Ultimate Action Game Controller

 

 I had a guy in the Ultra discord server ask me how to do parkour after I showed a video.. While it's really not a technique to explain over discord, I told him I would post a video and a short description on how I went about doing it. I'm certain there are other methods but I really wanted preformat over drop-dead accuracy. 

In the video, I attached 2 cubes to the parkour solvers as to better show what's happening behind closed doors. The light blue, or cyan cube is the 'collector' and the purple or magenta, cube is the 'feeler'. 

What happens here is the feeler tests the area around the player at different update frequencies, it then reports back data to the collector. The collector then decides which data is relevant based off the players location and angle.

Once the 'useable' data is determined, it is sent to the player controller where, based off user configurable settings, it is interpolated into an action (hurdling over a box for example).

You'll have to pay close attention to see the feeler and the collector in action, the cubes hardly show everything they are doing but at least you'll get an idea. 

Most geometry sensor systems use up to 14 feelers, while that makes for a very realistic simulation I find it not so practical for game use. I originally was going to use just 'a one pass sample' of the geometry around the player for speed purposes but I found I couldn't do everything I wanted to do with that system. So after reading up on the process I went with a 2 sensor system at little to NO cost on performance. Now that the system is in place I can do a lot more with it rather than just simple vaulting ( as this video demonstrates ), so over the next few months you'll probably see a lot more stuff in my videos based off this system and you won't even know it!  Wall runs is on the horizon !

One thing to keep in mind, the map is not staged in any way, this is straight csg brushes made with Ultra editor and dropped into the scene. The system is completely dynamic so there's no extra map configuring required (which is a major plus in my book). I cannot wait until I have time to build a real map with texturing and imported mesh, that's when this system will truly shine I believe, and yes. the system will work with imported geometry. 

Thanks to Ultra Engine for making this possible!  ( and Josh with his emergency bug fixes and API additions. ).

 

 

 

UAGC now features Ledge hanging! A feature normally only found in game specific genres - is now available to you with a simple toggle on or off !

Introduction to the combat system.  The controller will consist of four combat styles, Hand to hand,  melee,  ranged and magic.  When no weapons or combat items are active in either primary or the off-hand, the system will fallback to the hand to hand combat mode.  This mode consists off punches, kicks and martial arts style combat. The mode is heavy configurable and offers enough options to customize for any type of game play, including simulations to arcade hack-n-slash styles. 

The system is based off user input, left mouse button = left hand usage while the right mouse button operates anything in the players right hand.  So for example, if the player has no items equipped in either hand than the system will assume martial arts style combat whenever the left or right mouse button is clicked. 

Combos -
Combos can be preformed by stringing along a certain pattern of left to right attacks within a predetermined amount of time.  You may configure as many or as little ( none ) combo attacks as you like.

I have made it easy to define combo attacks:
In the header of each attack style module you will find a section that looks like this:

--->> Combos
h2h_combos = {}
h2h_combos[1] = "111"
h2h_combos[2] = "1211"
h2h_combos[3] = "2211"

This is the combo table for that combat style ( in this case Hand to hand ).

1 represents the Left Mouse button, while 2 represents the Right Mouse button.
So for example, when the player clicks the LMB for a combo timer starts, if the player completes the combo by clicking the left mouse button 2 more times within the time frame - h2h_combos[1] will occur. 

Each combo move has a unique animation and attack move, as well as a sound. There are 10 distinctive animations for combo's. If you declare more than 10 combo attacks then the system will start the animation count back at 1. So combo 11 would actually be combo 1 animation and so forth.

Particles will be added once the game engine matures further. 

'Damage done' can be defined per combo attack as well.
Damage is calculated ( base damage + combo damage  + player level ) - ( contingent value ) * ( weapons defined critical hit determiner ).

• Added combat Module Hand to Hand combat  ( PDF contains all options available).
• Added configurable combo attack to H2H mode.
• Added Parkour Module: ledge Hanging.
• Added Parkour Module: ledge strafing.
• Fixed and optimized Jump mode(s).
• Finally found bug keeping player in Falling mode when not really falling.
• Optimized several key areas of the controller.
• Started adding sound effects to key areas ( eventually every action will have its own effect ).
• Added physics punching bag prefab, a place to practice and try your hand to hand combo attacks.
• Added floating label definitions for each attack move preformed ( can be turned on or off ).
• Added Artificial Gravity routine, this is used for ledges but will also power the upcoming Jetpack and Wall run modes.

