Thank you for joining us for the 73rd edition of our Ready or Not development briefing, May 10th, 2024!

This week we’ll be showing some work on new AI target detection systems that make engagements feel more fair in situations where the player is partially obscured from Suspect/Civilian AI line of sight.

We have two new specific types of target detection checks under development that are meant to meet this goal of improved fairness: “dynamic visibility blockers” that make thick CS gas clouds obscure your location from AI, and “AI detection cone checks” that make you less likely to be detected between small cracks or when mostly-obscured by cover at longer distances.

We also want to highlight that this is Mental Health Awareness month and contextualize the new videos on the topic that are releasing on our YouTube channel. In this newsletter you’ll find some additional development philosophy regarding the inception of our existing SWAT AI mental health system in-game for Commander Mode.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol. 73 Development Briefing Summary Points:
(not a changelog)

• AI Target Detection Changes
  
  • New dynamic visibility blockers that cause thick CS gas clouds to block effective AI target acquisition
    
    • AI fires at target’s last known position
  • AI accuracy is now reduced per meter of CS gas thickness
  • New target detection “cone” checks help prevent AI from acquiring targets through unintended tiny cracks, small gaps from a distance, and acquiring peaking players from a distance or at difficult corner angles

• May is Mental Health Awareness Month
  
  • New thematically relevant videos releasing on the VOID YouTube channel to help bring awareness to mental health concepts present in the game
    • First video is titled “PTSD”
  • Game design insights for the inception of the SWAT AI mental health feature in Commander Mode; simply surviving is not always enough.

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Both “dynamic visibility blockers” and “target detection cone checks” are WIP mechanics intended to make it more difficult for the AI to acquire the player as a target in certain challenging circumstances.

These mechanics supplement our existing static visibility blocking volumes already manually placed in maps by the Level Design team. You can can learn more about those visibility blocking volumes in our Vol. 61 Development Briefing.

The “dynamic visibility blockers” for CS gas build upon the concept of static visibility blockers, making a new form that can emerge and dissipate during active gameplay. These new dynamic visibility blockers can also penalize AI accuracy corresponding to each meter of CS gas thickness.

Meanwhile, “target detection cone checks” help static visibility blockers by preventing edge-case issues where enemies might see through tiny cracks in things like door hinges, small gaps from a distance, or odd corners.


CS Gas Dynamic Visibility Blockers

Suspect AI will no longer be able to easily see the player through a CS gas cloud once it has spread to be thick enough. This takes advantage of our gradual CS gas propagation system which requires time for gas to reach full potential area coverage.

In our current testing this means that Suspect AI will only recognize your last known position once CS gas has reached its full intensity. If they continue to engage the player they fire upon their last known position through the gas with reduced accuracy instead of actively tracking them.

In the video below you can see the green boxes indicate the gradual propagation of the gas. The yellow line between the player and suspect shows the line of sight between the two. Once the volume of gas becomes thick enough the suspect’s target detection ability becomes blocked by it, represented by the yellow line between the two turning blue.

(Video below: The blue line shows that the thick CS gas cloud is now blocking the AI’s vision)
(Video below: AI accuracy is reduced for every meter of CS gas that exists between them and their target)
Target Detection Cone Checks

Our system for target detection uses 4 trace locations on different parts of the players body that draw invisible lines to each AI on a given map. These 4 trace locations are: the top of the player’s head, the bottom of the player’s head, the lower left arm, and the lower right arm.

(Image below: 4 red lines on the debug interface indicate failed target detection traces to each of the 4 possible trace locations on a player. [Note: this image uses the new "cone" based system explained later])
These traces connect to every AI in the level. If both traces of a pair make it directly to an AI’s 'eyes' within its field of vision without hitting map geometry, or any manually placed visibility blocking volumes, then that AI is able to acquire the player as a target.


Old "Parallel" System:

In the previous target detection system, a pair of parallel traces ran from each trace location with a small offset between them. The fact that these two lines were simply parallel, with no angle deviation between them, ultimately caused issues.

The old system worked well in conjunction with visibility blocking volumes manually placed throughout the level; these static volumes prevented AI from seeing through things like tiny fence gaps or thick foliage.

Unfortunately, this system had a few key downsides in edge-cases.

