#widget workshop

[never-obsolete]

Widget Workshop (1995)

[redbo-and-simbo]

...

..Mm.

(Where am I? It's so cold..)

(shifting)

Huh?

(An IV drip? I'm..in the infirmary. How did I get here after...)

Holy crap, you're finally awake.

(chuckle)

I was worried, man.

...Forty-seven? How..long have I been out?

Uh..longer than I'm sure you wanted to be.

(sigh)

Right. Right..

I'm..sorry.

What? Oh- No, it's fine. I should be apologizing for snooping around-

No, not- not that, I-

(weak, shaky breath)

I keep getting further from my goal. I keep..getting sidetracked...carried away.

I'm a disappointment to the Creator. I know it. That's why he sent you, right? To be some- some crutch?

No, Red-

It's humiliating. Being like this. This isn't what he wants, right? Prophet, how many clones does it take to bury this- this sorry excuse of an Evbo? I can't do my one purpose. I can't stay focused. I'm doing everything I can.

Red-

I do everything I can to keep up this tedium, because one day it's going to be so...so worth it. I want him to see how hard I've worked to become the perfect Evbo, all for him. It's all been for him.

I've never- I've never felt like I did when my autonomy fell away to his will. I want that back. I want- I want him to choose me again. I don't care how many Evbos I have to go through, I just want it back.

But I keep screwing up! All the time! I keep slipping up and things keep going outside of my plans!

Red, hey-

I'm a failure- Just- Just a collection of flaws I just want to erase and replace so I can be someone else!

I'm sick of it!

...

(shaky breath)

It's alright. You don't need to push yourself so hard, okay? You're doing fine.

You work so hard. ..If the Creator could see you himself, he'd probably admire your dedication. I know I do. But you need to slow. Down.

You're not on a time limit. You don't need to spend every single second of your life living efficiently just to achieve your goal here. You're pushing yourself past your limits, sure, but you're doing it every single day. You're constantly functioning on bare minimum rest and self care, and it's affecting your work too.

..I'm sorry.

No, hey..don't be sorry. It's okay. I just don't want you to work yourself to death, and neither does the Creator. You've been out for a while because of your health, things are getting behind.

Then-

(shifting)

Then I need to-!

No, you don't need to do anything but stay here. Okay? Taking care of yourself is part of your work. You need to rest and recover after your crash.

...

(weak scoff)

(shifting back onto pillows)

Theeere you go. Things are still up and running. You don't need to worry. You set so many assignments that they trickle over into other shifts, there's a backlog, you don't need to do anything right now.

There's so much I need to do..

I know. But the first thing on the list is to recuperate. And hey, I've taken care of a lot for you.

(weight shifts down onto the medical bed)

I don't know how to assign things or do repairs, but..Seawatt needed to charge, so I helped plug him in. I made sure Widget was fed and had water so neither of you had to worry about it. And uh..your hoodie was..stained, so..I put it in the wash. Sheets too.

I don't understand..

Why?

Huh?

Why go through all that trouble when you didn't have to? You could've gotten someone else to take care of any of that. You know you don't need to lift a finger around this place.

(sigh)

Well, for one, it made the most sense. Even if Seawatt was in sleep mode for a while, he was still low battery. I wasn't going to make him do anything. And everything else, y'know..I'm around your room and workshop the most, only second to you. But- Besides that, I just-

I care about you, Red.

I knew it wasn't going to be easy to make up for lost time, and I knew it would stress you out having all these extra tasks to take care of. I wanted to make the workload easier on you.

...

(sniffle)

...You really are a gift from the Creator..

Aw, Red..

(shifting)

Hey..you don't need to cry. I'm happy to hurk-!

(Tight hugger-)

(soft chuckle)

(fingers move to comb through hair)

...You'll be alright, Evbo.

[centrally-unplanned]

I have been taking my fit-and-starts second stab at playing Victoria 3 - I did a Japan run, and a Korea run, and this is a very frustrating game. It bothers me because its deep core is probably the best of Vicky so far. It understands that the appeal of these game is Factorio-esque; you want to build up this cool little supply chain that goes chug chug chug I make-a the widgets and numbers go up.

