The battlefields of Saustralasia are certainly looking lovely this time of year, be it with quite a few extra touches to boot!
2025 is well and truly in full swing as we charge full speed towards our team's goal of getting the remaster ready for release (hopefully before Christmas this year!). Such a battle plan is an ambitious one at that, but as the development pieces start to fall into place - we are getting closer and closer to achieving that goal! So whats left to do exactly? Lets break things down into their simplest components:
Pig Models - perhaps the most obvious of the lot, our new models are indeed still cooking in the oven, but it won't be long before they are ready! The trickiest part is not actually the modelling itself, but rather attaching the hog and all its potential new polys to the original game's animation rig. All the game's animation sequences for the pigs stem from here, so we need to ensure everything is properly paint weighted to our new mesh! (and get all the new hats attached!)
Maps - our scouts are pleased to say that all the levels (visually) are close to completion, with prop passes entering their final phase before we get the decals in! Lighting will still need touching up in places along with our water and grass, and we also intend to get some new visual features added in as a bonus, the likes of which we hope to show you in an upcoming dev log episode! We've been making a note to expand on those blank map spaces, building new structures where possible (both within and outside of the playable space) and, ultimately, bringing this world to live more!
Particles - You'd be surprised at the depth the original game went to with certain effects, from different coloured sneezes and melee hits, to the pigs brushing off dust and radiating heat particles after being hit by the flamethrower, the list goes on! With that in mind, you can then understand how we've had to go one step further in assigning that detail, for example in Lardcore - each explosive weapon receives its own individual explosion effect, calculate that into how many different explosions you can get in hogs and that equates to just a fraction of the work that needs doing! A good particle is one who's components blend together seamlessly, and that's what we aim to achieve here!
Menus & Localisation - HQ has recently reported that all our menus, including the new ones, are fully designed and down on paper, so the next step is to connect those functional dots with the visual ones! The game flow in both single and multiplayer will follow the same path as the original, so that means the inclusion of the usual suspects - mission briefings, map screen, newspaper screen etc.
On top of that we're also getting all the text together for the additional languages of French, German, Spanish and Italian, not to mention all the new translations that are needed! (shout-out to the Hogs community Localisation Team!)
Online Multiplayer - this section is very much 'the programmers dugout', and for good reason! The original online multiplayer for the PC version of Hogs was primarily designed with LAN to LAN play in mind, so translating that simple framework 25 years later has been quite the undertaking! The most important part of online play to us is in ensuring visual consistency across the board, most notably when it comes to dealing with controller inputs and damage dealt. Hogs of War Lardcore will look to offer up 4 players multiplayer for both online and offline play, because how could we forget our couch multiplayer roots, eh?
Testing - Perhaps the most time consuming of all, once the entire game is stitched together it will need to be rigorously tested. This section goes hand in hand with online networking, as that is where the biggest bulk of issues are likely to arise from (after all the offline stuff is checked off!). As a side note, we do appreciate the outreach we've received from the community regarding testers, and should we ever need such assistance in future we'll be sure to get the word out!
So, its full speed ahead for development of Hogs of War Lardcore! We'll be keeping our heads down and getting on with the tasks at hand, though you can be sure that we'll continue to do our best to bring you the latest updates (when we have something new to show you!). Releasing this year is the goal, but should the outlook change or delays alter the timeline then the community will be first to know. Massive thanks as always to the community and everyone's continuing support for the project, we've come a long way since 2018/9, here's to making this year's big push!
With Pro League kicking off very soon - its time once again to receive the gifts from Grimly! New maps updated, old ones returning, take a look at the patch notes below!
The Latest Patch for all Hogs of War League ISOs is out now. Changes Include:
Hogs of War League ISO File 1 has been updated, changes and patch notes include:
Hedge Maze
Map has received updated spawns after being re-added to competitive map pool, primarily to avoid first turn double poisons
Existing weapon crates adjusted in contents & quantities
Square Off
Anti-Revan mine removed from minefield island to allow for jump
x5 spawns adjusted to avoid instakill zones. In some places spawns, crates and explosive barrels have been swapped around to help with further prevention
Well Well Well
Further fixes added to areas most likely to produce instakills, testing required here
Over the Top
x4 spawns moved in response to easy first turn shell kills
Pitch Invasion
x2 spawns moved away from instakill zones
Bridge the Gap
x4 highest spawns moved down to avoid first turn MG instakill
Chill Hill
Several spawns moved away from minefield
Ridge Back
x1 spawn moved away from waterside to avoid potential first turn kill
Hogs of War League ISO File 2 has been updated, changes and patch notes include:
Saustralia Stand-Off
Spawns moved away from the instakill zone near water
Temple of Doom
Multiple spawns for both sides adjusted to avoid easy double/triple first turn poisons
Morning Glory
Further fixes added to areas most likely to produce instakills, testing required here
Hedgerow Warfare
Artillery HP reduced from 250 > 200
Hogs of War League ISO File 3 has been updated, changes and patch notes include:
Dam Busters
Map has received complete competitive overhaul, with spawns and crates adjusted to fit
players can find x1 50HP and x1 20HP health crate on their side of the map. Multiple weapon crates available
Both players hold one spawn on top of the dam, with the artillery closest to them posing a tougher shot
Death Patch
Health crates returned to same location as was originally in pdrag
Smaller medical tent has replaced one of the larger ones. New small tent holds 80HP, large remains on 100
Outer slippery tiles adjusted to remove OOB instakills (should now be resolved)
Aqua-Base
x2 aquatanks (located closest to spawn positions) have been reduced in HP from 150 >> 100. Other two vehicles remain on default 150HP (travel further = greater armour)
Grassy Outpost
x1 spawn adjusted to avoid very easy first turn double poison
Keep ya heads down chaps and carry on! That's been our team's philosophy for the last few months while everyone has been hard at work on bringing Lardcore up to scratch! But now its time for some of our leading hogs to come above ground, out from the safety of the nearby shelter, to answer some of high commands burning questions!
