Historica Fantasia devblog10 Level Design Prototype

@OtakuEatMama : @HistoricaFantasiaDevBlog : Zenneth@zodiac-alliance.com 1
By Matumit Sombunjaroen V1.0 2017/12/21
Historica Fantasia Dev Blog
Chapter10:
Level Design Prototype

Level Design
Introduction

Tools Used
ProCore Bundle include various tools
that could speed up Level Design
ProBuilder Advance for Geometry
ProGroups for quick Grouping
QuickDecals for Decorative Works
QuickEdit for Editing Meshes in Editor
QuickBrush to populate Prefabs

Tools Used
Archimatix is used mainly for Artificial Objects.
World Creator to create Terrain
//Buy it from the Asset store if you only need Unity Version.
//They won’t refund the standalone version
Unity Terrain has some serious issues with Shaders,
Complete Terrain Shader should solve these issues.

Design Revision
Multiple Areas
Each Average Area is at least 80m in width or length
Max 30Degree for Traversable Slope
10m Height Cut per Major Elevation
Has Destructible Obstacles
Walls need to be at least 5m wide to prevent Overshoot

Objectives
Terrain Geometry Prototyping
Multiple Area Placement Procedure
Objects Placement Procedure

Terrain
Geometry

Overall Map
After going through much consideration,
It is more convenient to build a Large Terrain,
Then form Areas around it
Use Terrain Former by adding its to Terrain
Because Terrain cannot have Negative Height Value,
We are using 0 for Sea or River Bed
And 10 for Ground Floor

Open Field
Use Set Height of 10 to bring everything to Ground Level
Open Field must be surround
by other features that mark its boundary
This is to prevent Units reaching the Edge
and feel weird when finding Empty Ground

High Ground
Max Slope got changed to 45,
Because it’s just easier to design
The Maximum Height for Ground is 30 (20 above Ground)
Slopes need to have clear Cliff Cut

Internal Area
Caves or other Major Interior
Will be surround by the wall that reach the top ground,
Or at least placing a Collider to block visibility from outside
Entry Points will be
either Small Openings or Warp points

Terrain Geometry
Take-2
World Creator

Initialize Setup
Call World Creator Window Editor
and press New to create new Terrain
Set overall Sizes accordingly
Height should be 40 by maximum

Blockout Height
Paint Area Mask for Ground Floor,
Add Flatten Terrain Filter
Use Flatten Anchor to push it to appropriate Height
Block out 4 Major Elevation Height
00 – Flatten Anchor 0
10 – Flatten Anchor 0.25
30
20
10
30
00

Refine other parts
Paint Area Mask for Mountain and Erosion Filters
Mountain should be use to carve out inaccessible Areas
Adjust accordingly.
Use Path to smooth out Roads to Accessible Areas

Terrain Texture
Put Ground Base Texture at the Bottom,
Then add Cliff Texture,
with minimum Terrain Slope adjusted to override the Slope.
Use Cavity to add Depth & Highlight
Use Terrain Height to add Height Gradient

Customized Shader Forge Shader
Unity Shader use Splatter map
to blend 4 textures together
Name Texture Slots, Control, Splat0, …. Splat3
And the appropriate Textures
will be referenced automatically.
Add shading passes accordingly

Settings PlaceHolder

Objects

Procore QuickBrush
QuickBrush will be activated as long as the Window is up
Drag Prefab to paint
Ctrl+ Left Click
to place object
Settings can be save and reuse

Objects to be replace with Houdini later

Plan – Movement Tutorial Stage
1. Pickup Warp Item
And use it to warp to nearest Base
(Item usage Mechanic)
(Warp to Base Mechanic)
2. Rendezvous with PathFinder
(Form Squad at Base Mechanic)
(PathFinder increase Movement Range)
0. Impassable Blockade
3. Activate TraWell
(Near Water Warp Locations)
(TraWell Mechanic)
4. Thrown Boulder destroy Bridge
(Siege Weaponry Mechanic)
(Building Destruction Mechanic)
5. Activate Magical Bridge
(Gimmick Activation Mechanic)
6. Defeat BOSS!!!
(Stage Clear Mechanic)

Archimatix Features to note
Programmable Handle
Han_x
Save and Reuse
Modular Variations from a Single Asset
Placeholder Assets are used for now
In Final Production =>
Create Complete Buildings
by adjusting Handle only

Base (Place holding Asset)
Village, Town, Hospital, Castle, etc
Bases represent Key strategic points that each side must take over.
Each Base will provide different Units to recruit.
Each Base must have an adjacent Key Building,
Units will come out of the Building once recruited.
If the Key Building is destroyed, Unit cannot be recruit.
Raise & Lower appropriate Faction Color Flag when conquered.
Base Area will have different sizes.
To claim -> Have at least an Ally Unit && No Enemy Unit in the Area
Building production should be automated by
Adjusting Archimatix Volumetric size handle.

