Perforce Unity Texture Metafile Problem Even When Uploaded

We now render to another chapter of the "Polarity" dev blog!

Although this time I'll be talking well-nigh the game's Heads Upward Display (HUD), I figured I'd mention that we (the programming team) did ready the upshot with Perforce (the version command software nosotros're using, more than on that in my previous post, titled 'Version Command with Perforce'). Information technology turned out we weren't always updating both file and accompanying meta file to our Perforce depot, we mostly would simply update the file. Nosotros learnt our lesson and now update both file and meta file.

As User Interface (UI) is a field of game programming I'm very interested in and something which I've enjoyed working on for by assignments and personal projects, I quickly put my hand up to work on the primary menu and HUD for Polarity.

In-Development screenshot of the HUD in Polarity.

As the explanation mentions, this screenshot was taken during development. What you lot see hither is the concluding HUD, notwithstanding a minor amending in terms of art is on the to-do listing of the UI artist.

Bits: The currency of Polarity

Only in instance I hadn't mentioned information technology in a previous mail service in this dev web log, the currency in Polarity is metal shrapnel, or '$.25', which is what the programming squad dubbed them. Now that I've explained the '$.25', the right-manus portion of the HUD is the 'fleck count', which displays how many bits the player has.

To advance through the surroundings, the thespian uses their $.25 to construct rough objects to assistance them in the completion of puzzles, or in just regular platforming, such as crossing a gap. This is where the left-mitt portion of the HUD comes in, the object cosmos/option wheel…er, one-half bicycle.

Object Creation/Selection bicycle

Displayed in the wheel are iii object tabs, each representing the corresponding object the player can create; a box, a girder, or a ball. Each of these tabs also features a number, representing the key the role player needs to press to create that object. The circumvolve in the middle of the bike, is used to display the 'bit toll', the number of bits the player requires to create the selected object. This number turns red if the thespian doesn't have enough $.25 for the object.

When the player selects a tab, the object creation system instantiates an 'impostor' object (semi-transparent version of the object) at the position of the mouse. This gives the player a visual indication of both the object they wish to create and also where it volition be placed in the environment. During this stage, the actor can click the left mouse button to create (and place) the object, or they can press the 'Tab' key to destroy the object, should they determine they don't want to create it.

The arrangement works two ways, the 'Q' and 'Eastward' keys tin also exist used to bike through the wheel tabs, instead of using the '1', '2' and '3' keys.

What about that tab with the 'X' in it, you might be wondering? That'south the 'Cancel' tab, which becomes selected when the 'Tab' fundamental is pressed. The game also automatically selects the 'Cancel' tab later an object is created, to ensure the impostor phase is only activated if the specific input from the actor is received.

Welcome back to the "Polarity" dev blog!

Work is coming along nicely on "Polarity", the group game project I'm working on for my avant-garde diploma form at the AIE.

Like all assignments we've washed so far, this one has "Learning Outcomes", knowledge we would accept gained from the assignment. One outcome for this assignment is version control using the Perforce version command software.

I'll commencement past proverb information technology is cracking software, very useful for grouping work. 1 programmer can edit a script and submit information technology to our project folder on the depot, so the rest of the programming squad tin only become the latest revision of a file, a folder or the whole project. No longer practise we demand to pass around pollex drives to update all of our private builds! Yesterday we even got our art team set up with Perforce, so now their textures and models are synced into the depot, where we tin can just get a latest revision of their work without asking them to put it onto Dropbox or a thumb drive.

Unfortunately, it's not always a smoothen ride with version control. As of yesterday afternoon, our lead programmer had a build that worked brilliantly, of which he uploaded to our Perforce depot. The residuum of the programming team and then downloaded it to try out the new build. It broke at dissimilar levels of severity for both of us, withal it nevertheless worked fine for our pb programmer. Nosotros've got a feeling nosotros oasis't been updating the meta data on Perforce, pregnant nosotros've only been updating scripts and other assets.

Today'south programme is to accept downward the entire project on Perforce and update the depot with the working build. Seems equally though that will likely fix our problem.

Welcome back to the "Polarity" dev blog.

In this mail, I'll be talking about one of the interactive objects in Polarity, the Pressure Plate (or Pressure Switch) and its journey from concept to becoming an interactive game object in Polarity.

The idea:

During the concepting stage, our artists suggested a lever object, which could be used in a puzzle sequence to, for example, unlock a door. Similar nigh games, our initial idea has since gone through several iterations, at our daily SCRUM meetings. As the idea changed, the lever thought was scrapped and the idea of a footing-based switch came into play. This switch would fufill the same purpose as the original lever idea and would testify simpler to programme in the long run.

Tying the Idea into the Game Mechanic:

As part of the core mechanic of the game is the collection of magnetized shrapnel, we use an 'Object Cosmos' system to enable the role player to craft crude/basic objects (out of their collected shrapnel), which can and then exist used to aid them in the completion of various puzzles to accelerate through sections of a level.

This same system also relates to the pressure plate, every bit they tin/will be incorporated into puzzles. One of the objects the player tin create is a ball, which might sound useless, however it'south now the only means of activating a pressure switch during the game, to make the puzzles more interesting.

Bringing the Concept to Life:

Having finished the scripting for the Pressure Plate, the bodily programming for it was relatively simple. As nosotros're using Unity3D, the plate has a mesh collider, which I've prepare to be a trigger (In Unity3D, a 'Trigger' is used to trigger something, such as a game effect of a door opening).

The 'OnTriggerEnter' function is used to detect a collision between the trigger (plate) and a collider. Equally simply about every object in the game has some form of collider fastened to it and we merely want to activate a plate if a ball falls/rolls onto it, I employ a simple 'if' statement to ensure only a ball tin can activate the plate.

And visually, my script plays an animation of the plate sinking into its base of operations and changes its material colour to green. These ii features give a visual indication of the plate existence activated.

My 'Programmer Scribble' ideation of how the Pressure Plate systems would piece of work.

Greetings readers,

Last week, I started work on the 'Image' grouping assignment for my Advanced Diploma course at the AIE. To briefly sum up the assignment, programmers and artists come together in teams to create a prototype game…..In four weeks.

It'south a requirement of this assignment, that I proceed a development web log of the project as piece of work progresses. Equally I've fabricated a new post category for these posts, simply click Dev Blog – "Polarity", nether 'Categories"to view all posts related to this detail weblog.

For this projection, I'm in a team consisting of 3 programmers and 3 artists. We're using the Unity3D engine for the game, as information technology'southward an excellent and like shooting fish in a barrel to utilise tool for rapid game prototyping. On the plus side, near of the team are familiar with Unity and had worked with information technology before. C# was the obvious language of choice for scripting, all 3 of the states programmers in the team know it well.

I won't give abroad too much nearly the game at this phase, I volition mention information technology's a 'puzzle platformer' game, a 3D game but viewed on the side via a side-scrolling camera with a locked Z (depth) axis. You may have guessed from the blog (and post) championship, we have named our game "Polarity", equally the core gameplay mechanic revolves around magnetism.

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Source: https://lcmccauley.wordpress.com/2013/06/