The Human-Computer Interfaces for Computer Games unit this year
was another unit I particularly enjoyed this year, despite finding some
elements particularly difficult to weave in.
Due to the system which we
worked on implementing for character selection, I found a regular menu setup
somewhat difficult to weave in, intertwined with the already existent network
of blueprinting nodes.
I created a set of wireframe
images in Axure, a software application used for wireframing and web creation,
then rendered them all out as individual images to be used as a placeholder
/guide within Unreal Engine 4, much like the top down map within the
level/environment design units.
Following this I placed any
buttons required by my wireframe layouts and re-positioned the buttons if
necessary. Once happy I linked the menus together from button to button, to
transition to each page and began designing some buttons to use as visuals and
sourced some royalty free sound effects to use for interactions on the buttons.
With the menu setup complete
and in a state which it would otherwise be completely functioning, came the
tricky part. Interweaving it into the pre-existing code took some time but I
eventually got it working.
This unit has tested me in
blueprinting again, and had some solutions which were simpler than others which
I maybe could have seen earlier. These abilities will grow as I keep improving
in general in Unreal Engine 4, I could now take a reasonable, visually
developed, functional menu system into another project and implement it with
less work and less hassle than I had this time.
I felt I came out of this unit
having learned more than in others and this information will almost certainly
be used in any projects I develop in the future, as menus are a core piece of
functionality on video games on any platform.
A link to the corresponding
blog for Human-Computer Interfaces for Computer Games can be found at the
following link;
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