Firstly, players could be acquired through small gaps in map geometry that would feel fair and logical if the AI was standing right nearby the gap, but unfair if the AI was standing a further distance away where this gap would make up a much smaller fraction of their field of view.

Secondly, there were sometimes issues where the offsets between traces could collapse to miniscule values, resulting in effectively only a single trace being required for an AI to detect a player. This meant that the AI could sometimes see through tiny gaps where visibility blocking volumes were missing, or where only a sliver of the player was visible.


New "Cone" System:

Our new system elegantly solves these problems by implementing several pairs of diverging traces that begin with an increased offset. Each pair of traces run to one of the four trace locations on the player's character, forming the edges of horizontal 2D "cones." Both lines of a cone from a given trace location must be successfully completed for an AI to consider a player visible.

(Image below: The player is not acquired as a target; only one line of the cone from the bottom head trace location is successfully completed. [Note: The debug overlay does not show both trace lines of a pair unless one was successful])
Therefore, this “cone” solution prevents enemies from being able to acquire the player through unintended tiny gaps, small gaps from a distance, and harder to acquire when peaking corners (especially at distance or at odd angles).

(Images below: A simplified debug interface view showing only the player’s top of head trace location line pair forming its 2d horizontal cone. At close range the player can be acquired as a target through a gap this size, but at long range the player is not detected as a target.)
(GIF below: The Suspect AI acquires the player as a target once a pair of trace lines from player has succesfully connected to the Suspect AI’s field of view. [Note: The AI has further delays or inaccuracies for when it actually begins engaging, and it may decide not to engage at all.])

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Over the next few weeks, we’re bringing attention to Mental Health Awareness month by uploading videos which explore various concepts of mental health related to the themes present in Ready or Not.

(Video below: The first of these videos, titled “PTSD”)
Mental health is an aspect of the game that we wanted included in some way for a while, eventually finding its place in Commander Mode for SWAT AI. Our intention was to highlight the traumatic events that occur within the world of Ready or Not and the toll that these sorts of scenarios take not only physically, but also mentally. In the process it is meant to help make your team members feel more human.

From a dedicated game design perspective, the goal was to explore a meta game loop that reinforced the rules of Ready or Not in a way that wasn’t overly restrictive, while also reflecting the gravity with which we wanted players to think of these scenarios.

As this SWAT team you are meant to apprehend suspects, rescue civilians, preserve lives, and ultimately defuse the situation. The scenarios presented are already traumatic enough, but if on top of that if you aren’t fulfilling those goals... your team’s purpose becomes distorted and twisted. Neglecting to care for the mental wellbeing of those involved or otherwise fulfilling your mission to properly defuse situations would eventually cause enough dissonance that valuable members would leave your squad.

Simply surviving is not always enough.



We are continuing to tweak the WIP AI target detection changes mentioned in this newsletter and hope to be able to expand their concepts to even more areas of the game. Each variable can be fine-tuned in order to help us find the best balance to integrate with our existing game systems.

The improvements to CS gas via dynamic visibility blockers should make your engagements feel more fair and make less lethal options more attractive to control situations and sight lines, particularly on maps with open spaces.

Target detection cone checks will supplement the visibility blockers already placed in levels to help ensure engagements occur in ways that feel fair to the player. On missions that have large amounts of props combined with vast sight lines, like Greased Palms, it should help make situations where you are shot at feel more understandable without requiring map-specific tweaks or overly neutering AI combat abilities.

Lastly, we hope you are all taking good care of yourselves and each other. Mental Health Awareness month is an appropriate reminder to learn more about yourself, others, and how to best address the challenges in your own life. Don't be afraid to call on support.

This concludes our 73rd development briefing, thank you again for joining us. Be sure to fall in next time for more development news!

Follow Ready or Not on Steam here.
Our other links: Discord[discord.com], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].

If you've been waiting to pull the trigger and finally bring law to the lawless streets of Los Suenos, then now is your chance!

During the Steam FPS Fest, Ready or Not will available for 33% off

Get out there and do your job, officer. Protect. Serve. Survive.

Thank you for joining us for 72nd edition of our Ready or Not development briefing, April 12th, 2024!

Today we're doing an early overview discussion of how our first piece of Downloadable Content, “Home Invasion”, will work and as well as provide a bit of initial info regarding its contents.

