Previously the new game client could view active game rooms but couldn't join them, in the current version the new client can join a game room.
When entering an active game room there are a lot of packets of information sent back and forth between the client and server to synchronize the new user to the existing state of the game room as well as to add the new user to the previously existing clients to make them aware of the new user and also synchronize those clients with the new user. This task may appear to be simple at first but it is far from it as each communication packet needs to be processed in the correct order and properly implemented into the game client. After all the communication is synchronized at that point the game stage needs to be created with all the various objects in the correct locations which include environments such as destroyable blocks, ground tiles, player avatar characters, and more. The current game room synchronization is partially implemented but it is starting to take shape and it looks good.
Another core ability of the new game client that is making good progress is the ability to take input such as keyboard/mouse, gamepad, and touch screen. This has been something that I have been looking forward to but couldn't implement it until other parts of functionality were first created as those parts of the engine took higher precedence. Now that those parts exist to some degree I can start to build the input system which will be far superior to the Flash Client version. This input system is built from the ground up to support keyboard/mouse, gamepad, and touchscreen using Unity 3Ds new Input System component. This version of the Unity3D input system will replace their old one that previously existed and is far superior in many ways including making it so much easier for developers to create games with gamepad support that will work on the majority of the gamepads currently out there. This includes full support for all the major gamepads such as Xbox 360 controller, Xbox One controller, PS4 controller, PS3 controller, Steam controller, and the list goes on.
As many of you may know by now I enjoy playing games with a controller and I will be implementing some modern techniques to take full advantage of these awesome gamepads. Based on the research that I've done it is also possible to use a Telescopic gamepad to make your phone/tablet similar to a Nintendo Switch. I don't have one to test on but any device that uses a Microsoft standard Xinput should work.
There is a lot of other technical core engine functionality that is in the process of being built into the new game client but I think this will conclude this dev journal without going deep into the technical aspects of it which would also result in the dev journal bein longer than it should be.
I hope you enjoyed this progress update and there will be more great topics to discuss in the future for this project that I have planed on the roadmap. I'm excited about what the future will hold for this project and I would like to think you are too.
For the beta testers, there will probably be a new beta for testing on the next dev journal but not at this time due to the instability of certain areas of the current game client.
Have a great weekend everyone and make sure to enjoy this amazing weather if you can :)
