XsyonMaster

Xsyon New Year Update 2023!

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Hello Xsyon Citizens!

I've been quiet lately as I've been absorbed in coding and there's nothing new quite ready for public testing.

My focus is still upgrading the graphics engine from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11 and then DirectX 12. The update from 9 to 11 has been complex and time consuming while updating from 11 to 12 appears to be more straightforward.

So far the following graphic elements have been updated:
- Interface functions (panels, inventory, character creator, chat etc.)
- Font creation and rendering
- Sky rendering
- Terrain rendering
- Snow rendering on terrain
- Rendering players and creatures
- Rendering buildings and objects
- Selection and interaction
- Occlusion and depth rendering for special effects and optimizations
- Lighting functions

I'm currently working on:
- Shadow rendering
- Water rendering

What's left:
- Trees (I plan to update trees using the latest version of SpeedTree)
- Grass
- Effects (fire and rain)
- Clouds
- Waterfalls
- Mist
- Post processing effects (effects while teleporting, distance blur)

Shadow rendering is complicated but nearly done. The rest of the effects left to be updated I believe will not be too difficult. While working on this I've learned a lot about DirectX 11 and 12 and HLSL language in general. Going forward it will be easier for me to improve graphic capabilities like adding torches finally and more effects.

This major task is taking a long time. There was a lot of code that had to be completely rewritten and there were times I was stuck on some functions but I am progressing rapidly and smoothly at the moment.

In addition to the DirectX update, the War System and architecture snap functions are nearly ready to go. I have a short list of things to double check and plan to open up a final round of testing once I finish the shadow rendering code I'm currently focused on.

That's all for now!
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