shibagani48

Weekly report Aug 2/5, 2024

Added 2024-08-10 12:59:11 +0000 UTC

Hello everyone! Thank you as always for your support. Let's take a look at this week's progress!

Sorry for the late submission! This week, I started rebuilding Bahell Ground using Quantum. I thought the game's small volume would allow me to finish quickly, so I kept working until today. However, realizing there's no way I'd complete it in time, I'm providing a report on my current progress.

## Main Game Part

The implementation is nearly complete, though a few tasks remain, such as processing at the end of the game and setting character parameters.

I spent some time resolving a few tricky errors, such as Quantum’s unique rule requiring the separation of simulation scripts and view scripts to pass compilation. However, thanks to the detailed learning on entity control in the tutorial, progress was smooth.

Additionally, while prior information from the official documentation and experienced users indicated that Unity’s animation controller features, state machine system, and boolean variables wouldn’t be usable, I found that with some ingenuity, they can be used. In fact, they’re widely used even in the official sample games. I was also concerned that shader-based palette changes might not work, but it seems they can be used as they are.

## Server Connection Part

I thought I’d finish this week, but I didn’t, mainly because of this issue. The official sample menu provided allows for matchmaking with minimal coding by using quick play and room code input for matching.

However, I wanted to create a system where players gather in a lobby before the game starts and can begin once everyone is ready. I also wanted to display a list of rooms with waiting players, allowing selection from the list rather than entering a code each time.

I ended up customizing the server connection, but couldn’t find any specific procedures for this. There are few examples of custom implementations in the sample games, and the only game that had the desired system was written in a very complex way. Nevertheless, I had to learn from it. This required more of a deep dive into C language learning than Quantum analysis.

In the end, I managed to implement the necessary processes by using callbacks from Photon, processing them according to the status of the client's connection request. However, I ran out of time while sending player data and generating avatars.

There’s still work to be done to make the room list and the placeholder menu usable. Fortunately, it looks like I’ll be able to finish it by next week.

## Programming Study

I’m learning by analyzing the code of the official sample game. This is my first time reading someone else’s full-fledged game code. There are many unfamiliar keywords and syntax, so progress is slow as I have to look them up one by one.