Chapter 1: Overwhelming passion

Good day, dear Viewers!

A month of full-time work has passed, which I'm more pleased with than the previous few. Progress has gone faster and I want to share the results with you. There have also been some minor adjustments, which I cannot help but mention. The preamble has been observed, now let's talk about everything in order.

The topics that will be covered today are:

• 1. Enhanced Input Actions (new version of action&axis mappings).

• 2. Popup widgets (Interaction with items on the ground).

• 3. Inventory and Equipment grid.

Among these three topics, I would especially like to highlight topic number 2. You partially saw some results a month ago, however, since then the greatest progress has been made in interaction with objects through UI. In the beginning Enhanced Input Actions (topic #1) were out of the scope of my attention, but I once I faced with the complexity of interactions I've decided to head towards the new input system to avoid upcoming problem and make things easy (for future me). As for the third topic, here we will talk about changes. Around mid-January, I realized that I wanted to devote all my free time to develop interacting with objects through UI and think through the architecture down to the smallest detail, rather than drawing empty cells that will not find use yet. I apologize if you were expecting progress now. Now that the base is ready, I can start working on this task.

1. Enhanced Input Actions (new version of action&axis mappings).

It's difficult to overestimate the necessity for a flexible, modular architecture for interacting with objects - pick up an object, throw an object, switch the state of an object, and so on. When in one situation with an object you can do several different actions dictated by the context of interaction, not only interfaces (inherited abstractions, not UI) come to the rescue, but also inputs. "Usually I press "E" to take an item in hand, but here I have a LOT of them. What should I do? Which object should I pick up? Or what should I do when actions on the same key intersect at the same time?" - For example, when there is an object next to the switch that opens the door - should I pick up the object or switch the lever? For this, there are both simple solutions (assigning different keys for certain actions), and complex ones (when they are rationally necessary for convenience or are conditioned by logic). This is where an Enhanced Input Actions system comes into play with its mapping priorities logic.

This system does not change the rules of the game, no, however, I thought that with its help it becomes more convenient for me to implement many mechanics. And it has already been introduced into the project this month. Hooray!

2. Popup widgets (Interaction with items on the ground).

This topic could take up more than one page to describe everything I managed to do to interact with the Items. Therefore, I will briefly describe the features and demonstrate how it works from the outside using images (sorry about the font color, it looked better in the editor).

Each item has three activation triggers: The first (revealing) is triggered when the item is in the visibility zone(the largest radius). Having found it with the cursor, you add it as "discovered" and it is added to the UI, but you cannot interact with it yet (running ahead, the game will have features that allow contactless, that is, remote interaction with objects, but we are considering the default situation). The second trigger is triggered when the item is in the detection zone - you still cannot interact with it directly, but it appears in the UI. The third, the closest, is triggered when the item is in the reach zone - you can fully interact with it.

(tell me if the .gif right above is shown wrong (cut after 5 sec\freezing after first cycle, have connection issue).

I hope I managed to show what I would have to tell in detail instead. If you are interested in learning more details or have thoughts on this matter, let me know. It goes without saying that this is only a rough version of the mechanics and requires revision and polishing, but having passed that stage, I can now fully focus on Inventory and Equipment.

3. Inventory and Equipment grid.

Earlier(in previous post), I reported that the Inventory and Equipment grid would be initially ready in January, but it cannot be called ready at the current moment. There are several reasons for this. The first of them I pointed earlier, and it's also the main one: for it to be functional, it must be possible to put items in the inventory and equip them. This is exactly what I did in early January. Any item can be obtained both as a result of interaction "on the floor"(via Popup Widget show above) and through the Inventory Window (container window, merchant window, equipment window of another character). These are the two main (and so far the only) ways in which you can interact with items in the general sense. And today I reported to you that the first method is already working. As for the second method, this is my main goal at the moment, dismissing everything else. Only then will it be possible to say that what I was going to do was done as it should be.

I would also like to remind you that although in the images we see 3D with a canonical view from above, the main view of the game will be a side view (which doesn't exclude view from above as possible camera position).

Experience shows that sometimes forced changes in the work order occur. Still, I want to say that we have made great progress in this system. Although at first glance there are few changes, I assure you that "under the hood" a lot of ties were made to develop general interaction with objects.

Moving forward,
Absent.Dogma