We want to have an accessible approach to our paid DLC, release a free game update parallel to Home Invasion to create a broader 'Home Invasion Release,' and expand upon our in-game narrative in a nuanced, impactful manner.

DLC content is just one component of our ongoing support for Ready or Not. We have many bugfixes and free content updates in the pipeline.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment.Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol. 72 Development Briefing Summary Points: (not a changelog)

• Free general game update launching parallel to the paid Home Invasion DLC, bringing forward some planned Quality of Life improvements and features
  
• DLC maps are available to be played at full quality by everyone in multiplayer matchmaking as long as their lobby host owns the DLC
  
• To be properly revealed at a later date for the Home Invasion DLC:
  • 3 new maps
    
  • 2 new weapons
• The Home Invasion mission narrative will provide continuity with the base game, yet also provide a nuanced experience that will take you away from the stark darkness of criminal ring activity to a much broader spectrum of disturbing grey.

A core continuous sentiment from us at VOID is how we want to avoid splitting our multiplayer playerbase across DLC content. Our DLC content should therefore be as accessible as possible, regardless of whether someone owns the DLC.

For multiplayer, this means allowing DLC maps to be played in multiplayer matchmaking at full quality by anyone regardless of DLC ownership as long as the lobby's host owns the relevant DLC. Years ago previously in one of our Frequently Asked Questions there was speculation about having the free multiplayer version be lower resolution in some respect, but we have decided against that.

As previously mentioned in our Vol.68 briefing: we will release additional bugfixes for the base game during the same timeframe that DLC content is being released. Furthermore, all our planned DLC will come with free new base game weapons, a DLC-exclusive player outfit, and new maps. Last but not least, DLC 1 is of course free for Supporter Edition owners per our original plans.

Home Invasion in particular will come with 3 new maps following a new narrative premise and 2 new weapons.

We hope that by making the DLC weapons free and allowing easy free access to DLC maps via host in multiplayer you will all still be able to enjoy the effects of each DLC launch, regardless of whether you specifically own it.



“Home Invasion” has become more than just a DLC release, it is now going to be accompanied by a parallel free update for the base game as well.

This means we’ll be adding some features and improvements aside from just bug fixes that should release as part of this broad “Home Invasion Release.” The feature list should consist primarily of Quality of Life improvements.

To provide some development context on how this is possible, our different departments are developing future releases at the same time as the Home Invasion Release— including new general content updates and DLC.

This process aims to expand our scope of active development beyond whatever immediate content is upcoming; making use of the natural development bandwidth that opens when projects are be passed from department to department. Our new Lead Producer who we’re welcoming on board will assist us greatly in coordinating these sorts of processes.

For an example in a nutshell:

Once the Level Design Team passes newly developed Home Invasion levels to the Art Team, the Level Design Team can begin partial work on other new levels in the time between any subsequent necessary Level Design-related changes to the Home Invasion levels.

Meanwhile as our Engineering Team (consisting of different programming specialties) and other departments wait for a level to reach them, they are already working on bugfixes, improvements, and additions in other areas and for future updates.



The criminal conspiracies in our existing mission narrative run deep and abhorrently dark. Although that is an unfortunate reality of Los Sueños, our Home Invasion narrative will take you away from the stark darkness of those criminal rings to a much broader spectrum of disturbing grey.

In this new narrative a disaster strikes, and every day people are left to pick up the pieces or use them as a weapon of opportunity. Complicated interests and self-preservation are driving forces in this liminal space with people across walks of life seeking any means to an end.

We understand the emotional impact and reflection that existing missions like Ends of the Earth evoke with our players regarding their activities within the game world. The three new maps included in the Home Invasion DLC will carry that torch forward into the labyrinthine world that is Los Sueños.



Our intention with paid DLC, including Home Invasion, is to provide ongoing support for RoN that can benefit everyone regardless of whether they own the relevant DLC.

With a parallel free game update for the Home Invasion Release, 2 new weapons, and easy free multiplayer access to the 3 new DLC maps via lobby hosts we are showing examples of how we want to achieve our intentions.

The disturbing grey area of our Home Invasion narrative meanwhile represents our desire to branch out and evolve on our mission content.

