Developer Diary 115 - Working On Phot Realism

I'm miles away, but I'm getting closer.

Grinding hours for UE4 and on my regular job every day. I want to get better.

Developer Diary 114 - I need to get better

Tutorials on Post Process Volumes .... photorealistic lighting .... photorealistic environments ..... one day at a time .... every day I get closer to that sweet sweet realism I'm aiming for .....

Developer Diary 113 - Testing Models & Lighting

I finished the Elemental FX Blueprint. The next part will be about trying to adjust lighting and atmosphere for each individual segment.

Below is a quick test scene I did.

I was actually able to stick to my schedule and even exceeded the weekly 20 hours. Since I wanted to get an accurate accounting of my hours I timed myself during every work session. Gotta go to the bathroom? Turn the timer off. Need to take out the dog? Turn the timer off. Somebody is calling you? Turn the timer off. Going to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee? Turn the timer off.

20 hours of focused work ... it sounds like it's nothing .... but when you actually remove all distractions and time consuming activities from the equation, even when they are only 5 minutes long, it becomes really tough to hit that quota. Especially if you have another job on the side, that you need to take care of.

Developer Diary 112 - Progress Documentation

During the last month I grew increasingly sick of working on Sound FX. I finished the giant's footsteps and some additional VO for him and then went back to Unreal Engine. I updated everything and installed the drivers and when I went for my first stroll through the world I felt ... happy. Incredibly content. I suddenly understood again what it was, that pulled me into this all these years ago.

Since I was afraid, that I wouldn't invest enough hours into it or lose track, because other things in my life may interfere with my work, I decided to implement a new time management system for myself. I wanted to see my progress every day, and make sure that I would invest enough hours into the project.

I started timing myself every day while working on the engine. Bathroom breaks, browsing the internet, going out for a walk with my dog, getting coffee, opening the door for the mailman ... I turned the timer off during any activities, that could not be considered "concentrated work, dedicated to progress".

My goal was to reach a steady average of 20 hours a week. In combination with my day job, this would all amount to a weekly workload of 36 - 40 hours a week. A full time job, but still manageable.

I managed to reach that goal during my first week after implementing it, but was unable to reach it in my second week.

We usually don't recognize how much time we spend on minor activities, that have nothing to do with work. When we go and grab a fresh cup of coffee, that's at least 5 minutes gone. Browsing the net and then losing yourself on Reddit, that's another 20 minutes. Taking a break and going outside for a while .... 30 minutes ..... but then again these breaks are necessary in order to uphold concentration.

I found, that for every hour of working on LW (fixing bugs, figuring out new code segments, tracking down problems) I would need at least 30 minutes - 1 hour of breaks and distraction. I only track the time I am actually sitting in front of the engine, but the breaks and distractions in between fulfill a purpose of some sort.

This does not seem to be true for mindless tasks however. If I work on a mindless task, such as duplicating code segments or implementing variables for a large blueprint I can work much longer without needing breaks. But the smarter you work with arrays, loops and timeline nodes, the less time you will need to spend on mindless tasks. You could even say, if you find yourself spending time on ANY meaningless and repetitive task in Unreal Engine 4, then you're not doing it right.

So I'm not 100% sure where this system will get me, but I want to stay with it. At least for a while so I can analyze my own time management.

Developer Diary 111 - Giant

This god damn thing ... the giant ..... I hate it so much. Players will hate it too. Everyone will hate this. But hopefully for different reasons .... The SFX for this thing are so tough to make. Getting the sounds to match his movements, getting the screams right in relation to his size .... everyday I sit down and try to get it better ... but it's so damn hard.

The video above is a pre made recording of the giant I did several years ago, and I imported it into my sequencer in order to experiment with his SFX in relation to his animation. I want to get the sound design right, but I'm still miles away from it being acceptable. Matching it will be a nightmare as well. I will have to separate each sound in relation to the limb movement (Back - Left Foot - Normal Crawling .... Back - Right Foot - Hurt Crawling .... a.s.o). Because of his size, it will also be necessary to consider large scale reverb on his crawling movements and screams ... but then again you can't overdo it, or it doesn't sound like he's outside anymore ....

Last month I finished a ton of SFX for other creatures, including the worm and some explosion and rifle SFX for my favorite wartowers. It's coming together ... but this giant is a roadblock for me right now.

