announcements

A collection of 42 posts

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Major breakthrough - Realtime NPC Vision - History is Made

This is probably a first for a 3D video game with conversational non-player characters! It's not a flashy demonstration but it is a major first for the technology: I've come up with a way, using MiniGPT4 and TheBloke_vicuna-7B-1.1-GPTQ-4bit-128g to give the NPC the ability to see his surroundings

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AI improvements

New AI improvements. The graphics, conversational AI, and immersion of the game are being improved. The graphics are now more realistic and detailed, making the world of The Ancient Rift Chronicles feel even more alive. The conversational AI is now more natural and engaging, making it easier for players to

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Ideas... ideas... ideas...

Copyright (c) 2019 - 2023 Shadowfinder Studios. All rights reserved. I've decided to compile a short list. And, then the ideas are not lost for all time. Here is a list of ideas I have for the game. This is by no means comprehensive. I'm not sure if I'll manage

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Inworld AI multiple character conversations implemented

It's been a while. I'm implementing dynamic conversational NPCs with Inworld AI in UE5 using Metahumans. I managed to get multiple characters to interact and respond to one another. This makes for more meaningful conversations that feels more natural and breaths new life into the world. The characters respond to

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Unreal Engine 5 - Ancient Rift Chronicles - My first character demo

SUCCESS! I think I'm the first person to get a character working with the new UE5 demo. And, I pulled it off in only a few days. I needed to hide the mesh on the legs and/or correct the weight maps for the armor and the spellcasting doesn't work

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Unreal Engine 5 port underway!

That will probably be my last screenshot on UE4, I'm currently working on porting what I have over to UE5 which was just released in early access today. UE5 is going to facilitate making open world development even more feasible with new world partition features, the ability to load massive

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Ancient Rift Chronicles - Alia Quill & Book

Exclusive

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Ancient Rift Chronciles - Satyr

And, then there was the Satyr... Half goat, half man. To them life is a party. These hedonistic fey love to sing, drink and be merry.

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Ogre is in the game

Just got the ogre into the game, and oh wow does he look tall next to me! The Ancient Rift Chronicles is an open world medieval fantasy cooperative game under development by the indie team at Shadowfinder Studios. Stayed tuned for more details! And, remember to subscribe so we can

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Ancient Rift Chronicles - Ogre

The ogre race begins...

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Ancient Rift Chronicles - King Connolly art update

I've been re-working the skin, adding a beard, and aging the King Phillip Connolly character. Here is the progress so far: The Ancient Rift Chronicles is an open world medieval fantasy cooperative game under development by the indie team at Shadowfinder Studios. Stayed tuned for more details! And, remember to

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Ancient Rift Chronicles Exclusive - Art workflow

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Ancient Rift Chronicles - First person camera and new female character

We now have first and third person cameras working and you can switch between them with the F3 key! In addition, we show off one of the new female characters.

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Ancient Rift Chronicles - Voice over, lipsync, camera switch and quests

I've added a voice over, lipsync dialogue, switching the camera, and going on a hunt to kill the wolf as an example quest. It is all coming together nicely. I might need to work on the camera angles a little bit, but it's a start.

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Ancient Rift Chronicles - First book implemented!

Needs a bit of work but the first readable book is now implemented!

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The Ancient Rift Chronicles: Working on reactive combat using raytracing

And we have liftoff! Working on reactive combat using raytracing. In the video you can see the intersections of the blades are identified and a few sound clips are played depending on how the blade is struck. This is a first step towards having realistic melee combat in the The

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Ancient Rift Chronicles - Articy Draft 3 implemented in Unreal

It has taken quite a bit of work to get this working. I know it doesn't look like much but it is the underpinning of something potentially impressive. I've managed to implement Articy Draft 3 in Unreal. Which isn't as easy as it sounds, the plugin documentation is a bit

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Ancient Rift Chronicles: Dialogue work

Initial work on dialogue and quests for the game is underway. This is an important part of any game to get right early on so I've done a bit of research. I have been looking into dialogue writing systems as well as plugins and there is not a lot of

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Ancient Rift Chronicles: Exclusive - Alia Frost Regenford

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Ancient Rift Chronicles: Spotlight - Dark Elf

Below is a video of a 3D character model representing our dark elves that we have produced for the game. It will be one of the many playable races as well as a people you will meet along your journeys. Well met!

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Ancient Rift Chronicles: Frequently Asked Questions

Updated: 05/09/21 1. Is there an alpha or beta playable prototype yet? No 2. When will the game be released? TBD 3. Is this game indie? Yes 4. Character creation system? Yes 5. First or third person? Both 6. Pay to win microtransactions? No. But, we've tossed the

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Ancient Rift Chronicles: Hannie giving you a nice big mocap smile

Hannie the farm villager gives you a bright mocap smile and blended idle animation. I did some work touching up the hair so it didn't intersect with her cap. Took a bit of material work to get the hair to look right. And, I figured out that turning the Cloth

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Goblin speaks and lipsyncs, while animating via livelink in game!

I was able to get the Goblin speaking and moving using Unreal livelink. This is a first step in the right direction. And, well worth the effort.

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The Goblin is in the game!

It has taken a significant amount of work but the goblin is now in the scene in Unreal! This is the first step towards creating goblin races and npcs. The struggle has been real. Haven't slept yet! I also touched up the lighting in the scene so it feels a

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History: In the time before names...

Gameworld Timeline (Draft 1.0) Copyright (c) 2019 - 2023 Shadowfinder Studios. All rights reserved. The Astral Age In the time before names, before heaven above and sea below there was only the Faceless One. Everything and nothing existed together harmoniously. Long were those days. Eventually, the Faceless One grew