March 11, 2020
Spacing Scenarios and Dividing with Obstacles
Thesis Project
Space Buffering
In the process of creating a simplified version of this generation system, I narrowed down the variability for now with a core focus on better defining the space a scenario has to work with. To keep it easier to work with, it is focused on a single axis for the most part, the x-axis, in spacing. This ties in to making the general space easier to define as well.
The overall spacing is mostly determined by spacing on the x-axis. The entire sequence of scenarios is constrained to a single overall platform with a fixed width, so every scenario is working with that same fixed width as well. The height does not particularly need to be constrained at this time, so determining a general x and z dimension for the space with an arbitrarily given y dimension works to define our space well for now.
Finally, to help visualize this space in the editor, I looked to DrawGizmos methods within Unity. I am currently creating a yellow wireframe cube centered at each of these central scenario locations with dimensions based on the scenario spacing (x-axis), the scenario width (z-axis), and an arbitrarily large height (y-dimension), each of which is determined within the DemoManager.
Creating Obstacles to Sequence the Scenarios
We wanted to start looking into having the chain of scenarios play into each other, so the first concept to look into for that was creating significant obstacles at the “end” of each scenario that needed to be overcome to reach the next one. The idea for the simplest approach for this was to create a significantly tall wall that covered the entire width of the play area and was placed at the end of the scenario space (the end on the x-axis). Again, to simplify the approach, this was investigated solely with ramp scenarios for now.
Creating this wall originates with using the existing CreateObstacleTerrain class I created, which basically makes various rectangular-shaped obstacles. The scenarioWidth information is passed into this creation to ensure that the wall covers the full width of the play area. The scenario spacing information passed from the DemoManager helps with the placement of this wall at the end of the scenario.
The order of operations follows that the ramp is generated, and then the obstacle. With this, the ramp height is recorded and passed on to the wall to determine its height range. This ensures the wall is tall enough to provide a challenge, but not so tall that it can not be overcome.
Finally, to help position this obstacle even more accurately, it is actually repositioned after its parameters are determined. The systems chooses the wall obstacle’s dimensions from its available options, and then feeds this data into a method to finally place the wall. This helps adjust the position of the wall for its thickness especially when making sure it fits in the end of the scenario area without going into the next area.