I also use value (brightness) to establish a heirarchy of importance to draw your eye function decs like titles of a chapter.
The value of the line numbers also reflects this, keeping our focus on the code.
Even just dimming any line with no characters helps you connect the code to the numbers.
Visual room is automatically give around the frames, so even code without spaces becomes a little easier to digest at a glance.
You never want a frame touching a line of code or another frame.
The curly braces visually match the fame coloring, which ties the concepts together. The frame only appears once both braces are entered.
The collapsible plus and minus is now on the title of the frame, appearing at one or both sides.
Mousing over a function that is collapsed and hovering could show the first comment after the declaration.
So
BuyDelaneySnacks()
// This text would show.
delaney.Snacks ++;
// This text would not.
(The custom colours for each function header could be stored in the code itself using a keyword in the first comment?)
If this has taught you anything about improving your user experience design you can always donate a few bucks to my "survive late stage capitalism" fund.
One thing that always bugs me in #gamedev melee combat is weapons swinging through things like opponents and axes swiping through trees.
Hit stops and hit pauses are where you add a fraction of a second pause on impact, giving things a chunkier feel... however...
...a technique you may like to also try is an stuck and release state.
The idea is to have the animation stop and the character shift from in mid swing motion, to a settled state where their weight follows through a little and both feet plant.
Swing > hit stop > stuck > release
The idea is the player hits attack, and if their swing hits an enemy, you pause a moment, then settle before yanking it out and going into the next move.
The yanking out animation is cancelled immediately by the next move, so it doesn't slow down the combat at all.
#Gamedev tip. Our brains are excellent at picking up patterns, and spotting repetitions in motion, such as playing the exact same animation every time.
One great way to break obvious cycles is using blend trees. If you author, say, three run cycles with the same start and end position, but different foot spacing, gait, side to side body shifting and arm swing, you can mix these using a float value that randomly shifts.
This gives the character a much more natural feel, and if you use a layer for upper and lower body with different calues it can up the combinations.
Idles are another area that benefit from blend trees. Having the idles shift the body weight around based on a random...
I am just so excited for this book to finally hit the hands of game artists. Just flicking through ut so far and seeing page after page of all the core principles of the craft in clean, consistent visual examples just feels amazing.
*it
Something I am glad I did was jump to Canva - not because it is a final design tool but using it like a scrapbook to just throw notes, sketches and reference images into something vaguely resembling the final product.
Better than having separate files scattered around.
Yes! That is exactly what I was thinking! This helps really break down the structure in a visual way, really good for people like me with ADHD who have trouble scanning long texts.
Can someone develop this background boxing for Rider?
Ideally, to ensure the block boxes are fairly muted and subtle, with very faint darker borders rather than bright borders which stop the eye scanning...
It could have a palette of defined colours for functions and ienumerators it detects, but then you can pick a color...
For each function declaration by, something like right clicking a tiny square on the top left and selecting it there.
Another option would be to define the visual spaces between two block boxes, and be able to customise how the first line appears- does it have a brighter...
Captain's Log, Stardate 2256.5.6.5 The situation onboard with The Slithy Toves delgation continues to worsen, with reports of incidents of gyre and gimble in Wabe deck. Our only hope is that the crew can keep the Mome Raths Outgrabe. Our status remains brillig... for now.
Captains Log, supplemental. Doctor King, our attractive new xenobiologist, is looking into the warnings of aggressive alien lifeforms on the planet.
She has found what appear to be claw and marks that match the description of this... Jabberwock.
I have notified Security, and have extra men posted on all decks. Ti allay any fears of delgates encountering the beings known as Jub Jub Birds or Bandersnatch
Weanwhile we have set our swords to Vorp factor nine. The search for this... Jabberwock entity continues.