This concludes our 72nd development briefing, thank you again for joining us. Be sure to fall in next time for more development news!

Follow Ready or Not on Steam here.
Our other links: Discord[discord.gg], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].

Thank you for joining us for the 71st edition of our development briefing, March 29th, 2024!

This week we’ll look at our new dynamic dialogue-related systems for AI which will give us more flexibility and nuance for storytelling, as well as showcase some of the recent work on our lip sync system.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, although they do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol.71 Development Briefing Summary Points:
(not a changelog)

• Dynamic Dialogue System
  • Allows for easily creatable dialogue strings between multiple characters
    
  • Intricate level of customization
    
  • Complements existing reaction voice line system
    
  • New dialogue being written and recorded
• Lip Sync System
  • Video showcase of the recent early implementation of our lip sync system

When you and your SWAT AI officers are moving through missions you may have noticed their penchant for verbally reacting to their environments. With a few notable exceptions, these reactions are generally single one-liner style voice lines prompted by moving through invisible spaces that we call “reaction volumes.”

What we are working on now is a supplemental new, more streamlined and nuanced dialogue system that will allow for easily creatable dynamic dialogue strings between characters on a large scale. These interactions can be triggered by invisible spaces called “dialogue volumes.”

A great beauty of this new system is the extreme ease and depth with which the dialogue parameters can be customized by any developer working on a level.

How and when dialogue is triggered, the number of participants or voice lines involved, how dialogue audio is emitted, and granular elements of dialogue content are all among the variables we can adjust.

For the dialogue volumes themselves we can tweak the trigger delay, which specific characters can trigger the volume (i.e. SWAT, the player, civilians, suspects), and which characters must be present to trigger a particular dialogue.

To avoid repetition, we can also specify whether a dialogue is supposed to be repeated as well as give certain dialogue strings or lines a random chance of occurring in the first place.

The dialogue voice line emitter can be attached to practically anything, which opens up a lot of avenues. This also means that static environmental characters like those in the Station can easily have dialogue as well.

(Image below: Examples of some static character scenes around the Station that may benefit from this system)
The content of the lines for each participant in a dialogue string can be set to play a specific voice line, or a randomized voice line that corresponds to a given situation. The given order of each voice line and which character says it are also conveniently specifiable. If a character isn’t present or required for a dialogue, then their line can be specifically left out from the dialogue string.

We have more dialogue on the way being written and recorded that should be able to plug right into this setup too.

All together, these feature configurations harmonize to create a dynamic character-rich atmosphere that complements our existing reaction voice line system.



The lip sync animation system that was mentioned in our previous development briefing has undergone a facelift during implementation which we're ready to show off.

After plenty of tweaking to get out of the prototype phase, the lip movements generated by our system are progressing nicely and pairing with some additional facial animations.

Still, the feature is in its early stages, pending work on improved animation integration for head and eye tracking movements relative to in-game objects. In its completed state it will serve as a nice level of polish to our dialogue system and voice lines.

(Video below: SWAT officer model making callouts with the WIP lip sync system, utilizing alert and angry voice lines)


As you can see, our longer-term AI enhancements are not just limited to behavior but also cover improved storytelling and immersion across the game.

These new systems are potentially applicable to both current content and future content.

This concludes our 71st development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!

Special thanks to Zack for his photos and brilliant work on the new dialogue system, and to Alex and killowatt for their work and footage on this high fidelity lip sync system.

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.
Our other links: Discord[discord.gg], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].

Thank you for joining us for the 70th edition of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, March 15th, 2024.

This week we’ll be covering work that’s being done regarding animation as well as an outline of our community feedback integration process.

In other news, the Steam Spring Sale has just recently sprung, so you can now get Ready or Not at 33% off from now until this March 21st!

Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol.70 Development Briefing summary points:
(not a changelog)

• We are building out our own comprehensive animation library filled with animations and movesets for future potential additions. WIP examples below:
  • Tased character collapsing animation
    
  • New ‘heavy’ animation movesets for suspects with light machine guns
    
  • 5 animation loops for perimeter NPC patrol officers
    
  • Higher fidelity shield animation movesets
• Lip sync animation system being implemented for increased immersion
  
• Outline of our community feedback integration process with four main stages:
  • 1) Player feedback on social media platforms
    
  • 2) Initial internal documentation of community feedback, organized and centralized
    
  • 3) Directors/leads assessing and delegating tasks to address community feedback
    
  • 4) The creation of development tickets for tasks to be fulfilled and implemented

Our animation team has been working hard at building a motion library and fleshing out a lip sync system for voice lines, including heaps of animations that can be mixed, matched, and modified according to our needs post 1.0.



