Tweakings

Feels like I didn't get much accomplished yesterday even though I was hard at it all day. I downloaded the latest version of Unity 3D because I had read online about "Light Probes" and was very anxious to try them out but it turns out that all the cool new addition they have made to the latest version of unity like built in Path Finding, the Light Probes and a bunch of other cool stuff is all pro. only :( Oh well, at least the software is up to date and hopefully less buggy which will hopefully mean less crashes ;)

Anyways I was mostly making a lot of tweaks after updating Unity, I had to re bake my light maps because the old ones were "FUBAR" for some reason. I was toying around quite a bit in the Tree House trying to make it so the toy wind up robot in the main part of the Tree House is a little bit more of a challenge to pass since he just walks back and forth between two auto waypoints. I placed in some more wooden apple crates and arranged them so as they effectively block off the back part so that way Bud the Spud will have to go past the robot. I need to make an open trap door to use as a wall to also block off the path he must take along the side of the opening in the floor he gets into the Tree House by so that way he will have a more narrow corridor to walk through with the toy wooden blocks on one side and the open trap door on the other with the robot walking back and forth between the two sets of obstructions, and that should do nicely for more of a challenge in the Tree House. Next I'll need to do something similar on the upper deck as that wind up toy robot is just as easy to avoid. I'm not sure what though, maybe another apple crate and toy block arrangement or another type of wooden box that I'll need to make, paint cans or other toys maybe?? I was thinking about a pushable block that perhaps he will have to move out of the way covering the hole in the upper deck floor that he needs to drop through onto the branches below in order to find the 2nd key??

Bump Map & Beast Solution

I don't know if it's a correct solution but it's a solution that works. My problem was this; every time I ran the Beast Light Mapper I would loose my bump map or "Normal Maps" as Unity calls them. Now you can just imagine how very annoying that can be as bump maps I feel are crucial for giving a game a nice look of realism. I searched for hours, days for a solution to this issue figuring I can't be the only one who is having the same issue. Well this person suggested that and this other person said try this as it had worked for them and so on and so and so on, and either they were not explaining entirely well what exactly it was that they were doing or I was just missing something?? In any event nothing no one said was working for me. So today I thought;

"OK, what if after I run Beast I make a new Directional Light and set it at the same position and rotation in the sky and just tell it to be a real time light?"

Well Frack Me Freddy that worked!! As I say I don't know if it's the correct way but it seems to be a way that at least is simple and freaking works!! I had to adjust it's intensity a little but at least I have my specular materials & normal map effects back along with the beast light mapped shadows. HooAh! Now that's what I call a real KISS operation lol

Level 03 Developments

I've had some good stuff happen today and I've had a lot of frustrations as well. First off I spent a good deal of the day today trying to figure out why every time I baked my light maps using the Beast light mapper in Unity 3D that all of my materials that are being effected by the light maps seem to loose not only their specular properties but also the Bump mapping or "Normal Maps" as Unity calls them get lost, deactivated or no longer seem to have the desired effect?? I spent a lot of time searching for an answer to that problem and I think it's just another one of those if you want light maps and bump maps it's a Pro Only feature... another way to stick it to us struggling artist who are desperately trying to accomplish something half descent on a next to nothing budget Grrrrr. Maybe I'm wrong but none of the answers I managed to find so fare point otherwise :(

I did however FINALLY manage to figure out how to get that blasted lens flare effect for the sun. That was another thing I thought certain was a pro only feature. So I'm somewhat happy that I can do that cool effect at least.

I did a lot of playing around with lighting today using Beast, adjusting my directional light and playing around with my setting trying to see if I can get my level lighted nice before I go too nuts adding all the other stuff into the level. Here you can see "Bud the Spud" standing on the top lookout of the Tree House with that nice sunlight lens flare behind him. I added some more trees, rocks and some bushes to the terrain and placed in an extra health pickup just to work out his jumps across the rocks to get it and get that part working right. I'm still trying to figure out how to get him to make a tighter turn around for when he is standing on small rocks or branches as this would greatly improve his being able to climb up the ladder boards of the Tree House.

Tomorrow I'll see about getting the "Wind up Toy Robot" happening.