Vicky 1 was ofc just pure cheese; most goods could just be dumped on the global market with no buyer and do fine, certain goods were just hard-coded to be profitable, and insane things like 100% of import costs coming out of the government's budget pushed you towards a kind of samey, slapdash hyper-industrial mercantilism. Vicky 2 was the opposite - so opaque in its function that you as the player didn't really have agency over it, as the vaunted World Market just does its thing. Your strategies "worked" no matter what you really did though, so you just kind of followed basic "build factory in same territory as RGO" logic and let the system run itself. Both of these systems made for functional-but-not-exceptional gameplay loops.

Vicky 3 is more complicated than its predecessors, but in ways that makes how the economic system functions more concrete. You have local prices for goods, wider markets with clearly labelled high-and-low demand, and clearly defined "production methods" where buildings can commit to better tech at the cost of different inputs. As a player you can build factories, farms, and mines of a dozen different types anywhere, so you always have agency - and those new production lines gives you goals. Invent steel tools, so now your tooling workshops can make more tools but will need steel instead of iron as a input? You can switch over the lines...but make sure you have enough steel mills! And oh, that drives down the price of tools once you do it...so now your cattle ranches can justify switching their line to tool-assisted butchers! And now you make more meat, your local cost is low, but oh in the Russian market meat prices are high - as shown by that little gold coin icon it - so you can export it now!

Things are looped, contingent, and based on your decisions. It is simple, of course, you are making lots of little, easy calls that build you up over time - which is what makes it fun. It has to be simple, because otherwise it is a dizzyingly complex web of a million markets, it would never work. You feel like you are actually building the economy without being overwhelmed by it.

Which would be great if it wasn't stapled to one of the worst political & military systems I have ever seen, played with a UI God abandoned in shame.

So you can join the markets of other countries? Like you have your own market as a default, so you can click the "market" tab and it will show you how much wheat your country makes, how much iron it buys, etc. All good. But if you join another country's market, now that tab shows the collective market, everyone's wheat, iron, etc. Useful but like obiously I am not playing the market, I am playing the country; so how do I see how much wheat I make?

You can't.

You actually can't! Idk maybe they patched it in recently, but I couldn't find it and all the reddit threads I google from 2023 say you can't. Are you planning to declare independence and wanna see if you make enough food for your people? Too bad! Fuck around and find out I guess. I saw one thread where someone's advice was "save the game, declare independence, screenshot the new market, then reload". Quantum timeline level of experimental design going on in these guys' Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It isn't even the gameplay implications that bother me the most - this is a game about building an economy. You want to see what you built! And they stop you. It is baffling, and is just the tip of the iceberg - there are so many things like this. One of my favourites is that your "construction sector" is a hybrid of government and private projects, sometimes it is you spending the money, sometimes investors. Okay, cool, when it is you spending it comes out of your treasury, right? Well, yes, but the way they show that is when everyone spends it comes out of your treasury, but the private sector reimburses you for their share. Which you will not understand your first ~3 games, and instead just see huge red numbers on your budget screen and panic. And you are just left asking why? Why do that?

Beyond UI, the political system is just half-baked. It is "interest groups", each has baseline popularity, and verrrry slowly that changes as your economic structure changes (or revolutions). And to change laws you initiate campaigns to drum up support with roll dice to pass/fail. Which isn't a bad baseline, but it completely fails to capture how political change occurred in the era. Like the Meiji Restoration is "done" by you putting industrialists in power and kicking out the "landlords" lol. Japan didn't have industrialists then! Landlords are the ones who did the restoring of Meiji.

More importantly than inaccurate it isn't fun - to change a law you just arrange a coalition in power than kind of backs it, then pray you get good random events. In Vicky 2 they had a lot more railroad-style decisions and stuff you could do to capture history, "hit this military score benchmark and launch a civil war" kind of stuff. It wasn't complicated, and it was less organic, but it was pro player agency, you could take active steps to achieve it. In Vicky 3 it is mainly waiting or cheese - people often talk about getting the Meiji Restoration by deleting all your armies at game start and launching a civil war immediately that the AI will lose by default. A checkbox decision is better than that!

