#xb2001

Today was spent getting the player to interact with items in the kitchen, as it’s the easiest room of the four. Once I have most of the blueprints down for it the rest should fall into place quite easily.

Here are the blueprints for an interactable toolbox in the game.

First, when the object is clicked on, the player loses input and the character automatically walks directly towards the object.

Next, a widget is created with two blank text boxes inside, one for text the player is saying, and another to inform them if they’ve picked up an item. Binding the text box and using a variable, I can have it edited to say whatever is needed when an item is clicked. In this case, if the players picked up bobby pins earlier in the level, it allows the players to unlock it...

And add the toolbox to their inventory.

If not, the game informs them that they’re missing something still.

This post isn’t really attached to any of my modules in particular as it’s something I’m using in pretty much any assignment that utilises UE4, however, I felt like it’s good to write about my progress anyway.

I’m no animator, especially not one who can rig meshes and create awesome-looking animations like those seen in Assassin’s Creed or Uncharted, however that doesn’t stop me from knowing how to play around with them in-engine.

Acquiring Animations:

Like I said, I’m no animator, so I need to source my animations from elsewhere. The default ones that come with UE4 are great and are all really great for prototyping but they don’t offer that visual flair that I was looking for (I should point out that the example I’m using in this post will be hostiles from my XB2001 assignment). 

That’s where Mixamo comes in. It’s a lifesaver - for those that don’t know it, it’s a site that offers free character meshes complete with skeletons and a lot of animations to play with. They can be imported into Unreal and pretty much any other engine that I can think of quite easily. You can customise details of the animations, too, some of which will be about positioning of certain limbs, the speed of limb movement, how many keyframes the animation has, where the animation has the character staying in place or not and so on.

I downloaded a bunch of zombie meshes from it along with animations to match and brought them all into UE4.

Setting Up the Animations:

When importing a mesh into UE4 it always offers to build a skeleton and a physics asset out of that mesh which is really handy as a mesh with no skeleton cannot be animated. For me, everything went quite smoothly.

Here’s one of the zombies in all her T-pose glory. The next bit was the hard part - I needed to create a way for the engine to know what animations to play, when to play them, and what order it should do them in. For something like this in programming we’d use state machines and it’s no different in this instance, but instead of playing with AI behaviours or camera logic, I’d be using animations.

Now that the engine has a bunch of animations it can play, it just needs to know one more thing. If the zombie was to walk, it’d move but its idle animations would still play. The fix to this is pretty straightforward - we need to tell it that once the pawn that possesses this animation blueprint moves at a certain speed, play the walk or run animations. We’d do that partially in the state machine and partially in the animation blueprint.

Now that we’ve gotten the pawn’s speed and direction and have set those values, the engine will know what to do on its end. The only thing left is blend space - without it, the engine will just snap to the next animation very suddenly and jarringly, it looks horrid. Blend spaces are there to fix that. The programmer in me found them really interesting so I’m going to enthuse about them a little bit, so don’t mind that!

A blend space is something that blends animations together, funnily enough. It adds a smooth transition between each one so that the skeleton of the mesh will have more natural movement once it switches to a new animation. When the default character in UE4 runs then stops, those are just 2 animations - run and idle. The blend space is what makes the transition between the two look incredibly smooth.

There are different kinds of blend space - 1D and 2D. The image above is a 2D blend space, this is what allows me to utilise direction. If you imagine that direct up from the centre is forward, then the lines either side are left and right, then both ends of the graph are backwards, that allows us to create a blend between animations that would involve strafing or running backwards and so on. 1D blend spaces allow us to create a much more linear graph that doesn’t utilise all of the above which is great for when you want to create a game that doesn’t need that many animations.

Mine technically doesn’t, but I want more experience with working with UE4′s animations, blend spaces, skeletons and so on.

There’s a lot more to show off, there’s a lot that one can do with animation blueprints and blend spaces. I’ll be working on them gradually over time because they aren’t a priority in any of my projects but they’re nice to have in anyway because they make the game feel more complete despite it just being a prototype.

https://imgur.com/0Gt7AIg (a gif to show the engine randomly choosing idle states for our zombie friend)

I have started work on 4 separate documents to work towards my final goal of a 10 page game design document.

