Friday Fully Loaded

A Day In The Armory

A great day if you like playing with big guns!  In my efforts to ensure backwards compatibility with all legacy weapons and AIRMOD enhanced guns I brought in a few favorites from Errant AI's collection and made sure that full functionality was restored to them.

In the process I learned quite a lot about the new features I did not even realize existed in the engine such as ammunition pools so you can have a single type of ammo for multiple types of weapon.  Special animation reserves for zooming, empty weapon state, alternative weapon animations so on.  I even found early work on melee and dual wielding, though I am going to be careful about these to make sure we get the best result down the road.  
Simply duplicating the weapon and placing them to the left and right looks odd when you reload (as you see four hands).  I am thinking more in the style of sword and shield, or carrot and stick style systems which will be more controlled by the artist than the fine tricks of coders.

All Guns Present

I know have the Sniper, RPG, Shotgun, Uzi, Pistol and Magnum present and correct, working in the new weapons prototype and ready for Mark and Johann to do there thing and finish off the content.  It is staged in such a way that I don't have to get much involved now so can focus elsewhere.  Hopefully within a week, the weapons will have extra features such as animations for walking, running and pressing against walls, accurate fire spot and smoke emissions, and the very latest sound effects to lift the version up another notch in quality and game immersion.

Else Where?

My next task, should I chose to accept it, is to re-implement FLAK and EXPLOSIONS to the prototype. I was going to jump to shaders and shadows, but when I fire the RPG and get no trailing rocket and huge bang, it leaves one wanting. It also means that once coded, it's done and I don't have to back track too much.  The explosions will come from our new explosions code and art, and should make an impact in the new terrain scene.  My mind started thinking about underwater explosions and rockets skimming along the surface of the water but i stopped myself. These crazy notions are for the realm of future adaptions.

Signing Off

This weekend will be a gardening weekend if the weather holds.  In playing catch-up after my IDF trip, I seem to have burned my candle a little, and a small recharge is in order. I have some potatoes I am curious to unearth, and a small path to cut.  Hopefully this will give me the thrust on Sunday to add a little bang to the prototype. The classic FPSC rockets did not have a trail behind them, and flew is a perfect straight line. I am tinkering with the idea of a rocket that keeps it's heading, but slightly weaves it's way there and leaves a thick plume of smoke in it's wake.

It will also give me the chance to tie in the explosion code, which has remained an isolated module up to now, and start adding the good stuff like physics particles, knock-on effects and maybe a few brush fires :)