The last update I made was with inventory windows and since then I've been churnin away but haven't been properly updating. Since I'm also not really keeping good track of my progress aside from these blogs, I'm a bit lost as to what I've changed exactly since the last update so I'll just cover the things I can remember off the top of my head and on the video.

Minor Level Edit Stuff

Just a couple functionality improvements allowing common settings to be changed with the keyboard instead of the mouse. Stuff like moving things around before/after installing them and flipping things w/out mousing the options on the right. I think I'll also add in flipping of the floor tiles and possibly group together tiles that have more than one side for easy level editing as well. That's sorta low on my list of things to do currently tho -_-;;

Continued Work on the Inventory Windows

I've reworked the way windows work in that they will now all stay opaque until something off window is selected. Window focus is also no longer dependent only on where the mouse cursor hovers as instant switching between the various windows was a bit disorienting. Again, it's the small things that really seem to matter once the broad strokes are in and it never fails to surprise me how goddamn minute the details you have to pay attention to are. Also, after years of using windows, there are little things that if wrong, will bug the hell out of you and sometimes you won't really even know why.

I've also made some changes to disallow the in game mouse cursor from leaving the game screen area to prevent movement of windows off screen which make them irrecoverable. I've also put in some methods that prevent windows from being created off screen so if you do somehow move a window fully off screen, closing and reopening them will bring them back into focus. Also, when you have a window in focus, if the item that the window belongs to is on screen anywhere, it will be highlighted so that the player can keep track of which window belongs to which item visually. This highlighting also occurs with world objects when you inspect their contents.

Action Wheel

The way the player interacts with the world is now with a wheel of sorts. If you've ever played the Sims, then you should know how this thing functions. Every interactable object will have a set of options that the player can choose from that will appear in a circle. When an object is being interacted with, it will be highlighted to indicate that the action wheel belongs to that item/world object. These actions are set by the items and run checks against the player to determine what is available. So for instance, if you're at a door, depending on whether you're on the inside or outside, your available options will change. The game will also take into account what items you currently have equipped and adjust accordingly. In the video, when the player equips a lock pick, the option to pick a locked door becomes available. It's still somewhat clunky and I'll keep workin on it but for now, it serves its function so I can worry about the aesthetics of it later =P

Mouse Selection

I've revamped a lot of what's going on behind the scenes with mouse selection. The biggest change is that you can once again select walls. Later on when I add better inspect options/windows it'll be more apparent why this is necessary. I do currently have some issues with mouse click vision and click movement when it comes to the movement being based on moving towards whatever item is selected. I'll prolly have to pull that out into its own thing to make it work naturally rather than getting all mixed up in areas where there are multiple doors and lots of objects all around. I could force the player to use the keyboard for movements, but I'd rather give them the option to use the mouse. Maybe once I get in pathfinding and allow the player to "move to" a specific location rather than take it step by step, it'll make the problem moot.

Other stuff

There's a bunch of other things I've done that I can't really show since it's engine stuff. I've reimplemented the culling to try and reduce the draw batch sizes as when I profiled, it looked like the draw calls on everything in game was really eating up resources. It's still a bit rough but its functional for now. I've also decided to stop trying to completely lock down a system before moving onto the next. I think I work better and more efficiently when I do broad implementations and then refine them over time with everything else. I've made a ton of changes to a lot of classes that just made everything run more smoothly and make more sense. Also, I've been using Interfaces a lot more than I had previously and it's really helping out a lot.

Up Next

I'm gonna try to build up the player's inventory more so that I can get a feel for how scavenging and looting really feels. The two slots you see now are basically hands which can hold any type of item but I've already got things in place that will specify what type of item can be slotted into the player's physical inventory. Currently, it's two shoulders (bags, slings, holsters), waist (belts and equipment type stuff), back (back pack) and slots for clothing top, bottom and shoes. I'll have to design hud elements before being able to use em but I think I'm going to just do a quick and dirty one to get it working and then make it look pretty later on. Following that, I'll start working on the crafting system that allows the player to combine and build various items and world objects. I've got a couple sketches of what I think should work, but I'm not sure it'll work for everything yet so I'm going to have to do a little more research before I really start coding that stuff in.