The GDD - Game Design Document 

Week 1 

I have been working towards creating ideas, doing research, making a scene in UE4 and starting the write up for the document. My idea, I have decided on the theme of an abandoned city which has been derelict for 30 years. This was from an EMP ( electromagnetic pulse ). 

Ive added assets to my map and lighting effects to give it a dungeon like theme.

01/11/2017 - Today I modelled a sci-fi themed sword, a crate, a heavy weapon and some doors, though I am happy with the visual representations below, these models are not properly unwrapped and details have been modelled into them which can be painted on instead, I plan on rectifying these issues.

Sword 

I am happy with this design though not so much with the addition of light at the bottom, I would rather the light be scattered across the sword, emanating from hieroglyphics and indentations within the blade.

Heavy Weapon 

Again I am happy with the below renders though darkness is hiding some imperfections such as dents in the blade, I plan on remaking this model, keeping the geometry as simple as possible before painting on details such as the hieroglyphics. 

Crate 

I am not overly fond of this crate model, I am planning on creating 2 or 3 new crate models.

Door (Single and Double)

I am not sure if the below model will make it into the prototype, I created it simply to see if I could model a door in correlation with a sci-fi theme, it would definitely need more surface modelling if it was to make it to the prototype, as it is very simple in its current state. 

10/11/2017

Altered Sword Model

 I decided to make alterations to the sword model, I added alphas to the grip with emissive values and painted on emission to the indents in the blade of the sword, each part of the model has been unwrapped separately and has it’s own 2048x2048 texture, resulting in a high-quality visual outcome. The emissive colours which are currently red can easily be set to any other colour if need be.

I will now go on to alter other models previously featured in this blog post.

New Crate

I decided to make a new sci-fi themed crate and abandon my last effort for the time being at least, I took advantage of Substance Painters hard surface stamps when texturing this model, I am happy with the result.

First crate revisited

I have created a crate similar to the first in shape, though with a more effective use of a polycount with most of the detail implemented in Substance Painter.

11/11/2017

Barrel Model 1/2

Below is a barrel prop I made, I plan on making another variation of this asset type. 

Barrel Model 2/2

Heavy Weapon

Below are renders of my heavy weapon model, an alternate weapon for the player to wield in our prototype, it is a hammer type heavy weapon with thrusters at its rear. 

19/11/2017

Today I researched into other possible props I could create for our prototype, I have decided to dedicate today to the creation of a sci-fi themed billboard, a teleporter, a computer system and I am also going to experiment with the creation of artificial trees using paint effects in Maya.

Below are some images of assets available to purchase at www.assetstore.unity3d.com that I will be using for inspiration.

Artificial Trees

I created the trees below using paint effects in Maya, I simply used a default tree brush which I used to create 2 different trees, before exporting them into Substance Painter where I altered the textures to appear artificial, my goal here was to create a textures that would make the trees look artificial and man-made, fitting with the sci-fi theme we are going for.

Teleport/Jump Pad - Inspired by my reference images, could be used if the player needs to be teleported.

Sidebar - After some discussion with my teammates, it has become apparent that I must divert from my current plan as there is a need for me to create a shield model for the player character to use, and market stalls to be featured within the game environment. I will prioritize the creation of these assets, starting with the shield.

Below are some images I will use for inspiration in the creation of this asset.

23/11/2017

Finished Shield Model 

Using the above reference images as inspiration, I decided to create a 1 handed shield, once again featuring emission as is a common theme with all of the assets I am creating for our prototype. The shield features a solid metal inner with painted on decals and some circular lighting on the outer edges as well as a sort of holographic shield extension with opacity. I am happy with this outcome.

Market Stalls 

I am fairly happy with the stalls below, though upon conversing with my team, we have decided it is best I add some form of lighting to these models. I would also like to work on creating street lights for our prototype once I am done with the stalls.

Below are some images my team and I have gathered which I will use for inspiration in the creation of the lighting for our scene.

24/11/2017

Lighting

Following yesterdays feedback, I have begun to create lighting for our prototype and the stall models.

Stall 1 w/ lighting

Stall 2 w/ lighting

Stall 3 w/ added lighting

Now that I am happy with the stall models, I will move on to creating street lighting for our prototype.

Streetlight 1

Streetlight 2 

25/11/2017 - Today I am going to make a fairly random assortment of assets to add variation to our prototype.

