Posted March 25, 2021 by C.Declerck
Big changes this week! The lily pads upon which our hero must move around to save her skin from snakes, and crocodiles have been fully implemented. They register weight, sink when you or some dastardly fruit is too heavy, float back up when the weight is lifted, and get destroyed when fully submerged. Be careful now, our friendly spirit needs those lilies to stay alive!
Fruits are now spawned properly above lily pads, becoming a threat to our little friend, as both these and Myrrha will be rid off if they fall into the water. Under the hood some changes were also made, a design pattern was implemented that improves the memory usage of the fruits and the movement behaviour was entirely reworked to use simulated physics.
Luckily there's some good news for the protector of the lilies herself as grabbing fruit goes a lot more smoothly. Whereas the fruits instantly moved when grabbed, they now make a smooth motion upwards and have a small delay when following our friend Myrrha.
For the art we have new and exciting updates as well!
Let's start with RFX this week. Changes were made to one of last week's particles; the splash effect! When something falls in the water, you definitely won't miss it!
As to what exactly happens when something or someone gets hit, you'll be able to see thanks to these new damage indicators for lilies, fruits, snakes, and Myrrha alike!
Now let's move on to assets! The playing area is looking a lot more colourful and bountiful as various plants have planted themselves into the rich swampy soil.
As for Myrrha herself, her animations are all finished and set up. She can now move everywhere without much difficulty and her cloak has begun to flow in the wind with her thanks to the introduction of Chaos Cloth. (Don't be fooled, it's very reasonable)
But as Myrrha enters completion, so do her enemies rise to meet her! Work has started on proper models for the villainous serpent and the fruits that threaten her lily pads and beautiful swamp.
Of course at the centre of the story we need to have a stone-hard foundation. No, literally, we put a rock there!
And then last but not least; shaders. Because boy, do we have shaders for you! Major progress was made as Myrrha and the environment can now be fully procedurally shaded and make Myrrha's swamp feel alive and colourful. Along with Myrrha's cloak, the grass now also moves in the wind. Issues were had with the normals but luckily we can trust in Houdini to quickly fix those for us!