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Writer's pictureXOOM

Chokepoint Gaining Momentum

With an all-new team at working on WWII Online: Chokepoint, we're pleased to report that hard work is materializing into actionable developments. This development update is designed to inform you of a bit of that progress and reinforce the positive impact it has on the entirety of our mission to innovate and bring WWII Online to the future.



UPGRADED UNREAL ENGINE VERSION

Presently Chokepoint is not only running Unreal Engine 5.3.2, but we've just recently upgraded it to the "source" build which will allow us to build/deploy on dedicated servers. This gives us the flexibility we need to deploy Chokepoint as we see fit, while also streamlining some automations we're building to optimize future developments.


INVENTORY SYSTEM RESOLVED

Leveraging the latest and greatest that Lyra has to offer, we've effectively resolved the inventory system that was a bit challenging as we moved from UE4 --> UE5. We've got this functional and have a bit more polish to do, but it is looking good. We even went ahead and rebuild the inventory UI window that shows your weapon and ammo availability.


INCREMENTAL WEAPON REBUILD

We've elected to take an incremental rebuild approach of the primary weapons needed to conduct base level game testing within UE5. Essentially all weapon blueprints and connections have to be rebuilt post conversion.


It took a little time for the new team to put together some viable connections but we're aiming to get the following first weapons assembled within UE5:


  1. M1 Garand

  2. M1911

  3. Kar98

  4. Walther P38


From there we will continue to rebuild each weapon, ranging from its blueprint associations to its connected animations, sounds, functions, etc.


RESTORING AIMING & SPECIAL FX

We had to rebuild several aim-down-sight functions that included first and second stage aiming, as well as cleaning up the sight aperture on the M1 Garand so it displayed things properly.


When you were aiming there'd also be a vignette and blue to enhance your perspective, this was also rebuilt to mimic UE4 behavior.


NEXT STEPS

We're repairing all of the immediate and in your face issues possible so we can get back to play testing at the earliest opportunity. We recognize it has been a bit of a road but we want to encourage you, that CRS is doing the hard work to get there as soon as we can.


Turns out the upgrade to UE5 was quite intense, but it is finally starting to come together and it is an exciting chapter in our book of doing the impossible. With an all-new team working on the project, you can see a fire within the studio to see this through.


If everything goes accordingly, we will be in Unreal Engine 5 playtesting before the end of this year. We hope sooner, but we want to make sure we're a bit conservative and manage expectations. This is a great sign of progress, all the same.


IMPACT ON WWII ONLINE 2.0

We wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Chokepoint's progression is directly correlated with WWII Online 2.0 progress, as this is the asset creation pipeline for our future infantry system. It is also training our contributors on the ins-and-outs of Unreal Engine development, which is starting to show a bit of an acceleration.


This new infantry system will dramatically optimize infantry game play for WWII Online (2.0) and give it a much more modern and immersive feel, as it relates to responsiveness and smoothing. It feels, really good!



Did you know that Chokepoint is building the future infantry system for WWII Online?

  • Yes

  • No, this is news to me.


Check out this Chokepoint play test in Unreal Engine 4 conducted on April 28th, 2024.



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robphx387
May 19
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Even in this basic early state, it is looking very smooth and I cant wait to see where it goes from here. I have been trying to explain how the infantry system upgrade on chokepoint was still part of 2.0 development but some folks just didnt seem to get that until now. I think this audio comment was very clear and the playtest videos show how much of a step in the right direction that the new system already is (even if aiming still needs some work). I hope we don't have to abandon the multi stage/mode aiming, as the feature of Arma 3 was a good addition there and has some great ww2ol application as well. S! -Medic911

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XOOM
XOOM
May 19
Replying to

Appreciate the support Medic911. We're pursuing something amazing and that takes time. We're being probably the most inclusive and transparent dev out there. This is the community's time to back the game up and be part of rebuilding its history... something very worthy of our effort and time. S!

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Amazing news! Seeing the team reform and take on the challenges and overcome those challenges in such a short period of time is a true sentiment of what CRS and everyone involved is truly capable of. #AllRoadsLeadTo2.0!

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XOOM
XOOM
May 19
Replying to

My name is Xoom, and I support that hashtag. #AllRoadsLeadTo2.0

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars.

As demonstrated by games like Hell Let Loose and Post Scriptum/Squad 44, Unreal Engine does not seem to be suitable for a game like WWIIOL where visual clarity up to 2km is absolutely essential to maintain our 100% unique gameplay. HLL and PS use clever arrangement of terrain and landscape to obscure distances greater than a few hundred meters due to Unreal Engine's reliance on aggressive LOD at distance.

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Chap Exe
Chap Exe
May 19
Replying to

An outsider's view.


Not certain Chokepoint is a different thing, nor that this is the right place to post this, regardless:


Would it not, with modern technology, be possible to recreate the unique WWIIOL experience? Streamlining/enhancing, not the graphics which would weigh on it's vastness, but instead the gameplay mechanics, including huds/screens for example.

I believe that they cannot do it. Because using unreal engine might be a sign that they don't have the chops to create a proper WWIIOL for the future.


Also, I prefer a more retro look than it appearing just like all the other WWII game art-styles. So I'm hoping for keeping it simple, so it might benefit the vastness of the experience and it would…


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Great news and looks like a lot of fun.

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XOOM
XOOM
May 19
Replying to

Thank you! Very pleased to see the progress, been a long road coming. S!

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Why does the screen always go black for no reason? Why is there a black circle when aiming?

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During the video, your screen will go dark for no reason and then recover after a few seconds, just like a pilot's black vision overload.

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