I'm not dead!

No, I'm definitely still here!

Baby is taking up a lot of time (who knew!!) - I am coding but in much more bite-sized chunks as and when I can.

Right now I am taking a bit of time out from Unity and working on getting my ASP.NET Core 3 up to date. I'll probably cover some of that in here too but likely will be posting only once or twice a month for a while.

Happy Coding!

PappaP x

Added a Tilemap based 2D map generator!

The plan for this is to start working now on area detection, then on to connecting any isolated rooms!

Obviously very early development days, with much beautification to add once the actual functionality is completed.

Procedural!

some time ago I worked on a procedural cave generator using cellular automata with C++ and SFML (Cave Bunny)

I have been wanting to explore that within unity too and so have been following along with the tutorials from Sebastian Lague, I haven't stopped on the Mr. Taft tutorials and in some way there is a plan to link everything up at some point, but whilst there are some ideas, these aren't yet tied into specific gameplay features - however - it's probably fairly obvious that I'm going to add some kind of procedural element!

For the mesh creation, that's a bit of a learning curve for me - probably overkill for my 2D needs but nonetheless, it's good to keep learning new things! Who knows maybe one day I'll break into 3D!

Stay Safe & Happy Coding

PappaP x

Been busy, actually coding!

So been a quiet couple of weeks in lockdown, some (more) exciting personal news which I will be able to share soon but also working on implementing A* within the Mr. Taft Zelda-like series.

As usual, my code for this is fully shared on Github but is yet to be properly documented! That is the next task.

Anyway, for a sneaky preview of the finished article.

Features: 

• It only starts pathfinding if the player is inside the grid, will also stop pathfinding once the player exits.
• Unwalkable grid positions are calculated at runtime start based on the tilemap colliders (via a layermask)
• pathfinding runs every x seconds as to not be continually calculating paths

Thank you!

Wouldn't have been possible without the excellent grid tutorials from CodeMonkey and of course Mr Taft! and his amazing Zelda-like.

A Unity experiment - Boss!

I wondered just how much of a Trinexx type boss I could make without much code, this is my WIP so far!

Uses: Hinge Joints x LOTS!, DoTween for movement and an FSM per head and body.

Still lot's to do but it's getting there!

Janky WIP Boss

Mr Taft FAQ 2 - Player Movement Speed is Choppy/Slow

This is the second in a series of FAQ articles to accompany the Zelda Like Tutorial Series from Mr. Taft. 

The Question:

"Hi guys my player is moving choppy like it is slowing down then going faster after a few seconds I'm not sure what I did wrong?"

The Solution(s):

1. The quick one!

Toggle VSync on in your game options.

Vsync On!

2. The longer (better?) one!

The issue is related to having the movement and animation updating from well, Update(). Update() is called once every frame and by its nature is variable in when it is called unless you are locked in with a VSync which limit's the calling of Update to the refresh rate of your monitor and is why the quick fix above works.

It is better, in my opinion for this tutorial series, to keep the input code within Update() but move the animation/movement code to within FixedUpdate() this occurs at a fixed interval determined by your project settings. Some sample code from my own PlayerMovement.cs is below. 

Excerpt from PlayerMovement.cs

Happy coding! :D

PappaP x

Mr Taft FAQ 1 - Signal

This is the first in a series of FAQ articles to accompany the Zelda Like Tutorial Series from Mr. Taft. This question comes up a lot on the Discord Server.

The Question:

Hey guys - I've come to a complete standstill when implementing Signals in this Zelda for Unity project. My code for Signal & SignalListener are exactly as they should be with no errors, but I can't seem to drag my "Signal" over to my Signallistener. Any ideas why? Using unity 2019.1"

Or.

"im doing the signal system but seems like it doesnt recognize the object as an scriptable object, what can cause this?"

The Answer:

Unity 2019 already has a Signal, your one and the Unity one are being confused with each other. There are two fixes.

1. Don't use Signal as the name of your scritpable object, use Notification or TaftSignal for example instead!

2. You can create an object called signal but place it in a folder in the asset menu, that way Unity will treat it as a separate entity. 

in the Signal.cs file modify the CreateAssetMenu directive to read as follows.

When you want to create a signal as directed by Mr Taft, be sure to select the signal from your Scriptable folder!

Happy coding! :D

PappaP x