Entry 022 - Energy Cells 2.0

Since last time a few things have happened. First of all the Energy Cell Texture has been improved for the lying around actor. At the same time, the whole blueprint has been redone to get rid of some issues I had. Previously the interaction was defined by an Overlapping event that worked, until the player threw the Cell right in front of him. To fix that, I instead used a Tick event with an "Is Overlapping Actor" that it working alright. This did come with new problems but that is programming I guess...

Left: Common Switch - Right: Energy Cell Station (both wip)

At the same time I started working on the Switches and the Cell Stations, where the Cell itself have to be put in in order to provide any other actor with energy (activate Switches etc.). And that pretty much wraps it up for this time.

Greetings,
Dave

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

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