Entry 021 - Energy Cells

So last news it spoiled the Energy Cells and well, let's have a look at them. But first: what has changed my mind to implement them after all? The answer to that is simple, I figured out how to make them be in front of everything (no clipping). Within the materials there's an option called "Disable Depth Test" that, combined with a translucent material, does exactly that.

Energy Cell Prototype - Can be Taken and Thrown

The white "stripes" indicate, that the player can interact with the object. So once you get close enough you can use the object and in this case grab it. Once that is done, it'll be displayed close to you:

Energy Cell Prototype - Carried by the Player

I've also managed to make the item throw-able already hence hitting the F key will throw the Energy Cell away. If it does land on the floor, it can be grabbed again. Though if it does fall down, it'll respawn at its initial position. This system works perfect although I did use some tricks...

Besides that a nice material effect has been done that will show off the current energy for the carried Energy Cell itself. And well, only the basic Cell is in the game so far, meaning that in the future the other ones with the actual skills will follow. Last, quick notice: I am currently thinking of removing the Electricity Induction Cubes or re-doing them.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more awesome info!
Greetings,
Dave

PS: The purple cube is being used for the Teleportation Energy Cell.

Entry 020 - PC broken and Packaging Problems

The last few weeks have been a pain in the ass. Beg me pardon for this expression, but truth must be spoken. First of all I have had problems packaging the game, it just never worked. I tried getting rid of all the errors but it just didn't work. A whole week I was devastated until I made the decision, to "redo" SPLIT. But before I even got the chance to do so, my PC (mainboard) broke.

I have had problems before with my board, so that my CPU only used 1,2 instead of 3,4 GHz (i7 2600k). That wasn't perfect but it worked and I hoped it at least would be okay until Skylake (i7 6700K) would arrive... of course, it didn't last. So now I am working with my Notebook, though it does not have enough power to work properly with (especially VR).

Therefore until Skylake is released I have to work with my Notebook and for the last three weeks I did. I am almost done re-creating SPLIT and I am very happy with that since the UE4 finally does package the project properly. But yeah, that's pretty much it. Re-creating SPLIT in a new project (everything newly imported etc.) and trying to set up my Notebook so I can work with it. And well... I did some other stuff like I figured out a way to implement the Energy Cells but that's a news for the next blog entry.

Greetings,
Dave