Notes.md

Ideas for future iterations

This markdown file is for future ideas to be implemented - may or may not implement but will try. Mostly by seeing a video or something.

• Add an Inventory System. ✅
• Add harvestable trees. ✅
• Save Actor transform and their states. ✅
• Add a Grass painting tool (Have to learn from scratch).
• Add tree regrowth with time (preferably, 1 week in game time). ✅
• Day/Night Cycle. - (Do from blueprints maybe). Update: Implemented using C++. ✅
• Weather Effects (Sunny, Rainy, etc) - (Have to learn this as well lol).
• Basic Weather Effects on character (heat, cold) - (Even this I gotta learn). ✔️/✅
• Better Logging (or maybe just adding clarity to issues in logging.h) - (I'll just see a video, will be better than my current). Note: Did not see vid. ✅
• Camera Adjustments ✅
• Will create new header file/files to add all the structs and enums which are required multiple times in different files. ✅
• Add Enemies (like zombies maybe and even human attackers).
• Add Enemy AI (Behaviour trees?) (Have to learn this).
• Add Main Menu and Level Loading. ✅
• Add Custom VFX ✅

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Explanation to how things are made to work and reason why bugs are not being fixed

Might explain the additions or changes done in the project (or might not lol), will be using mostly for issues.

• Harvest state of trees is not saved properly. (BUG)

  • Some logic issue in the save and loading code in the TFGameInstance source file, I really cannot figure out what exactly. I'll not fix it now as it is highly time-consuming and I cannot move forward to other things.
    • Update: 12/09/2024 - Fixed the load logic of the trees and its log spawning function. (Main Code change in LoadGame function in TFGameInstance.)

• Stat Adjustment in ConsumablesItemBase is added as TMap instead of as a struct.

  • Adding it as a struct would have taken me a longer time to add items to inventory (Though it takes mere nanoseconds, but still it adds up). So hence, using TMap to store the enum ECoreStat and float Amount for Stat Adjustment.

• Added structs to different files and removed them from header files.

  • Moved structs from different header files to their own separate files having the same name as the structs inside them. I did this because now I don't have to include other classes from the header files like before, I found this unnecessary as the compiler will copy the entire header file for no reason and potentially reduce performance. Though it took me a lot of time to figure out how to do it and then the huge task was that I had to individually include the new headers to each file utilizing the structs and had to do some code cleanup. (I had exams as well so it took me even more time).

• Added Icon Generator BP.

  • I was taking screenshots of the assets to get an image for my icons tab which was getting extremely frustrating and time-consuming, so I went on youtube.com to find a solution to my problem and to make it much easier and quicker. Fortunately, I found a video showcasing how to generate icons using a ScreenCaptureComponent2D component in blueprints. This is the video by Unreal University.

• Interaction Raytrace not working on mushroom (Interaction Trace or Actor not being added to InteractionActor Array).

  • Update: 29/09/2024 - Still haven't found a fix, I know that the mushroom is not added to the InteractionActors though it does implement IInteractionInterface, the RayTrace is not being drawn when logs are triggered to spwan. I don't understand what function is being missed. Will try to fix in future and not worry about it now.
  • Update: 29/09/2024 (20:25) - Added a collision mesh on the mushroom and its working perfectly fine now.

• Added Day Night Cycle

  • Utlized mainly C++, but also engine for creating Float Curves for Rotation and Intensity.

• Added Randomized Actor and Material placement actors.

  • Doing this to ease the world building process which I am building as a different map which is not being commited.

• Main Menu and Level Loading.

  • Added a main menu screen and also implemented level loading to a different map on New game button press. A 'Persistent' map holds two levels namely DEVMAP and Main_Menu on beginplay the 'Main_Menu' is loaded first showing multple buttons, on clicking of 'New Game' button the 'DEVMAP' is loaded with the player having control over the pawn and all the mechanics implemented in the game.

Break Updates

• 22/10/2024 - 26/10/2024: I took a long weekend (weekday?) off by travelling this past week. So could not work on anything in the game, I have started again on 27/10/2024, mostly I will not take a break again.
• 15/12/2024 - 24/12/2024: Had no new ideas on what to do (or more like how to implement the previously thought ideas). Had to go through my codebase again to understand and sort out any resuable code to its separate data folder.

FYI

I realize my mistake of committing too many times unnecessarily in a single day, and what I mean by that is I change .md files on GitHub instead of the editor I'm using. The reason being is that I am not confident to add stuff to .md files without previewing it first, hence the bloated number of commits. So, if you do see a high number of commits, please do check their content and the changes done to them.

I also realize my error in the commit messages. Since I have too much information to provide on the changes in each iteration, I keep on adding characters to the commit message. Henceforth, I'll use the description provided with each commit message to give more details about the changes made in an iteration.

I don't know for sure, but cloning this repository might not provide anyone with the necessary files to play the game. I think these are just references to the files I create and change in Unreal Engine, and most of the blueprint scripting might not be available for others to see or change.

I am not aware of any other way of providing insight into the development of this project and the constant iterations I do in it. I don't even know where else to store this project, to be honest, as it has a huge file size.

My main focus is to show the coding aspect of the game along with its logic.

References

1. The Save Game Functionality is a copy of and even a slight variation of Tom Looman's tutorials.
   This is a link to Tom Looman's Tutorial.

2. The BP_IconGenerator is a copy of Unreal University tutorial.
   This is the link to Unreal University's Tutorial.

3. The Fire VFX is a direct copy of Gabriel Aguiar Prod. tutorial.
   This is the link to Gabriel Aguiar Prod. Tutorial.