Author: zgzg2020

In our previous post, SFX: Anticipation – Spotlight Effect, we talked about how we use a spotlight effect to emphasis UFOs’ Special attacks and make them be the focus of the moment. In this post, we shall speak about how to add a camera effect to really express the power of the event that is occurring!

Because camera shake functionality are already built in and straightforward, Camera effects in Unreal Engine are relatively easy in comparison to the two previous ones. The need of us is when the UFO fires it’s Special weapon, we want to be felt as a BLAST rather than just a minute shot. So in this case, the follow of effects should be as follows:
1- Player presses fire button.
2- Dim lights.
3- Put the designated UFO under a spotlight.
4- Freeze time for x milliseconds.
5- Unfreeze time.
6- Light up world again.
7- Fire weapon.
8- Shake Camera.

Below is a comparison between a UFO special fired without a camera effect (first) and with a camera effect (second).

It is apparent that shock wave effect expressed by shaking the camera suggests power well. Tweaking it to reach the fine balance needed can be tricky. But, we recommend using it in no more than %5 of the events in your Game; movement, normal attacks, special attacks, hits, shield breakage…etc. Over use can lead lessening the emphasis it brings, and could also lead to jerking the player’s view.
Good luck!

In our previous post, SFX: Anticipation – Freezing Time, we explained how we implemented the time freeze effect to emphasis UFOs’ Special attacks and make them standout to be felt further. In this post, we examine how to add a spotlight effect to give those UFO Specials focus during Gameplay and add further emphasis!

This one was much easier than freezing time; not literally. The steps we carried out to create a spotlight on a Paper 2D Actor were as follows:
1- We created an Actor that would act as a transparent veil that shall sit between the orthographic camera and the world. It will be there to cover up everything so that we can set a spotlight on the focused Actor.
2- We implement functions within the to be spotlit Actor that puts the Paper 2D components slightly ahead of the Veil Actor and towards the camera so that they stand out ahead of the veil and not be darkened out by it.
3- We call the Veil to darken, and call the focused Actor to be uncovered by the Veil with the functions from the previous step.

The setup of where to call the above functions were already setup from the previous post, so it was rather simple to extent. Below you can see the difference between a Special being fired without any effects, and the below is a Special being fired with both the Time Freeze and the Spotlight.

In our previous post titled SFX: Anticipation – Adding Juice, we talked anticipation that is added ahead of an action to give it that extra punch. Then, we spoke about the techniques implemented, such as freezing time, which is our focus in this post. For Nebulas Lasso, we also want to add that juice to the UFO’s Special attacks to make them felt further. We began with freezing time. So, in this post will try and explain how to implement this in Nebulas Lasso.

In Unreal Engine 4, there is a function called GlobalTimeDilation, which gives the ability of manipulating length of a single Tick (Game Frame). For example, GlobalTimeDilation default value is 1, so if that value is reduced to 0.5, execution is slowed down by half. That yields a slowed down effect. The opposite is also true. Here is a great tutorial on how to use it. A complimenting function is also available, which is called CustomTimeDilation that modifies a specific Actor. This become useful when you need everything to slow down for the player ALONE, then you do a Global Time Dilation of value x, then do a CustomTimeDilation of value (1/x). Based this, to freeze time for ahead of an action, we use a GlobalTimeDilation. However, in our Game, we have several issues we had to deal with before freezing time would operate as we need it. The issues were mainly three; User-Input Buffering, UFO Movement and Nozzle Rotation to be Time based, transforming Firing Special Weapons to be a sequential waterfall execution that is placed within the EventGraph.

User-input buffering is the act of buffering is basically gathering and holding commands for delayed execution. This was needed to be added because User-Input in Unreal Engine 4, and in general, is asynchronously gathered, meaning, it follows no time frame, as soon as a user inputs a command it immediately fires the event.
When time is slowed down, so should User-Input, for that we added a buffer (array) to hold user input, and then executed as a bulk during each EventTick.

Buffered inputs getting executed in a bulk means that pressing left 3 times in a row will be executed in sequence within the same Tick. This yields sudden bursts of movement after the time stops freezing and returns to normal. To remedy this, we rewrote UFO movements and Nozzle rotations to be DeltaSeconds– the time duration since the past Tick until the current one. Therefore, if movement was 30 units per second, and time was dilated to be shorter, it will always be multiplied by the DeltaSeconds to yield the proper movement speed.

Finally, the need to implement firing special weapons to be in a sequential manner is a little indirect in affect. Say, we want freeze time for 1 second then unfreeze. This means we do it as follows:
GlobalTimeDilation(0.001) -> Delay(1 second) -> GlobalTimeDilation(1)
In Unreal Engine 4, Delaying time can only be executed in the EventGraph scope. So, if we use an Event to FireWeapons, but want to freeze time before the shot is actually fired, we must delay in between the User’s Fire command and the actual shot getting fired. For example, in Ryu’s Shinku Hadouken, a user will do the double quarter circles+punch, but before the Hadouken is thrown, the anticipation frames must be shown first.

Here are two videos showing examples of the special weapon not having an anticipation (first) and having it (second).

We understand that the impact is not as detailed as in MVC2 yet. But, if you compare you can observe the wind-up before the punch, so to speak 🙂

We expected this post to be more graphical than this. So, our apologies for this long wall of text… We will continue by implementing dimming of the everything aside from the executing Actor next. Please visit us again!

To give a that needed “punch” to animated effects a technique of time manipulation is often used. You can observe how effective technique in Games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. As shown below, when Ryu is about to deliver his Shinku Hadouken, there is a short pause, approximately 28 frames, which equivalent to nearly 0.93 seconds on a 30 FPS rate. You can find this in other Game such Super Smash Bro. Ultimate when characters are about the perform their Ultimates. It will be easier to notice if you play at x0.25 speed.

This build up that comes ahead of the designated action is referred to as Anticipation in animation. And, as they name implies, it adds the anticipation to action at hand. If you noticed in the video, there are several techniques with that anticipation window of 1 second. Examples on those techniques can freezing time, dimming the background, zooming in on the actor, splashing the characters close-up…etc. Although all of this happens within less than a second, it is what gives that action the impact that makes it stand out!

We added several posts for our Game in several platforms in an attempt to gain exposure. Here are the pages, IndieDB, IGDB, ModDB, TiGForums, UnrealForums, and Reddit.

We read that traction takes time. So, we will continue to try our best to gain exposure for Nebulas Lasso!

We are happy to announce that Nebulas Lasso’s official website has been launched! We’ve added a Discord channel too, please join us there and let us here your thoughts! 🙂

Today, we’ve finished the illustrations of the last remaining four characters in the Game. Smoothing stage is remaining, and then they should be complete!

The smoothing stage is basically as follows. When an illustration is drawn and colored in high definition, there are dotted edges that can be clearly seen. To remove those rough edges, and make the illustration look fresher, smoothing must be done to them first; hence the smoothing stage.

You can compare the difference between illustrations with and without smoothing. (Left is pre-smoothing, right is post-smoothing)