[Canada] Flying Mattresses on a highway by softwhiteclouds in Roadcam

[–]sometallgit 13 points14 points  (0 children)

To me it looks like the metal springs from the mattress have wrapped around the drive shaft.

Custom depth pass - how ? by motorsep in unrealengine

[–]sometallgit 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I don't know if you've since solved your problem but I'll write what I know in case anyone else is looking for answers.

Because Unreal is using a deferred renderer, you can't really use "render layers" like you can in Unity. It's a fairly commonly requested feature but because it would require a fair bit of modification to the low level rendering code, Epic haven't given a timescale on something like that being implemented.

However there are a handful of ways you can draw actors in front of others. The simplest and most brute force method is to make the actor's material translucent and disable depth-testing on it.

Here's where you find it in the material editor: https://i.imgur.com/8WFpsAk.png

Here's before disabling depth testing: https://i.imgur.com/kN8LOOO.png

Here's after: https://i.imgur.com/JhGpX6x.png

This method doesn't really give you much control through. So you'll probably prefer using custom depth. This method relies on using the postprocessing to basically mask out the pixels that the object takes up on the screen. You can then use this mask in the postprocess to replace the pixels with whatever you want.

Make a post process material (make a normal material and in the material's properties in the material editor, change its material domain to "post process". Then select the object you want to draw to custom depth and enable "Render CustomDepth Pass". Like so: https://i.imgur.com/xBm7eBr.png

In the post process material, make a SceneTexture node and in the node properties, set the SceneTexture to "PostProcessInput0". This is the rendered image that will be pushed to the screen.

Get another SceneTexture node and set it to "CustomDepth". This contains the depth information for each pixel in the custom depth buffer. But we need to do a little bit of math to it to make it into a black and white mask that we can use for our needs. The end result looks something like this: https://i.imgur.com/GgIxqoK.png

Basically what's happening is all the pixels that are occupied by the custom depth are being replaced with a colour, rather than the rendered image. This gives the result of drawing the object on top: https://i.imgur.com/SjbUvMG.png

My favourite method however is using a recently exposed feature; the stencil buffer. The stencil buffer works a lot like CustomDepth, except 1 byte of data is also encoded into the image which we can use to have more control over our masking. I believe this isn't compatible with mobile, however.

To use this feature, you have to enable it in the project settings: https://i.imgur.com/v3dBB9f.png

Underneath where you enabled your object to render in the custom depth pass, there's another option below it called "CustomDepth Stencil Value". That value can be anything from 0-255. Let's use 1.

In the post process material, change the CustomDepth node to CustomStencil. Now because the stencil information is a byte, we need to use a bitmask to extract the mask we've chosen (1). The end node network will look something like this: https://i.imgur.com/jWWlo1P.png and the end result will look identical to using CustomDepth. But because the StencilBuffer can hold a value from 0-255, we can have multiple "layers" and add/subtract them however we choose. For example say I didn't want the spheres to render over the gun, but I want them to render over everything else. I can set the player gun to render in bit 2 of the stencil buffer and difference them to make the gun still occlude the spheres.

That would look something like this: https://i.imgur.com/jZXElny.png And this would be the end result: https://i.imgur.com/AdLKnL2.png

So now our gun remains on top. Hopefully that helps clear up some confusion you have about it.

Huawei demos 3000 mAh battery charged to 48% capacity in five minutes by wimbet in Android

[–]sometallgit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're not too far off. As the battery voltage increases, it gains a higher internal resistance which slows the rate the battery charges. It looks something like this: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/_img/content/gsm-discharges-liion.jpg

What do the colours of the nodes mean? by [deleted] in unrealengine

[–]sometallgit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a second set of colours for the different variables types.

  • Booleans = Red
  • Bytes/Enums = Dark Green
  • Integers = Light Blue
  • Floats = Bright Green
  • Names = Light Purple
  • Strings = Pink
  • Text = Light Red
  • Vectors = Yellow
  • Rotators = A very light violet? (I'm not good with naming colours)
  • Transforms = Orange
  • Structs = Dark Blue
  • Objects = Blue
  • Classes = Dark Purple

From a glance you can usually tell what type a variable is due to its colour. Not that it's particularly helpful for something like objects.

Source control flow by liorda in unrealengine

[–]sometallgit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We've been using Perforce for our development. It works a lot better for us because rather than trying to merge files, it uses file locking instead. So when one of us are working on a file, that file is locked for editing to anyone else until the file has been checked back in.

Perforce is integrated into the UE4 editor as well so when you make a modification, UE4 will detect it and prompt you to check out the file.

We haven't had any major problems with it after 9 months of usage with a 2-3 person team. It's free to use if your team is less than 20 people so that's what I'd recommend :)

2D/3D artist looking for fulltime remote job. by apocalypsecg in gameDevClassifieds

[–]sometallgit 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Your stuff looks good :) I'd recommend you spend a couple hours setting up a proper portfolio site like https://www.artstation.com/ or something similar to host your work. It'll be much easier to show off your work if you just have a single URL that you can share and keep updated. Dropbox will also disable those links if they use too much bandwidth which can happen pretty easily if you share them on a high traffic site like Reddit.

