We're buzzing with excitement to unveil our next development update video / teaser for Mankind Reborn! This sneak peek is your gateway to some of the latest developments from the past year and a half, teasing what's next in our upcoming playtesting session.

2024 is shaping up to be a thrilling year, and we're just as eager as you are to dive into what lies ahead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Xiw0hH6pE

Apologies for our recent silence. The past couple of months have been packed for us due to day jobs, attending the Epic Megajam, and networking at Unreal Fest. These experiences were crucial, especially the gamejam. We utilized and improved the framework for MR, fixing critical issues and enhancing its functionality.

Currently, we're overhauling MR's weapon systems, established in 2017. We're introducing new weapon behaviors, animations, sounds, and more. Once we have engaging content to display, we'll share a closer look at the updates.

It's vital to understand that we're revamping most of the game using modern workflows. This lengthy process ensures a smoother gameplay experience in the future. It might be challenging to grasp now, especially without technical knowledge, but we promise the difference will be evident once you play.

Thanks for your patience!

Head on over to the link below to hear our new theme track! :)

For more information about this Update: https://forums.mankindreborn.com/threads/new-theme-audio-and-general-updates.59/

Over the last several days, we've been diligently focusing on finalizing weapon features. Instead of merely revising the existing implementations, we chose to abandon the old code as a guide and started from scratch using more efficient approaches. This has significantly eliminated redundant and boilerplate code, making our new implementations far superior to what was previously in place.

What's New:
- Upgraded animated weapon models (with plans to phase out many of the older models)
- Freshly created animations
- Revamped Holster/Unholster mechanics (final animations pending)
- Refined Aim Down Sights (ADS)
- Added diverse firing modes like burst and automatic
- A revamped audio framework for weapon sounds, leveraging UE5's Metasounds
- High-grade weapon sound effects
- New particle effects for weapons, utilizing UE5's Niagara
- Numerous enhancements involving Nanite/Lumen in UC Industrial and other settings
- And several other updates that escaped our notice due to being fully immersed in the work!

Up next, we're looking to overhaul the ammunition and reloading systems, particularly to introduce support for multiple ammo types, as it aligns well with our ongoing work. Additionally, an animator colleague will be joining us to contribute new weapon-specific animations and to update the existing armor sets for compatibility with our new character models.

Go to the link below for a vidya! :D

For more information about this Update: https://forums.mankindreborn.com/threads/game-update-new-weapons-weapon-animations-holster-unholster-ads-burst-auto-fire-and-more.58/#post-266

Hello,

We've been hard at work overhauling the weapon systems. Recently, we transitioned the weapon particle effects to Niagara, phasing out the old particle system entirely. We've also incorporated weapon audio using Unreal Engine 5's new Metasounds feature. We adapted Lyra's intricate metasounds for weapons to better fit our game's requirements. The entire framework for weapon effects, including particles and sounds, has been revamped, making it far more straightforward and efficient to manage. We've also added extra adjustable parameters for further customization. In addition, we've made enhancements in other weapon-related areas, simplifying the process of reintroducing different types of weapons.

The network performance related to weapons was another critical area that required an overhaul. The old approach was resource-intensive, both in terms of bandwidth and CPU usage. When multiple players fired their weapons simultaneously, it led to significant server lag due to the old system's reliance on multicasts to disseminate weapon effects and the transmission of large data packets to the server—a system that was outdated, dating back to 2017. We've significantly optimized how the client communicates hit data to the server and how the server then relays those hits to other clients, all without delving too deeply into the technical specifics. Suffice it to say, the new system is much more efficient and lightweight.

If you take a look at the work-in-progress video below, by clicking the link, you'll notice in the lower right corner that the network's upload/download metrics, as well as packet and bandwidth usage, remain relatively stable while firing weapons. This is a marked improvement over the previous system.

For more information about this Update: https://forums.mankindreborn.com/threads/game-update-reworked-weapon-fx-networking.57/

Hello,

After making the switch to Unreal Engine 5 and incorporating Lumen into the game, we knew that this would put a strain on system performance. To mitigate this, we carried out a series of optimizations and successfully reduced Lumen's frame time by an average of 1.50ms to 2.0ms. We also fine-tuned other settings, elevating the average framerate in the editor from 40-60fps to 60-90fps. It's important to note that the performance in the editor is typically about half of what you'd see when running the game as a standalone, especially in Shipping configuration.

There's still considerable potential for additional optimizations to further increase the framerate. However, we're quite pleased with the current performance within the editor, and we haven't yet tested a complete build, which should offer even better performance since it won't have the editor running in the background.

This does mean that the minimum system requirements for the game have been raised. You'll need at least an Nvidia GTX 10 series card or equivalent for average performance, and we recommend a 20 series card or higher. We will also offer support for DLSS 3 and FSR 2 to help boost performance.
To assess how your current hardware setup will fare, you can play Fortnite with both Lumen and Nanite activated. Our 2080ti runs it at an average of 90fps using a mix of ultra and high settings.

For more information about this Update: https://forums.mankindreborn.com/threads/ue5-lumen-performance-optimizations.56/