Formed from the motion capture and other animation work we’ve done, our RoN motion library is massive and comprehensive in a way that will help take the game to another level. The library is filled with animations and ‘movesets,’ a.k.a. numerous strings of interrelated animations, that serve as a foundation for potential future additions.

Keep in mind that there are many steps that must occur before each of the motion library’s WIP contents can be properly implemented into the game itself.

Some WIP pieces included in this motion library are additional taser reaction animations, perimeter officer animations, higher fidelity animation movesets for shields, and a ‘heavy’ moveset that could be applied to suspects with light machine guns.

The new taser reaction animations in our motion library span several different outcomes when a character is tased, notably including instances where the target physically falls over. We have 5 variations falling forward and 5 variations falling backward for these scenarios alone where the target falls over. We plan for these collapsing reaction animations to simulate physics once they are falling to allow for appropriate environmental collisions.

(GIF Below: 2 of the 10 WIP potential variations for the collapsing taser reaction animation, showing falling forward and backward)
Seeing patrol officer NPCs maintaining a perimeter for your team can enhance immersion and worldbuilding. Therefore, we currently have five new dedicated loops of animations in the library that are intended for NPC perimeter police officers to use. A combination of these loops timed at different intervals would provide for a livelier police perimeter.

Our updated shield movesets in the library offer a high-fidelity representation of movement across many actions and directions. One thing to be aware of is that the speed of movement for these animations is adjustable within the game engine in order to fit gameplay. This means situations where the motion capture actor moves too fast, for example, will be adjusted to an appropriate speed.

(GIFs below: Higher fidelity shield animation movesets)
Last but not least from these examples, the new heavy animation moveset would entail different walking gaits and ways of moving about the world that more appropriately reflect the heavy weaponry a suspect may be using. This sort of application would be primarily noticeable in levels like Brisa Cove or Neon Tomb where suspects often wield LMGs.



We are working on implementing a proper lip sync system so that voice lines from characters in the game will match with corresponding facial movements. This system, like many other of our animations showcased here, serves to increase your immersion into the game world. Currently we’re transferring the lip sync animation system onto in-game models and adapting them to look more natural.




Our community feedback integration process is ongoing following 1.0! For transparency and in response to community interest on the topic, in this section we’ll outline how it functions at a formal level.

The feedback integration process follows a linear path along 4 main stages. The process goes through 1) player feedback on social media platforms; 2) initial internal documentation; 3) directors/leads assessing and delegating tasks to address community feedback; and then 4) the creation of development tickets for tasks to be fulfilled.

1) The first stage is feedback gathering, which is done across various social media platforms in locations such as YouTube, Reddit, Steam, and our official Discord server, among others. The Official RoN Discord server’s feedback forum channel[discord.com] is one of the most effective ways for us to keep track of feedback. This is because it is searchable pure feedback in one place, with each post inherently formatted via required categorical tags, titles, and body content.

2) Feedback is then organized onto an internal document where it is assigned a general estimate of community sentiment prevalence, general date of initial prevalence, category (e.g. AI, UI/UX, Level Design), title, and description, among other factors. Prevalence is an important factor but not the singular guide of feedback applicability or substance, as some feedback might simply not be suggested as often as others.

3) Directors and departmental leads then discuss the feedback on the documentation to determine how it can be best addressed, and how the tasks should be delegated.

4) For the fourth and final step, the departmental leads most associated with the feedback assign specific tasks to relevant developers in their departments/themselves, working to address the feedback through implementing game changes.



Aside from continued bug fixing and optimization of the game referenced in the past couple development briefings, the work in progress on the animation additions mentioned here will hopefully add to your in-game experience.

The community feedback integration process outlined will also continue to aid us in identifying key opportunities to better meet player expectations. You may in fact recognize taser collapsing reaction animations, improved perimeter officer set pieces, and more realistic/fair elements of suspect movement with the heavy movesets among some of the community feedback we've received on animation.

