...It does imply it though...
Honestly, I've had so few obstacles with some of the tasks I've attempted, it just didn't feel important to update. It wasn't a lot of work though--especially since I had a family vacation last week.
First, I added three more bad guys to chase me around my "Doom Level". They zip off to different corners of the map when shot three times, just like they should.
Second, I added a particle effect for the "bullet" striking an object. Just some sparks. It took some time making sense of the particle system, but it works.
I also included a tracer bullet.
I'm going to expand on that a little...
I originally conceived the tracer bullet as a solid yellow capsule the size of...well, a bullet. But with the frame rate, the bullet traveled too fast to be seen. Slowing the bullet so that it was more visible desynchronized it too much with the sparks and "hit" from the raycast. So the bullet was landing several frames after the sparks had emitted.
I decided that it wasn't really important and moved on. But while driving to New York, it hit me: tracers are so visible because they leave a long trail of light. DOH! I immediately made the bullet longer and it was instantly visible!
Of course, shooting the tracer bullet required attaching a rigidbody and my "shot mover" script to send it flying. It also needed a collider so that I could apply the "destroy on impact" script.
And that's when it got weird.
The tracer stopped appearing. Since the "center" of the object defines it's point in 3D space, it was already colliding with my player as soon as it instantiated; essentially destroying itself right as it appeared.
I tried moving the spawn location, but that looked odd. So I experimented with shortening the tracer bullet. I found a healthy length that was both visible but not hitting the player as soon as it instantiated. It worked great while stationary.
While. Stationary.
As soon as I started moving forward, the tracers stopped appearing again. Frustrated, I came up with a solution! I will make a smaller bullet and child the longer tracer to it! This worked!
Until it hit a wall.
Every now and then, the tracer bullets would launch at a funny angle or hit a wall weird, and suddenly they would begin to spin in space, like cheap fire works in slow motion. For about five minutes I considered if this was an acceptable glitch.
I decided it wasn't.
My ultimate solution, I removed the collision. But this means it cannot destroy itself when it makes contact with an object. Luckily, the tracer moves fast enough that it's hard to tell (impossible, really) that it continues to move through objects and walls that I'm shooting. There's a short life-span on it anyway.
I'm satisfied.
So, third, I feel like I'm very close to having a full experience--from beginning to end, though very rough. So I've decided to focus on creating that full experience:
1. Main Menu to Doom Level--
2. Doom Level zooms out to House--
3. Collecting shopping list and exit to Shopping Level--
4. "Check out" and complete the level when everything is collected.
As my next step in that process, I began designing a basic layout for the House.
Nothing fancy yet, just a functional space.
Fourth--and finally, I started working on the TV that will render the Doom Level Camera as we zoom out, revealing the living room. I just finished sizing the render plane and adjusting the tiling; now I need to set a timer, switch between cameras, and create a smooth tracking shot.
Observe how the "Doom Level" is being played on a TV within the house level:
I'm really excited about getting this to work!
