Don't Spill Your Beans (WindieGo)

 Hello, during this last sprint I decided to give the terrain tool a try and it was definitely a learning curve. The problem I faced while using the terrain tool wasn't necessarily with the tool itself, but the outcome of using a texture on the terrain. The texture used wasn't optimal due to the sharp edges and clearly visible landmarks. This gave the land a tiled look and ultimately made the terrain look unpleasant.  The solution to this problem was actually a variety of different steps. First, I had to find a better texture to overlay across the landscape. After finding a better texture, the landscape was already looking way better, however, there was still a subtle tiling effect present. The second thing I did to solve this issue was to apply a kind of marbling to the texture. This would be applied randomly across the landscape. Finally, the last step to achieving a natural-looking landscape was to set up a proper texture layering tool to apply multiple different textures a...

During playtesting a bug was noted that the player needed to click anywhere on the screen before the camera would resume its normal behavior of rotating according to the mouse motions. This is a problem due to it being  uncomfortable for the player to have to click when they are expecting the camera to move as soon as they load into a playable map. The reason this was happening is because the player controller was not set to game play only when the level started. This was a simple fix for now off setting the players controller in the game modes blueprint that so all levels with the game mode would not have this problem, Author: Krishnie Katie Naidoo Posted on 9/29/2023

  The Unreal Engine AI system encounters challenges when integrating flying units into its navigation mesh. This obstacle hinders the seamless integration of flying AI units, akin to their ground-based counterparts. Given the vital role of flying units in the project's overall design, I embarked on a quest to find a solution within the Unreal Engine documentation.   Despite thorough searches through the documentation, I could not find a definitive answer to the problem. Undeterred, I gathered my resources and commenced experimenting with alternative solutions. In an isolated project environment, I explored various methods to incorporate flying units effectively.   Ultimately, I discovered a workaround: I created a distinct mesh and collider to serve as the primary unit, while the controller's collider remained on the navigation mesh, ignoring pawn collisions. This separate mesh is now controlled with an offset, causing it to move upward in a bobbing motion, effect...

 As I have worked on the project and added my contributions, I tend to often make small mistakes that I don't see right off the bat. An example of this would be in this week when I had pushed my code to Perforce and I had not saved the content I had worked on within the .h. This push caused issues for everyone when they pulled and realized that things were broken. I tend to get so caught up in my work and the absolute rush of getting something right can leave room for mistakes. A fix for this problem is to look back on my time in the military and ensure that I am paying attention to  detail. Whether it is a variable I have forgotten to create or I just hadn't saved an entire file of my project.  It is important to take time to make sure what I am submitting is not just done quickly, but also efficiently  with the proper quality in order to ensure my team is not lost on what I am doing. From now on, I will be  more cautious on my work and double checking what I a...

 I ran into an issue developing a working on the moving platform for levels. Originally, I wanted to write a script for a moving platform that allows me to edit the distance and direction of the moving platform in blueprint. The platform had continuously spammed back and forth in one spot, even while I had the ranged distance set to a higher amount. There was more than meets the eye in this situation. originally, I thought I had my math backwards in the code. I thought I had a greater than located where it should be less than and vice versa. This turned out to not be the issue. After some troubleshooting, I figured out that my "range" I had set was just a much lower number than necessary to actually move the platform. A way to fix this would be to pay more attention to what size units in Unreal are and take into account that not everything is a problem with code. Author: Jesse Hilario

 This month I was met with the challenge of rigging and animating a model. As a developer, I have no experience with popular modeling software. I spent a considerable amount of hours inside of Blender attempting to setup a proper rig for our burrito asset. After setting up the rig, I realized animating the model would take more time than I had. To correct this problem I will be spending more time researching and practicing other roles outside of my specialization. To do this, I will be expanding my network to friends in the industry that obtain the skills I desire. I will also be collecting tutorials to combine into a library of useful material for the future. In the end, I know where my weak points are and can plan to strengthen them. Zachary Giffin 09/21/23