Now, the last thing we want is for the identity of our top hogs to fall into enemy hands, so for the sake of secrecy we'll be using code-names! The following answers have been provided by Captain Cody of the Programming Division, and Corporal Drew of the Art Division!
[Latest Lardcore Devlog Video, Episode 2, check it out!]
Correspondence from Captain Cody:
What has been the biggest programming challenge for you so far within Lardcore?
The landscape rendering. The original game renders a single mesh with a texture mapped onto it. The original port code used Splat Maps to generate the terrain detail and a lot of work had gone into the system; it created great terrain pixels but led to huge shaders when we switched to forward+ rendering.
I have lost track of how long I've spent on this problem! I've tried splitting the mesh into water / terrain and various ways of delineating the water / land boundary in the fragment shaders. Eventually I hit on rendering the terrain textures on level boot and animating the water into that texture set per frame, which can then be lit using the general purpose dielectric shaders.
What programming language is being used within Lardcore and how easy/difficult has it been to integrate it alongside the original game’s codebase?
C++ 20 for the engine / support code and PSSL for the shaders; most of the system interfaces are implemented using C style functions to cleanly decouple the various modules and also keep the hardware interfaces clean. The new code base / engine is kept as separate as possible, we leave the original code to do its thing and then grab the information we need from it.
What sort of new content can players expect when looking at Lardcore’s game engine?
The original game code has only been touched when we have been forced to for some reason, so the game will respond as an experienced player would expect. We've added the new rendering and sound engines, global illumination, screen space reflections, new particle engine, dynamic fog, dynamic clouds, sky and star system, dynamic water, procedural grass, decal system...
How do you approach optimising game performance within Lardcore?
The original game doesn't need any optimising, it was designed for a 25 year old+ processor (PS1) so it runs like lightning on modern hardware. We have made various fixed point operations use floating point or vector operations for integration or stability purposes but it wasn't needed for speed. Lardcore's bottleneck is the GPU, mainly because we're calculating the global illumination cascades every frame rather than spreading it out.
In one word, how would you summarise working with the original hogs codebase so far?
Interesting.
What’s a feature, mechanic or bug fix in game you’ve worked on that you are particularly proud of?
Figuring out how to animate the water when there was no water mesh to add animating UVs to was "fun". After a lot of experimentation I hit on using an incompressible water model using compute shaders to do the maths, we use the output of the system to generate a per-pixel UV animation. It can do a lot more than we're currently using it for, for instance we could dynamically have flows going around objects in the water.
What has surprised you most when working on Lardcore?
How much game code the original game had.
As the project moves forward – what are you most excited about/looking forward to?
Getting it into the hands of the fans. Shipping a product is always great but thanks to Covid and other issues this project has been a long time in the making, it's going to be great to see people playing it again!
Correspondence from Corporal Drew:
What has been the biggest artistic challenge for you so far within Lardcore?
Lardcore has been a chance to explore and think about a lot of things at once. One of the great things about it is the challenge of being visually consistent - making everything look as though it belongs together, but in a balanced and interesting way.
Can you explain a bit about your creative approach to the kind of art style we have seen so far in Lardcore?
There’s so much inspiration available that collecting and organising it all is a key part of the process, as well as looking at existing media and weighing up what works well or what could work better for the project.
It’s important to really consider the ideas you want to convey – in an ideal world, every asset would be uniquely tailor made and non interchangeable with any other project. Lastly, iterations – prototypes and remakes – of assets is absolutely vital in bringing us one step closer to the ideal as issues and processes get ironed out.
What would you say are your main influences for world building within Lardcore?
Lardcore has been influenced by a lot of media - there are so many incredible things out there that need exploring and pork-ifying! Influences have shifted as development progresses, but incorporating so many really helps expand the world of Saustralasia.
Artistically, do you feel a remaster should look to capture its original style, expand on its own uniqueness or maintain a balance of both?
Both absolutely, there are so many key iconic elements that need to be retained as well as scope for expansion and world building. Solid game mechanics are fundamental to any game, but it's the world and narrative that cements the experience together. The visuals are key in selling these worlds to us, and making us believe.
How do you ensure your artwork and 3D modelling is optimised for performance without compromising on quality?
This will always be a challenge but working in very high resolutions means that we can have the best quality on any platform hogs might expand to. Optimising by downscaling will always be better than trying to upscale things that are too small.
What has surprised you the most when working on Lardcore?
The sheer diversity of things we get to work on day to day, and all the fascinating research we get to do to make it happen, each day brings us new challenges.
If you could add one new object/asset into the game, what would it be and why?
A lot of easter eggs and fun things could be added, but specifically a hug action would be hilarious, especially in multiplayer. To have the ability to walk up to any hog in the field – friend or foe – hug them, and have both pigs gain a tiny amount of HP from it, without using up a turn.
With the rise of AI art, could this speed up game development?
Despite the rise of AI, AI imagery will never be used in the making of Hogs, which will be 100% organic and ham-made!
As the project moves forward – what are you most excited about/looking forward to?
Seeing everything coming together is always very exciting - as well as hearing from the kind community who haven’t given up on us yet, as we try our best to get the hogs onto the battlefield!
So there you have it, first hand accounts from our very own troops in the trenches! Going forward to intend to bring you further blog interviews with other members of the team, but as you can expect everyone is rather busy preparing for the big push!
The upkeep of blog posts have been few and far between over the last few months, so you can also expect more regular updates in future, both relating to Lardcore and on-going community events. Cheerio for now!
