XRay

Hello fellow developers and gaming enthusiasts!

Today, I'm excited to share with you the latest progress in my game development journey. I've been diving deep into enhancing the player experience when exploring buildings, and I'm thrilled to showcase some exciting features we've implemented.

Dynamic Removal of Walls and Ceilings: I've integrated a new method to dynamically remove walls and ceilings in front of the player when entering a building. Here's how it works: when the system detects a block above the player, it activates a specific area where all blocks within it are marked as hidden. This not only improves immersion but also optimizes game performance. You can see it in action:

Refined Occlusion System: To make our occlusion system more precise, we've adopted a different approach. Instead of simply marking blocks as blocked when a ray collides with them, we now obtain all vertical tiles in each ray iteration. This allows us to determine more accurately which blocks are visible and which are not. You can see the difference in this video:

Smooth Color Transitions: After receiving feedback about abrupt color changes in blocks, we've added a new component that applies a fade to the material color. This enhancement not only makes transitions smoother but also adjusts the transition speed based on the block's state. The result is a more visually pleasing experience. Take a look:

Natural Movement: Now, each block can provide information about its height, allowing me to implement more natural movements such as traversing ramps or small inclines. Additionally, I've introduce a new movement condition that detects when the player is falling and when they have landed. This change adds an extra layer of realism to the game, and again no unity colliders o rigidbodies was used in this project:

X-Ray Shader: Last but not least, I've worked on an X-Ray shader that allows the player to see through walls. Instead of hiding blocks, this shader offers a more efficient and practical solution. After researching and experimenting with different approaches, i managed to implement a shader that meets the expectations. 

For those interested in the technical details and references used in the development of this shader, I'll be sharing more information at the end of this post.

I'm thrilled about these advancements, and I hope you are too. Thank you for following our development journey, and stay tuned for more updates soon!

Until next time!

References:

Hunterson Studio: See Through Wall Shader - Unity Shader Graph Tutorial

Daniel Ilett: Wall Cutout in Unity Shader Graph

Cyanilux:  Depth