In the Main menu when clicking on options button the associated menu it was supposed to open did not show. Its an issue because if the player can't access the options menu they can't change the settings of the game such as volume. At first I thought it was a problem with the main menus widget switcher index not getting set to the right one. Turns out it  was because the size box  wrapped around the options menu widget was set to hidden instead of visible. Author: Krishnie Katie Naidoo Posted on 9/15/2023

  While working on the combat for the Project "Don't Spill Your Beans" a problem occurred with the player weapon's collision. The Collision of the sword that was part of the player blueprint was ignoring collision. With Combat being a major mechanic of the project this would invalidate a priority feature that is used to progress through the game. Researching into this problem showed that the problem was a common occurrence with the ChildActorComponent. My first attempt lead me to try toggling through the collision profiles. Though even when set to "BlockAll" the collision was not being detected.  Upon further investigation creating a SphereComponent from the player and attaching it to the component externally allowed for the collision to be detected and the collider to be toggled as needed for the project. Author: Justin Bethea Date Posted: 09/21/23

 Unreal is a program I have become very familiar with. My concern is jumping into Unreal 5. Although there is not much of a difference, I feel as if I have opened a whole new program and it has risen to be a new challenge for me to overcome. It is an intimidating task to learn something that is not so different than what you have been using, although it seems like a daunting new program in some aspects. The new layout and the different forms of quality of life changes are both relieving and stressful due to it not being what I am used to. The only real fix to this problem is to keep working on the engine. I have already learned many new things  that were very tedious to deal with in previous versions. Compiling the project and even dealing with  source control has come to be much easier. Once I got the hang of the compiling and slight changes, I do  feel that Unreal 5 has potential to make our project really stand out. While making the player's movement, I encountere...

While working on the pause functionality I ran into an error of resume not triggering when the player pressed the pause key again after the initial pause press. This was problematic since once the game was paused a player could not continue playing and their only option would be to quit the game, which is not what was intended. Allowing the player control of stopping the game so they can access options or simply take a break is important to the user experience and would cause the user a lot of irritation if pausing the game does not function as intended. After doing some debugging and concluding it was not a logic issue. I turned to unreal documentation and forum since I suspected I might need to turn on something. This turned out to be true. Unreal Engine, by default, doesn't execute inputs when the game is paused. The input needs to have its " execute when paused" to be true for it to work. Once I had turned on the pause inputs " execute when paused" the...

Working with a new tool brings challenges. In this case learning the layout of Unreal Engine 5 was and will continue to be an obstacle. For this week I began to work on the player heads up display and user interface. The tools themselves are very similar to the previous version of Unreal Engine, which is what I have the most experience with. However, the layout of the engine is much different. To solve this problem I utilized tutorial videos off of YouTube, the experience of my teammates, and trial and error. The tutorials provided the backbone of what I needed to get started. My teammates did a great job filling the gaps where my trial and error did not work. As I continued to use the new tool, I progressively became more and more comfortable with the new layout and tools available. Moving forward I understand each new tool I face during my career will take time and dedication to master.  Author: Zachary Giffin Posted on 9/15/2023

 During the initial project setup the Camera component attached to the player pawn would immediately jump to the world position of 0,0 despite the player and player start location. Further more, when the player position changed the camera's own position remained constant at world position (0,0). To address this matter I attempted to remove the component and re-add the Camera, this however had no effect. Upon further investigation it appeared an older pawn script was interfering with the camera. By removing these unneeded lines the camera worked expected, appearing behind the player pawn and the position would also update with the player pawns movement as expected. author: Justin Bethea. Posted on 9/15/23

  Embark on a deliciously wild adventure in “Don’t Spill Your Beans,” a unique platforming RPG. Join our hero, a zany bean burrito, as it rolls and leaps through a world of flavorful challenges. Collect an assortment of beans with diverse abilities to unlock new zones, defeat your enemies, and become the ultimate burrito of the Great Culinary Clash.