Hi there! I wanted to give you some insight at what's going on with Crashlands port for PS Vita! Little gameplay video below!
Performance so far
When I started with the port, the game was struggling to keep 30 fps even with overclock, and now I'm sitting at some comfortable 60 fps even without overclocking the Vita. This was possible thanks to the new profiler made by @Grossleymoo for UMT, and the fact that the game is very cleanly coded. I'm mixing some preexisting mobile only optimizations with my own optimizations, either subtle or very hacky. At this point, the Vita version is a perfect mix between the desktop and mobile version of the game, but on a PS Vita.
I'm fairly confident that this game will be able to stand at 60 fps most of the time, even without overclocking.
Load times
Ugh, these are... quite something. From boot to main menu you get about 30 seconds, but this includes splashscreens and intro logos so it's fine. Loading the game does take quite a while (almost 2 minutes) and I'm not sure I will be able to do anything about this. What I was able to was to reduce saving and loading times in game (previously the map was unusable do how slow it would load and close). I'm quite proud of what I was able to achieve. Here are some charts
-Boot to main menu
Previously 39 seconds, now 32 seconds
-Main menu to game (First run)
2 minutes, unchanged.
-Main menu to game (Load savefile)
1 minute and 45 seconds, unchanged.
-Saving
Previously 8 seconds, now less than 3 (!)
-Map (first creation)
After creating chunks, previously 8 seconds, now less than 3
-Map (closing)
Previously 9 seconds, now instantaneous
-Map (reopening)
Previously 8 seconds, now instantaneous
-Build mode (closing)
Previously 5 seconds, now instantaneous
Controls
I'm coding in a mix between controller and touch screen, and it will be fully compatible with both at the same time!
Autosave and manual save
I disabled various instances of autosave to make the gameplay more fluid (don't worry, it still will autosave) and I added a manual save in Select button.
Gameplay video
So, what's left?
At this stage, I'm doing a few things: Cleaning the menus and the UI to get rid of everything regarding online synchronization and such, finishing the controls (at this stage, using the touch screen breaks a few things), add an optional autosave timer (5, 10, 15 minutes or disabled), hopefully reducing a little further saving and loading times, and testing, testing and testing! I want to make sure the game will not break after a few hours. I'm very concerned about RAM and CPU closer to endgame, but I'll have to wait and see.
Any release date?
I am hoping for this week, but can't make any promises!
And how it will install?
Most likely like Minit and Minit Fun Racer, just a little bit more complex since at least two files will require patching. Also, it will only be compatible with the Steam build of the game, and you WILL need to legally have the game. This way there are no copyright infringements on my end, and you get to support an amazing game!
Well, that's all for today, thank you for reading and thanks a lot for the support, which I appreciate from the bottom of my heart. Every single coffee you guys get me means a lot to me and to my sugar levels in my blood. Love you.
Thank you! Misery signing off!