to get our app and join the program. If you own any of our products currently: security cams, drones, 360 cams, or mite-cams, the app will be included in your next update. For those not using our products, our app is compatible with most drones, phones, and dash cams. If it has a lens and you bought it in the last 10 years, you can be part of the team. All you have to do is provide the make and model number and hit “Accept”. I’m confident that we will reach our goal of total Lahaina coverage by the end of the year. Soon, people from all over the world will be able to see, and in many cases hear, just how beautiful this place is in real time.”

The Lahaina View project is not without its detractors of course. Many worry about privacy issues and the network being hacked. Some feel that the program goes against the sense of freedom and peace that many visit the island to experience. “How are you supposed to relax on the beach if you know some creep could be sitting in his basement somewhere in the world staring at you?” asks Lauryn Krie, a tourist visiting from Detroit. Local activist Kevin Morrow has different concerns.

“I cautioned everyone about the radio tower but nobody would listen. Now we have ziplines attached all over the place and you can’t walk near one without hearing someone drop an F-bomb. I’ve been trying to track the increase in profanity since the swear tower went up, but it’s been hard because there wasn’t a lot of airborne obscenity before the ziplines. I think it’s safe to say you are 100% more likely to hear cursing from above since my warnings went unheeded. I hope it’s not too late for this video thing. Tourists routinely swear on the beach and Front Street. I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine children who are now hooked on profanity flipping through the audio enabled views looking for a fix. Words aren’t just noises that we make with air through the holes in our faces, they are ideas and some ideas are bad. The Lahaina View project is a very bad idea.”

October 4, 2049

Floating Fences and GPU Giveaways

The team spent a good portion of the extended holiday weekend fixing bugs and smoothing out systems in the game. We cleared the ziplines so players won’t get stuck in the sections that come too close to trees with no escape other than waiting to die of thirst. We nabbed a bug that wouldn’t spawn loose items in houses, and one that was causing water containers to be undrinkable, which is really the most important part of a water vessel. Fences across the map will no longer float a few inches off the ground, and will finally give gravity the respect it deserves as a fundamental force.

The largest portion of our time, however, was spent on drone improvements. We fixed some drone camera jitter when it was rotating around a target, or moving too fast to get back to the refueling station. The team smoothed out drone movements when switching between camera modes, and filming an actor at a long distance. We also worked out some issues with the drone getting stuck on tall structures and not filming properly when it was high up in the air.

With all of these improvements, the drones flying around and filming Lahaina have never looked better. To help you appreciate all of our hard work and the beautiful landscapes in the game, we’re giving away a brand new GPU. One lucky winner will get an XFX AMD Radeon RX 570 RS 8GB. There are multiple ways to enter including letting us know your five favorite features in survival games. The contest ends in less than two weeks so don’t wait to enter. Below you can see a few scenic shots that would look great on some new hardware.

May 29, 2019

Having “The Talk” With the Drones

As we approach the end of sprint 34 the team continues making audio updates. We’ve added new tree falling sounds, audio support to doors in the game’s social hub, the Thorcon Power Plant, and gave the noise produced by the drone engines some tweaks as they change speed. In addition, we made a list of possible headshot alerts and narrowed down a favorite audio cue for hitting the sweet spot with the help of the public.

We increased the radius of torch lights to help players get a better look at their surroundings, and spot the dangers lurking in the darkness a bit sooner. Players have a new source of water, as we made puddles drinkable. We’re not saying the water is always going to be safe to drink, but you can give it a shot if you’re really thirsty. It needs a little bit of improvement yet, but we also added the ability to burn bodies. In addition to helping keep the landscape clean, burning a body will help players avoid attracting the attention of cannibals, and others, and bears, oh my!

We fixed a number of crafting bugs including: a bug where players could craft themselves out of the server by trying to craft an overly large stack of items in a single request, a bug where being killed while crafting would cause the items that were “on hold” to be lost, and a bug with items being deleted when trying to equip non-equippable items.

Lastly, the drone got a little love this week and gave a little back in an unexpected way. We fixed a bug with the drone getting stuck behind targets confused about which way to go, updated the spotlight and other night time effects, and added multi zoom effects to the drone for zooming in on areas when far away. It was then that we noticed a problem. We’re not sure if it’s the hundred years of isolation and loneliness after the Great Fracture, or just that the drones are reaching the age where they start noticing animals in a different way, but they gained an obsession with deer rears. That’s right. They like big bucks and they can not lie. Below you can see a short clip of what happened to our innocent drones after implementing the new cinematic module this week.

Click here to display content from YouTube.
Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.

