Devlog #9: Perspective Camera & More Build Mode

Greetings!

It’s been a month since my last update since I was on vacation for two weeks. I got COVID right after I got back so while I was able to work on the game, I wasn’t able to work full days. However, I’m healthy now and back to full capacity! Now on to the new stuff!

Automation Station has always had an orthographic camera. If you’re unfamiliar with this term, it basically means that objects in the distance do not get smaller like they do with a perspective camera which mimics how we see the world. The reason I originally went with an orthographic camera was to make everything line up nicely and mimic the effect of looking at a tiny world. However, I decided to give the perspective camera another try, mostly due to some technical reasons. The most obvious benefit of a perspective camera is that it is much easier to parse the depth of objects. I kept the field of view very low (currently 15) in order to keep the “tiny world” vibe. Switching to a perspective camera also allowed me to enable a depth of field effect which I think looks quite nice.

I’d love to hear what you think of this change. Should I keep the perspective camera or switch back to the old camera?

The main focus of this last sprint was to continue work on the Build Mode. I did a lot of work on new systems to handle placing and manipulating buildings in build mode. I also worked on a new shader for when buildings are constructed and demolished. There is still a lot left to do for build mode, but its coming along nicely.

That’s all for this update! Read below for the detailed changes. Have a good weekend!

Changelog:

• New logic for placing and manipulating buildings in build mode
• Allow buildings to be selected with build menu
• Support both placing new buildings and picking up existing buildings
• Basic support for group selection and pickup
• Ported over belt dragging logic to build mode
• Added a build mode validity system to check for valid building placement
• Dragging when placing a building will now allow you to rotate it
• New shader for animating buildings being constructed and demolished
• Switched to a perspective camera
• Added many more settings for cavity shaders
• Many changes to cavity shaders to support the new Forward+ renderer and perspective camera
• Clean up some input handling logic