Weekly update is back (hopefully for a bit now). The major features worked on this week were the Update to 2020.2.1f1, and interactable objects.

Added Features

Here is a breakdown of the features added by PR:

  • PR #169 Update to 2020.2.1f1, updated project to latest version of unity and fixed a lot of import, netcode, and ECS bugs that were in the project. This will be a constant trend of updating to follow the newest unity packages but it is the nature of the beast
  • PR #171 This detects what the player is looking at using a sphere cast in Unity DOT’s physics system. This allows for interacting with objects, other players, environment from the player and will have more added functionality in future PRs.
  • PR #172 Fixing Shadows, Before shadows looked terrible, now they have crisp edges and we have settings for various URP definition and shader levels (low, medium, high). Still need a menu and settings options for switching between these but that should be handled within the next few weeks, for now it will always be on high. Sample of shadows in scene before and after the shadows upgrade
  • PR #173 Player team component, in order to have the prophunt game work properly, we will need each player to exist on a team. This simply saves that player team data and added that component to our main test character. This PR was also the pr written but a new contributor to the project, timothy-buchanan. He has helped to review some of the PRs this week and hopefully will be contributing to the project more over the next few updates.
  • PR #174 Highlight objects, this feature was added by me, nicholas-maltbie and swiimii. This consists of finding out what the player is looking at and then making it blink, or glow, a specific color to tell the player. This feature is critical to informing the player what is happening when they try to transform into props or interact with objects. Image of cubes being highlighted when a player looks at them

Next Steps

The current feature being worked on is the interactable items. Right now there is a door being worked on that will change states whenever a player ‘interacts’ with the door. This interaction system will also be used to transform players into props (not sure if this will be handled on the client, server, or somewhere between the two). Prop transformation and objects that react when a player interacts with them will both be in the game by the end of next week.

After that, we will continue to work on the settings, UI, and configurations from a user. In addition to that, the game flow and rounds will be implemented soon.

There will also need to be some debugging and changing to the KCC in order to have a smooth game experience.