Mass Effect: Unification (build 40316/06) (R6 RELEASED)

[Maveritchell]

Camera-shake's definitely possible, it's done using quake regions.

[Marth8880]

@Mav: Right, but is there a way to trigger a shake at a precise time via scripting? But if I can simply use like, a quake region that encompasses the whole level and causes a single shake whenever I tell it to via scripting, that'd be much more preferable than my current workaround. (It's worth noting that I've never really used or dealt with quake regions before, other than in Luna in like, 2011.)

In my deferred shield regen system, the way I implemented camera shake for when the player's shields are broken is by using CreateEntity to spawn at the player's location a dummy mine that immediately explodes and shakes the camera. However, when I tried using this implementation here in my cinematic system this morning, it didn't seem to work, which I'd imagine would have something to do with the player being in the "camera" vehicle (my reasoning being the fact that the same implementation of the shake *does* work when I test it while *not* in a vehicle).

[Maveritchell]

Yeah, you can. I did this way back with my Spira: Besaid map. What you want to do is make your quake region (wherever you want it) and use SetClassProperty on the pertinent properties. Ex:

Code: Select all

    SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MinShakeAmt", 0)
    SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MaxShakeAmt", 0)
    SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MinShakeLen", 0)
    SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MaxShakeLen", 0)
    SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "SoundName", " ")

...

    			SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MinShakeAmt", 1)
    			SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MaxShakeAmt", 2.5)
    			SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MinShakeLen", 0.1)
    			SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "MaxShakeLen", 0.75)
    			SetClassProperty("ffx_prop_quake", "SoundName", "tremor")

[Marth8880]

Thanks Mav! I'll definitely have to look into that!

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EVERYONE! I need feedback for Europa's trailer! It's worth noting that this is a rough draft and things such as the level's art are going to be improved, but yeah! It's also worth noting that this along with my demo reel will determine whether or not I graduate this quarter.

Give it a watch or two and let me know what you think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6tVesLxV3k

[Anakin]

I don't have sound at the moment, but it looks great

[thelegend]

This trailer is absolutely amazing. I really love all the cuts, the speaking through the first half which gives you a teasing feeling of what's actually going on. The second halfs shows you, the viewer, the real in-game action. It also changes the feeling from being curious into full excitement. This is a really good one

[ARCTroopaNate]

Goosebumps, really well done Marth.

[Marth8880]

Thanks a lot, guys! Any ideas for improvements or anything?

[Kingpin]

Brilliant! It's been too long since we've had a new update.

[thelegend]

Tbh not really. The only thing I personally would change is the duration of the ending (where we can see/find ways of contacting) by half at least. But that's all then.

[Marth8880]

Streaming development of R6 now on twitch! http://ht.ly/Zpah300MAiP

[Kingpin]

Stopped by for a jiffy. That terrain is looking great!

[Marth8880]

____________________________________________________________________


Guys, we need to talk. There's a problem with the custom HUD. Why don't you come on in? I'm baking cookies!

____________________________________________________________________


I'm Chris Hansen. Why don't you take a seat over there for me.

But seriously though, as most of you (hopefully) know, R6 is in the works for MEU, and one of the many new features included in it is the custom HUD. But, there's a problem...


The Problem

In the new HUD, there are text overflow issues with many of the longer weapon names, most notably weapons with armor-piercing rounds. Here are a couple screenshots of the text overflow issue:






The Solution

In the name of every weapon that fires armor-piercing rounds, "Armor-Piercing" will be changed to either "Armor" or "AP"! As such, we can't decide which one to go with, so we've created this very short survey for all of you to quickly vote on which name to go with! (Don't worry, all the survey consists of is a single multiple-choice question with only 2 choices.)




The Semantics

When it comes to UI/UX design, nothing should ever be confusing to the user; everything everywhere must make as much sense as possible.



With that said, there's a couple issues with using "AP" instead of "Armor", or vice versa. Neither "Armor" nor "AP" are very clear as to what they do — but, "AP" is actually a relatively-well-known abbreviation for armor-piercing rounds in real-world militaries. However, not all gamers are going to be immediately familiar with this abbreviation, and it might throw off players who are looking for "Armor-Piercing" rounds since that's how it's spelled in the Mass Effect trilogy. Because of all of those issues with "AP", "Armor" might be a better option, simply because it's slightly more explanatory.

That's why we need your guys' help deciding which option to go with! So in case you don't feel like scrolling back up to help vote, here's another link to the survey:



Outcome Examples

Following are examples of how each option would appear in-game.


"Armor" Examples






"AP" Examples

[Kingpin]

I honestly would have neither and just have the name of the gun show up

[Anakin]

I honestly would have neither and just have the name of the gun show up

[willinator]

^^Honestly what they said. The weapons already have the colored effects to show which type of ammo they use, I feel like most players in game don't really look to see what the weapon is called, they just look at the character.

[Anakin]

Just an idea, but maybe you can use some kind of string code to generate a new line. Something like "\n" So you'd name your weapon
"very cool weapon\nwith heavy ammo"
and it will result in
"very cool weapon
with heavy ammo"

[thelegend]

I personally would stick to (AP). It just looks better and makes the name of the weapon a bit shorter.
Why not including important notes in your ReadMe where you list...important notes containing information about the HUD+its elements for example. Every game I ever played before explained the HUD very clear in the beginning (From the minimap to the health and stamina bars..).

[AQT]

(Disruptor) and (Incendiary) variants of the example weapons shown are planned, so just having the weapon name alone won't differentiate the variants from each other. Yes, the color coding on the weapon models themselves does do this visually, but that alone doesn't describe the functionality of the ammo colors. Sure, it is nice to document the features of a HUD somewhere, but the goal is to minimize the necessity of relying on secondary sources for understanding a HUD.

@Anakin: If that works, then the weapon name would appear on two lines on the spawn screen as well. Also, you can simply go to the next line in the localization tool by hitting the Enter key.

[Anakin]

[...]Why not including important notes in your ReadMe[...]

because no one reads it

@Anakin: If that works, then the weapon name would appear on two lines on the spawn screen as well. Also, you can simply go to the next line in the localization tool by hitting the Enter key.

really that works?? haven't thought of the spawn screen, but yes that would be a problem.
What about this: You already made a custom HUD, so why don't you change the localize path for the HUD text?? That way you can have a different name (with enter) on the HUD and at the spawn screen you take the old name without enter.