Hello everybody!

I would like to share the news on the free roam development. What was achieved so far and the short term development plan.

First things first, I have good news..and I have GREAT news! :)

During the course of the last couple of weeks, I was able to successfully develop and implement the new technical solution that will manage the free roam gameplay locations, by dynamically loading and unloading the assets. This mechanic was developed, tested and successfully implemented into the gameplay.

Additionally, I wanted to go a bit further. I was able to breakdown the locations into subsections and adjust the mechanic to gradually process these sections. This approach allowed for smoother transition in and out of a location and also ensure that no excessive loading is done on runtime.

Players will now be able to see the location from afar, but the details will only be loaded into memory if a player decides to visit that location.

Another success that I wanted to talk about is the navigation solution for NPCs. The navigation is now being dynamically loaded with the location. This will reduce the global free roam loading times and the required size on disk.

To top it all off, I successfully adjusted the existing visual properties of the player camera to allow for the new free roam features. The new visuals will ensure a smooth transition between the horizon and visible terrain / objects.

Additionally, I was able to adjus the free roam environment processing to allow for even more details. More rocks, stones, trees and grass which makes the new map look even more glorious.

Now that we have these mechanics in place, and I have successfully implemented a universal solution, I will be focusing on populating the new free roam map with locations, events and other gameplay elements.

I will update this announcement with new screenshots later tonight to show off the new mechanics and looks.

Thank you!