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Friday Facts #354 - Launch party and HR power switch
To celebrate the launch of the game later this summer (only 6 more FFFs to go!), we have decided to throw a party! It is going to be at the same venue as our 1 million sale party (FFF-192). It will take place on Friday the 4th of September, 2020, at lut Lzn here in Prague. We are inviting a lot of people to the party, such as other Czech game developers, Youtubers, and of course we will be there. As we want you (the fans) to be able to come, we have some tickets for sale. The reason to sell them, rather than give them away, is so that we don't have 'messers' saying they will come when they don't intend to. You can buy a ticket here. While the COVID-19 pandemic might be 'over' here in Czechia (Czechs hold 'farewell party' for pandemic), the reality is, the situation could change with great speed. It is likely many won't be able to come due to travel restrictions, or we may even need to cancel the event. Please keep this in mind while you are considering whether to come. We hope everything lines up in our favour, and we look forwarding to meeting you.
One of the leftover entities that didnt get the love of a high resolution update yet is the power switch. It has waited this long mostly because we werent sure about its design and because it is not a very frequently used entity. However, after all this time we dont have better ideas for the design, so we dont want to change it significantly. And of course we have other higher priority things on our plate now, so reworking an infrequently used entity doesnt sound too pragmatic. Other than that, the 3D source file is a mess, unsurprisingly as its the first thing (FFF-102) I worked on for Factorio. Back then I was trying to create a texture painting system where we could paint RGB masks instead of grayscale ones, to control multiple channels at the same time.
Not only was this not as useful as I had thought (it was more efficient for me to just get used to switching between textures), but unfortunately this also caused something in Blender to go wrong, and the scene crashes frequently. Luckily I was able to combine forces between Blender 2.8 where I could actually paint textures but couldnt render, and 2.79 where I could render but not paint. If youve been even remotely following the development of Blender, your first question is probably why are we not using 2.8 as its been out for quite a while now.
Our workflow is quite specific and the early versions of 2.8 simply didnt support all of the obscure features that we use. On top of it all, we have a lot of tools and scripts that would probably break in 2.8, and eventually it got so late in our development cycle that we couldnt just afford to be insecure about our software, when 2.8 introduces all kinds of new changes. Were very much looking forward to switching to 2.8 after 1.0.
Here we have a high resolution version of the power switch, including a destroyed version from our remnant specialist Dominik.By the way, the power switch was actually one of the first entities we had high resolution sprites for. I had prepared them shortly after finishing the power switch years ago. However the way we create high resolution entities was only really established a while after that, so it wouldnt fit today any more. We plan to release the updated power switch next week.
[ 2020-07-03 10:32:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Read this post on our website.
The launch party (Klonan)
To celebrate the launch of the game later this summer (only 6 more FFFs to go!), we have decided to throw a party! It is going to be at the same venue as our 1 million sale party (FFF-192). It will take place on Friday the 4th of September, 2020, at lut Lzn here in Prague. We are inviting a lot of people to the party, such as other Czech game developers, Youtubers, and of course we will be there. As we want you (the fans) to be able to come, we have some tickets for sale. The reason to sell them, rather than give them away, is so that we don't have 'messers' saying they will come when they don't intend to. You can buy a ticket here. While the COVID-19 pandemic might be 'over' here in Czechia (Czechs hold 'farewell party' for pandemic), the reality is, the situation could change with great speed. It is likely many won't be able to come due to travel restrictions, or we may even need to cancel the event. Please keep this in mind while you are considering whether to come. We hope everything lines up in our favour, and we look forwarding to meeting you.
High resolution power switch (V453000, Dom)
One of the leftover entities that didnt get the love of a high resolution update yet is the power switch. It has waited this long mostly because we werent sure about its design and because it is not a very frequently used entity. However, after all this time we dont have better ideas for the design, so we dont want to change it significantly. And of course we have other higher priority things on our plate now, so reworking an infrequently used entity doesnt sound too pragmatic. Other than that, the 3D source file is a mess, unsurprisingly as its the first thing (FFF-102) I worked on for Factorio. Back then I was trying to create a texture painting system where we could paint RGB masks instead of grayscale ones, to control multiple channels at the same time.
