Alpha 5: Optimizations and polish

The latest soundStrider update improves the overall state of the game and its codebase. Included with this update are major performance optimizations, improvements to world generation, and some graphical enhancements.

Developer update

From the latest shiftBacktick blog post:

Due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. very loud and prolonged construction work outside) I could not work on the sounds I had planned to release this week. Instead I refocused my efforts on resolving outstanding issues and furthering tasks related to quests and the inventory system.

Part of this update involved refactoring over four dozen sounds for performance, resulting in up to a 75% reduction in CPU load in complex scenes. Paul Adenot's Web Audio API performance and debugging notes were extremely helpful in making these possible. My hope is that these optimizations allow for larger and more complex scenes as soundStrider's Adventure mode grows.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this update. Be sure to share your favorite bookmarks below and wishlist soundStrider on Steam.

Alpha 5 changes

• Optimized palettes
  • Beach
  • Classic
  • Desert
  • Elemental
  • Forest
  • Industrial
  • Limbic
  • Mainframe
  • Storm
  • Tundra
• Decoupled world generation from streaming
  • Generate world chunks in advance
  • Adjust prop density
  • Bookmarks are affected by this update
• Improved prop behavior
  • Implemented drunken walk algorithm for terrestrial props
  • Standardized footstep emission for terrestrial props
• Miscellaneous
  • Reduce visualizer sensitivity for players with photosensitivity
  • Add subtle animation to visualizer bin heights
  • Respect players’ prefers-reduced-motion setting
  • Add exploration node to starting location
  • Fixed artifacts on compass waypoint changes