Steve's Blog

October 29, 2020 Automating Component Application and System Manager Architecture AI Pathing Project System Manager and Initialization The integration of several classes and adding more has started to create a lot of necessary references becoming difficult to time properly. To make sure a certain class has already initialized or some other class has performed its Awake() method I end up making extra references and method calls within other classes so the proper references are set before peroforming those methods. In an effort to organize this better and make the timing more understandable, I am looking at making a SystemManager gameobject to replace the DemoManager, and either add an Initialization class to this or make it its own class if it does not require being a monobehaviour. This Initialization class will be responsible for calling all the major system classes initialization methods in the proper order to ensure references are met. This will also require moving som...

October 26, 2020 Input Action Assets Unity Title: Unity Input System | How to Use Input Action Assets By: Infallible Code Youtube - Tutorial Description: One of the better tutorials covering all the basics of utilizing Unity's new Input Action Asset for their new input system. Tutorial - Part 1 - Reference by String Initially there are already some issues since they are using an older version of the new Unity input system. GetActionMap and GetAction are no longer methods associated with the InputActionAsset object and the InputActionMap object. To get around this I just used the FindActionMap and FindAction methods and they appeared to work fine here. There are to callbacks tied to the movement action we created: movement.performed and movement.canceled. According to the Unity documentation, performed means "An Interaction with the Action has been completed" and canceled means "An Interaction with the Action has been canceled". The...

October 21, 2020 Graph Paper Design Resources Title: Gridzzly Graph Paper Layout Gridzzly - Main Page Description: Site that gives several graph paper-like options that can be accurately printed. Overview This site provides a quick and accurate way to make several different graph paper-like designs that can be printed onto paper to sketch ideas and concepts. Along with the general graph paper square pattern, it has a few dot patterns, several other shape patterns such as triangles and hexes, and even a music bar option. These various options can be good for quickly working on some ideas or building out paper prototypes for testing phases.

October 20, 2020 Open Closed Principle Programming Title: SOLID Principles in C# – Open Closed Principle By: Marinko Spasojevic CodeMaze - Information Description: Quick coverage of the open closed principle for programming with C# examples. Overview "The Open Closed Principle (OCP) is the SOLID principle which states that the software entities (classes or methods) should be open for extension but closed for modification." This basically means it is preferable to write code in such a way that when a change or extension is suggested for that original class that it can be done through addition instead of modifying the existing class itself. Many of the examples shown do this by adding new classes to handle the additional functionality required instead of modifying the original classes created. Example #1 - Salary Calculator The first example they cover somewhat resemebles the factory pattern tutorial I was checking out recently that introduced m...

October 20, 2020 Factory Pattern Unity Title: Creating Objects in Unity3D using the Factory Pattern By: Jason Weimann Youtube - Tutorial Description: Introductory tutorial to the concept of fatories and the factory pattern in OOP using Unity. Overview This tutorial quickly covers the basic idea behind using factories and the factory pattern in OOP through an example in Unity. The overall concept is pretty simple in that it focuses on using an object to create other objects, but they explore putting this idea to use as well as some of the pros and cons of its use. Notes Factory: in OOP, an object for creating other objects; a function or method that returns objects of a varying prototype or class (from Wikipedia) Some of the benefits noted are that this allows you to put all of your object creation into a single place and that you can extend it quite a bit without modifying the underlying logic (following the Open Closed Principle). You do not even need...

October 19, 2020 Dependencies Unity Title: Dependencies in Unity By: Infallible Code Youtube - Tutorial Description: Covers the basics of dependencies in programming, with a focus on them within Unity and how they deal with expensive method calls. Overview This tutorial nicely breaks down dependencies in programming in general in a very basic and understandable way. This is good for defining it well at the foundational level. It also covers some of Unity's more expensive method calls and the different ways to cache these results, as well as the different ways to organize and manage dependencies within Unity specifically. Notes Dependency: When one object relies on another to function. The initial example in this tutorial nicely shows how improper code can also hide dependencies. Since they were using FindObjectOfType in the Update method (an extremely expensive and inefficient process), it could be lost that that class was dependent on the Inventor...

October 16, 2020 Detailing and Enhancing Player Character Title: 6 DETAILS TO MAKE A GREAT PLAYER CHARACTER - UNITY TUTORIAL By: Blackthornprod Youtube - Tutorial Description: Tutorial on adding a few small details to enhance the feel of the player character. Overview I came across this tutorial that covers a few quick ways to add some details to a player character to make them feel much more fun and interactive to use. They used Hollow Knight as a base for the types of details they were looking to add. The key details they created were: landing animation, jumping/landing vfx, moving vfx, background interaction while moving, and jumping/landing sound effects. While on the simpler side, these are all very nice features to add that can quickly make your character much more enjoyable to use. As an important side note they mention, this can actually be beneficial to the developer because it can make them for motivated to work with the character.