This post was made available on trixel+ one week early!
Welcome back to a new Restitched: Recapped! post. This post is a bit of a shorter one, as we've been really busy working on an exciting new thing for you all! We're not quite ready to share what it is with you yet, but while you contemplate what the 'exciting new thing' is, let's dive right into some of the May happenings:
Committing To The Code
Our developers made 572 commits to the Restitched code - the second-most ever (after last month)!
Stamping Our Mark
With as much stamping as we do around here, you'd have thought we'd have run out of ink by now! Fortunately, that isn't the case. This month our Graphic Designer, Halston, has created a lovely new batch of Harbour-themed Stamps.
Performance Enhancements
With Restitched being a UGC game, we must be very careful about optimization. We want as many hardware setups as possible to be compatible with the game so that our community can flourish!
In May, our Lead Programmer Michael was able to investigate performance issues relating to old foundational code. In Restitched, everything is looped through what we call the 'Core', which is basically a giant central piece of programming wizardry that handles all of the game's important... things. We won't pretend to know exactly how it works, so we'll leave that to the programmers themselves (maybe in a future Dev Diary?)!
Michael found that the game was calling upon the Core system too many times when certain transactions were being made (such as using a tool cursor, selecting grouped objects, and more). This issue ultimately resulted in substantial frame drops and other performance problems, but thankfully Michael managed to perform some wizardry himself, and squished this nasty bug!
What Goes On In The Shadows...
When fixing bugs, it's entirely common that fixing one issue causes three more. Fortunately, we have our friendly team of exterminators on hand to rid Stuffy of these evil pests for good. This month we've tackled various bugs relating to the game's build tools, visuals, performance (as featured above), and lighting.
One of the ways we handle user-generated lighting is through a custom voxel system. That's right, we've built our own custom lighting solution for the playable area in Restitched! The lighting system was built in the prehistoric no-thin-material times, which means the addition of thin materials was not accounted for. Harsh black shadows were being shown, as the voxel renderer missed the data it needed. This has now been fixed, and you can see a side-by-side comparison below:
Headphones In-Game
You may remember when our former 3D Artist, Matt, created a lovely pair of headphones for Stuffy in late 2021. This month we've finally gotten around to implementing them in-game, and they even match your Craftbook's color scheme! Now you can jam out all day long by pairing them with our latest head tracking feature.
Pushing The Boundaries
The 'pushing' mechanic that was shown off in April's 'Recapped!' is now an option in the Settings Panel for Materials and Props. We're also happy to announce that Pushing is now almost feature-complete and working as expected!
...oooh, did you spot that cheeky little "Needle 'n Thread" reference again? What could it be? Maybe you'll find out... soon!
Importing Props
It really wouldn't be a proper 'Recapped!' without showing off some of the new Props for the game! 3D Artists Kyran and Cade have been working through an extensive list of models we need for the level editor, while Halston imports them.
Shown below are planter pots! At the time of this screenshot, the tall planter pot had some UV texturing issues (also shown below), but this was quickly resolved.
Pictured below: Watering Can
Pictured below: Spray Bottle
Pictured below: Kerosene Lantern
Mac a New Build
On May 20th, Michael created a Mac build of the game for Billy to test. Please note that the game is not being specially developed for Mac and we still have no plans for a Mac release - this was just a test to see how compatible the game is in its current state.
A handful of features (such as the Dev Menu) weren't functional, and there were several lighting and shadow issues, but it ran fairly smoothly! Here are some build images that were taken by Billy:
Pride Stuffy
Trixel Creative celebrates pride month! This month our 2D Artist, Carter, has drawn a lovely new image of Stuffy donning a pride flag and vibrant purple skin and cape. This image was included in designs for our Discord server, Pride Month announcements, and social media banners!
Fan Art
Sometimes we receive fan art, and it truly warms our hearts. We absolutely love to see your artistic style and personal depictions of Stuffy. Below is a piece of fan art made by VTuber 'illythekitty'.
Some Lovely Images
Captain Stuffy sailed a little too far and ended up in Restitched!
Halston
Stuffy, we know you often turn heads, but this is just ridiculous...
Jayden
To Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! We apologize for the shorter post this month, but many of our developments aren't ready to be shared yet! Remember to keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming thing...