TraWell (Place holding Asset)
TraWell
Should be place directly
above a body of Water.
Platform
should be place underneath
<= Work on this later
Add some kind of FX
To increase visibility later
Customized Archimatix Handles
Radius, Thickness, Height, Water Level
Can be change on the fly

TraWell Platform (Place holding Asset)
Archimatix Shape Control can be created manually
Syntax Ref:
http://www.archimatix.com/manual/archimatix-turtle-script-api
Create Several Shapes &
Boolean Merge to get a final Result
Since they won’t be use in actual Gameplay,
&& they will be Stamped in the end,
It is OK to make complex stuffs.
TraWell can be activated
when the Squad is standing on a central Area
We should make something visual to represent this

TraWell Take2
Create 2 poles and sparkling effects
to link 2 TraWells together
Warp Area
Once the Squad is placed on top,
Squads can warp to linked TraWell
Via Action Command

Bridge
A Bridge is made up of 3 Parts
2 Ends & 1 Middle
For the Prototype,
We will only hide it
The Middle part can be destroyed
with Siege Attacks

Magical Bridge
Magical Bridge can be activate
when a Unit is standing on a Platform
We are using a straight Bridge for now
The Final Product should be a Curve Bridge

Stair Slopes
Final Slope shall be made with Houdini
The Slope should be around
30degree from ground
And must not be greater than 45degree

Buildings & Trees & Obstacles
Final version shall be made with Houdini
Fences, Walls, etc,
They will block line of Sight,
Block Path,
And can be destroy with Siege Attack

Bushes
Final version shall be made with Houdini
A group of Bush is roughly 2m high
And will hide Units when they are inside
They can be burn, and will spread fire to
surrounding area after a turn
Once completely burned,
They will disappear

1st Draft

Path-finding
Take2
A* Path Finding Project

Issues
Unfortunately, APEX Path has this really big issues with cliffs.
After working around for sometime, I couldn’t fix it.
As such, we decided to drop it for alternative solution.
Because Formation is no longer an issue,
We chose to go with A*Path Finding Project Pro
By Aron Granberg

How to Setup
Add Astar Path component, and add a new Graph
I chose Recast Graph for this
Snap bounds to Scene will automatically set this up to cover the stage
In Layer Mask, Make sure that objects are in appropriate Layers
And Set those Layers to true

Result
WALLAH!
It even automatically do Multiple Floors!!!

Setup Notes
Because Objects such as Buildings, trees, etc
Are destructible
They must be excluded from scan,
Otherwise, the mesh underneath them
will not be generated
Add NavMeshCut to obstacles instead
They will update during Runtime

Dynamic Obstacle - Navmesh Cutting
Add only one Tile Handler Helper
Add Navmesh Cut to an Object
Set the data accordingly
This will cut a hole inside a graph

Dynamic Path - Bridges
Add only one Recast Tile Update Handler
This will coordinate the Updates from various Objects
Add Graph Update Scene to a dynamic path Object
Set Modify Walkability
and call Apply() from another Script
**NOTE**
THIS CANNOT BE USE TO GENERATE NEW GRAPH
ONLY EDITING EXISTING ONE

Dynamic Path - Navmesh Cutting
Add NavmeshCut to Mid Bridges instead.
Rect Size => (1,1,1)
Height => Set to cover entire Object
Use Rotation and Scale => True
Cuts Added Geom => False
Enable/Disable Components to De/activate path
In final ver, replace disable mesh with Mesh animation

Set Tag – Flaming Area
In A* Setting, create Fire Area Tag
In Unit’s Seeker, set Tag Penalty for the Area
Value difference of around 10000 is good
Add the Followings
GraphUpdateScene
<= Set Modify Tag
NavMeshCut
<= Set to isDual
Collider
<= Must be a bit smaller than NavMeshCut
Tag will be modified when GraphUpdateScene is Apply()

Warp Portals
Add Link2 to a Transform,
Then add another Transform to End
<= Turn off Component to deactivate Link
**Link1 will not update in Realtime**
Link the 2 TraWells
**Immediate Jump will not be made**
This has to be done in movement control

Warp Distance Calculation
AstarPath.active.GetNearest(pos);
Will return Node info of that position
Portals are created as PointNode
Check to see if the wayPoint is a PointNode
pathInterpolator.remainingDistance
Included Portal`s vertical distance as well
Calculate distances between Portals,
To get actual distance

Setup Unit
Seeker is the main
PathFinding Component
Add a Custom Component
To control Unit
Funnel Modifier
Will smooth out curves

Programming
Use Seeker.StartPath() to generate Path
use OnPathComplete callback
To get the path once it’s got generated
Vector3 arrays of each waypoints’ Positions
Are stored in path.vectorPath
Use it to program Movement
Set PathInterpolator in OnPathComplete
It contains several Data, such as remaining Distance

Result
In Area with Multiple Floors,
The Seeker will target the nearest floor
from referenced Point
Recast Graph treated
the center of each grid as the waypoint
Funnel Modifier will fix this out
Smooth Modifier can be added on top
to provided smoother curve

RVO Local Avoidance
Add One RVONavMesh & RVOSimulator
These two will do managements of RVO Agents
Use RVOController.SetTarget();
& RVOController.CalculateMovementData();
To obtain desirable Movement Delta
**The Controller does not move the Unit,
A Separate Control code is needed**
Add RVO Controller to Units

Basic Movement Control
Rotate Unit toward moving direction
Add CharacterController to Unit
Apply Gravity to Movement Delta
Use CharacterController.Move()

Fixing Movement Stutter
Each time the Unit did a Repath
It will stutter for a frame
To Fix this issue,
Calculating Delta is separated from Movement
The Unit will continue moving
In the same direction,
While new Delta is being calculated
Waypoint 0 == Unit’s original position
Movement Vector of zero caused the stutter.

Next Slide,
Squad Formation

Historica Fantasia devblog10 Level Design Prototype

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Historica Fantasia devblog10 Level Design Prototype