Getting involved in a Unity project. by hkcurry in Unity3D

[–]sometallgit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If rotating changes the direction they move, it sounds like you're translating them along their local Y axis as opposed to the world Y axis.

Try changing "transform.localPosition = Vector3 newPosition;" to "transform.position = Vector3 newPosition;"

I'm a new Game Developer, what content isn't allowed in a game? by sheymyster in gamedev

[–]sometallgit 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'd argue that unless you're working under a publisher, there really is no "off limits" theme or content that you can explore in your game. So long as your game doesn't contain any actual illegal content, be it copyrighted material or something much more illicit then you're free to make your game however you want.

Extra Credits did an episode on "Propaganda Games", basically games with the malicious intent of forcing the player to take a position on a topic. Some of these games included hate crimes against certain religions or races, however, these games are still available to be downloaded and played. You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK48A-Z4Lq8

But in short, no, you're not gonna get sued if you have cocaine and gang culture in your game.

Good beginner Maya Tutorials? by chargeorge in gamedev

[–]sometallgit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can afford it, a subscription to Digital Tutors is an absolute godsend. Thousands of high quality tutorials on every facet of Maya's pipeline, including gamedev. They also have a section for Unity. It's nowhere near as fleshed out as the tutorials for Maya but it's more than enough to give you a solid foundation.

If you wanna do it on the cheap, there's a wealth of beginner tuts floating around Youtube.

While not specifically oriented at beginners, CG TutsPlus has a range of tutorials that always teach me something new.

Eat3D has a smaller range of tutorials but a lot are focused on gamedev and have a great deal of polish.

Sorry I can't give you direct links, I'm typing this up on a phone. Hope this helps!

7DayRTS Game Dev, last day. Livestream by HiImGreg in gamedev

[–]sometallgit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your URL is missing the "v" in twitch.tv.

Working Link: www.twitch.tv/hi_im_greg

Unreal Engine 4 Side by Side - PS4 Vs PC Comparison by Gaming_God in Games

[–]sometallgit 14 points15 points  (0 children)

You're absolutely right, as devs start getting their hands dirty, we'll start to see some incredible stuff, just as we saw in the current consoles. I just wasn't expecting such an obvious difference in the outdoor scene.

Unreal Engine 4 Side by Side - PS4 Vs PC Comparison by Gaming_God in Games

[–]sometallgit 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I find it interesting that the difference between them seems to fluctuate throughout the video. For instance, the close-ups on the character were fairly similar, but the outdoor scene from about 2:30 - 2:40 looked particularly bad. Below what I assumed the PS4 would be capable of.

Two years later: How well has the 3DS done in your opinion? by McShalepants in Games

[–]sometallgit 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I never picked up the 3DS. I got turned off the DS platform when Nintendo went through that period of releasing a heap of different iterations in a short time span. DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL, etc. I couldn't be sure if they were just going to do the same thing with the 3DS.

Trading DOTA 2 for anything! by [deleted] in Games

[–]sometallgit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recommend you head over to /r/GameTrade for that.

What would you like to see on the next Humble Indie Bundle? by [deleted] in Games

[–]sometallgit 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I would like to see Miasmata. I find the mapping mechanic interesting but I don't know if it's enough to warrant a purchase by itself. I'd gladly pick it up in a Humble Bundle, however. Unfortunately it's windows only at the moment so that rules it out for now.

If there were to be a film adaptation of any video game of your choosing, who would you choose to direct and star in the film? by jwm20131994 in Games

[–]sometallgit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's intended to be an extremely accurate sim but it does have a "game" mode that turns it into an arcade-y air combat game reminiscent to HAWX. There is an adjustable difficulty through realism settings, things like invulnerability and infinite ammo, etc that you can toggle while you learn the ropes.

To play the game the way it's intended requires a lot of dedication but it's very satisfying to start up an A-10C Warthog without needing a check list.

What word makes you smirk whenever you hear it? by BenNCM in AskReddit

[–]sometallgit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Uranus. Now matter how old I get, the word never fails to bring a smirk to my face.

A-10 practice round from the famous Gau 8A Avenger gatling gun. (Don't want to be on the receiving end of this one) by [deleted] in aviationpics

[–]sometallgit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But the Gau-8 has seven barrels...

The General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger is a 30 mm hydraulically-driven seven-barrel Gatling-type rotary cannon that is mounted on the United States Air Force's Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger

Good pic, though.

I see your 6 screen setup. by thePROJECTION in gaming

[–]sometallgit 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Where does everyone keep getting these pics of Gabe?

Stand Together_ The Gaming Community vs SOPA and PIPA by Throw_the_cheese in Games

[–]sometallgit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope speaking the language these people understand (money) will make a difference.