Not only was this not as useful as I had thought (it was more efficient for me to just get used to switching between textures), but unfortunately this also caused something in Blender to go wrong, and the scene crashes frequently. Luckily I was able to combine forces between Blender 2.8 where I could actually paint textures but couldnt render, and 2.79 where I could render but not paint. If youve been even remotely following the development of Blender, your first question is probably why are we not using 2.8 as its been out for quite a while now.
Our workflow is quite specific and the early versions of 2.8 simply didnt support all of the obscure features that we use. On top of it all, we have a lot of tools and scripts that would probably break in 2.8, and eventually it got so late in our development cycle that we couldnt just afford to be insecure about our software, when 2.8 introduces all kinds of new changes. Were very much looking forward to switching to 2.8 after 1.0.
Here we have a high resolution version of the power switch, including a destroyed version from our remnant specialist Dominik.By the way, the power switch was actually one of the first entities we had high resolution sprites for. I had prepared them shortly after finishing the power switch years ago. However the way we create high resolution entities was only really established a while after that, so it wouldnt fit today any more. We plan to release the updated power switch next week.
[ 2020-07-03 10:32:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Factorio
Wube Software LTD.
Developer
Wube Software LTD.
Publisher
2020-08-14
Release
Game News Posts:
506
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Overwhelmingly Positive
(164072 reviews)
The Game includes VR Support
Public Linux Depots:
- Factorio Linux64 [306.86 M]
- Factorio Linux32 [300.1 M]
Available DLCs:
- Factorio: Space Age
Factorio is a game in which you build and maintain factories. You will be mining resources, researching technologies, building infrastructure, automating production and fighting enemies. In the beginning you will find yourself chopping trees, mining ores and crafting mechanical arms and transport belts by hand, but in short time you can become an industrial powerhouse, with huge solar fields, oil refining and cracking, manufacture and deployment of construction and logistic robots, all for your resource needs. However this heavy exploitation of the planet's resources does not sit nicely with the locals, so you will have to be prepared to defend yourself and your machine empire.
Join forces with other players in cooperative Multiplayer, create huge factories, collaborate and delegate tasks between you and your friends. Add mods to increase your enjoyment, from small tweak and helper mods to complete game overhauls, Factorio's ground-up Modding support has allowed content creators from around the world to design interesting and innovative features. While the core gameplay is in the form of the freeplay scenario, there are a range of interesting challenges in the form of the Scenario pack, available as free DLC. If you don't find any maps or scenarios you enjoy, you can create your own with the in-game Map Editor, place down entities, enemies, and terrain in any way you like, and even add your own custom script to make for interesting gameplay.
Discount Disclaimer: We don't have any plans to take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.
Join forces with other players in cooperative Multiplayer, create huge factories, collaborate and delegate tasks between you and your friends. Add mods to increase your enjoyment, from small tweak and helper mods to complete game overhauls, Factorio's ground-up Modding support has allowed content creators from around the world to design interesting and innovative features. While the core gameplay is in the form of the freeplay scenario, there are a range of interesting challenges in the form of the Scenario pack, available as free DLC. If you don't find any maps or scenarios you enjoy, you can create your own with the in-game Map Editor, place down entities, enemies, and terrain in any way you like, and even add your own custom script to make for interesting gameplay.
Discount Disclaimer: We don't have any plans to take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.
What people say about Factorio
- No other game in the history of gaming handles the logistics side of management simulator so perfectly. - Reddit
- I see conveyor belts when I close my eyes. I may have been binging Factorio lately. - Notch, Mojang
- Factorio is a super duper awesome game where we use conveyor belts to shoot aliens. - Zisteau, Youtube
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Linux (tarball installation)
- Processor: Dual core 3Ghz+Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.3 core. DirectX 10.1 capable GPU with 512 MB VRAM - GeForce GTX 260. Radeon HD 4850 or Intel HD Graphics 5500
- Storage: 3 GB available space
- OS: Linux (tarball installation)
- Processor: Quad core 3GHz+Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 4.3 core. DirectX 11 capable GPU with 2 GB VRAM - GeForce GTX 750 Ti. Radeon R7 360
- Storage: 3 GB available space
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