Week 8: Creating the Western Prototype in UE5 (Part 2)

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Finishing the Saloon Environment 

I added all 3D assets and loot items within Unreal Engine and finished the saloon environment. Later in the project, I aim to improve the lighting of the scene, as the lighting I have created so far was made to just light the scene rather than to enhance the mood and style of the environment. I will also need to modify the positions of textures and materials on some of my meshes to ensure they are aligned correctly. 








When creating the saloon environment, various imported assets didn't have collision; therefore, I modified the collision properties of the static meshes to ensure that the player couldn't walk through objects. I also altered the collision settings of various static meshes to ensure that they didn't interfere with my interaction and hover line traces, therefore preventing the player from interacting with or collecting objects. 
  




Creating a Working Chest

To create a chest that opens and closes, I created a blueprint similar to my door blueprint, using Rotator variables, rotating the lid from 0 degrees to 90 degrees over the course of 1.7 seconds. 



I sourced sound effects from Artlist, and created sound effects for the chest opening and closing using Audacity. I then added a rifle inside the chest for the player to find. At first, the rifle had an outline highlight through the chest when the player hovered over it, but couldn't see it; however, after altering the collision properties of the chest, I made it so the rifle couldn't be highlighted or collected through other meshes. 



Creating the Main Objective UI 

I created a user widget for the main objective and added it to the viewport on Event Begin Play. I intend for the objective to change to 'leave the saloon' when the player has collected all 20 loot items. 




Creating Working Drawers

To create opening and closing drawers, I created a blueprint similar to my door and chest blueprints, but used Transform variables rather than Rotator variables, moving the drawer from one position to another over the course of one second. I then created and added sound effects for the drawer opening and closing. 





This week, I submitted my poster presentation, explaining my area of study, research and development techniques, and intended outcomes to be presented at the MA degree show in September. 


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