Once again, the Steam Spring Sale has also begun, so you can now get Ready or Not at 33% off from now until this March 21st!

This concludes our 70th development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.

Our other links: Discord[discord.gg], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].

Find the latest improvements and bug fixes for Ready or Not Version 1.04.

If you have any further bug reports or feedback please visit the respective appropriate channels on our Official Ready or Not Discord (https://discord.gg/readyornot)

PSA: Unreal Engine 4-based games patch all of a game's files when installing a new update through Steam. If you see the game taking a long amount of time to update due to file size (relative to the initial update download size), this is why. For example, an update may be a 1gb download and then have to patch ~50gb of RoN's existing game files.

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• Resolved crash primarily relevant to RTX 4000 series cards regarding issue with
  "DXGI_Error_Device_Hung"
  
• Resolved inconsistencies with Commander Mode traits applying incorrectly

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.
Our other links: Discord[discord.gg], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].

Thank you for joining us for the 69th edition of our development briefing, March 1st, 2024! We hope you’re all having a nice day.

This week we’ll be providing insights on multiple areas of Ready or Not’s current development. The subtopics covered are preliminary discussions around AI behavior advancements, optimization, crashes, and audio reverb improvements.

Other than the topics covered in this briefing we have upcoming bug fixing and top-secret RoN progress occurring behind the scenes.

Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol.69 Development Briefing summary points:
(not a changelog)

• We have ongoing internal roundtable discussions across our development departments (taking into account community feedback) to experiment with advancing the AI behaviors of suspects, civilians and SWAT
  • Please continue to leave specific feedback regarding your experiences with AI behavior in our respective Discord feedback channels for consideration!
    
  • You can expect a comprehensive analysis of our approaches as we carefully vet and solidify specific development routes.
    
  • One early example of an initial analysis is that we’d like to improve pre-combat behaviors for Suspect AI; they can be too eager to fight at times
    
  • Resulting experimentation could entail building upon as the hesitation system and making the onset of firefights less readily predictable
• Optimization is being improved via avenues like:
  • Scalability settings that more effectively allow high/medium/low graphics settings to tailor performance
    
  • 2D Level of Detail elements (LOD “impostors”) for distant foliage, rocks, etc.
    
  • Shader caching to reduce remaining stuttering (note: Enabling V-sync may help) and decrease load times
• Resolving crashes related to the common issue in games, “DXGI_Error_Device_Hung,” that primarily affects RTX 4000 series cards
  
• Immersive improvements to our audio reverb system using "reflection probes" so that reverbs sound more 3D and accurate to environmental materials, all without costing performance
  
  • Video demonstration included!

We’ve have ongoing internal roundtable-style discussions in which multiple departments such as game design, level design, programming, animation, QA, and more are experimentally examining the different facets of AI behavior for suspects, civilians, and SWAT. These meetings help determine the future on how we want to advance our AI interactions going forward.

Please continue to leave specific feedback regarding your experiences with AI behavior in our respective Discord feedback channels[discord.com] for consideration!

Once these internal AI discussions reach more concrete conclusions and subsequent technical plans about development routes, we plan to make comprehensive breakdowns explaining them.

AI is a very complicated feature type that benefits from a range of development perspectives. Together, these perspectives can provide collective technical feedback on potential future AI features and implementation.

One early example of an initial analysis which took place in these roundtables is how we would like to see Suspect AI ‘pre-combat interactions’ become increasingly nuanced going forward; it seems that suspects can be too eager to get into combat at times.

Resulting experimentation could entail exploring building upon hesitation systems and elements that will make players less certain whether a suspect is going to comply going into engagements, while also reducing the immediate firefights that could occur.

Experienced players may currently find that they can identify suspects and whether they might comply at a metagame-level, whereas these sorts of changes would aim to make encounters more immersive and harder to readily predict.

Once again, there are many factors that will be considered in these sorts of AI-related experimental discussions going forward. You can expect a comprehensive analysis of our approaches as we carefully vet and solidify specific development routes.



Optimization remains a high priority to ensure the game is running as smoothly as possible for as many systems as possible.

