Space Rail Shooter

This project evolved out of the previous camera project, I decided to adapt it to a flying, on rails, context after playing a lot of the space battles in Old Republic (Bioware), which is actually quite similar to the old Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars as I remember it on the N64.

I've been doing a lot of playing with editor tools and gizmos so from the start I was able to make things a lot easier for myself by being able to previsualise the routes for cameras and AI and visualise things like detection ranges.

The pathing for this went pretty seemlessly, the route system isn't too complicated, but I had some trouble getting the player to stay in the screen while pathing around. I tried using camera (its transform) relative points but that suprisingly didn't work, but my workmate Finn Morgan sugested I instead use screen relative points, so I adjusted the approach to position the ship based on a screen position which got the desired result.

The aspect I'm most proud of with this project so far is that I implimented a modified boids (flocking) algorithm on the enemy spaceships, they stay in groups, follow their path, dodge around hazards, and have a really nice smooth movement, they do freak out a little if I push it to its limits but when its kept sane it works nicely. I also have a nice little death effect working (lacking visuals at this point, I only have ship models by repurposing Escape Vector assets).

Moving on with this project I've also begun to implement more advanced concepts that, whilst I understand them, I haven't had much practical experience with to date; my boid system relies on coroutines, the combat mechanics utilise an interface, and my hazard system will rely on inheritence.

Source Code: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1lc5l9bu6v1y5fq/CameraProject.7z?dl=0