Developer ION LANDS shared the latest development update regarding optimization for the cyberpunk life sim Nivalis. Thoughout the development, the world of Nivalis has become increasingly larger and more alive. And with the excitement came performance challenges.
The developers want the city to feel dense and active, filled with people, activities, rich visual detail, and thrumming with life. Vegetation also plays a key role in creating the cozy atmosphere, which required developing plants and foliage that fit seamlessly into the environment. And don’t forget about the weather effects like rain or snow!
“Our focus has been on enhancing performance and immersion. We have completely overhauled and optimized light probes throughout the game which, alongside a significant round of furniture asset polishing, drastically improves memory management. If you’re wondering what light probes are – think of them as invisible, floating sensors scattered all over the city that capture how light bounces around the environment. Instead of forcing your computer to calculate complex lighting for every single frame in real-time, the game cheats a little by reading the data saved in these probes. It gives us all the atmospheric stylized lighting without melting your hardware in the process!”
The developers also go in depth how programming the NPCs goes thanks to the so-called Ghost system, which separates simulated characters from their visual representations. There are three distinct tiers of optimization:
- Out-of-District NPCs: characters that are in different districts than the player. Things like visuals, animations, or physics are totally stripped away, we only simulate what is needed to track their daily schedules in the background.
- In-District, Out-of-Sight NPCs: characters that are in the same district as the player, but not visible by the camera. Visuals are loaded but disabled and costly operations such as updating animation state are not performed every frame.
- Visible NPCs: characters visible by the player. Those are fully materialized and simulated with visuals, animations, physics etc.
Besides characters, the ghost system is used for all the objects requiring world-state persistence, which represent more than 10,000 elements like tables, chairs, dishes etc. The world remembers exactly how you left it without overwhelming your hardware. Still, the developers had to tackle the situation of transitioning between districts, or when NPCs were arriving in the player’s immediate area, which was done utilizing Object Pooling.
Check out the blog post to learn more about the UI, story, fishing and the ION LANDS QA process.
About Nivalis:
Set in the cyberpunk city of Nivalis, the game lets you choose how to spend your time. In this unique slice-of-life sim with realistic weather simulation and night and day cycles, you can grow your business, meet strange and diverse characters, form friendships and experience the danger and wonder of this cyberpunk voxel city.
- Experience your simulated life in Nivalis, and choose how you spend your time each day.
- Manage businesses like restaurants, ramen stands or night clubs.
- Buy or grow your own ingredients.
- Explore the city with your own boat and go fishing.
- Decorate your home or buy and customise a new one.
- Discover the stories of the people you meet in the city, your friends, your customers, and maybe even find love.