Pallets

Pallets - Second Variation

28/11/2017

After discussing my current progress with my tutor and my team, it has become apparent to me that they are more than satisfied with the number of models I have created and the detail which has gone into each in individual model. The next main step for me to take is to begin importing assets into our prototype, which I will be able to do as soon as Dom has finalized the creation of the environment to at least some extent.

Whilst waiting to move onto the next necessary stage I am going to create some smaller props, Alex has instructed me with the task of creating smaller prop assets that can be featured in the market area of our prototype, first I will create various batteries, inspired by the below Sketchfab upload.

Batteries by Grzegorz Kozłowski on Sketchfab

Finished Batteries - 3 variations, fairly simple, created for the purpose of being displayed on the surface of the stall models within open crates.

29/11/2017

When texturing the crate assets I came across a brick wall of sorts, there is a fair range of hard surfaces available within Substance Painter, though often I require a simple shape which I would assume would be included within the program and it is not. To overcome this obstacle I decided to learn how to create my own hard surface stamps, this was a fairly lengthy process as I went in with very limited knowledge, but I am now comfortable with saying I can now quite efficiently produce a vast array of hard surfaces which will be very useful in any future projects I undertake.

Below is a hard surface stamp I created, a simple bevelled rectangle which I have used in the texturing process of the open crate models.

Open Crates 

2 variations, created to contain small assets such as batteries and beverages.

Drinks Container

A simple model, created to contain beverages I have yet to model, will most likely be located on the bar stall which I will also be modelling a chair for. The texture below will appear more metallic in UE4.

01/12/2017

Beverages

2 variations, bottled and canned alcohol.The canned beverage design has been inspired by the below image sourced from the following article, entitled  “ A Brewery Founded By MIT Geeks Releases a New Sci-Fi Rock Album on Beer Cans”.

http://crushbrew.com/a-brewery-founded-by-mit-geeks-releases-a-new-sci-fi-rock-album-on-beer-cans 

I really like the aesthetic featured in both of these beverage variations.

03/12/2017

Barstool

Fairly simple model, I purposely avoided overly smoothing this model as it could have quite easily exceeded an efficient polycount. I feel I have applied an aesthetically pleasing texture to this model, that does not appear too dissimilar to my other assets. 

04/12/2017

The last thing I have been instructed to model is a semi-circular bar, keeping with the sci-fi theme. 

I will create something similar to the image below, which is an image taken from the game Mass Effect Andromeda. 

06/1/2017

Bar Model

Loosely based on the above image, effective use of emission and minor hard surface detail has resulted in an attractive looking asset.

I began by starting with the first person template in UE4 and I stripped away the unneeded components. I removed the default weapon from the first person blueprint and replaced it with my previously modeled staff mesh. 

The projectile blueprint served as a very good starting point for a fireball style spell. I unchecked the visible box for the orange sphere and added a fire particle system.

 On colliding with something an explosion particle system is created and a radial force is applied to all other actors within the sphere collision, then the actor is destroyed. In order to show off the force of these explosions I added some destructible meshes to my level.

 Now when the projectiles come into contact with these destructible meshes they will fall apart and the debris will be knocked back. Although not at all integral to the mechanics of the game this adds “game juice” and makes the experience more memorable.

Now for the problem of scaling this tower. For the super jump scroll I created a new blueprint and used a cylinder to represent to scroll. To make it more obvious that it is a collectible I added a small amount of logic to make it revolve on the spot. 

When the player overlaps with this scroll it disappears and a boolean in the character blueprint is changed. This is a very basic inventory system, however it is limited to either having the scroll or not, as this is a boolean only stores a positive or negative value. In the future I would like to improve this system to allow for the logic to track the number of items also.

 At this point it is possible to scale the tower by navigating the level, finding the scroll and jumping to the top of the tower, however I was unsatisfied so I decided to add some opposition. The dragon is the classic enemy of the wizard, so I imported a low poly dragon mesh that I have 3d modeled.

Today has mostly been spent assigning the blueprints to each room to get all their puzzles working, so far the Kitchen and the Living Room are finished, and both their puzzles are completely solvable. Progress has begun on the bedroom and I’ll then finish with the study.

I’ve also added sequences that show the statue lining up with the door when each puzzle is solved. There’ll be four in total as each of the puzzles are complete.