New Game PC, PS3 and XBOX360 - Fursan al-Aqsa - Knights of al-Aqsa Mosque

[udkultimate]

Nice, I wish you all the best and success with this project and the others to follow.

Hard work is eventually rewarded, that's how life works. Keep at it brother.

Thanks brother, this means too much for me. I am giving my best (and many sleepless nights ) on this project, and I hope this can be (maybe) one of the best Indie Games of 2020.

I already made friendship (through twitter) with some of the most important game journalists here on Brazil from well known gaming sites like IGN Brazil, Voxel BR, and they all liked my game and will do a game review for it.

I try to contact IGN International, Gamespot and other portals, however, I did not receive any response yet, but I dont give up. On each new update I tagg these people on twitter so they get aware of my game.

Let's go

[udkultimate]

Fursan al-Aqsa Dev Blog #12 - Performance Optimization for Consoles



In this article I explain the new changes I made to my custom UDK/Unreal Engine 3 to fix textures streaming on consoles and make the game run and render as intended on both PS3 and Xbox360.

Hello guys (and girls)!

After one intense week of work, headaches, distress, and almost throwing everything (my PC and my consoles) out the window , I finnaly got that last map, Camp Filon, running smoothly on consoles, the way it was intended to run, as you can see in this video below:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan...mance-test-ps3

Until now, all the gameplay features I implemented on my game, like Knife Kills, UI, Pause Menu, Game Over Screen, HeadShots Counter, and so on, if you see, I tested them on debug maps, empty maps, merely blocks, without texture, particles, or any effect. I mean, these scenarios did not represent how the final game will run.So, whenever I compiled the last map, Camp Filon, to run on PS3 and Xbox360, I discovered another bug, which I did not observe before. All the textures on the map were terrible blurry, I mean, indeed blurry to such extent that the visuals became horrible!!!

I know that consoles have much limited RAM memory than PC, and specifically PS3 and Xbox360, in rough terms, they have 256MB and 512MB of RAM, respectively.What was driving me nuts is the fact that the game run fine on PC, just on consoles the textures got extremelly blurry. After searching on legacy UDK Engine forums (https://forums.epicgames.com/udk) and on UDN Network (https://docs.unrealengine.com/udk/Three/WebHome.html), I began to learn more deep about Unreal Engine 3 on Consoles. The good of developing a game alone, is that it can be a true classroom for anyone. I myself, learned a LOT on this project. Specially, whenever I began developing this game, I did not know too much about Unreal Script Programming. Now, I learned a LOT, and I am able to do many things I could not do before.

Coming back to my journey, I discovered about Texture Pool in Unreal Engine 3, which, in rough terms, is kinda fixed memory space used for loading (streaming) textures to the screen. From what I understood (I may be wrong, but what matters here is that now it is working), Unreal Engine 3 throws all the textures currently loaded (which can be seen by the player view camera) inside this texture pool, and then it loads the mipmap of these textures as it is needed. The mipmaps here are kinda different versions of the same texture in different resolutions, to be loaded according the camera view distance, like, the closer the player view camera is to a texture, it will load a higher resolution of the texture, the further, it will load a lower resolution version of the texture. This is essential for performance.

So what was happening? The texture pool was filled up in consoles, so it was only loading the lowest resolution of each texture (16x16). The default Texture Pool Size in UE3 is 140MB, so I increased it to 200MB and voila! Problem solved! Not yet...

Again I compiled the map and did run on PS3 and Xbox360. It run beautifully and smoothly, with the textures on it`s full resolution, and the mipmaps loading correctly. However, another problem happenned, whenever I added the enemies on the map, it simply crashed the game on consoles with the error OUT_OF_MEMORY.

I was already entering into despair because this problem, however, my last try, was to compress all the TGA textures of this map in photoshop using the RLE algorithm. I created a small photoshop action script to batch compress all the 465 TGA textures (diffuse, normal and specular), and was able to reduce by almost half the total size of the textures. Before compression they were 576MB, and after they turned 278MB!!!