Always display content from YouTube

May 3, 2019

Drone Fixes and New Animations

To start out the week the team made a few campfire improvements. Everyone knows how busy a House leader can be running through the jungle, and keeping their members alive all day. Cooking for all of them takes time and can be a hassle. However, now thanks to the amazing new meat stacking feature we just added, a House leader can cook a delicious dinner for everybody in seconds. Simply stack your meat by kind, and with the touch of button you’ll be making mounds of deer loins and rabbit by the platter. It couldn’t be easier!

We’ve added an ingame bug reporter, and are working out a few issues before we roll it out. The weather after the fracture is unpredictable enough without us inadvertently creating an irony vortex with excessive bug reports about our bug reporter.

Some big improvements were made to Big Bob, our favorite cannibal overlord. We adjusted his speed, gave him a ranged attack, and did a lot of animation work. We created charging and death montages and gave him a taunt animation so he can properly convey his disappointment that a player is not in his cooking pot already. We adjusted a few of his default animation play rates as well, so they look more realistic.

Of course our drones got some love this week too. We’ve added a refueling sequence to the drones, giving players a brief respite from having their movements tracked, and allowing them a window of anonymity. We included some basic wind effects and a dashed line ring to the HUD that rotates according to the cameras current FOV. They will slightly prefer to film animals, mutants, and players from the front now, as there was an issue with them locking onto something’s butt and then filming it all day. It was at the very least, unprofessional. We also fixed a few more issues with them getting stuck in poisoned areas, and excessively circling a target if a tree was anywhere nearby. You can check out the latest round of drone improvements on our YouTube page, and see how good our procedural foliage system is working in these shots below.

Lastly, there’s only 8 days left to win a XFX AMD Radeon RX 570 RS 8GB in our contest. The giveaway ends February 13th. There are multiple ways to enter including joining the Fractured Veil discord server, and reserving your player name.

February 5, 2019

Building a Better Jungle

The team continued work on our autonomous eyes-in-the-skies this week, and made some great progress. The drones now have fuel and refueling logic. Sometime soon they will occasionally need to make trips to a refueling area, giving players brief windows of anonymity. We added Kantan Charts so they will be able to display graphs in the HUD, and cleaned up the drone restarter code to ensure that their coverage of game action is maximized. We also found and fixed a number of bugs including: the drone getting stuck in the tops of trees, problems with moving to new areas properly, a bug where the drone could get confused on which state to be in when too high off the ground, and becoming stuck in place when reaching an interest level of 0, while searching for targets. We had one incidence when the drone ended up stuck in the comm tower base area like a bird in a mall. It wasn’t compelling viewing.

We completed the first pass at a new drone HUD as well. We want the HUD to display useful information for players, but not cram the view with so much that it distracts from the quality and detail of the camera itself. The new HUD contains: a compass, altimeter, various stat tracking widgets, CPU/GPU stats, information about the drone state, and an area for various messages. You can check out all of the various improvements and the new HUD on our YouTube page.

As we fill out the map around the social hub of the game, the Thorcon Power Plant, we’ll soon be working on some of our most densely packed neighborhoods. The team is making sure the parks are sufficiently foreboding, giving them just the right amount of half-working street lights and dilapidated trappings of society. We’re making a materials pass over everything too. Soon metal objects will spark and wood will chip when you hit it because you’re a bad shot, or just like shooting everything.

We’re working on torches and campfires to make sure that the light is visible from a distance at night and the fire gives off smoke. We looked at a few more concept designs for decals, signs, and decorations. We finalized a look for a few crafting items, some new weapons, and the player bank. The team has also made good progress on a procedural foliage tool. Along with our building and road system, we can fill out areas quickly and efficiently with great looking places to explore, and lush environments. Here’s a look at a few areas filled in with the foliage system.

Finally, don’t forget that we’re giving away a XFX AMD Radeon RX 570 RS 8GB. The contest lasts for another 13 days, ending on February 13th. There are multiple ways to enter including joining the Fractured Veil discord server, and reserving your player name.

January 31, 2019

Drone Tracking and Lighting Improvements

We’ve continued our road work this week, improving the roads most traveled and connecting hidden trails. Using the existing network of Lahaina streets as a guideline, we want to ensure that players move throughout the map and avoid bottlenecks. We’re taking some time to make the neighborhood ruins a little bit nicer too. The team is furnishing homes this week. Players will soon have all the comforts of a post-apocalyptic home including: cupboards to open, old refrigerators to search, but not hide in, medicine cabinets, vermin, outdated canned goods, and in some cases, a surprise mutant.

Our game drones have never been better. The team has put a lot of work into their AI and movements. We’ve improved some of their animations and their ability to work their way out of buildings when they get accidentally trapped or stuck. They are really good at tracking things now, and are much better at deciding what is worth filming. We’re currently working on overlay and HUD options, and should have something game ready soon. You can check out all these improvements on our YouTube page.

