Metal Detector mechanics

hey folks I would like this thread to tackle the metal detector.

I’m implementing the angle penalty mechanics to follow the function depicted above.

X is an average from both X and Y facing angles… actually from world-to-screen coordinates.

The distance penalty is calculated linearly.

Should you have any other reasonable proposals just let me know and we shall vote these through.

Maximum penalty is 1 (reached for max angle of 4, if there is no distance penalty in place).

When penalty is 1 or above, there’s no sound from speakers.

The angle penalty function is thus defined as
image

you may draw it over here

The above holds for when distance from player is < 10.

otherwise, the function has ‘maximum’ value of 1 at 2.5 thus the cut-off moment happens earlier and the function is defined as
image

I think we wouldn’t want to make this more realistic and /or fluent to allow for relatively easy game-play when a gold-vein is very far away, thus there’s just a single ‘step’ accounting for the > 10 meters away difference.

As of now, the distance penalty is calculated as follows:
image

thus resulting in a linear relationship based in distance. The maximum distance penalty is thus reached when being 100 meters away from a gold vein.

The distance and angle penalties are added.

The volume is 1- totalPenalty.

oh and the angle penalty is now an average of Y and X facing angles.

never mind the performance on my intel graphics on 3 screens while recording but I’m calling it a win

Ok, now I get it :slight_smile: detector does not work as “toggle” on or off, nor it has any “prepare” animation. The moment animation starts, the scanning starts. It is a bit counter intuitive, especially when there is no info regarding “it is working, but detected nothing”. If it is possible, I would recommend changing the way that USE animation works:

  1. Detector is moved towards camera (0.5-1 sec)
  2. It stops near the center of screen with that blackbox screen near our view.
  3. Now scanning starts (as many seconds as needed, as I recall it was 3-5 secs) - scan prompt - visual on that tiny detector screen or “scanning” sound can be useful
  4. Detector is moved back to REST position (0.5 -1 sec)

That way User is clearly informed that it performed desired action, that he pressed proper buttons and that game is working properly.

I totally agree with you.

We could have something to show up on the actual screen of the metal detector - once it enters the scanning modem, indeed.

I will definitely put that on my to-do list.

As a side note, a ‘compass functionality’ has been hanging on it for quite some time already.

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