3/4/19
I have actually spent my entire weekend doing nothing but programming for capstone. Occasionally I stopped to eat and watch an episode of Lost, but then I wen’t right back to work. I am rather happy that I got the actual grass cutting down. I now have the ability to put grass into the level and mow it down. Admittedly, it took much longer for me to figure this problem out, but it would be a lie if I said that all I did was work on the grass. I have also been putting some effort into finer details such as actual map design. I have an area that I am starting to pen in with a mansion, shed, cliffs, and hills so that the player has a set area to play in. The mansion currently acts as a blockade, but it doesn’t have too much depth. I have been putting some time and effort into making the mansion look less like a giant block and more like a real home. This eventually lead me to build a really poor shed for the lawn mower. I actually really enjoy the fine tuning of making it look semi good, but I know that I don’t have too much time to spend on that. I would love nothing more than to continue detailing to perfection, but I need to spend time elsewhere.
One detail that I do plan to start working on sometime soon is the actual wheel physics. The Dune Buggy asset that I have from the Epic pre-made game actually had properly working wheels. I would like to have the wheels roll even if they aren’t rolling in the truly correct manor. The front wheels of a zero turn lawn mower are capable of 360 degree turns with the vehicle and require careful detailing. I don’t know that I want to spend time getting the wheels of the dune buggy to be that accurate, but I would like them to at least turn in the direction of travel.
With all that said, its a huge relief to have some grass that I can physically drive over and watch disappear. It came with several misfortunes along the way and I know more will follow, but I secretly enjoyed the challenged and its such a rush to have gotten over it.
If I am this happy just to remove grass, I can’t wait to feel the excitement I get from driving physics.
P.S. I am going to add a photo to the gallery with the debug testing for how I find the blade area of the lawn mower. I think its a cool screenshot and it will demo some of the current map design. That is all. Carry on.
