MyRobot Development Part 37

Video shows the summary, text shows the technical!

This week:

• Camera Stability Fixes

• Beginning Surfboard

Camera Stability Fixes

First, the dummy character you see is a complete work in progress but I do want to represent you, the player, in a very simple way.

Anyways, the first order of business with the camera was the jitter. The source of the problem was that there was a camera following the robot which is comprised of various physics objects that were interpolated. This lead to jitter because the camera would not be set to the final post-interpolation transform.

Unity doesn't let you "see" the final transform of an interpolated rigid body unless you force it. So in a strange turn of events, the camera stability code was injected to "right before rendering", feeling very hacky.

BUT the camera is now far smoother when piggyback riding.

I also offset the third person camera slightly to the right to give you a more DeadSpace-like camera.

Beginning Surfboard

 I'm really excited to finally start working on the surfboard because I wanted a better way to traverse the map. The surfboard will have two updates. The first will be this month. It will be a simple surfboard that requires moving downhill to function. I will be adding simple surfing controls so that you can drive the board into a particular direction. I expect to add lots of fun ramps and hills.

The second update will be later "The Jetboard", which will be an addon to your surfboard to have jet boosts to cover the uphill portion of driving. More on that way later though.

A fun part of the surfboard implementation is that the initial animation the robot plays when getting on the board is entirely physics driven. She jumps from the floor, reaching a few feet off the ground, and then the surfboard spawns in. It felt elegant.

The surfboard model has not been made yet but I expect to make a simple holographic board mesh and throw in some simple holographic effects. It's not going to be an item you carry around. This means that it will consume your robot's battery!

Stay tuned!