This update is shorter than others (but none the less potent), it took a solid week getting the Ledge hanging to work correctly.

Ledge Parkour needs no special map work, simply turn the feature on and it just works.
Compatible with any and all scene geometry.

Ledge Module ( final ). Nothing special to setup on the map. Just throw any ole geometry on the map and the controller handles the detection.. Map Makers dream! :slight_smile:

 

I got ledge to ledge jumping in the works.. thats gonna make for some fun possibilites on map design.

 

 

Ultimate Action Game Controller ( UAGC ) - WL 4

• Added an Object Pooling Manager for upcoming modules that will spawn and de-spawn entities.
• Added Teetering - if turned on, player with balance beam walk on narrow heightened areas.

 

 

Small update,  UAGC now has eye tracking! Only requirement is the RIG must contain a standard set of facial bones.  If the bones are absent then the feature is automatically nulled out.  I use the Paul Neale facial bone rig as it seems to be the most commonly used.  But any rEye, lEye attached to head bone will do the trick.. it's not picky.  https://paulneale.com/tutorials/facial-rigging-method-which-is-best-for-you-and-your-production/

• All known bugs have been squashed, including a pesky jump/landing bug I've been tracking since early development. 
• Added eye tracking and mild/light facial expression abilities ( controllable via a self:express() routine ).
• Added 3 new animation skeletons, short, normal and tall skeletons ( females ), males are on the way. 
• Added ability to hot-swap the player mesh and stats in-game. No need to reload the entire map to load a new character! This should prove to be useful for games where the player controls more than one player type. ( self:playerswap(infos) ).
• Added eco-system, object pooling now active, started 3d sound controller.
• Laid out module blue prints for player pets, combat and cosmetic pets will be supported.
• Added Items Database.  This database holds the following catagories for game items. 
  Weapons ( Ranged, hand to hand, melee and magic )
  Collectibles ( and items used by the upcoming quest system ).
  Useables ( includes powers, food/drink etc..  Anything that can be used then destroyed )
  Misc - the section you can toss anything into that does not specifically fit any other catagory.
• Started the Ranged combat modules
• Added our first gun!  The Splatter gun - used for testing out the combat module. 
• Added 2 new playable female characters. ( Sasha and Jenna ).
• Fixed: Players feet no longer go below elevators/lifts base while moving.

 

Lip moving ( npc talking ) and some moderate facial expressions are on the way.  No time for a video this week, I got to leave out early.. Until next time ! 

 

 

 Update WL #5 -  Mounts

After a lot of changes to how I originally was going to implement mounts, I finally decided on a path and began working on it. To my surprise I did not run into many speed bumps other than animating in blender and getting formats to work as they should.  There's still some polishing to do overall with mounts but the framework is there and it's solid. 

In trying to follow the standard way of doing things in UAGC,  I made a prefab for mounts with as little options as possible to keep things simple.

That's really all there's needed to get a rideable mount into a game using UAGC, I will be including my horse mount as a starter mount but by using the same skeletal rigging - any mount mesh will work. I have later plans on adding exotic mounts like dragons and bears and such but for now I'm happy with just having this framework completed.  This component took a good 2 weeks to complete and contains over 2,000 lines of optimized code. 

The update:

• Added: Mounts component 
• Unlimited mounts allowed per map
• Mounts are configurable with variables such as scale, speed and handling. 
• Mount name label system
• Mounts can go to sleep after x amount of time of no use. ( they wake back up when the player gets within range ) .
• Mount component is now intertwined with the player controller routines to provide a submersive experience.
• Sound effects added for all areas of mount riding.
• Mounts interact with the environment allowing for collection of powers ups and loot boxes from within the saddle.
• Added functions to easily allow me to install swimming and water interaction abilities when I get that far along.
• Added expandable functions for flying mounts. ( wip ) 
• Combat functions are in place, not working yet but they will as soon as I get enemy AI in place.
• Combat from the saddle will be possible.
• The animal itself will be configurable for combat. ( battle-mounts* ).
• And much more !

The media: