Milan's Systems Modelling Blog

As promised in the last post, this post will focus on how I created a more stylish effect when a cube key comes in contact with a cube-activated button, as well as some extra style-related things. Cube Key Snapping I wanted the cube to snap into the button with an interesting animation and the materials on the cube and button to change. I am fairly satisfied with the result I achieved, I must say. To begin, I created a Custom Event in my Cube Key blueprint called "Snap Into Place", which will be called when the key and button make contact. To prevent the player from interfering with the key after it comes within the button's trigger box, I turned off physics simulation on its static mesh using the Set Simulate Physics node. Since the invisible shockwave projectile can only push objects that simulate physics, this makes the Cube Key immune to its effects! The next step was to get the key where it needs to be. To do this, I used a Timeline to Lerp between its...

Having created the shockwave gun , I was ready to move on to what would act as the game's primary gameplay puzzle: Getting so-called "Cube keys" to "Cube-activated buttons" in order to open a door. Just as in the previous Robotrooper  instalment, these puzzles will slowly grow in terms of complexity throughout the game. First, I created models for the cube key, button and door by placing a few box brushes in the scene. Brushes are simple geometric shapes which can be used to create models of a limited complexity. After playing with the brushes and their " brush types " (additive or subtractive, i.e. whether they add or remove bits from the overall shape), I applied materials to their surfaces and converted them into static meshes, a process I still remember from my Foundation Year. I also added Simple and Complex collisions on them, which will make them "solid" in the game. Then it was time to create their blueprint equivalents. ...

As I talked about in my previous post , the main mechanic in Robotrooper: Simulation involves a shockwave gun which can push things around. In this blog post, I will detail the process of its creation. The Process To begin implementing this, I added a new action mapping to the project called "Swap". I did this by going into the Project Settings editor from the Edit menu and finding the Input section under the Engine category. The process of setting up a new mapping is actually quite similar to how it is in Unity, although I think Unreal's Input settings are a bit more intuitive out of the box. I mapped "Swap" to the Left Shift key. This means that when the Left Shift key is pressed, whatever actions I assign to "Swap" will be fired. Anyway, after doing that, I used this new mapping to create a "swap gun mode" functionality for the gun using Blueprints Visual Scripting , added to the FirstPersonCharacter blueprint. This use...

In today's blog post I will talk about the game that I am going to make for the module. The requirements for the project are as follows: It has to be based on the first person character template in Unreal Engine 4. The playable character must hold a gun of some sort  –  this is because modelling a 3D gun is a part of the module assignment. The game must consist of one scene only, including menus. The playable character must remain within the physical boundary walls of the first person template (though they may be hidden from view). My proposed idea for a game that meets the above criteria is below. Robotrooper: Simulation A sort of prequel to my previous project, Robotrooper: Survival . As the name itself suggests, the game will take place within a simulated reality, created for the purpose of testing the newest Robotrooper prototype and related gun technology before they are manufactured in the real world. You are put in the role of this simulated Robot...