All Screenshots can be viewed in HD using your browser's "view image in new tab" feature or copying the image address and pasting it into the address bar.

It's been a busy few weeks! And yet, VolleyShot still isn't quite ready for Early Access yet. My focus has been on getting the multiplayer to an operational status. By itself, this isn't a hard task, but real-life™ has gotten in the way of things. That said, I do have some other VolleyShot things I've been working on as well. Since the last public release in March, a lot has changed! I've copy-pasted the full, un-edited (as of this post's timestamp) changelog at the bottom. But here are some screenshots to show what I've been working on.

This is VS_Guess. This court is still very early in development, but it is the first court to not use the standard court dimensions. It is twice as wide and twice as tall. This court has no music, and instead only plays its natural sounds. I decided to call it Guess because, with the mostly invisible borders, you'll have to  guess where the court's boundaries are. On paper (screen?) that sounds terrible, but you should get a feel for it pretty quickly.  And like in VS_Bedroom, the court borders will appear when you get close enough.

Including the courts, I have of course been preparing for the multiplayer aspect of the game. But why even bother playing a game online if you can't represent yourself? Well now you can change your avatar's colors. There may be further options in the future, as well. But for now, you can make...

become...

(Spltscreen players can have their own color settings)

Cool. But what about the old courts? Well all of those will see updates before the Early Access release. My goal for the Early Access release is to have everything  but the Single-Player Challenges at a near-release standard, regardless of time. So that means within the next month or two, I want VolleyShot to be bug-free, on Steam, and ready for you to have some fun with. Until then...

Wave still has a little ways to go, but has seen big progress in its external area. There are a bunch of improvements not shown in this screen, but I will continue to make Wave a believable environment in which you can bounce some balls around.

Bedroom is also going through changes. The end result won't look much different from this view, but there have been changes that have been made since the last version.

Another shot of Guess. The bot on the far-left was just hit and is in the middle of a knock-down.

And finally, one of Gym with a bot getting knocked down.

On top of that, I have composed three+ new music tracks for the game. The original goal was to hire a more competent musician, but in the lack of adequate funding, you'll have to deal with my amateur offerings.

So that's this month's update. Hopefully the next time you read one of these, you will have played the game for yourself. But until then, as promised, here is the current (in-progess) change log:

(Oldest on bottom)

//------------------------------0.0.1.02 !Working!---------------------------//
General
- Added optional score event markers (+1, +2, +3)

- Added experimental ball outline option for those who need additional contrast to help with tracking the ball.
- Re-did smoke trail again, incorporating UE 4.20's Niagra system
- Net effect is a more dense, more naturally lit system
- Depth of field is no longer disabled on the "Okay" Post-Processing setting. (Yes, this means DoF is enabled at all times)
- Added experimental, optional dynamic Depth of Field. When the ball is near center screen, it will be the camera's focal point. Otherwise, the focal point will be centered on what you're pointing at.
- Because this has such a low performance impact and DoF is now mandatory anyway, this setting is highly recommended. However, if its dynamic nature bothers you, it can be disabled in the Game Settings menu. 
- This may become a mandatory feature in future releases.
- Added option to select specific bots for local play. See UI Section below for more info. Default is still random bot personalities
- This is the beginning of the challenge game mode, in that it allows me to define specific bots for specific challenges
- GameState now has ability to change music when game enters an urgent state on certain courts (VS_Guess for now)
- Previously, the music track would simply shift to a higher pitch
- Because VS_Guess has no music during normal play, a new way of audibly signifying the urgency to score/defend was needed
- This new ability, instead of increasing pitch, plays an entirely different sound clip, and fades it out when the games urgency is reduced
- Players and bots now display their full names on their hull. This is mainly meant for online identification, but I'll evaluate feedback to see if a more traditional  "floating name" option is more preferable
- Started bot profile system. This allows picking bots with defined attributes (i.e. picking Mario gives you a red bot with blue lights that jumps a lot). This is mainly meant for the upcoming Challenge mode, but can also be used in Quick Play