The military mechanics are the epitome of their "systems over gameplay" approach. What they wanted to do was two-fold; reduce micro in Vicky 2 where it is "click army to province" over and over, and "balance" the game by making combat not reward micro where players could cheese the AI. Very valid goals, I totally support it. What they did was built a system where armies auto-move to "fronts" and their AI can't handle it, but now as a player my agency over my units is gone so I can't fix it. The UI is awful, you can't even really tell armies to attack or defend, they just ~whim. You have to do a lot of clicking to fight the system - yes it is less clicking than Vicky 2, but in Vicky 2 that wasn't mentally taxing, it was fun enough to wage the war you wanted to wage. Everything was concrete and in your control.

Here...look, as Korea I declared war on China to gain independence. Then the UK - not my ally, just separately, declared war on China as well. So now we are kindaaaa on the same side? At which point half my army auto-reployed to Hong Kong because a "new front" had "appeared". One my one boat. Then the UK declared war on me as well and then 50% of my army was fighting the UK in the South China Sea alongside the Russians (???) while the other half of my army is sitting there at home facing the Qing troops along the Yalu River going "bro, wtf?". At one point a newly spawned army of mine tried to auto-redeploy to Senegal.

All of this is just so preventable - you wanna reduce micro? Make combat provinces really big. You just invade "Manchuria", no clicking from Jilin to Mukden, and have bordering armies support each other defensively or something like that so you don't have to dash back and forth. Don't try to make your AI "do it for you" because it clearly can't and you want to play your own game. I'm sure the above will get better as I learn the system but I can just see the hundreds of players who saw this system and insta-quit, because until you "understand" it, it stabs you in the back. Not what you want out of a game.

Anyway enough me whinging about the game for way too long - the fundamentals are strong in the end. I will test out mods, I could see an overhaul mod really fixing everything except maybe the combat (and then you just cope). I definitely want it to work, the potential is high.

[seaworker-and-droidwatt]

By the way widget was in the workshop taking care of some rats last we saw…

-🔹

Good to know. Evbo might wonder why I'm around before it's been 24 hours, but... I'd like to see the cat.

[the-beam-order]

All of the gene "bugs" that staff just comes down to say "WEHH WEHH ITS A CHOICE ACTUALLY THAT ON THIS BREED IT LOOKS LIKE SHIT" would feel so less whiny and "ackshually" if they just RAN POLLS.

Imagine. Between site news and the random dragon widget on front page, a little poll

"Do you think [GENE] on [BREED] should be changed [Click here to see the gene in the scrying workshop]"

Maybe it has a vote button, where it links to a post explaining why people think it should be changed

Maybe its just a yes/no or maybe its more nuanced like "yes because its inconsistent" "yes because its not pretty"

and then it lasts for a few days, maybe 5/7 to make sure a lot of people see it and vote

and boom. Staff has a nice idea of what their players want, and if "no dont change it" is the majority then players like me, that submit really inconsistent genes to bug forums, feel more like the community agreed its ok, rather than THE MOD ON THEIR HIGH THRONE OF POWER HAS DENIED YOUR REQUEST.

[knight-otu]

Toady's Devlog for 02/26/2025 - Dwarf Fortress 51.06 Released

Toady One, from the Dwarf Fortress Development Log:

Just posted another fixerly release. Probably do a few more of these before starting on siege stuff, and patches should continue during that process. Also have started what'll hopefully be a quick experimental test with lua over on a Steam branch before we merge that in everywhere. I did a lengthy interview over on Blind's channel. They also provided a link to the raw audio.

And from the Bay12Games forums:

Release notes for 51.06 (February 26, 2025): Cheerful little release as we get back to regular progress. Fortress mode ) Made some strange mood dwarves not get stuck at workshop selection stage ) Stopped people from claiming and using inactive bedroom zones ) Stopped the dead from claiming inactive tomb zones ) Decreased prepared food item value ) Made custom announcement settings load properly ) Added setting to turn off visible rectangle dimensions ) Added crash safeguards to report popups and other widgets ) Fixed seed cap limit and made deletion of seeds over cap respect planting status Adventure mode ) Added escape/rbut to leave adventurer difficulty selection ) Fixed issue with adventurer race selection lists not being unpopulated on exit ) Fixed buffer overrun involving tents ) Fixed crash related to site plot use allocations ) Added highlight to adventurer destiny selection in Classic mode General updates ) Added crash safeguard for syndromes ) Updated some metal elasticities ) Fixed graphics for tiger, whale, and whitetip reef sharks

[nitrosodiumaltcontroller]

Making a Pause System

Today I learned how to do an in-game pause. I had a vague idea of how to do this, but this workshop helped flesh it out.

