I posted Build 20200721 of Allspace. This build includes a minor update to Voice Chat. The Vivox Voice Chat middleware is now running in production mode.

[ 2020-07-22 03:09:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20200713 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Implemented some minor performance improvements in match making server. 2) Added Voice Chat feature. 3) Change default key for target locking from T to L. 4) Added default Push to Talk key T. 5) Voice Chat volume and push to talk mode can be selected through the Audio screen in the Main Menu of Allspace. Note: The Voice Chat feature uses the Vivox middleware, which is also used by popular games like PUBG and Fortnite. Vivox supports PC and Mac, but unfortunately not Linux yet.

[ 2020-07-13 06:20:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20200624 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Fixed background color on selected menu button in Controls page. 2) Refactored the default throttle control scheme for game controllers and Oculus touch controllers. Previously, the y-axis on the left analog stick was a direct analog throttle control. This meant players had to constantly hold the position on the y-axis to maintain throttle level. The new throttle design implements Throttle Up and Throttle Down actions using the left stick. So now players do not need to hold that stick. They can set their desired throttle level and then let go of that stick if they want. Note: HOTAS joystick throttle input is unchanged.

[ 2020-06-25 04:24:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20200622 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Engine level updates 2) Graphics overhaul 3) Fixed selection cursor color in pause menu

[ 2020-06-22 16:12:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20191115 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Reduced size of cockpit in VR. 2) Reduced size of main menu in VR. 3) Added support for analog sticks and buttons on Oculus touch controllers, so they can be used like a game controller. NOTE: There is no virtual hands support using the touch controllers, though. 4) Improved image affects, so the textures on the space stations are more detailed and less blurry. 5) Changed the ship tracking to add more realism and challenge during dogfights. The tracking UI no longer shows the player where enemies are behind them. The tracking UI is now only shown when an enemy is in front of the player. This change also reduces visual clutter when lots of people are playing. 6) Refactored the cockpit camera to eliminate jitters in cockpit model. 7) Improved weapon visuals. 8) Improved engine visuals on enemy ships. 9) Improved damage visuals when receiving damage from weapons and/or collisions.

[ 2019-11-16 05:19:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Allspace - Full Release

Allspace is now officially moving from Early Access to Full Release on Steam! Allspace is a multiplayer first person space pilot game where up to 100 pilots blast each other with lasers, plasma, and missiles. I released Allspace on Steam Early Access in January 2019. My main goal for Early Access was to get feedback that I could use to improve Allspace. Along the way, I have received a lot of useful feedback, and I have had a lot of fun getting play Allspace with other players around the world.

Thank you for the Feedback

I want to thank everybody for their feedback. Thank you for both the positive and negative feedback. I read every forum post, read every email, and watched every video in order to absorb all of the amazing feedback that all of you have shared regarding Allspace. I have tried to incorporate as many of those idea as I could as quickly as possible during Early Access. I built Allspace on top of my Disputed Space game that I released on Steam in 2017. I developed a custom network stack from scratch on top of raw sockets specifically for Allspace, and I developed scalable game servers and match making servers from scratch specifically for Allspace. I posted 46 different builds of Allspace to Steam during Early Access in response to all of the valuable feedback I received. Each of these builds was created for Windows, Mac, and Linux. During Early Access, many features were added or improved, including:

• Added FOV options
• Improved HUD
• Improved menus
• Improved network code
• Added an Event System to try to encourage players to play at the same time
• Added VR (virtual reality) support
• Added headlook option for non-VR users as well
• Improved code throughout my framework to achieve zero memory garbage collection per frame across entire project
• Made various improvements specially to improve performance on low end computer hardware
• Added networked Bot support
• Fixed many bugs

The current build of Allspace is much more enjoyable to play than the build I originally posted to Early Access back in January, and that is the direct result of all of the fantastic feedback. Thank you again for that feedback.

Price

In addition to feedback about the game itself, I received feedback regarding the pricing. My original plan was going to be giving away Allspace as Free to Play, and then selling DLC to generate revenue. After discussing this with many players, it was obvious that players wanted me to sell Allspace for a flat price and not have any DLC. Players did not want a Free to Play business model, so I changed Allspace to a simple, low priced paid game on October 14, 2019 on Steam. Also, any players who downloaded Allspace for free prior to that date can still play Allspace for free. Thanks for the feedback, and enjoy the game.

Future Plans

I plan to continue releasing updates to Allspace, but not at the pace I was releasing updates during Early Access. These additional updates will include bug fixes and possibly some additional features. In addition to some more updates to Allspace, I am always excited to build new games. I have written notes new game ideas throughout the past few years, and I am planning to prototype some of those ideas and see what plays the best. I plan to build small prototypes and post some videos to the ShilohGames YouTube channel in the near future to get some initial feedback on those new game ideas.

