A new mod pack made by user ElWabblo is now available for download. It comes with 2 versions, a full version that is bigger and a slim version that is smaller. Pick one or the other obviously. The download links are here:

October Mod Pack Slim Version.

October Mod Pack Full Version.

Note that same as the last mod pack, I did not review this mod pack nor am I endorsing it. Only merely providing download hosting. Big thanks to ElWabblo for putting this mod pack together and makes it available!

Installation instructions if you need them here.

YOU CAN SKIP THE STUFF BELOW

As for what I been up to, I been working on adding multi-thread/async loading and unloading into the game. This is a big change that will greatly enhance the stability and memory usage of the game.

You see, HR2 is single-threaded and not super optimized. Because well, I thought, it only needs to show like 4 characters at most at once, plus the background stage, and thus it doesn't need to be super optimized.

Then then modders came and completely ruined that assumption with gigabytes in size of mods. To be honest, I am a little bit surprised that the game is holding up as well as it is.

Obviously, that has to be addressed, not to mention that the next game will have way more than 4 characters at once. But, converting from a purely single-threaded game to multi-threaded is no easy task, so I am going to tackle this piece-by-piece.

Here's some progress I made. This is showing loading and unloading of texture/image/picture files. Since I learned that gifs look terrible, here are still pictures:

1) Animated loading icons when the asset is still loading, without blocking/locking/pausing the game:

2) Loading finishes, in any order, and handled correctly:

3) Every picture loaded soon after

4) Showing unloading behavior -> scrolling up to pictures that were previously loaded, but no longer used, which can trigger it to be unloaded (when no longer used) and needs to be loaded again

5) and 6) reloading of those unloaded asset comes in:

B) This is actually a more involved system, where instead of loading pictures as individual pictures, the pictures are packed together into a sprite sheet. This requires a staging system (details omitted) but it can also be used to show the loading and unloading behavior.

1) Loading the initial 8 pictures into a texture sheet.

2) Scrolling down, which triggers new picture loading without freezing the app:

3) Some pictures finish loading + packed into the sprite sheet to the right.

4) Scrolling down more and triggers more loading, and the sprite sheet grows.

5) Unused pictures unloaded - red regions in the sprite sheet.

6) Red regions re-used in the sprite sheet as new loads comes in.

So what are the advantages of this new multi-threaded/async system? (When its ready)

• Loading no longer freezes the game

• Total loading time could be shorter

• Support for unloading of assets which keeps total memory usage in check

What are the disadvantages?

• PITA to implement XD