First we made a widget, using a Background Blur and some text.

Then we made an Input Action that could be triggered when paused.

Here we added the input action to the Input Mapping Context.

This is the code in the third person character, that puts the widget over the screen and pauses the game on a flip flop.

This is how it looks when triggered in game.

[womenofnoise]

Éclat Crew Berlin created an online workshop/challenge for ~2 electronic music pieces made only with materials from our Samples Without Borders pack. The results are 10 wonderful tracks.

eclatcrew · Éclat Part 127

Éclat Crew Berlin is a music-making collective for FLINTA* (female, lesbian, intersex, nonbinary, trans, and agender) electronic music producers.

[redbo-and-simbo]

You need a breather boss.

We’re working on getting more rats together so we can send them to clear the vents and see if we have any magic left. I have some sun beetles left and they’ll clear anything that leaked into the workshop I guess. The uninjuredworkers can clear sculk from the deletion room, but fine, I’ll give you that you’re probably the only one who knows how to deal with the Evbos. But everything else can be delegated. You need a decontamination shower, medical treatment and sleep.

As soon as I find that beacon and we find enough space, we can get regen going for everyone in the infirmary! Evbo is really gonna need it…

And widget is safe just really scared. She’s hiding in a box and won’t come out.

-🔹

Oh, poor girl..

It sounds like there's a separate room for him? I didn't approve this but..it's probably for the best.

(deep breath)

Just give me some time to get everything settled. I don't need you guys nagging in my ear right now.

[iheartgod175]

Totally Not Flustered

I almost forgot how simple it is to doodle Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! characters and backgrounds, and was surprised that I was able to get this finished so quickly, haha!

But uh, yeah. Pure nostalgia is what drove me to doodle this pic. Widget and Walden have always been my faves, and I remember that my good friend @jordby got me into the idea of shipping the two. I know I tagged them as the “brains and brawn” ship in the WIP, but technically speaking, Widget also has the brains to keep up with Walden, albeit more in a “street smart” way where as Walden’s more book smart. Their dynamic really reminds me of Zeeter and Multo, in that one likes to be in the thick of things and takes action, while the other likes to study things to find the solution. That’s probably another reason I like them so much, heheh 🤭

The background I doodled here is taken from one of the episodes featuring Widget’s workshop. I was able to test out some markers I got from my job and some cool erasable colored pencils, only the marker that I used died halfway through 😩 I still managed to get it done. Also, I know neither of them are this tall/short, but I figured it’d add more dynamic to the pic. And I had fun playing around with their eye colors. Blue fits Walden perfectly, while going green for Widget took a bit of testing, but it turned out nice!

I can’t really provide the context behind this pic, other than a smug/amused Widget and a flustered Walden is more than enough context. Widget’s like, “Really? Ya wanna try that?” And Walden’s like, “I’d rather you forget everything I just said.” XD

Enjoy!

[centreforporsche]

Design 911: We only like like-for-like…

Design 911 supply replacement parts for the world’s finest car – the Porsche 911, and other members of the Porsche motoring family. Of course, there are other companies who will do much the same thing. So, what’s the advantage of using D911? Simple, really.

Data tells us there are more than 5,000 motor parts suppliers in the UK, with – unsurprisingly – the largest concentration in London, with a full 9% of motor factor companies in the capital. That gives the lucky Porsche owner more than 500 options to replace the widget, sprocket, or non-specific thingy he or she needs to get their motor runnin’. So, why make us your first point of contact?

Design 911: Home of Porsche (and premium) parts.

When you love Porsches as much as we do, you treat every customer’s car like we do our own. That means no compromising on quality. If it’s not good enough for Porsche, we won’t use it. Our unofficial strapline of ‘every part for every Porsche’ isn’t precise enough: ‘only perfect parts for every Porsche’ is closer to the mark. Check out any parts page on our site. It couldn’t be clearer.