[ 2019-10-18 11:00:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

On October 14, 2019, Allspace will switch from being Free to Play to being a Paid game. Everybody who downloaded Allspace for Free prior to October 14 will be able to continue playing Allspace completely Free. The new price will be $4.99 (or local currency equivalent). There will not be any DLC, in-game purchases, loot boxes, or anything else to buy. This pricing change is in response to player requests. A lot of people asked me to switch to a simple one-time payment model instead of a less straight forward Free to Play model.

[ 2019-10-04 04:09:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20190925 of Allspace. This build includes additional fixes and performance improvements for the bot code.

[ 2019-09-26 02:32:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20190923 of Allspace. This build includes fixes for some of the bugs in the bot code, including the bug where bots would sometimes become invulnerable after running for a few hours.

[ 2019-09-23 05:46:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20190919 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Added Bots. 2) Improved joystick support. 3) Switched all geo-zones to play in USA server group. 4) Engine level improvements for general stability. 5) Corrected some VR specific launch flags for VR support on Steam.

[ 2019-09-20 02:28:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20190710 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Improved readability of HUD text items. 2) Engine level improvements. 3) Fixed bug that affected player speed after collisions.

[ 2019-07-11 02:19:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Build 20190701 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Improved robustness of connection code. When a player clicks "Play Online", game will now automatically resend packets to match making server and game server instances as needed. Players should not need to click cancel and try again anymore. 2) Improved network interpolation code. Enemy ships now move much more smoothly. 3) Engine level stability improvements. 4) Fixed bug in Apply button for Screen Resolution on Video options menu.

[ 2019-07-01 21:30:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190606 of Allspace. This build includes the following update: 1) Removed particle effects that were causing visual problems on entry level computers. Explosion and respawn effects should look better on low end computers now.

[ 2019-06-07 04:27:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190605 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Added Headlook feature 2) Changed default control mappings to support Headlook feature I added an option in Allspace to let players look around inside their cockpit while they are flying. This new headlook feature works with mouse, keyboard, gamepad, and joystick setups. I recommend opening the custom controls menu and selecting Restore Defaults. That will load all of the new headlook actions and mappings. There are now three ways to look around in your ship's cockpit: 1) Using the headlook built into VR if you have a VR setup. 2) Holding the Headlook button or key while moving your horizontal and vertical aiming. The default is Left-Alt on keyboard while moving mouse. The default for game controller is to click the left stick while aiming with the right stick. 3) Pressing specific look direction keys. Default is numkeypad keys 1-9 on keyboard, Dpad on game controllers, and the stick hat on Hotas style joysticks. If any of these do not work as expected, please Restore Defaults in the Control options menu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbe_nmSSEIU

[ 2019-06-06 02:47:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190604 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Additional improvements to Network stack 2) Additional improvements to Explosion camera 3) Fixed memory leak in "Upcoming Events" display on Main Menu 4) Fixed Memory leak in laser and plasma projectile class 5) Achieved zero memory garbage collection per frame across entire project

[ 2019-06-05 00:58:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190603 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Fixed small memory leak in FPS display 2) Fixed small memory leak in Ping display 3) Improved performance of the network stack 4) Fixed bug in explosion camera

[ 2019-06-04 00:45:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190506 of Allspace. This build includes engine level bug fixes including a bug fix for the Linux OpenVR support. This build should be stable on Windows, Mac, and Linux with or without VR. This build does not need any special launch parameters.

[ 2019-05-06 21:05:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190504 of Allspace. This build includes a hotfix to fix a bug in the Linux build. The VR support that I added May 3, 2019 supports Oculus, OpenVR, and None. It tries to use Oculus, then OpenVR, and then reverts to no VR (normal monitor). This works on Windows and Mac, but there was a bug in the Linux build. When the Linux build tried the OpenVR support, that build would crash if OpenVR was not set up on the Linux computer. This build (20190504) for Linux includes Oculus and non-VR, but not OpenVR. This is a temporary workaround. I will implement a better fix in the future that supports Oculus, OpenVR, and None on Linux (like the Windows and Mac builds).

[ 2019-05-05 04:28:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190503 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) VR support for Oculus Rift and OpenVR. 2) Overhauled the menus to make them easier to use in VR. Known Issues for VR Support: A) Touch Controllers are not supported. Game controllers, joysticks, keyboard, and mouse are supported. B) You can play in VR mode using a keyboard and mouse, but there is no mouse cursor in VR. To operate the menus in VR, you will need to use the keyboard arrow keys and/or a game controller. C) FOV customization does not apply to VR camera.