I need to git gud.

Developer Diary 110

Yes, finally! I made some decent progress over the last month. I finished a large amount of character and AI related SFX (dharmapalas, chant SFX, environment SFX) and everything is slowly starting to come together (sound-wise). The biggest chunk of SFX is still to come: Hostile AI SFX (soldiers, hunters, worms a.s.o). Once everything is done, I will need to focus on fixing AI and character behavior. I'm also planning on implementing a new character model for Jonah. This will be some heavy lifting, because his entire animation blueprint is pretty deeply embedded into the game right now, but I need to do this before I can implement the SFX, or everything will just end in complete chaos, because the animations won't match the sounds I created. So to put this in the form of a progress update:

SFX:                                  60% Done (Char, Ambient, Environment Completed)

Music:                                90% Done (Palace Suites, Singing Souls & Themes)

Sound & Music Integr.:     10% Done (Only Singing Souls Integrated As Of Now)

Gamedesign:                    100% Done (pdf Is Complete)

Gameworld:                       20% Done (Basic World Map, Physics, Zones, Streams)

Game Functionality:          50% Done (Environment FX, Interaction BPs Complete)

AI Behavior:                      30% Done (All Static AIs Work Well, Dynamic AIs Not)

Models/Content:                70% Done (Missing New Char Model & Animations)

So there's obviously a long way to go, and just considering the fact, that those 300 SFX altogether took several months of work (also because they were quite complex: floods, earthquakes, buildings crumble a.s.o) and they are still not done yet, you can imagine the amount of work it still will take to finish all this. But for the first time in months I am actually optimistic. Imagine that.

Developer Diary 109 - Shambala

I've been making some slow progress on the SFX for Lakini's Woods again. And hopefully this will be the last time, that I have to post an old screenshot of the game world on this blog. It's been moving along really slow over the last month, but at least I'm making some sort of progress. I have been doing some work on a short film. I also gave a ton of lessons, did a second workshop and did a lot of research on game design. That last part is a lie. Sort of. I spent my nights watching Twitch streamers play games, that I never would have touched if it wasn't for them. And I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed them and how well the game design was thought out (for instance "Slay The Spire" or "Castle In The Darkness")

Since then I have been reading up a lot on Shambala Buddhism, especially in relation to the concept of the "Shambala Warrior" as described by Chögyam Trungpa. I learned something important from all this and I hope I can integrate it into my life from now on:

- The way you move, is a reflection of what is going on inside of you
- If your immediate environment is in disorder, it will have a negative impact on your mind as well
- If your clothes are in disarray, it will in some form cause you to be in disarray as well
- True courage comes from embracing suffering with empathy, embrace your own, as well as others
- Every task that you accomplish throughout the day, can lead you to immediate instant awareness
- Discipline is equivalent to caring for yourself and others. Lose discipline and you lose yourself
- Meditation needs to be on point, and your posture as well as your breath matter tremendously

Ever since I came into contact with Shambala Buddhism, I started working out and meditating again. I even built a small Buddha shrine in my bedroom. Shambala Buddhism has given me a roadmap to navigate through this enormous darkness that my life has been throughout the last year. Death, loss, financial drains, losing someone I still love ... all at once ... it never ends. And I'm honestly afraid, that if I lose this new found discipline that I discovered, I will get lost. And I'm terrified of what will happen then. And so I run and clean up my house and I meditate and I lift weights and do pushups. Because I can't figure out any of this other stuff, so I might as well clean up my own body and my environment.

Every night, I light a big candle in my room. A couple of weeks back I received a candlestand from someone who still is really important to me. I light that candle every night and it spreads a beautiful atmosphere in my room. Chögyam Trungpa speaks of the so-called "Dralas", invisible warrior spirits, that guard the ones, who are worthy of their presence. They represent part of our inner forces and energies. An open clean space, that is created with guests in mind rather than the person living there, a calm and determined mind, upright posture, an open heart, courage to endure suffering, courage to open your heart to others and solid discipline .... these are the things that will invite the Dralas. If all else fails and my life goes to shit, I would at the very least like to be someone, who is representing these values. I'd rather be this, than anything else. And if everything else comes crashing down all around me anyway, then so be it.