itch.io

Thanks! In this demo, I used the "Advanced Locomotion System" for character movement, which by default has a button for manually switching between ragdoll and animated states. However, I disabled it for this demo because the focus wasn't on ragdoll play, and the ragdoll state often caused glitches and the character falling through the map. Instead, I opted for more controlled conditions related to ragdoll.

As for gamepad support, it is already included in the demo. My Xbox Series controller works perfectly fine with it and I think others should too. However, I don't have any DualShock controller, so I don't have the means to implement their support as I wouldn't be able to test it myself.

Thank you so much for the feedback and kind words! ❤️

Regarding the background music I agree that having some saloon songs in the background could be really cool (as well as NPCs for eg.). However, due to licensing constraints and the nature of this project, which is not a commercial game but rather a learning experience for me, I opted for royalty-free music to avoid any complications and expenses. In the latest update, I made efforts to find better fitting free tracks and replaced some of them accordingly.

I apologize for the inconvenience you had with the cursor not being captured. Typically, pressing Alt+Enter can help in such situations. Unfortunately, I've seen other developers on forums mentioning similar cursor capture issues with the Unreal Engine. Seems it's one of the characteristics of the engine, among many other factors, which are not handled that easily.

Anyhow, thank you for sharing your opinion, really appreciated. 🙏

Thank you for sharing your feedback! If the grain bothers you, there are plenty of settings available that you can adjust to your liking, including the option to disable grain and lens flares if you don't like them. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what you mean regarding the rain hitting the glass.
The Witcher 3 Next-Gen looks stunning, yes, but I am still more of a beginner developer and cannot compare myself to the expertise of CD Projekt RED. They are a huge inspiration and authority for me though.
I can also mention that creating good lighting in a dynamic world with various weather effects, dynamic clouds, and different times of day is a very challenging task. Additionally, accommodating different graphics settings where the lighting needs to look good across all of them adds another layer of complexity. I will keep trying and learning, that's for sure.

Thank you! XeSS is implemented into the demo. You haven't checked it! 

Yes, DLSS 3 is already available and implemented in the project. However, there is still a lot of work and even more testing/bug fixing to be done, and for the past two days, I couldn't work because my GPU has been busy rendering - still is.
Quoting a classic: "Coming: When it's ready" 😂

I'll take a look at Twitter.

Wow, thank you for such appreciation of my work! It's really nice to hear that and I'm delighted that you enjoyed it so much! :D

The idea of animated gears in the mill was something I abandoned twice - the gears would randomly start rotating on the wrong axis or teleporting, which was completely unacceptable. I searched through all the forums, tried different methods, but nothing worked. Finally, I came up with a different approach and managed to achieve a stable effect. It makes me even happier that someone noticed and appreciated it. 💪

By the way, in the updated version, you should easily reach 70-80 fps with DLSS 3 on the same settings.

Thanks for the hosting tips! Unfortunately, compressing it further might be challenging, considering that the initial builds of the demo were already around 9-10GB. 😅 That's why the sounds and textures have been compressed more.

Enjoy yourself! Your GPU is definitely in for a wild ride 😂

Thank you for the feedback! The noise is less prominent at higher resolutions or when using higher quality upscaling modes. Additionally, the noise is caused by Lumen GI, especially at its lowest setting. I have been working hard to address this and will continue to improve it in the upcoming update. However, achieving a stable image while maintaining detail is challenging, and it's likely that future versions of Unreal will continue to improve this issue.

Regarding the grass LOD, you couldn't see it because every grass mesh is Nanite-enabled unless you manually disabled it in the settings.

Ah, the frustration of collision issues in games... You can't even imagine. I've had my fair share of nightmares about it at some point.

I've added additional Google mirror (different account) and Gofile as well. But I don't know how long Gofile will work, as they say the file will be removed after a while. I'll reupload in that case.

Good news! DLSS 3 FG for Unreal Engine 5.2 is out. I've already implemented it into the project and I hope it'll work (I don't have RTX 40 so can't test it).
Im still working on the update and waiting for one specific plugin to be released for UE 5.2.

You may need to wait for a while, as there might be too many people trying to download at once. I have tested the download from two different internet connections, and it is working fine. Please let me know if you're still experiencing the issue.

I wrote a post, but I don't know how it's visible to everyone. Fresh itch user I am 😅. Anyway, you can check it HERE.

All upscalers including the newest DLSS, FSR 2.2 and XeSS are implemented. Additionally you can choose TSR (Unreal Engine built-in Temporal Super Resolution) or NIS (NVIDIA Image Scaling). You can change the anti-aliasing / upscaling method using the slider in Video-Graphics menu.

Hey there!

I wanted to share with you my several months of work on a project created in Unreal Engine 5. It was meant to be a project that would teach me a lot - how all the systems interact, how to create the basic elements that make up a game (menu, animations, graphics, optimization, and so on). 

And thus, The Old West: Northwood demo was born. It's a walking simulator where players can explore an abandoned settlement in both summer and winter (selectable from the menu) under various weather conditions. When night falls, they can take out and light up their lantern. The game can be experienced from both first-person and third-person perspectives - you can freely switch between them during gameplay. 

I paid a lot of attention to details that may ultimately go unnoticed by the player, but they cost me a lot of effort. A lesson for the future.

Anyway, you can find a more detailed description of this demo on the itch.io page at this link: https://stunningvanilla.itch.io/the-old-west-northwood-walking-simulator.

Below is the trailer I made a month ago and some screenshots from the game:

TEASER:

SCREENSHOTS:

I hope you'll give my demo a try and enjoy it!