Unreal 4 engine development 3

Here in this developmental stage, this is where everything is coming together in all the rooms I had designed, with the majority collective of all the objects being introduced into the scene, just most of them not being textured at this point. 

The dining area was finally introduced to the scene, with the use of tables, chairs & bookcases  created by myself, the only problem though was the scaling of the objects was too large, so tweaking them became a slight irritation as the comparison between the size it was supposed to be, to what it came in as when imported.

Bathroom

Bedroom

Mirror material

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

What was intended for the use of the mirror material, was to have the same reflected material, but to add a grunge effect over it, as seen in the two references below (Allison road & Silent Hills PT). This use of grunge on the mirrors is used throughout horror movies and games alike & is one effect way help intensify the mood of the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VV9Ex74ws

http://www.geeksofdoom.com/tag/p-t

opening doors blueprint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uzTL9cbwhs

When following this tutorial the  process seemed quite simple. I successfully connected all the nodes together & included a box trigger to my door, I thought that this would be the process finalised, but unfortunately the pivot point was not in the right position. It took a few  tries as it didn't want to update in unreal 4 engine, but eventually I managed to tweak it in maya and import it into the engine after deleting the door several times.

Case Study 1

Case Study : Silent Hills P.T.

 In De Jongs “The hows and whys of level design” he talks about the various elements that go into making games and how they are successful, but one of his quotes on presence perfectly describes how the industry achieves it - “Creating a world that lives and breathes through the use of level design in all its aspect” (P122, De Jong 2006). One game that proved itself worthy in showing presence within its gameplay is none other than the PS4 demo of P.T. Silent Hills. Although it is only a short play through it shows all the necessary factors which are involved in presence through its immersion pipeline, that being ( style, story, sound, lighting....) in which every element is clearly shown, not particularly through the characters eyes but in the environment itself. The Story element  is hinted heavily in this game but is shown mostly through the radio reports and and telephone calls as you progress through this L shaped hallway which continues an endless loop giving you hints as to what happened to the deceased family of the house. As Dave Smith puts it, “Offering variety without any real overarching plot, the game would deprive players of knowledge about the creepy events that are happening around them, in the same way that “P.T.” forces you to piece together the plot puzzle one little clue at a time.”(Dave Smith 2014) e.g.(telling the story through hints, but the player having to piece it all together as they progress). The one thing that emulates a strong sense of presence in the silent hills demo is the ever unnerving realistic ambient music/ sounds which some quietly loop in the background rising the players anxiety levels creating a tension but still giving the feeling that it is coming from the house, an example of this would be the constant screeching in the background which is fairly subtle, but still noticeable and the swaying of the ceiling light. When it comes to the visual style of the game, the environments are generally kept to the same subtle, but generally grimy looks of the series/ franchise, but this title has a more realistic look to it, and also the immersion isn’t broken by its lighting but rather is enhanced by it, and adds to the whole horror feel .

Unreal 4 development progress 2

As well as adjusting the lighting for the living room of the environment & adding a more natural glass look to the windows, I made a start on adding prop objects to the bathroom & bedroom such as a shower head, ceiling lights and a bed. What was also started was the texturing for the walls & floors of these rooms,

event ideas

Normally in an Immersive experience, the factor of story would be included in the game, but due to idea of this level being too small & possibly too ambitious in its design, this may make the development process too long to tell any real amount of story in the play through. So instead of story being a factor within the game, I decide to include the use of trigger events to commence when entering each vicinity. The ideas include mostly sound based events because of its more immersive capabilities. the sounds will be provided by Cameron Brown at a later date.

presentation progress - 3rd of March

Sorry this post is a little late But yesterday I had my presentation, were I had shown the current stage that I was at with my practical work. Despite getting a little tongue tied , I felt that the main subject of the game levels progress was communicated very well, as well as David Lyons looking fairly happy with what I was doing. However the only worry he expressed though was that would I be able to finish it in time for the deadline?, to which I replied yes since it would be fairly small scale.