Entry 019 - Prototyped Walkable Mainmenu

This time let me present a short glance of the prototype for a walkable mainmenu. The menu items are being switched/scrolled using the arrow keys or the mouse wheel. To active the currently selected item, left klick or enter is being used. It's but only a little test for now and there are several other ideas worth considering.

Mainmenu Prototype - With Walkable Dummy Options Area

You might be asking, why no news for the Energy Cells? Well, I ran into several issues I couldn't resolve due to engine limitations and VR itself. Therefore I stoped working on it (for now) to clear my head to come up with new ideas... and in the meantime the mainmenu sounded like a sweet idea.

Greetings,

Dave

Entry 018 - Visual Feedback & FX

While still trying to find a solution (almost did it) to the carriable Energy Cell, I did a few things to improve the effects for the Slowmotion and the Player Health. So let's get started with the player health:

Player Health - Visual Feedback (left death, right wounded)

As your health decreases, so does the saturation while the chromatic aberration and the vignette effect decrease. For the Slowmotion instead contrast, bloom and motion blur (only noticable in motion) are being changed to get a brighter and more intense image.

Slowmotion - Visual Feedback (left active, right not active)

So how did I manage to do that? If you remember Entry 16 I figured out the "Make Post Process Settings" function and used it to my advantage. The short version of what happened: after a couple of failures (like one special function for everything) I created many variables and a function that does update the post process settings whenever needed.

Custom Post Process Tick Function using Variables

It basically uses variables to update itself. It's being fired using the Tick Event, BUT: there's a branch checking if it is needed at all. So for instance, if the health is above 100 and there is no effect going on it won't be used saving performance. Now the only thing that's left to do is to change the variables in order to create an effect which can be seen in the image below.

Slowmotion FX using Variables to work with the Custom Function

This is a bit more complicated in order to achieve a fade out once the energy used for the skill is going from 100 towards zero. What can also be seen is another custom function called "Set_PostProcessSettings_Reset" to restore the settings to default if the respective checkbox is checked. All of this is but a tiny glimpse and does only represent a small aspect of the entire solution.

Greetings,
Dave

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

Entry 014 - The Big Sphere

If you've read all the previous posts and checked either IndieDB or the UE4 Forums, you might have heared about the huge Sphere. If not: it's the sphere that inherits all puzzle- and mini-Spheres. Its scale is just huge and it took a lot of effort to create a prototyped version, but here is a sneak peak of it.

Huge Main-Sphere - First Prototype (Scaling is final though)

It's mainly a huge dome with a sky in it (not final yet) and it works like a solar system. Right in the center will be an energy source (like the sun) and around it you'll find the puzzle-Spheres (like planets). What's yet missing is the mini-Spheres (moons)around the puzzle-Spheres but that'll be there soon.

This biggest challenge is, besides the placement, rotation etc. of the puzzle- and mini-Spheres, the extreme size of the environment. Trying to compile the map uses 31.1GB of memory space, it has already been shrinked due to that! Else, the skybox is kind of tricky. It oughta look like an artificial solar system combined with the "planets" inside. I'm still struggling with the frame around but in my opinion, it supports the "fake"-look I am going for. There is much more to do, but that is what I've accomplished so far (since especially the compiling was a pain in the ass: make the area just a bit bigger and it'll say I don't have enough memory).

Greetings,
Dave

Entry 013 - Documentation and Game Design

So you might be wondering why there haven't been any updates so far. Did I just do nothing or what is it? The simple answer is, that I just haven't had anything to show. Therefore, what have I done?

Well first of all a lot of brainstorming. Came up with new features, new puzzle ideas and new gameplay elements. Besides that I was mostly writing documents to keep a good overview of the project itself. And then I also continued working on the preset map for both the puzzle and the big area, where all the spheres are in. As soon as I have anything new to show, I'll definitely do so, just a few more things to finish first.

Greetings,
Dave