UE4 - Project Brutalism
My most recent project designed in blender, textured with UE4/Quixel and coded in Unreal Engine 4. Utilising material instances, physics, realtime lighting,static lighting, new volumetric systems , destruction and more. I started this project on December 10th 2020. Using 3DS Max for the past 5+ years I decided it was time to switch to blender. Since then I have transferred all of skills into the new program and find I can work faster and more efficient.
Custom Dynamic Depth of Field System
My idea with this system was to create a really cinematic look with high bokeh and a really shallow depth of field. I achieved this using Unreal Engines new lens system that uses real world camera values to calculate cinematic depth of field. To use this new system I have to add a really low F-Stop to the player camera and tell it how far away the object we're looking at is. This is achieved through a linetrace which then feeds into an interpolation node so the transition between different focal distances is smooth, almost feeling like a cinematic focus pull from a movie. This function is called every 0.1s when playing the game.
Flying Physics Plane
Leveraging some of the current physics systems (minus gravity) I created a very simple flight prototype for the games desert level. The system uses physics actors, velocity additions, dynamic material instances to drive the lights on the exterior and particle systems to give feedbacl to the user. Also implemented is a UI system displaying the current altitude and current speed in MPH and Mach. I would like to add shooting systems to the blueprint in the future.
Elevator System incl/ UI
In the game I wanted to have a dynamic and fluid elevator system that I could add to any level. I wanted to emulate real world elevators, including all the functions of regular elevator such as openning doors during closing, alarms, two closing doors and physical movement. The inital system took a few days of programming, however after iterating on it for a few days I started from scratch with a new logical concept and the end result was a lot more robust. The elevator blueprint has lights, objects and the 3D user interface within it. The 3D user interface accepts click events allowing players to select a floor and get visual feedback that the elevator is working.
Player Mechanics - Physics Interaction
Inspired by various games like portal, half-life and Gmod, I added a robust physics interaction system allowing player to see information, interact with objects and throw objects. UE4 has a few components that can aid us in the creation of this system. Starting with a physics handle, and building a system that uses this to grab actors at specified locations. After grabbing these objects the player UI updates with the relevant Title, weight and description of that actor. The player can also throw objects at a velocity varying by item weight and player strength. Dropping these objects is also available. The system uses UE4's blueprint interfaces to communicate between different classes, sharing functions and sending data.