So this compression of textures compensated the increased texture pool size, allowing the game run, without crash, and with the mipmaps working flawlessly, as you could see on the above video.

Finnaly, I can use this new map as a template whenever building my other maps, as I know now that I need to optimize the maps as much as I can, and keep the maps size small, just like this, for the sake of performance, and gameplay.

Cheers and until next update.

[Ahmad]

Why is for PS3 and XBOX 360 and how are you even gonna get it on those consoles?

[Getdench77]

I'm palestinian and I respect everything you've done with this, but I really dislike the allahu Akbar sfx's being thrown around a lot. Its just fueling up the stereotype even further although no one actually says that term.

Edit: That being said, if you need help I can provide you with more diverse dialogues that you can incorporate

[udkultimate]

Why is for PS3 and XBOX 360 and how are you even gonna get it on those consoles?

Assalamu Alaykum Brother.

That's a loong history. Search on google UDK Ultimate Engine, and you will understand.

This game is a PC Game, and the consoles versions will be just a homebrew game.

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I'm palestinian and I respect everything you've done with this, but I really dislike the allahu Akbar sfx's being thrown around a lot. Its just fueling up the stereotype even further although no one actually says that term.

Edit: That being said, if you need help I can provide you with more diverse dialogues that you can incorporate

Assalamu Alaykum Akhy!

Masha Allah, I am pleased to know another palestinian brother!

I also have many other arabic dialogues sfx, and I am open to critics and feedbacks, and for this reason after a lot of hard work and polishment, I am finishing, for the next few days, a free demo for "Fursan al-Aqsa", so anyone will be able to test the gameplay, learn the combat mechanics and prepare for the big battle, which comes on Episode 1.

So I already registered your feedback about the Allah Akbar sfx, for sure I will fix it for Episode 1. It's essential that the community test this game and give me their feedback, so I can improve the game, before release.

[udkultimate]

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

وصلى الله وسلم على نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين
May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and all friends

السلام عليكم
Peace be upon you

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan...elease-trailer

This is the Free Demo of the game Fursan al-Aqsa - Knights of al-Aqsa Mosque. The main objective of this demo is to let players test the Combat Mechanics, give me a feedback, and enjoy killing some zionist soldiers

Download PC Version:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan...l-aqsa-pc-demo

Download PS3 Version:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan...-aqsa-ps3-demo

Download Xbox360 Version:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan...a-xbox360-demo

This is just a testmap which does not represent the final game's visuals, it was just projected to focus on gameplay and urban warfare (kinda training scenario), simulating the combat situations players will face on the final game, Insha Allah (God's willing).

The enemies A.I is very smart and dynamic, the enemies can feel your presence, if you get too much close to them, or if you shoot at their direction. They also will hunt you untill death

I tried to make the game very realistic, yet, keeping it a videogame. So, dying is very easy, also killing enemies is not very hard. I placed many healthpacks arround the map to help you recover your health.

You need to plan each shot, you need to be very strategic and try to avoid the enemies bullets as much as you can. You need to jump a lot and use the crouch button, to manually deviate from the bullets, to take cover behind objects and walls. I tried to avoid implementing a cover system like Gears of War, instead, I opted by a manual cover system, because it feels more realistic, organic, and challenging. By pressing the pause button (ESC key on PC), you can see the Controller/Keys Configuration with all gameplay commands.

You can kill any enemy with just one certain headshot, and the more headshots you perform, you get a higher ranking.

Inside the demo's download package I added 3 Readme files (English, Portuguese and Arabic) with complete information on how to install and configure the game, how to use gamepad with PC, the list of some known bugs, and other informations. Please read it before playing.

So I hope everyone likes this demo and enjoy playing it. This is just a glimpse of what awaits you on the final game.

Cheers and until next update!

P.S: I need to take a break some days to recharge my batteries

[[MPGH]arunforce]

Awesome work dude.

