Summary: [b]In which a traversal-route in level two sees work; windows are unified; chairs are made; doors and windows see work, and an interactive one each is added to the level; and I experiment with the title-screen backdrop.[/b]
Greetings and salutations!
For this week's screenshots, a bit of traversal; specifically, part of the way out of the level. Since I have three screenshots this week, I'll scatter them over the course of the post. To start with, the problem: how do we get up there?
The week just past saw a lot of minor changes and fixes to level two, but nevertheless a number of more-salient things were also done:
First of all, as mentioned above, I made a lot of minor fixes and changes in level two: cleaning up geometry, fixing object-parenting issues, working on scripts, etc. And similar minor changes were made in other areas, such as the level-editor.
Perhaps more interestingly, I've been working a little on the routes through the level. In particular, I've altered a ground-based route through a particular section: Previously, the player could potentially drop to the ground and walk to the end of that section. Now, the street-level path is blocked--but there is a round-about way, a narrow gap, and a short "tunnel" beneath a building that a ranging player might find. It's a little more interesting, I think!
I mentioned last week, I believe, that I still had a fair few nodes in the level. In particular, the windows were a bit of a problem: each ended up composed of two objects, and due to multiple materials being used, one of those may have produced two separate draw-calls.
So, after a little bit of debate, I decided to unify them: to make a single set of colour- and normal- textures that handled all elements of a given window, thus allowing me me to combine windows into just a single object.
I also mentioned last week, I believe, that the exit to the level involved an as-yet unbuilt carriable object. In the week just past, I made that object: a chair, its back broken off (to obviate the question of collision with said back), but still with four stable legs.
(I ended up adding two to the level, as one alone turned out to be not quite high enough.)
One pleasant discovery was that a carriable object's orientation in the world doesn't affect its orientation when carried or set down. This means that I can have such objects placed at various angles, which may look a little more natural than having them all upright!
While the model in question has no back, it didn't start that way, as I recall: instead, I modelled an entire chair, and then made copies. One of these had its back removed to make the carriable object above. The others became props to litter the scene, with legs (largely) removed, and back either present or removed.
The doors and windows of the level also saw some work: While the window-model existed previously, I now have animations for it, and an openable window has been placed in the level. (Openable from one side, at least--it's barred.) The doors have been both modelled and animated, and much like the window mentioned above, one has been placed in the level that can be opened from inside its building.
Finally, I experimented a little with my title-screen, playing with "warmer" colours--I'm not sure that it's current state isn't a little too melancholy. We'll see how that goes!
And that's all for this week--stay well, and thank you for reading! ^_^