Networking
~ Lobby
~ Smooth movement
- Client-side hit detection 

UI
- Quick Play: Added VS_Guess
- Quick Play: Court selection now supports multiple courts and has a scroll bar (also fixes previous issue with some aspect ratios where the court list would leave its "area")
~ Added cosmetics menu screen
~ Quick Play: Added Bot Setup Menu
- Updated all main menu screens to use the new button widgets
- Fixed incorrect loading screen information when changing level via the pause menu in Practice Mode
- Fixed inconsistencies with pause menu remembering/recognizing practice options 
- Game Options menu (ball outline, DynamicDoF, Hide Weapon etc) 
- Character customization menu (just colors and name for now)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL COURTS
!!!!!!!!! All courts have had post-processing properties updated. See below for further change details !!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VS_Guess
- Added trees and foliage
- Adjusted lighting
- Adjusted color balance
- Adjusted landscape
- Added sky sphere
- Added ambient sounds
- Removed music
- Added "net"
- Added water

VS_[Everything]
- ((except VS_Wave) nope, just kidding, wave gets this shit too) DoF Method changed to Circle (4.20 cinematic) and respective values updated to account for Dynamic DoF option
- More post-processing changes (mostly related to bloom, exposure, and film grain)

VS_Bedroom
o Developed exterior

VS_Guess
- A lot
- A lot
- A lot
- Still need to do stuff, but it's looking better

//------------------------------0.0.1.01 20180718---------------------------//
// NOTE: This release is internal-only. I decided to mark the move to UE 4.20
// as a new version.

General
- Replaced default music from pre-alpha
- Added new music track
- Added ability to have level-specific music. Music handler reads these values from a struct array in the GameInstance. Would like to make this less "hard-coded" at some point.
- Restructured sound mix and class heierarchy
- Static mesh collision now defaults to simple unless explicity specified
x Main menu now has the old default court music (still probably a placeholder)
- Changed player/bot material to be more metallic 
- Fixed music briefly playing before the pause on map loading
- Fixed music being sped up in practice mode
- Overhauled player smoke effect and materials
- Adjusted human player glow and hover particle colors
- User settings are now initialized even if launching the game directly into a map/session
~ Added experimental ball outline option (!needs to be put in menu!)
- Added Distance Field generation to the project
- Volume fades in when returning to/loading the main menu to mitigate background bots initially firing at the same time

Networking
> In Progress: P2P Networking via Steam 
> In Progress: Lobby
~ Smooth movement via offset syncing (I just made that term up)
- Clients now see a dummy shot. This will later become an (experimental) hybrid client/server-side hit detection model. Current hit detection is server-side only, which leads to missed shots

UI
- Fixed master volume slider not actually doing anything
- Master volume now plays music and a sound while adjusting the slider
- SFX volume now plays a sound while adjusting the slider
- Added Unreal Engine logo to initial startup screen
- Added ball animation between legal screen and pre-release notice
- Adjusted animation timing and skip handling of initial startup screen
- Created custom button widgets - visually similar to before, but makes life easier for me
- Added new background, color effects, and animations to menus (this is not the big overhaul I've mentioned, but it's likely the start of it)
- Changed some fonts
- Various tweaks, fixes, and minor changes throughout the menus

VS_Guess
- Started

VS_Gym
- Adjusted lighting and color balance
- Adjusted landscape

VS_Bedroom
- Added side... legos?
- Added blinds to windows
- Changed color scheme
- Added "glass" to net barrier
- Adjusted lighting and color balance
~ Added building set box mesh
~ Added objects and blocks to box
- Balls present in the box change based on the ball size setting when map loads (i.e. the green ball will be missing when playing a Big match)
- Adjusted landscape

VS_Wave
- Added external structures
- Added external lights
- Added god rays
- Wave pillars are no longer translucent
- Removed fish for now
- Adjusted landscape

VS_Ionic
- Changed level music to song6