Entry 017 - Health System

As promised, I'd like to introduce you to the simple health system in SPLIT. But first: what do I need a health system for, isn't it better to just use triggers that "kill" you immediately? Most events are like that already, but imagine a fire in a 3D environment that kills you if you get to close, while in other first person games it just decreases your health the longer you stay in there. That's why (and other reasons) I came up with a very basic but flexible solution.

 Player Blueprint & example Actor Blueprint

Within the Player Plueprint is a simple variable that can range from -1 to 100 (clamp). The sequence you see is being triggered by a Tick Event. As long as no invulnerability is active (there's an item to come that makes you invulnerable to any damage except falling) the health variable will be count up to a max of 100. Except the Health Regeneration is being deactivated of course (usefull little addition). Afterwards it is checking the player health <= 0, if so, an event will be triggered. But that event is actually a matinee (death anim), therefore it needs to be sent to another Blueprint (Map Functions) within the map, that then triggers the matinee using an Event Dispatcher.

Now to drain the health you but only need another Blueprint communicating with your Player Blueprint. Simply use the setup shown in the image above and it'll decrease your health by 5 for every tick (the higher the value, the faster you'll tick down).

Greetings,
Dave

Entry 016 - Cube Item, Map Preset and Post Processing

Lately I promised some more information about grabbing items. For the endgame of SPLIT I thought of special Energy Cell Cubes: they are needed to activate switches and can be grabbed and carried through the level. There will even be three different versions in order to create a challenging last third of the game. Originally the only difference between them should have been the dimension in which the player is able to carry them (blue can only be carried in the blue dimension). But that felt a bit boring after quite some time and I was searching for an alternative. Luckily, one night in bed (I almost fell asleep) it hit me: an Energy Cell Cube that buffs the player. That would add a whole new layer to the game, like one cube that makes you invulnerable to damage but slows you down at the same time. This is but only an example of what can be done with this feature. Added the ability to be able to throw the Energy Cells could lead to even more astonishing puzzles!

There's just one design problem for now (not to mention an insane blueprint): how are they carried? I tried several solutions; a cube just being attached to the player, a small icon like cube... but there are clipping issues (cube goes through walls) and considering that SPLIT is being developed to run perfectly with VR there are other issues. The screenshot below shows the current prototype but I'll definitely have to figure out real solution to this.

Map Center and Energy Cell attached to Player POV Camera

What can be seen in the screenshot as well is an advanced preset map with a center. Both cubes in the middle (blue and red) will rotate every time you switch dimensions as kind of an indicator slash mechanism that actually triggers the switch itself. On the left side of the screen you can see green numbers, they represent your current health. Yes, health! I've been busy implementing a health system (more on that later).

"Make Post Process Settings" function in Player Blueprint

While doing the health system I was thinking of a good feedback using post process effects. The slowmotion already uses a plane in front of the player camera with an fx material. The plane switches its visibility hence creating the slowmotion effect itself. But do I wanna add another cheap solution like this for the health feedback? Wouldn't it be cooler to change the post processing using a variable within the player blueprint? So I tried a few things and came up with a great solution (see image above). The "Make Post Process Settings" function offers anything I could dream of. Now I have to just figure out which values to change and the math behind it to create some nice fadings.

Greetings,

Dave

Entry 015 - Back from Vacation

There haven't been any news lately due to the fact that I was on vacation. Being back home, work continues of course. So what's next?

I thought a lot about more and new features to implement. One of them will be worked on within the next days and it'll be some kind of an easy grab item function. Once I've got a first prototype, I'll get a bit more into detail but until then stay tuned.

Greetings,
Dave