July 18, 2023
Destination Blog: Pipes
Pipes in destination currently come in 3 forms, the manual pipes (blue), the automatic pipes (green), and the level starting and ending pipes (white/clear).
The automatic pipes need special treatment. Not only can it pull in the player, but also anything that’s small enough to get sucked in. There’s a custom blueprint created that is created and triggered any time an asset small enough overlaps the start or end of the pipe. For some assets that are JUST too big to fit (such as the base cubes in the level), they are set up to get ‘crushed’ when they enter the pipes, so smaller chunks are spat out the other end. Different assets that have constraints applied too them can have these constraints broken if the right piece overlaps the opening; this can allow only certain parts of a blueprint to be sucked in.
To maintain absolute control, the player is spat out at the exact trajectory the exit is aiming. This allows the player to have the exact same movement every time it uses the pipe. Every other item however has a ‘randomize’ variable applied too the end so when they are spat out, they clear the way for a player to exit the pipe cleanly.
For any objects that overlap the end of the pipes collision volume without traveling down the pipe first will be immediately shot out, again clearing the way for the player.
This is a quick test of the pipes, and how they behave with the assets in the scene.