[ 2019-05-04 02:44:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190316 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Increased the max size of the laser projectile instancing pools to allow for more lasers to better support 100 players. 2) Removed Roadmap page from Main Menu.

[ 2019-03-16 23:16:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Allspace launched on Steam Early Access one month ago on January 22, 2019. During the past month, I have posted 15 new builds for Allspace on Windows, Mac, and Linux. These updates have resulted in major improvements to Allspace. I posted a new gameplay video trailer and new screenshots this week to let everybody see the latest gameplay in Allspace. Updates included improvements to the menu, updated UI, improved netcode, geolocation routing, and lots of bugfixes. I have been really enjoying online multiplayer dogfights with everybody in Allspace. Thank you to everybody who has dropped by to dogfight, and thank you to everybody who has posted feedback in the Steam discussion forums. Thank you.

[ 2019-02-23 03:46:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190215 of Allspace. This build includes additional UI tweaks to shield, hull, and thrust bar graphs.

[ 2019-02-15 21:35:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190210 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Refactored the Shield and Hull bar UI. 2) Added a Thrust bar UI.

[ 2019-02-11 04:35:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190209 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Change font in Control option menu to match font on other menu pages. 2) In Controls, Renamed existing Throttle to "Throttle Analog". The "Throttle Analog" action is used by joysticks and game controllers. 3) In Controls, added "Throttle Increase" and "Throttle Decrease" actions for keyboard users with "A" for Increase and "D" for Decrease. This is in addition to W for 100% throttle, S for 50% throttle, X for 25% throttle, and Z for zero throttle. 4) Replaced the crosshair with a more subtle crosshair and increased the transparency of the crosshair. 5) Added simple objective UI at start of level that says "Deathmatch Mode: Kill Other Players".

[ 2019-02-10 03:57:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190205b of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Added keyboard default Actions in Controls menu for pitch and yaw. 2) Replaced most sliders in Video menu with buttons. 3) Changes to screen resolution are no longer immediate. Added an Apply button to Video resolution. 4) Added link to Steam Discussion on Feedback page of menu.

[ 2019-02-06 04:55:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190205 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Cleaned up fonts in Main Menu 2) Added default score of 0 when player joins new game 3) Updated Shield and Hull display 4) Improved FPS counter to show in Main Menu and game when enabled 5) Added network ping monitoring to client and server network code. When client ping is high, the ping will be shown onscreen. When ping is normal, ping will be hidden.

[ 2019-02-05 23:30:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190202 of Allspace. This build includes a new map with a lot more places to hide and sneak around.

[ 2019-02-03 04:21:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190201 of Allspace. This build includes an additional minor bug fix to the "Upcoming Events" system in the upper right corner of the Main Menu.

[ 2019-02-01 15:02:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190131 of Allspace. This build includes minor bug fixes to the "Upcoming Events" system in the upper right corner of the Main Menu.

[ 2019-01-31 20:54:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190129 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Fixed bug in menu that previously allowed multiple menu items to appear highlighted when using mouse. Now the selection and highlighting only highlights one menu item regardless of input method. 2) Added UI for all ships instead of only the currently targeted ship. Note: All ships will have a UI box, but only the targeted ship with have a lead indicator. You can manually select which ship to target using 'T' or clicking middle mouse. 3) Fixed a glitch that sometimes showed orange lines over the three cockpit screens. 4) Implemented more netcode improvements. Dogfighting against low framerate computers now feels smoother.

[ 2019-01-29 16:47:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190128 of Allspace. This build includes additional netcode improvements. Ships will appear a lot smoother regardless of the enemy player's framerate and the targeting box is more accurate now.

[ 2019-01-29 02:34:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190127 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) A new "Events" system to encourage players to get online at the same time. This should help create some epic space battles at specific times each day. 2) Various netcode improvements. Ships will appear less jerky and targeting box is slightly more accurate now.

[ 2019-01-27 17:46:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190126 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Fixed bug where game did not load custom Field of View setting on startup. 2) Fixed bug where pressing Shift-Tab to open Steam overlay caused the player to go to full throttle.

[ 2019-01-26 14:30:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

I posted Early Access Build 20190125 of Allspace. This build includes the following improvements: 1) Added FOV slider in MainMenu->Options->Video->AdvancedVideo. 2) Reduced the time ships stay visible after a player ungracefully disconnects from 60 seconds to 5 seconds. 3) Fixed bug that was showing ungracefully disconnected player's highscore after they were gone. 4) Afterburner existed in Options->Controls config menu but did nothing in game, so that input action is hidden now. 5) Added servers in Asia and Europe and activated geolocation routing to split the userbase geographically in order to dramatically reduce the ping times for many players. Previously all players were connecting to North America servers.

[ 2019-01-25 15:14:40 CET ] [ Original post ]