Although we've made much progress already, we are currently working on improved scalability settings, LOD ‘impostors’, shader caching, and other performance factors. We’d also like to give a bit of context regarding unlisted backend performance changes recently included in Hotfix #4.

This is to give you all an idea of some of the work that’s being done for the future, however they may be implemented at different times and are still subject to change.


Scalability settings are the graphics options that let you optimize performance on your system, for example turning on/off specific graphics features or setting them to high/low. We are revisiting these scaling settings because currently they do not adequately differentiate between High/Medium/Low qualities in terms of both visuals and FPS.

The goal is to provide players with more tailored options that better suit their hardware capabilities, allowing more visual trade-off for higher performance at very low settings.

For example, we plan to make the “streaming pool” value, which affects texture quality depending on how high or low the value is, to be more dynamic based on graphics settings.


The word “impostors” is not a typo, but instead a way to refer to the 2D Level of Detail (LOD) elements that are included on distant foliage, rocks, or other pieces of environmental art. These 2D elements are carefully used at a distance to improve performance while mimicking the detail of 3D models without looking too sus.


Another goal of ours is to implement shader caching into the game, also known as PSO caching. Shader caching pre-loads shaders for levels to help address stuttering and improve subsequent load times across the board. Enabling V-Sync in the game settings is still an effective solution for most stuttering now, however shader caching will root out some of the core problems that can cause stuttering in general.


There were a few unlisted changes to optimization in Hotfix #4 that help illuminate our progress on optimization and are otherwise nice to be aware of. Among these changes was re-baking the lighting on all of our levels which was a large effort, main menu optimization to reduce load time into it, and backend optimizations to the balloon physics calculations on Valley of the Dolls which should substantially help lower end CPUs.

Crashes:

One of the main types of crashes we’re seeing relates to “DXGI_Error_Device_Hung.” This crash mainly affects some RTX 4000 models running DX12 and represents a common issue that some other games have dealt with in the past. We anticipate this crash will be prevented by resolving an internal settings conflict with the game.

Please make sure that you use the in-game crash reporter system to help us diagnose and fix crashes you may encounter!



Reverb as it is in RoN is relatively static— very serviceable— but also very two dimensional.

By adding reflection probes (areas that determine where audio reflection/reverb occurs) throughout our maps, reverbs take on a much richer 3D sound. By doing this, we can create the impression that a sound is reverberating to the center of rooms, down hallways, etc.

On top of the reflection probes, we've also updated our reverbs in general, including changes to how materials affect reverbs. Rooms which are primarily concrete or wood, for example, now reverberate more accurately based on these factors.

This works with all sounds that are currently played in the game and will come at no extra performance cost!

This development is further exciting because if we eventually route our in-game VOIP system through our reverb audio system, we'll also be able to apply these effects (as well as all the other effects) to significantly improve voice chat immersion.

(Video below: Demonstrating the before/after usage of our audio reflection probe system to improve reverb audio effects)Thanks for tuning in, and keep an ear to the ground for the future!


We have a lot cooking for our future updates and look towards your feedback to help guide us.

The AI behavior roundtable discussions will allow us to properly advance our AI systems in a way that strives to meet feedback in the most effective way possible, with more comprehensive plans to present as we go.

Options for optimization should improve greatly through scalability settings, LOD “impostors,” shader caching, and more to hopefully better meet lower system specs, particularly for devices like Steam Decks. We aim to mitigate crashes wherever they may occur and are targeting some of the most nefarious ones like the ones affecting RTX 4000 series GPUs.

Finally, our improved 3D reverb will improve your immersion throughout gameplay.

As you can see from some of what we can discuss right now, our RoN focus and vision is wide reaching.

Keep in mind that in addition to regular bugfix patches, further bugfixes for the base game are also planned to be pushed around DLC launches (not exclusive to the DLCs, of course).

This concludes our 69th development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!

Thank you to Zack for the beautiful demonstration of the audio reflection reverb improvements, Alan for helping elucidate our optimization approaches, and many others for adding their perspectives on the AI behavior advancement discussions.

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.
Our other links: Discord[discord.gg], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].