At Design 911, we have a rule. It’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) as first choice, and an aftermarket option as the ‘next best’. In short, if we can offer like-for-like, that’s what we’ll do. If we can’t, we’ll look for the next-best and make sure it’s a copy, not a compromise.

Plan B.

But maybe the OEM isn’t out there. The 911 is nearly 60 years old and there are more than 2,000 parts in every single one. So, there will always be gaps in the catalogue. Running a Porsche – or indeed any car – isn’t cheap and sometimes even with our discounts the part’s beyond the customer’s budget, then we’ll suggest a quality replacement that’s as good as the OEM. No Porsche? No problem. We list all the household OEM brands including Bilstein, Mann, Brembo, Textar, Bosch, Mahle and many more.

Check out our site. Enter your part number and each page lists each option, from all our trusted brands – essentially, every choice for your replacement component. Whether you get an OEM, or a high-quality alternative, you’re good to go. No compromise components, guaranteed.

Plan C.

Design 911 is a hotbed of professional Porsche expertise. It may be that the failure of an OEM is a great opportunity to tweak your car’s performance. If that’s the case, we may identify the potential for an upgrade beyond the Porsche catalogue. That level of engagement is just one benefit of speaking to an expert rather than trawling the web armed only with a part number. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

Insurance assurance.

Replacing the original component may involve an insurance claim and some policies are very specific about the acceptable grade of that part. Again, this isn’t something you want to discover after the event. When you know, you know. You know?

If you’re not sure, then speaking to an expert is a great way of backfilling your expertise. It can save you money, improve – or at least support – the performance of your Porsche, save any refused insurance claims and, most importantly, you’ll know that you haven’t made any compromises that Ferdinand Porsche himself wouldn’t have approved. If you’re stalking the Internet with a part number or planning to let another workshop handle your pride and joy, give us a call first. We don’t compromise. Neither should you.

Source URL - https://www.design911.co.uk/blog/design-911-we-only-like-like-for-like/

[nitrosodiumequilibriumproject]

Savegames..?

This was the result of one of our many, MANY workshops, to help us create a high score system for our games. The idea is you increase score by jumping, and if it's higher than your high score, it changes to that once you close and restart the game. Because it's saved in a savegame, which exists outside of the game to store data. So it would store playthroughs between someone closing and re-opening the game. Issue is, despite the project in question being created to the letter, it is dysfunctional and doesn't save your score.

I might create a different score system, that operates on a unique widget that overlays on the other widget. Each time you die, it sets Score as Distance x Coins. Then, it checks if that is higher than High Score, and if it is, changes it to that. Obviously, High Score will only remain between playthroughs.

[brandwhorestarscream]

Well, I got one person that said yes to the previous post, and that's technically 100% of the vote, so here is the entire list, in alphabetical order, of the Terran Task Force, complete with their ID code. Put under the cut because. Obviously 😂

Which one is your favorite? I'm dying to know 😊 send me all of your thoughts cuz Primus knows I'll need help developing these bitties

Accelerator (A-1)

Ace (A-2)

Aero (A-3)

Alkaline (A-4)

Allele (A-5)

Ammunition (A-6)

Ampere (A-7)

Antiseptic (A-8)

Arrowhead (A-9)

Ashfall (A-10)

Atlas (A-11)

Atom (A-12)

Aurturius Maximus (A-13)

Axis (A-14)

Axon (A-15)

Backstab (B-1)

Backstrike (B-2)

Barrier (B-3)

Baseline (B-4)

Bastion (B-5)

Blazewing (B-6)

Blockade (B-7)

Bodybag (B-8)

Boombox (B-9)

Brainwash (B-10)

Breakcheck (B-11)

Breeze (B-12)

Broadcast (B-13)

Bullseye (B-14)

Catacomb (C-1)

Catalyst (C-2)

Chainsaw (C-3)

Chisel (C-4)

Cirrus (C-5)

Clearsky (C-6)

Clearwater (C-7)

Cliffclimber (C-8)

Clockwork (C-9)

Constellation (C-10)

Cremator (C-11)

Crossbow (C-12)

Crossflare (C-13)

Crypt (C-14)

Cutlass (C-15)

Cyclone (C-16)

