This is a Developer Diary for Tales of Xdripia: The Seventh Amulet. Production continues on Unreal Engine 5.8. Official site: talesofxdripia.com.
This update is about atmosphere and vertical exploration: a new library of ambient effects, a weather and wind system that drives them, and ladder climbing now built into Brad's locomotion.
What changed
Ambient Niagara effects. We added a new library of ambient Niagara effects: fireflies, light shafts, floating dust, steam, cold breath, electric sparks, bird flocks, water splashes and ripples, footstep puffs, smoke and campfire, plus holograms and portals.
Weather, wind and heat haze. A C++ weather and wind system now drives these effects, together with a heat-haze distortion that can be switched on or off.
A test gallery, and a performance pass. An in-engine test gallery lets us review each effect in isolation. We also ran a round of performance checks on the effects.
Ladder climbing. Brad can now climb up and down ladders: entry from the bottom and the top, idle, climb up and down, and exits to the left and right. The move is built into his locomotion, with a dedicated Blueprint and camera.
Still in progress
- The ambient effects are still being tuned and optimised before they go into playable zones.
- Ladder animation retargeting is still being iterated, including clipping and hand and foot IK.
- The interactive ground fog remains a work in progress.
Why it matters
Small environmental details and new vertical movement, such as climbing, turn the world from a static set into a living place to explore.
Further reading
- Seventh Amulet Dev Log: Wall Jumps, Brad's Coat and Fog That Reacts to You
- Seventh Amulet Dev Log: a lake in the real-scale world, Brad's shield and combat under test
- Project page: Tales of Xdripia: The Seventh Amulet
Tags
#SeventhAmulet #TalesOfXdripia #UnrealEngine #UE5 #Niagara #GameDev
