CSG, Sprinting, Water (Old and New)

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Bill Kerney

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Published on September 8, 2021 4:45:24 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOajO1LfeXc

Duration: 1:30:03

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We started off for an hour talking about the importance of having experienced staff when doing game development, staff retention, and so forth. I pointed the students at GDC Vault, which is a great resource for game developers. Then we talked about PC gaming, modding, and console gaming.


After an hour we switched into UE4, and remade a quick little landscape and then did the following:


1) Talked about constructive solid geometry (CSG) with the brush system (found in the geometry subsection from the object pallate) where you can add and subtract geometric shapes with each other, which allows you to block out simple meshes pretty easily.



2) Implemented a sprinting system. If we hit shift, it increases our max walk speed by 2.5x, and when we release it takes us back to the normal speed.


3) Implemented an old fashioned water system two ways: 1) by using a geometric cube and setting the size up so the textures don't stretch on it, and 2) by using a plane and setting the collision to off so we can fall through it. I should have modified the material to have the textures scale right, but I was lazy. I then turned the plane into a blueprint and used the power of trigonometry to have the water rise and fall over time. This can create really complex looking waves with very few triangles (2, actually) and just be having it move up and down in the Z direction every frame. As it intersects the contours of the landscape, it looks like a wave rolls in. It's *good enough* for a lot of purposes, and very very fast.


4) Used the new Unreal Water System. Key point: Make sure Enable Edit Layers is enabled or it won't work. You can drag out an ocean to surround the land you're on with water, you can drag a lake to surround water with your land, you can add a river to carve a channel through the land, and there is an overall water manager that will do its best to blend the different water sources with each other wherever they touch. If you want to play with the water wave settings turn on Gerstner waves and there's all sorts of variables you can tweak to your heart's content. Likewise, the boundary settings on the lakes, rivers, oceans, etc., really need to be messed with to look good. By default they create a really obvious boundary around themselves that looks quite artificial.