Dart (D-1)

Daybreaker (D-2)

Debris (D-3)

Demo (D-4)

Detonator (D-5)

Double Dash (D-6)

Double Dutch (D-7)

Downburst (D-8)

Dropkick (D-9)

Earthquake (E-1)

Echolalia (E-2)

Echolocate (E-3)

Enigma (E-4)

Equation (E-5)

Figment (F-1)

Firefly (F-2)

Flamethrower (F-3)

Flashflood (F-4)

Flashfreeze (F-5)

Flourescence (F-6)

Fogbank (F-7)

Fragment (F-8)

Freelance (F-9)

Frostbyte (F-10)

Froststar (F-11)

Gadget (G-1)

Galaxy (G-2)

Gasket (G-3)

Gauge (G-4)

Galvanize (G-5)

Geocache (G-6)

Glaciate (G-7)

Glaive (G-8)

Goldstrike (G-9)

Greenbeam (G-10)

Gripper (G-11)

Hailstone (H-1)

Hailstorm (H-2)

Handsaw (H-3)

Hardcore (H-4)

Hazmat (H-5)

Hellraiser (H-6)

High Dive (H-7)

Highwire (H-8)

Horizon (H-9)

Hyperdrive (H-10)

Ice Storm (I-1)

Igneous (I-2)

Ignition (I-3)

Illusion (I-4)

Illusory (I-5)

Imager (I-6)

Imperius (I-7)

Iodine (I-8)

Jailbreak (J-1)

Javelin (J-2)

Jumpdrive (J-3)

Jumpstart (J-4)

Keynote (K-1)

Kinetic (K-2)

Killswitch (K-3)

Lacerate (L-1)

Latticework (L-2)

Levellor (L-3)

Lightning (L-4)

Lightspeed (L-5)

Lobotomy (L-6)

Lookout (L-7)

Mach-3 (M-1)

Mach-4 (M-2)

Mach-5 (M-3)

Magma (M-4)

Maze (M-5)

Microbe (M-6)

Mirror (M-7)

Mistcover (M-8)

Molotov (M-9)

Myriad (M-10)

Network (N-1)

Neurotoxin (N-2)

Nightbuster (N-3)

Nightfall (N-4)

Nightwatch (N-5)

Nimbus (N-6)

Nocturne (N-7)

Noisemaker (N-8)

Nucleus (N-9)

Oasis (O-1)

Operate (O-2)

Orbit (O-3)

Overboard (O-4)

Overcast (O-5)

Overflow (O-6)

Paladin (P-1)

Paradox (P-2)

Patchwork (P-3)

Pathfinder (P-4)

Pendulum (P-5)

Permafrost (P-6)

Petri Dish (P-7

Phalanx (P-8)

Phobia (P-9)

Pipette (P-10)

Pitfall (P-11)

Placebo (P-12)

Quantum (Q-1)

Quicksand (Q-2)

Quickshot (Q-3)

Radiowave (R-1)

Raindance (R-2)

Rainglow (R-3)

Ratio (R-4)

Resevoir (R-5)

Riptide (R-6)

Roundhouse (R-7)

Sabotage (S-1)

Scoria (S-2)

Serpentine (S-3)

Shatter (S-4)

Shuriken (S-5)

Silhouette (S-6)

Skyline (S-7)

Skyscape (S-8)

Skysplitter (S-9)

Snapshot (S-10)

Snowglow (S-11)

Snowshower (S-12)

Sonar (S-13)

Soundblaster (S-14)

Spectroscope (S-15)

Spectrum (S-16)

Spillover (S-17)

Spire (S-18)

Spritz (S-19)

Squall (S-20)

Static (S-21)

Storm Cell (S-22)

Storm Warning (S-23)

Stratus (S-24)

Stunt Double (S-25)

Subatomic (S-26)

Sunshower (S-27)

Sunwave (S-28)

Supercell (S-29)

Supernova (S-30)

Swiftwind (S-31)

Symmetry (S-32)

Synthwave (S-33)

Syringe (S-34)

Tarot (T-1)

Thunderstorm (T-2)

Tidbit (T-3)

Tornado (T-4)

Trailfire (T-5)

Traintrack (T-6)