With many of our TrueSKY problems worked out, we’ve been tweaking our environmental lighting with great results. The fog, water, and sunrises have never looked more gorgeous. Below you can see the fruits of our lighting labor.

There’s no better way to see all the environmental work we’ve done than with a XFX AMD Radeon RX 570 RS 8GB, and we just happen to be giving one away. The contest lasts for another 18 days, ending on February 13th. There are multiple ways to enter including joining the Fractured Veil discord server, and reserving your player name.

January 26, 2019

Contests and Camera Drones

The team finished up a lot of drone work, and made a bunch of improvements to the autonomous cameras that record the game action high above Lahaina. We’ve added improved decision logic to help them decide what’s worth following and what isn’t. We added a time limit to how long a drone can be in non-playable area before it heads back to find something worth recording. In the past, they would occasionally end up trapped inside a building or teleporting underground, but we’ve improved their stuck detection and teleportation logic, so hopefully there will be no more “subterranean exploration mode”. In addition the team added: Improved panning, lighting support, a new spotlight mesh to make them easier to spot by players, basic search patterns, sub. object focus when viewing multiple targets, and the spotlight can now move separately from the camera.

With the drones working better than ever, we took to imgur to talk about the game’s co-stars that share the spotlight with players, the animals and mutants. We made a lot of progress on AI last year to make the game’s enemies challenging and unique. We’ve added pack behavior to our wolves. If 2 or more happen to meet up they will form a pack and start hunting together. If a wolf finds prey or is aggroed it will howl for help, attracting all those around it. Our cannibals can smell blood from a fresh kill and will come to investigate, so players will have to clean up after themselves if they go on a rampage in the jungle. Below you can see some early concept art of one of our cannibals.

You’ll need more than your fists and wits to survive the dangerous wilds of Lahaina. While there are many different weapons in the game, players can always count on having one weapon/resource gathering tool in their inventory, a shark toothed pan. A tongue-in-cheek homage to the numerous shark toothed (leiomano) weapons in the game, the pan isn’t the best weapon, but it will do the job in a pinch, and is easy to clean with some coarse salt and elbow grease. Here’s a good look at what the pan looks like before being used in the field.

Finally, were giving away another XFX AMD Radeon RX 570 RS 8GB. There are multiple ways to enter, including joining the Fractured Veil discord server and reserving your player name. It’s the perfect thing for viewing the deadly beautiful wilds of Lahaina. Our previous winner sent us some pictures of his prize installed in his system and ready to go. The contest ends February 13th just in time for Valentines day.

January 15, 2019

Spears, Clubs, and Drones

Between parties, presents, and cups of cheer we’ve been working away at completing our sprint 30 goals, and have made some great improvements. The ingame drones in particular got a lot of love over the holidays. Our eyes in the sky have much better: pathing across the island, smoother rotations as they turn, better lighting, and a much clearer FOV. In addition, we’ve greatly improved their ability to avoid obstacles, and they are pretty good at following animals now. We’ve also added a thermal camera view so they can film targets better at night.

Big Bob, our favorite cannibal mutant overlord, got some improvements in his stocking too. We’ve added a few special attacks to his repertoire that allow him to throw his weight around in combat, and added a number of new animations to his list movements. The team also made a number of general AI improvements. We increased the overall AI aggro and alert distances for mutants and animals, as well as nabbed a few AI bugs. The horrors of the jungle should be a lot more vigilant and apt to attack now when you get too close.

Lastly, just before the holidays we went to imgur to discuss some of the weapons in the game. We took a deeper look at our weapon modeling process, and adding engravings, features, and details that tell a story about the world, and what that particular weapon had been through. Below you’ll find shots of a few of our more traditional Hawaiian weapons. You can see more 3D models on our sketchfab page, or check out our gallery on the media page.

January 7, 2019

Creating a Social Hub For the Holidays

Sprint 30 has just begun, but this is the last full week before the holidays, and all the travel they bring. Here’s a look at what we’ve accomplished so far, and what we have planned for the rest of the sprint.

We’ll be focusing a lot of time on our resource and crafting system tier 4. The game will see the addition of scrap metal, and different ores that players will be able to pound out of rocks, including a variety of metals and sulfur. We plan on adding the enigmatic element 127 to the resource gathering loop. The fuel that makes veil travel possible and fuels the Thorcon Power Plant will become an important energy resource, and might add a little zing to crafting recipes down the road.

We continue to work on the design for a craftable device to locate 127 on the map. In addition, we discussed where a player might find the element and ways to balance the risk/reward for carrying large quantities. The team made some campfire improvements as well, and made some stacking adjustments for items players cook-up or craft.

