Sphere Shooter: Update video

Another Update of my third person shooter built using the Blender game engine, in this video I go over the changes which have been made since the last update:


Here is a copy of my notes for this video update, included is a text version of the information from the video plus a couple of bits I didn't mention.


Environment work - Level 1 creation

• First level is a quarry - wanted industrial area.
• Currently too grey/bland 

- more detailing to be added
- railings
- scafolding
- stairs
- barrels( too cliche?)
- boxes/ crates etc...
- junk
- more rock piles ( to more clearly distinguish roads)

• Designed to have a variety of options to where to go/ how to tackle the level.
• Level is loaded dynamically at runtime. 

  - uses blenders bge.logic.libLoad function.  

•  to get round the fact lights can't be loaded in, the levels have an empty defining the position of the spotlight 

         - spotlight defines the shadows and general lighting.

• there is also 2 hemi lights providing ambient lighting for the scene 

          - didn't use the ambient lighting feature as it tends to make everything look  washed out
          - they give shadows and darker areas a slight blue tint.
          - the harmony build allows shadows to have a colour assigned to the shadow,
                     this will replace one of the ambient lights which should improve performance a bit.

Gameplay Changes

• update to 2.6 broke it- had to be fixed, update to 2.61 broke it had to be fixed

          - the new animation system required changes to how the scripts deal with animations
          - had to change to changing values rather than activating on specific frames
          - the script uses animations by setting frameStart and frameEnd values

• the system for multiple animations has been in place for a while but finally made some

          - pistol animations
          - smg animations
          - rocket has idle animations (rocket itself needs fixing)

• grenades are now in the game as well

          - the sound is just a placeholder as is the model - sound from freesound
         - currently different animations for grenade throws - makes it behave differently - not ideal.
         - sfx explosion needs changing

• there is now effects applied upon death 

          - and when damage is taken.
                  - health slowly regenerates over time - i want to rebalance how long it takes so that people
                    aren't hiding behind cover waiting to regenerate their health

• minor updates

          - shooting updated to have less of a pattern to the bullet spread.