It’s been how long?

...

Almost a year? Really?

…

Ah, shit.

Hello all, it’s about time for an update! As mentioned in our previous blog post, real life tends to get in the way of being able to work on Momentum Mod, but we are still working on it! In fact, we’ve just recently finished up version 0.7.0, and have pushed it to Steam for all of our playtesters to try out.

Play With Me!

Through the Matchmaking/Lobbies and P2P Networking APIs provided by Steam, Momentum now allows for online gameplay with invited, friends, or anyone. This is just a P2P implementation, Servers will be coming much later!

  • Cross-map HUD chat when in a lobby
  • Panel in the leaderboards to show who is in your lobby, and to join their map
  • Panel in the HUD to show who is spectating you
  • Panel over the heads of ghosts to show their positions through walls
  • Bullet decals are networked (minus shotguns and knife slashes)
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Group of internet strangers gather to take photos (2017, colorized)

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This panel in the leaderboards can be quite useful for knowing who’s in the lobby.

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You can see who’s watching you, just like old times!

HTML5 Main Menu + Custom GameUI

Using Steam API's ISteamHTMLSurface class, alongside the (somewhat unfinished) Source SDK's HTML VGUI wrapper for it, we were able to switch from VGUI to HTML rendering for the main menu, and we plan to extend it further into some other panels. Similarly, with Alien Swarm’s public GameUI code, we were able to compile a custom GameUI module!

  • The main menu can be found at resource/html/menu.html
  • Changelog is in the top right, opened by clicking the version number
  • Custom GameUI allows for:
    • Custom HTML menu
    • Custom options panel
    • Custom developer console (with proper text highlighting)
    • Custom loading screens
    • Ability to not pause the game when pressing ESC in game
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The new menu is almost indistinguishable from the last one!

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Sweet, sweet highlighting, baby.

Does This Bodygroup Make Me Look Fat?

  • Added "Appearance" tab to Momentum Settings
    • See your Ghost's shape and color in a live preview panel
    • Change trail color and length
  • Added "Online" tab to Momentum Settings
    • Toggle some things related to lobbies
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Slip 'n' Slide, Up and Down

  • trigger_momentum_slide aims to replace trigger_push 800
  • Added vertical noclip movement
    • Jumping in noclip will send you upwards
    • Crouching in noclip will send you downwards
    • Control how fast it all happens with sv_noclipspeed_vertical

This One's For You, Steve Jobs

We didn't forget about you Mac OSX users out there! Starting with 0.7.0, every build now includes an equivalent Mac OSX build to Linux and Windows. So go crazy (but not too crazy) with your brand new iMomentum Mod!

I Can't Hold All These Bugfixes

  • Fixed vertical rampbugs
  • Fixed bug where players would "hover" one unit above the ground upon landing
  • Fixed sv_tickrate to apply correctly
  • Fixed instances not working in hammer
  • Fixed HUD menus not closing on map end, now with proper fading
  • Fixed menu blur and color picker shaders not working on Linux
  • Fixed color picker VGUI panel to properly include Alpha
  • Fixed the timer pausing the time displayed when hidden (leaderboards brought up)
  • Fixed players dead-stopping on func_door bhop blocks (thanks .george!)
  • Fixed a crash with the momentum ruler tool
  • Fixed a crash with going OoB on larger maps and opening console
  • Fixed raytrace false sharing debug counters for faster map compiles (thanks ryandmaclean!)
  • Fixed being unable to use buttons through clipbrushes (thanks tgnottingham!)
  • Fixed bug where similar-named map run times would show up in leaderboards on other maps
  • Fixed fov_desired's lower limit to be 1 instead of 90
  • Fixed momentum_trigger_limitmovement's bhop flag to properly block player bhops
  • Fixed bogus run comparisons in the Momentum Settings panel
  • Fixed parallax-corrected cubemaps for Linux and Mac
  • Fixed bug with viewmodels rotating as the player zoomed in
  • Un-hid sv_tickrate in release binaries (for now)
  • Un-hid sv_accelerate in release binaries (for now)
  • Removed defunct SSAO shader
  • Removed a lot of miscellaneous files from the game directory
  • Disabled Dynamic RTT Shadows by default due to poor performance in some maps

With 0.7.0 out of the way, the next big features to implement for 0.8.0 are going to be: the Map Selector, solidified game mode settings, an overhauled zone editor, solidified zones, and maybe a paint gun (or two!).

Does this drawn out update cycle excite you? Want to playtest Momentum Mod? Feel free to join our Discord Server for a potential key to help test!*

* No keys are promised, and Momentum being in pre-alpha isn’t the most exciting thing in the world yet, but there’s always a chance!

Until next time,

Momentum Mod Team