Find the latest improvements and bug fixes in our ongoing series of hotfix rollouts for 1.0 below:

If you have any further bug reports or feedback please visit the respective appropriate channels on our Official Ready or Not Discord (https://discord.gg/readyornot)

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We've implemented general optimizations to enhance the overall game stability and performance. Additionally, we've made backend enhancements to ensure a smoother gaming experience for all players. Hotfix #4 also builds upon the object shadows optimization changes in Hotfix #3, resulting in even better overall performance for lighting.

• Fixed broken decals & missing textures on Streamer
  
• Improved draw distance of assets across all levels

• Enhanced dynamic lighting performance across all levels via shadow utilization per object
  
• Improved LOD (level-of-details) of assets across the whole game
  
• Optimized lighting volumetrics and shadows on Farm
  
• General performance optimizations across the LSPD station
  
• Reduced reflections and fixed environment visibility from shield glass

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.
Our other links: Discord[discord.gg], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].

Thank you for joining us for the 68th edition of our biweekly development briefing, February 16th, 2024! We had a momentary pause between this one and our last edition.

This week we’re thrilled to bring you our public Ready or Not Roadmap for 2024, highlighting future milestone developments to the game! Although we’re unveiling this roadmap to solely cover 2024, we have many more plans that we’re charting further out.

Please do keep in mind that the content we’ll show and discuss as part of this roadmap is still subject to change. Game development is a fluid process, especially for a small indie team like us with this level of a project, so certain priorities and timelines may shift based on necessity.

Vol.68 Development Briefing summary points:
(not a changelog)

• Ongoing 1.0 bugfixing/patches for Winter 2024 with Hotfix #4 arriving shortly.
  
• Both DLC 1 and the 1.1 update are planned for Spring 2024.
  
  • DLC 1, currently named "Home Invasion," will be free for Supporter Edition owners, as originally intended.
• DLC 2 is planned for Summer 2024.
  
• The 1.2 update is planned for Fall 2024.
  
• All of these DLCs are planned to come with free new weapons for the base game, one DLC-exclusive player outfit, and new maps.
  
• DLCs will also be accompanied by bugfixes for the base game.
  
• Updates 1.1 and 1.2 will include additions, improvements, and bugfixes to the game.

[/i][/b][/list]

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As many of you may know, we have intentionally refrained from sharing public roadmaps in the past. Instead, we chose to operate on our own private internal roadmaps that were best suited for fluctuating development schedules during Early Access.

However, now that we’re past 1.0, we can speak more assuredly about public timelines and milestones.

This roadmap highlights the larger milestones on the horizon rather than projecting every possible patch that may occur.

We used due diligence to account for as many seen and unseen variables as we could in the creation process of this public roadmap, but keep in mind that things are still subject to change.

Without any further ado, here’s our graphic laying out the 2024 RoN public roadmap! :

(Image below: The 2024 RoN Roadmap.
Note: All DLCs come with free new weapons for the base game and one DLC-exclusive player outfit. *Disclaimer: All dates and names are subject to change)
As for Downloadable Content, our DLCs are both planned to be released with additional bugfixes to the core game, including the Roadmap footnote’s aforementioned free new weapons for everyone added to the base game. Each of these DLCs will also include additional new maps.

Meanwhile, the core purpose of updates 1.1 and 1.2 is to deliver further additions, improvements, and bugfixes to the game.

During Winter 2024 we've been focusing on delivering ongoing bugfixes and improvements for 1.0, with Hotfix #4 arriving shortly.

In Spring 2024 we aim to deliver both DLC 1 and the 1.1 update to the game. DLC 1 currently has the name "Home Invasion" and will be accompanied with bug fixes. This first DLC will be free for Supporter Edition owners of the game, as was originally intended.

Summer 2024 is the planned time for the launch of DLC 2, accompanied with bugfixes.

Last but not least, Ready or Not's 1.2 update with its additions, improvements, and bug fixes are slated for Fall 2024.

We’ll share more specifics about the DLCs and these updates at later dates!



This 2024 RoN Roadmap brings with it four milestones: updates 1.1 and 1.2 as well as DLC 1 and 2. Although the nature of development means the names and timing of these milestones may not fully permanent, the roadmap provides a good outline for the game’s direction in 2024.

Thank you for taking this journey with us through 2024 and beyond!

This concludes our 68th development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.
Our other links: Discord[discord.gg], X, YouTube, Instagram[www.instagram.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com].