Debug Overlay

Here’s a screen shot of the new debug overlay that allows us to modify physics parameters in real time. Left clicking on any value increases its value, while right clicking decreases it. The effects are then factored into the physics simulation instantly.

Since our next big feature is a usable GUI, this also works out to be our GUI system testbed. Torque’s GUI system appears to be flat out made of fail, so we’re writing our own GUI and event system. It isn’t going to be fun, but our interface definitely makes or breaks our game.

We also had our first milestone meeting with professor White this week. After a swift application of Murphy’s law on Andy’s laptop, we finally made it up to Dr. White’s office. Meeting went pretty well and we set some further alpha and beta dates. Discussion afterwards descended into D&D talk.

The charter mark system also has a few new marks implemented, though they aren’t shown in this image. Ice and sticky marks are now in and working. Another milestone we managed to complete this week was squashing two critical bugs in the magic system that were severely hindering gameplay.

Andy’s been hard at work on a new level, though it too isn’t shown in this screen shot. He also managed to fix rope bridges exploding after being hit with a fire mark, so they actually behave nicely.

Collision filtering has been applied to the world, so we can selectively collide (or not) with any object group in the world. This makes spells much easier to work with now that they all aren’t colliding with the ground.

Our world also has support for “switchable” objects, or those that change state (like a switch) when they are hit with a certain type of mark. We’ve integrated this into the editor nicely, so burnable trees and freezable water are a reality.