Transfusion (T-7)

Tripwire (T-8)

Tsunami (T-9)

Twirl (T-10)

Ultrasound (U-1)

Ultraviolet (U-2)

Uprise (U-3)

Vaccine (V-1)

Vantage Point (V-2)

Vaportrail (V-3)

Vaporwave (V-4)

Vial (V-5)

Void (V-6)

Warpgate (W-1)

Washaway (W-2)

Weathervane (W-3)

Whiplash (W-4)

Whistlestop (W-5)

Whiteout (W-6)

Widget (W-7)

Windchime (W-8)

Windcutter (W-9)

Windfall (W-10)

Windspirit (W-11)

Workshop (W-12)

Xenolith (X-1)

Xylophone (X-2)

Yellowcard (Y-1)

Yellowjacket (Y-2)

Zigzag (Z-1)

Zipzap (Z-2)

[ig-arcade-project]

Animating my UI - Workshop session

After the painstaking thing that is known as coding (EW), I moved onto making an animated UI as they're more interesting and wacky rather than just a plain text that says 'SCORE'.

I used my original UI I made for simplicity, plus there was no reason to make a new one. I firstly selected one item of text and pressed the animation button to create a sequence thing.

I then made sure I was selected at 0 seconds and pressed the position X and Y keyframes for the beginning of the animation. This reminds me of when I made animations in Maya and Photoshop as it has a similar feel to it.

I then selected the offset tab and then changed the location of the left by putting the timer to 1 second and adding more to the number so it moves.

I then went into the event graph and off of event construct added the play animation widget and connected it to the move animation so when my character hits a object it plays.

[alternativecontrollersgdd]

Custom Keybindings

For the start and into the afternoon we covered a few new things: Setting up remappable control inputs, setting up UI for this (learnt about child widgets) and setting up rumble haptics. This forms quite a big part of a games accessibility as it allows for people to better accomedate control inputs to improve the games playability for them!

To break down how this system works for remapping, I broke down the different noteable stages briefly (obviously not all of it just the main bits that I think are imporant):

Setting up your Input Actions (i.e. pause)

Creating the needed widgets

Code for displaying the pause menu

this section did have one bug which I fixed was that the pause would cause the widget to flicker on and off like crazy. I knew it was something to do with the input. I tried changing the trigger to pressed and that fixed the problem.

Adding input mapping to the enhanced input in the player character (this enables keybind remapping)

inside the keymapping widget we had to setup a way for the widget to retrieve data/information about the current registered keymaps. Here is my breakdown of the code:

Next moves to the Key slot widget where these inputs are going to be made. Here is my analysis for how it works:

^ Custom function which updates the keys when a new input is selected along with displaying the other keys.

and now the main last part of this is setting the playable mappable key settings in each of our input actions.

*NOTE* the only one that needed to be different to this is the movement input as that has multiple inputs stored in one. To do this it had to be configured in the input mapping context.

Now here is what this looks like in action !

Conclusion: I think this workshop has provided a good foundation for a necessary accesibility option that based on whatever game I create will possible be used to ensure it can reach a wider audience!

[controlleralt-jag0137]

UE5 Workshop: Pause System

This morning, we've had a workshop on how to make a great pause system, i've already made one of these in the past from Vertex Velocity, although this workshop did help me realise something that I was struggling with in the last pause menu I made.

Inside the input action for pause, there is a small box called trigger when pause, this negates any issues with the action not triggering whilst the game is pause, keeping the widget stuck on the screen. This is incredibly helpful and something I will be personally taking from this workshop.

To start off, we begun by creating a user widget, and created our pause screen, it was reccomended we used some background blur + text and so this is a quick simple screen I created

Next, we sorted out all of the input related segment of this. We created a new input action, and binded this to P in the input mapping context.

Finally, this is the code we created inside the third person character blueprint, it works by using a flip flop gate (another new thing to me i'll be taking and using in the future from this) to toggle between two states, those being a & b. The necessary code then follows for toggling the menu on & off from this flip flop gate.

In game, the menu looks like so:

I'd overall say this was a helpful workshop for me, whilst already being aware of how to make a pause menu, I learnt a few new methods that I can apply to future problem-solving when coding mechanics into a project.