This is my artifact 3 project for GAM 495 in my Game Programming & Development degree at SNHU. The original project included a camera system that was timer based, switching between third and first person every interval. I found this very jarring and noted that many games I enjoy playing have the ability for the player to switch between third and first person views with a key-binding. This refined artifact was a project started from scratch so that I could program using C++ in Visual Studio 2022 everything from the ground up.
This is the basic landscape I made to give the character functionality some room to show off. Simple landscape with a desert sand material added.
A short video showcasing the character functionality I created from scratch. The character has the ability to move forward, back, right, left, rotate and jump. I also created 2 camera's, a first person and third person camera that can be toggled by the player. The third person camera has a spring arm component that adds lag for smoother movement as well as being capped at maximum and minimum angles from the character.
This is an overview of the C++/Visual Studio character functions I created for movement, rotation, camera arm, and cameras.
REFLECTION:
-How would you describe the process of creating and polishing the artifact?
I began with an attempt to change the camera style of the original project. This didn't go very well since there were many inclusions in the project that had dependencies on Unreal Engine's default camera modes and player movement. I decided the best way to practice coding what I wanted was to do it all myself, therefore I was able to learn much more about the available Unreal functions without becoming dependent on them.
-What did you learn as you were creating it and improving it?
This was an excellent experience for me and will most likely become the foundation that I build many of my future games on. This artifact refinement started as simply wanted to change a camera feature but became a platform from which I could practice and showcase my ability to create the core movement and functionality found in most modern games.
-What challenges did you face?
Starting a project in a game engine from scratch is exciting, but can be rather time consuming. It is, however, an excellent means of creating something completely unique. Having a foundational knowledge of creating and modifying character movement, camera movement, limits adjustments, and toggles was fascinating. It took several hours of researching documentation and following tutorials to decide what features I wanted to utilize and how to best apply them.
