Dev Update 01.04.2021
Happy New Year! It’s been a busy couple of months at Hit Labs, and I have a bunch of new things I’m excited to share with you.
I’m a little behind my planned tester release calendar, but Quest 2 owners who have signed up for early access should be receiving preview invites over next couple weeks as I slowly start rolling out the first build. The Quest 1 build requires a bit more optimization to hit my internal performance benchmarks. If you originally signed up as a tester with a Quest 1, and now own a Quest 2, please email me at hello@hitlabs.co so that I can update your tester profile.
With that — Let’s dive into the updates!
Custom Function Flight Models (Part 2)
In the October 2020 Dev Update, I introduced the Custom Function Flight Models I am using to accurately represent the turn and fade of disc golf discs. After some additional research and testing, I’ve implemented custom function flight models to more accurately describe the lift and drag of discs as well, not just the turn and fade ratings.
Of course, highly-configurable flight models are just the first step in delivering realistic disc flight. The next step is actually configuring those flight models based on real-world physics. To do this, I selected some of my favorite disc golf discs and evaluated their performance in a wind tunnel at varying angles-of-attack and air-speed.
Example of the flight models used for a Hydra driver disc.
By combining the real-world wind-tunnel tests above and the Custom Function Flight Models, Project Disc can now accurately replicate the real-world flight path of many disc golf discs.
90Hz on Oculus Quest 2
With all the optimizations that were made during the rewrite of Project Disc, there has been quite a bit of performance budget freed up. Now that Oculus has announced support for 90Hz on the Quest 2, I have updated Project Disc to run at 90Hz for the Oculus Quest 2.
Dynamic Disc Trail
Since the first preview of Project Disc early last year, the game has featured a disc trail that changes colors as the disc goes through different parts of its flight lifecycle (turning, fading, colliding). The problem with this disc trail is that it becomes hard to see as the disc moves farther and farther away from the player, especially on headsets with lower resolution which have trouble rendering such a small line.
My first attempt to fix this was to add an icon to the disc as it moved farther away from the player, highlighting where the disc was at all times.
This approach solved the issue of being able to locate the disc at longer distances, but had a noticeable effect on the feeling of watching your disc get farther and farther away from you. Because the icon stayed the same size throughout the disc flight, it felt like the disc was making less forward progress than it actually was.
I went back to the drawing board and soon came up with an approach I like much better: dynamically-sized disc trails. I modified the existing disc trail to dynamically grow based on how far each point is from the player, which allows me to ensure the trail is large enough at certain distances to be easily seen, while also giving a sense of forward-progress.
You can see it in action in the short clip at the end of this post.
Training Dome Visual Improvements
As I’ve mentioned in the last couple updates, the first release of Project Disc puts the player in the Training Dome, and indoor facility that allows a player to test discs and complete challenges in various conditions. I’ve spent the last few weeks focusing on making the Training Dome a bit more visually pleasing and enjoyable to spend time in.
You can see an example below:
Screenshot of the new Training Dome visual enhancements
ThrowTrack Launch Monitor
In additional to the visual improvements in the Training Dome, I’ve added some functional improvements of well. The first of which is the new ThrowTrack Launch Monitor, which allows players to view launch statistics on each of their throws and watch a follow-flight camera as their disc flies through the air.
Screenshot of the ThrowTrack Launch Monitor.
The ThrowTrack Launch Monitor in action!
Meet Moop
Say hello to the newest member of the Training Dome staff - Moop!
Rendering of Moop in full-resolution. Moop won’t appear this vivid within VR due to performance, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
Moop is the friendly disc-fetching robot, who quietly moves around the Training Dome picking up discs after you’ve thrown them.
If you want to say hello and get a better look at Moop, just toss a disc onto the turf right in front of you.
Slow Progress: Rollers and Ground Play
A good chunk of December was devoted to building out the physics model for accurately simulating a disc rolling on its side or bouncing off of different type of ground material.
It’s relatively easy to “fake” rollers and bounces if you are not attempting to simulate actual disc physics, but I thought it was important to get this right to maintain the authenticity of the game.
I’ve set out to create a ground-play model with the same performance and accuracy of our flight models. I’ll post more ground-model updates once I am more satisfied with the progress.
All Together Now!
Now that you’ve read about all the new enhancements added to Project Disc, I’ll leave you with this clip of me throwing a few discs in the Training Dome. Enjoy!
As always, please share your thoughts or questions at hello@hitlabs.co.
That’s all for now!
