Greeting and welcome to newsletter # 10
The latest video dev log has been released on YouTube and can be found here:
Last Week:
After receiving the final guard model I spent the beginning of last week rigging it using the method I outlined in a previous DevLog. I found I had missed a few steps in that video so I plan to make a dedicated tutorial at some point that outlines the whole process after I finish the mini map tutorial
To give the guards variety I had 4 heads created but that meant I had to have them attach to the model using Unreals socket system during enemy spawn. This led to some funny results as my death effect only took the body in as a parameter so the head would fall off after you defeated a guard
I also threw together a quick montage using some free animations to see how the gun spawn effect would look in game and I think it is pretty slick! Can’t wait to see it all hooked up to the guard AI so they ready weapons before going to investigate
The other thing I worked on last week was blocking out the initial level to get it ready for a higher resolution model and texture pass. I wanted to have a border around walls on the floor so the level didn’t look like it was put together from different parts (even though it will be).
I tried a number of solutions I but didn’t like any of the results. One problem is that I couldn’t control what was making the boarder so the heads that dropped and other objects would have outlines. Another issue was that moving the module around would cause the outline to cover everything. It is a pretty good start though and I can already see the endlessly fun possibilities that will arise from the procedural level generation so I’m really looking forward to that as well!
Some of the possible ways to fix this outline issue have to do with Unreal Geometry Script and the PCG System. I’ve been looking at these tutorials for inspiration. I’ll have more on this next week
Tutorials:
Introduction to PCG Workflows in Unreal Engine 5
Unreal Tutorial: Geometry Script Boolean Operation at Runtime
UE5 Geometry Script – Booleans at Runtime
This Week:
- Continue on level design, modeling and texturing
- Update damage and death voxel particle system to use multiple meshes and data channels
That is all for this update,
Tony D
Cronoforge Studios Inc