Jean-Paul Software

For this edition of #screenshotsaturday I present basic traffic AI now working with #ue5 ZoneGraph (sans Mass) complete with traffic lights at intersections. I've used a rather sneaky trick to reduce the need for complex turn logic- can you spot what it is? 1/2 #gamedev

#screenshotsaturday this scene is still a testbed for developing tech for elsewhere, but it's quite fun in it's own right. Dynamic texturing allows me to accumulate blood on the pylon over time, and there's some subtle IK used to make sure the punches connect. Sound too! #ue5 #gamedev 1/5

Here's that blood close up. This was a very useful guide on dynamic textures at runtime- dev.epicgames.com/community/le... - which I adapted to add alpha blending and dithering (and also remove a potential memory leak) 4/5

#screenshotsaturday this scene is still a testbed for developing tech for elsewhere, but it's quite fun in it's own right. Dynamic texturing allows me to accumulate blood on the pylon over time, and there's some subtle IK used to make sure the punches connect. Sound too! #ue5 #gamedev 1/5

I also needed a better model of a car, but models of right-hand drive cars (such as we have in the UK) are thin on the ground. So, I converted this one from the free Epic 'Vehicle Variety Pack' from left-hand drive to right in #Blender. This was not fun, as it's not a straightforward flip... 2/5

#screenshotsaturday some fun stuff this week prototyping a traffic system using #UE5 Niagara- but doing so in style, by attempting to capture the feeling of the M62 motorway near Rochdale. 1/6 #gamedev #unrealengine #motorways #pylons #rochdale #flytipping

This also allows me to mark all BSDF properties including emission, again without needing to muck around with multiple textures for each object, which is a big time save. I will need to add extra lights to get a proper night-time effect but this is a good start, and it's good to know the limits. 5/6

#screenshotsaturday some fun stuff this week prototyping a traffic system using #UE5 Niagara- but doing so in style, by attempting to capture the feeling of the M62 motorway near Rochdale. 1/6 #gamedev #unrealengine #motorways #pylons #rochdale #flytipping

There's only one shader for all non-foliage props- cars, pylons, street furniture. Data encoded into UV maps marks which parts should change colour, and then the 'instance random' property is used to pick a colour from a (statistically accurate) texture of the most popular car colours in the UK. 3/6

#screenshotsaturday some fun stuff this week prototyping a traffic system using #UE5 Niagara- but doing so in style, by attempting to capture the feeling of the M62 motorway near Rochdale. 1/6 #gamedev #unrealengine #motorways #pylons #rochdale #flytipping

#screenshotsaturday #ue5 #gamedev Turns out the bits of Mass I wanted to use are dependent on ZoneGraph, and ZG can't be rebuilt at run time, so I can't use it. Mass is also fully C++ and honestly a bit of a headache. So, I nicked the ideas from Mass I wanted and built something a lot simpler. 1/n

@nebukam.bsky.social suggested I drop the 'M' and call this 'Ass'; I pointed out that since it's doing quite a lot of culling, I should call it 'Cul'. If you speak any French this is HILARIOUS - indeed, a name that is a multilingual pun is probably the best thing about this system #gamedev #ue5 4/4

#screenshotsaturday #ue5 #gamedev Turns out the bits of Mass I wanted to use are dependent on ZoneGraph, and ZG can't be rebuilt at run time, so I can't use it. Mass is also fully C++ and honestly a bit of a headache. So, I nicked the ideas from Mass I wanted and built something a lot simpler. 1/n

Everything here is in an ISM until you get close; then it gets turned into a regular Static Mesh, or actor if specified. Get far enough away, it gets switched back, but you can specify the conditions under which that happens. Movement is controlled by a class that can be extended in C++ or BP... 2/n

#screenshotsaturday #ue5 #gamedev #london- infinite PCG road now features intersections and buildings (well, connection points for intersections and placeholder cubes). The pop-in is a bit brutal but I can fix that later. Implementing traffic comes first. And breaking the legs of pedestrians.

#screenshotsaturday- needed a break from tech debt and UI so have implemented ridable Lime bikes. It uses the #ue5 vehicle system, plus control rig IK for the hands and feet. Below is an accurate demo of a typical #London Lime bike usage- note the use of proper parking technique. #gamedev 1/2

Been a while since my last #screenshotsaturday post- fixing AI bugs isn't exactly a visual treat. However now it's a LOT more stable, and even uses the correct escalator when given the option. Plus it can jump if it's sufficiently annoyed. #ue5 #gamedev #indiedev 1/3

#screenshotsaturday the other main focus has been on closing the loop on this being a game rather than a bunch of levels, which means UI and saving and loading... again, not exactly glam, but there's now a nicely bleak main menu scene #ue5 #gamedev #indiedev 2/3

It's #wishlistwednesday! So here's a WIP of part of the demo for The Last Gig (store.steampowered.com/app/3680580/...) Very quick to put together thanks to @kronok.bsky.social's Scythe plugin, and @nebukam.bsky.social's PCGEx to get rid of the need for boring wall / room placement #gamedev #ue5 1/3

This giant chandelier thing is just straight PCG- a bunch of spheres and boxes- and the 'fountain' is just a sphere from Scythe with some glitter. Corporate art is very, very easy. I'd add physics, but I need to focus on getting the robots in, and building the supermarket 2/3 #ue5 #gamedev