It's actually interesting, that this comes from a place that is completely the opposite viewpoint of American culture / Hollywood that resistance fighters = terrorism

[|Cayn|]

It seems this has come a long way, I actually took my time to read most of the stuff you have posted, it seems very interesting. I see you published a demo I am gonna try it out for sure tomorrow. I wish you good luck in your project, things like this are not easy but never impossible.

[udkultimate]

Awesome work dude.

It's actually interesting, that this comes from a place that is completely the opposite viewpoint of American culture / Hollywood that resistance fighters = terrorism

Thank you guys for the kind words and compliments! I am feeling a sense of accomplishment never felt before. I am very active on twitter, and there the community simply loved the game, and some people are comparing my game to Max Payne (what an honor)

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It seems this has come a long way, I actually took my time to read most of the stuff you have posted, it seems very interesting. I see you published a demo I am gonna try it out for sure tomorrow. I wish you good luck in your project, things like this are not easy but never impossible.

Thanks man, yeah, its a looooooooooooooong way. I began this project on August 2017, but only last year I began to promote it arround the web.

So any review/feedback/comment/gameplay video is welcome.

DON'T UPLOAD GAMEPLAY VIDEOS TO YOUTUBE. YOUTUBE IS RACIST AGAINST ISLAM AND WILL REMOVE THE VIDEO.

Just register at
https://www.indiedb.com/

Then go to your profile, click on videos, and add your videos.

I got personal authorization from the site owner to promote my game there, and they don't have any kind of content restriction there, so you can use it as alternative to youtube whenever recording gameplay/review of my game.

[|Cayn|]

Thank you guys for the kind words and compliments! I am feeling a sense of accomplishment never felt before. I am very active on twitter, and there the community simply loved the game, and some people are comparing my game to Max Payne (what an honor)

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Thanks man, yeah, its a looooooooooooooong way. I began this project on August 2017, but only last year I began to promote it arround the web.

So any review/feedback/comment/gameplay video is welcome.

DON'T UPLOAD GAMEPLAY VIDEOS TO YOUTUBE. YOUTUBE IS RACIST AGAINST ISLAM AND WILL REMOVE THE VIDEO.

Just register at
https://www.indiedb.com/

Then go to your profile, click on videos, and add your videos.

I got personal authorization from the site owner to promote my game there, and they don't have any kind of content restriction there, so you can use it as alternative to youtube whenever recording gameplay/review of my game.

Damn, really? Too bad YT wouldn't let me record it, is a way of good free promotion haha and is just a game. Well, alright.. If I got the time to record it I will see if I can upload it to indiedb.

[Snoopy4366]

CSGO by other props from my 3D assets gallery

[worldwidesafe]

just trust no one fam

[udkultimate]

Damn, really? Too bad YT wouldn't let me record it, is a way of good free promotion haha and is just a game. Well, alright.. If I got the time to record it I will see if I can upload it to indiedb.

Hello bud!

I made a complain to youtube in my twitter account, and with help of many friends, many retweets, I think youtube have seen my message!

Another friend of mine have made a small gameplay capture of the game running on Xbox360, the video was deleted from his channel, but now it is back online:



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CSGO by other props from my 3D assets gallery

Hello!

What props are you refering too?

I have a bunch of purchased props from marketplaces arround the web, and some royalty free to use models.

If some of these models I am using are from other games, that's not my fault, as I purchased them online, without knowing. By the way, I have seen many game models being sold on CGTrader, and whenever I know a model is ripped from a game, I don't buy it.

But this is just a free demo, and this map won't be included on the final game.

Also, I have no problem replacing some assets, as I have too much 3D assets to use in this project.

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just trust no one fam

Sorry mate, I did not understand your comment.

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By the way, my game is being a HUGE SUCCESS!!!

It reached number 1 on Popular Games on IndieDB.com

[Thethirdeye]

Your game seems really intresting i hope everything goes well for you. Shooter games are really hard to make as indie games.

[|Cayn|]

Quick question, do you have planned a translation to Spanish for this game? Or any other language?