We’ve made a lot of improvements to the live streaming drones flying above our version of Lahaina, and that work will continue in this sprint. Recently the drones have had a ton of improvements ranging from smoother pathing and movements, to different FOV and lighting upgrades, including night vision. They avoid trees and buildings now, and can even follow animals and players, providing the people are doing something to catch their attention. Our goal is to further refine their decision making process allowing us to target certain areas, things, or actions. We’re also working on a new HUD that provides both information for players, and gives off a slightly ominous “all-seeing” vibe to the autonomous cameras.

The team will also continue their AI work, specifically on a general “commander” type, and a unique profile for our beloved mutant cannibal leader, Big Bob. We want to refine the mutant’s group tactics and make them all team players when it comes to tearing players to shreds. We’ve recently added the ability for mutants to know all the cover points in an area, and select the one best suited for them, instead of picking an area at random around them. There’s no sense in running twenty feet away, taking fire the whole time, to hide behind a rock, when there’s a perfectly good shell of a car just a few feet away. We briefly discussed a few unique options and actions for Bob down the road to separate him from other commander type AI’s.

There’s a lot of tech work and upgrades this sprint too. We’ll be doing some MYSQL and persistence work for a wide variety of things including: stat persistence, locations discovered, blocked players, player banks, and quickslot ordering. We’re also working on an in-game crash and bug reporter. Players are a step closer to being able to start putting together a crafting nest egg in the game, as the art and system work is done for player banks. We just need a little backend work for persistence, and the hoarding can begin. We discovered a bug where players would see their own deaths again when spawning near their old corpses. Having to relive your death in your mind is bad enough, but we thought being forced to physically watch it again was excessively cruel and fixed the problem.

Lastly, we continue our work inside and in the areas around the game’s social hub, the Thorcon Power Plant. We’ll be looking at some concepts for the power plant’s interior before finishing up the the look and the materials inside. We’re working on designs for smelters, interior improvements, and safe zone areas too. While we made some great trueSKY, materials, and foliage improvements across the map already, we plan on making another global lighting and post processing pass this sprint. Here’s a couple of screenshots highlighting how good the lighting and environment is looking currently.

That’s it for now. We’ll be back later this week with more updates.

December 18, 2018

Building a Mutant Chain of Command

This week marked the end of the old sprint and the beginning of the new. The teams pushed to finish up some last minute details, and start on their new goals. One of the most important tasks recently has been creating a new commander type AI for bosses as well as unique NPC’s in the game, and we made a lot of progress.

Our new commander AI will allow groups of creatures to join forces and share: AI knowledge, decisions, and pathing. It will allow the commander to make tactical decisions for the group, and seek appropriate cover as a group if it turns out their target isn’t quite the easy kill they thought it was. Also, commander AI can add more followers to their group in case the ranks are getting a bit thin or they encounter some like minded horrors in the jungle. Our goal is to make our hulking brutes a bit smarter than the rest, and add a touch of dread to recruitment day in Lahaina.

While the tech team was busy making it easier for the mutants to organize and kill players, the web team was making it easier for players to navigate the website. They have had their heads down for weeks making user flow improvements, and working on messaging issues. In the coming days you’ll notice some tweaks to: the front page, how you login, the player dashboard, and a newly styled referrer page.

We’ve restyled a number of our social media pages too, and now have separate email templates for dev updates, special announcements, and story updates. In addition Jesse has slide templates for callouts and contests. Speaking of which, there’s just a few days left for you to win a brand new AMD Radeon RX 570 RS 8GB. There are multiple ways to enter, but not many days left before the December 15 cutoff date.

While Terry has been swamped with a flood of merge issues, editor problems, and failed commits, we finished up a few drone improvements just in time for the end of sprint 29. While the camera and pathing improvements are noticeable right away, one of the things we are most proud of is the AI improvements we’ve added. We still have a long way to go before the game’s autonomous drones are the voyeuristic cinematographers we have in mind, but they are getting there. Right now they can surreptitiously film wildlife and creatures in their habitat so well, that you expect to hear an Attenborough voice-over to start discussing the life cycle of the typical Maui mutant, and how their secret handshake differs slightly in various regions.

With much of the previous sprint’s work done, we looked forward to our goals for the next. Sprint 30 will focus on finishing up some more drone improvements, adding some polish to the commander AI, and advancing gameplay through improved harvesting & crafting. We’re introducing new types of ore and resources, as well as smelters, but more on that in the weeks to come.

Finally, with all the focus we’ve placed on animals recently, some of the team decided to add their own personal touches to a few animal screenshots. Below you can see some of our favorite treatments to one of our favorite scenes of the life and death struggle in the forests of Lahaina, enjoy!

December 12, 2018

Tag: Camera