Building Alliances: Unreal Engine Demonstration

Unreal Engine and importing Actors
Unreal Engine is the game making software that we would create our game scene in: the levels, as well as enemy and tower assets, would be loaded and rendered within this software. As such, another weekly goal we decided upon was to get vaguely familiar with the software. There were a multitude of design decisions that we felt could be realised in Unreal Engine: the cel-shaded art style and outlines could both be rendered within the unreal engine software.

In Unreal, everything in a scene - from characters to props to lights - is considered an "actor". Unreal allows you to place actors into a project from the Actor Window. When in the Actor window, multiple options are given as to the specific type of actor that can be placed in a scene. These include geometry, including basic forms such as cubes and cylinders.

Geometry added in this manner can be transformed: moved, rotated and scaled in a manner comparable to that of Autodesk Maya. This geometry can also be altered, with vertices able to be manipulated and moved in a manner that is again similar to geometry manipulations in Maya. Pressing Shift+7 allows you to enter the Edit mode in which these options are available. Some pieces of geometry are known as "static meshes". These are uneditable in this manner.
For Lights, which are given a specific type of actor, intensity can be altered to make the light brighter or dimmer.

Nodes are the blueprints that allow for functionality to be added to the actors in an Unreal project. Nodes are placed on a "Blueprint". Blueprints can be created for specific actors, as well as the level on the whole. This allows for alterations in functionality to be made to specific elements of a scene, as well as the scene as a whole. In our practice, for ease, we used the level blueprint option, as this allowed us to keep our nodes in an easily accessible space.
When creating a light, a Node can be created that uses the light as a reference. This means that the nodes created around this reference will affect the light.
Nodes function as drag-and-drop building blocks that can be linked together to create chains of effect. For example, from the light reference, I could create a conjoining "Set Visibility" node. Connected to an "actor overlap" node, this visibility could be toggled on and off, allowing for the creation of a Light that only activates when the player draws near.

I could also use the import function to import previously made models into Unreal. This added the model to the "content" folder, which I could then drag into the scene. Using the "Simulate Physics" function, physics operations can be added to the object, allowing the mesh to fall and be moved.

Light Switch Creation

I then used nodes to create a light switch, creating two objects to do so: a light and a switch, comprised of a cube and a collision box around it. I then created a series of nodes that allowed the light to recognise its visibility and change visibility depending on whether or not the switch had been interacted with. This allowed for the creation of a functional light switch.

The below video shows the series of nodes I used to create the light switch, as well as showing it in function.

Additionally, the function of the light switch allows for different lights to be set to different groups. This allows for different lights to be activated at different times.

Ultimately, this demonstration allows for the objects we have created in our project to be imported into Unreal Engine. Though this exercise was largely that of demonstration in regards to Unreal Engine's functionalities, this software could be used to create scenes that represent how our project may look. At this point, other team members offered to look into Unreal Engine to learn how to render the cel shaded art style and outlines. From this point, then, I will continue to create 3D models for the project, as well Loading Screen art that has been previously discussed. I will likely not work further in Unreal Engine directly, though will ensure that assets I do produce will be fit to be imported into it, so my other team members can use them.