Week 5 Tuesday 2018-05-01
Everyone has high morale! We are on track with our milestone again this week. Nick's sickness is about over and he can start working again. Some of us were pretty busy with class assignments this week.
Player walking, placing tiles, using steering module, using turret module, and destroying tiles (for testing; only enemies will destroy tiles)
Core tile to mark the center tile of the ship (picture from Blender)
Steering wheel to be on the center tile (picture from Blender)
My goals for the week were to add the mesh fencing to the frame blocks (by implementing transparency), implementing the steering module, and implementing the turret module.
Transparency works to some extent; there's still some issues with it, unfortunately. The steering module is completely functional, and the turret module can be aimed and changes the camera view, but you currently can't actually fire.
Turret firing wasn't implemented partly due to time constraints, and partly because there wasn't much point without any targets. As for transparency, I have an idea what the issue is, but I wanted to prioritize gameplay over fixing graphical quirks.
The goals for next week: fix the transparency issues, add terrain (even if it's just a placeholder), integrate new models for the various modules, and possibly implement turret fire.
I learned that basic transparency is really straightforward in DirectX, but getting it to work correctly may be tricky.
Progress is coming along nicely. I'm pleasantly surprised at how few major setbacks we've run into.
My goals this week were merge in the 3D sound updates and to implement the feature where sound is triggered on client input.
I merged the 3D sound updates early in the week and started working on the new feature. I first added game object IDs to map sounds to game objects. Then I started looking into the code for the server and client networks. I created new sound packets and was able to use them between client and server communication. Now when a player hits the space bar, they will hear a turret noise.
Although I managed to implement the general feature, I have yet to work out the details. I have yet to work out how the client and servers determine which sound to play or stop, which object this sound belongs to, what position the sound is coming from, etc. I am still understanding the code architecture for the game system as it is changing with constant updates. I also had a programming assignment I needed to complete early this week because my partner was leaving a couple days before it was due.
This week I hope to work out more of the logistics for the details. With so many details for the sound, I would like to focus on maintaining a game object parent for each sound. This should also help with finding the position of the sound. However, this may not happen as there are not many game objects in production yet. In that case, I may be more helpful working on a different feature.
This week I learned a lot more about our game architecture. I have been working a lot on the sound class so I have not taken a look at the overall game code. I now has a better understanding of how the server is communicating with the client and vice versa, and how that is ultimately shaping the game.
I'm feeling pretty good. I notice I am hesitant to make a lot of design decisions because I worry about messing up existing code, but I realize I just need to trust my judgement and do what I need to do to get the feature implemented.
To stop being ill...
I couldn't even accomplish that tbh.
I just wouldn't stop being sick
Next week I'm hoping to get up to speed on the state of the project, finally get bullet working, and to contribute where I can on the features we still need to implement
Being sick for over a week sucks. Wash your hands, kids.
I feel like I've been struggling this quarter to keep up, and then I get sick for over a week, making me fall behind even more. The group tells me we're still on track, but I can't help but feel bad for being so useless the past week.
Help out where needed, don't be idle, and don't let others be idle.
I personally wasn't idle this week, but I felt that a few others might have been (maybe not, it's hard to tell, maybe I'm worrying too much), and I didn't do enough to make sure everyone always has a direction and something to work on.
High. I think we're still on track schedule-wise, but I think we can pick up the pace a little, especially now that more infrastructure is in place.
Finish up the turret module, then get the core block and driving module designed, then work on terrain textures if I have extra time.
Exported a version of the turret, core, and driving module as well as a single terrain texture.
Had to work on an essay which took a lot of time, but I still was able to get some models pushed out. I'll definitely want to go back and flesh them out more, but for now they'll work as a base.
Get some texturing done and/or Get a player model started.
Nothing specifically, just converting curves to meshes in blender.
Things are going well and I'm happy with the current progress. The game is becoming playable.
Handle the camera controls inside the server.
Creating a Camera component to serialize the camera matrix on the server and send it over to its client. Also created the framework to send various other types of data to the client.
Goals were completed. It's just not in me to promise things I know I won't have time to do.
I have no idea, maybe help with sound or start working on optimizing the data sent over the network.
I learned that we can't send too much data over the server, and that we will need to start optimizing it soon.
I think we are doing fine. It feels kinda scary that the quarter is almost halfway over though.