🌊 Submarine Devlog Update: Polishing the Pilot Experience! 🚀

🛠️ What’s New?

I have decided to shelf the torpedoes and missiles for a bit. The absolute priority right now is making the submarine movement feel completely seamless before adding combat mechanics! Here is what just went live:

• 🎥 Dynamic Camera Sway: Added procedural camera sway that reacts directly to the submarine’s velocity and turn angles, making the underwater physics feel incredibly weighty!
• 🔄 Dual-Perspective Toggle: Implemented a first-person cockpit view. Players can now seamlessly toggle between 3rd-person and 1st-person perspectives by tapping the V key!

🛑 Current Roadblocks & Design Hurdles

1. 🎛️ Overwhelming Cockpit Screens

I am starting to build out the internal monitors and pilot UI. However, in my opinion, the current setup of these screens covers the view a bit too much. The player can’t really see the outside environment!

2. 💥 Camera Clipping Through Walls

Also, something I am discovering is that despite using a standard SpringArm3D node for my third-person view, the camera is still clipping into the walls. I have been banging my head for so long trying to stop it from clipping!

🚀 What’s Next?

Over the next few days, my primary focus will be breathing life into the cockpit interior:

• 📺 Adding Submarine UI: Actively building and designing the interface systems for the dashboard.
• ✍️ Filling Empty Screens: Populating those blank monitors with live text, data feeds, and telemetry.

💬 Any Suggestions? Let Me Know in the Comments! 👇

I would love to get your input on how to solve these issues:

• How should I handle the screen layout? What are your favorite tricks for keeping a cockpit UI highly functional without completely blocking the player’s view of the outside world?
• How can I fix the camera clipping? If you have experience with SpringArm3D or collision detection in this engine, what am I missing to keep the camera outside the cave walls?
• How can I make the screens look properly sci-fi? What kind of design elements, color palettes, or visual details should I add to give the terminal text that high-tech, futuristic submarine vibe?

Drop your ideas and suggestions in the comments below low key really appreciate the help! ⬇️

Case Study: Web Design for Gold and Girl Honey

Location: Queensland, Australia

1. The Empathise Phase

I interviewed the owner of “Gold and Girl” to align design choices with raw honey values and analysed competitor trends.

• Typography & Colors: Competitors use handwritten, artisanal fonts. Deep ambers and golden yellows mimic honey, balanced by eucalyptus greens and cream backdrops.
• Layout & Elements: Grid systems manage shop items, while landing banners frame farm identity. Layouts feature hexagons, rounded buttons, and warm product photography.
• Content: Sites lead with owner stories and transparency tags like “100% Raw” or “Unfiltered”.

2. The Design Phase

Problem Statement

Gold and Girl needs a web presence showcasing raw, chemical-free honey that highlights ecosystem action because the imminent Varroa mite invasion threatens QLD bee populations, making sustainability vital for conscious consumers.

Project Scope

• Included: Landing section with product rules (“No Chemicals, No Heating, No Plastic”), Varroa mite crisis banner, top navigation, and custom scrollbar.
• Excluded: Mobile optimization, active transactional checkouts, and public forums.

Measurable Design Criteria

• Criterion 1 (Layout): Must use a Flexbox structure with three thematic assets: a honeycomb grid, a bee graphic, and a natural flora motif. Test: Audit rendered screen (Pass/Fail).
• Criterion 2 (Typography): Text must use a legible font maintaining an artisanal identity with clear background contrast. Test: Inspect active CSS rules (Pass/Fail).
• Criterion 3 (CTA): The crisis section must feature an action button using a distinct, high-contrast accent color. Test: Visual target check (Pass/Fail).

3. The Ideate Phase

• Assets: Sourced an organic palette via Coolors.co and craft fonts via Google Fonts.
• Selection: Wireframe 1 was selected. Placing links at top followed by a bold Hero panel aligns with standard mental models, guiding users down from brand story directly into the Varroa mite action button before the footer.

What’s Next?

• Real Shopping Section Page: Transforming the prototype into an e-commerce platform with dynamic product listings, jar size selectors, and active shopping cart logic.
• Contact Us Section: Launching a contact hub featuring an automated enquiry form, apiary map coordinates, and an ecosystem reporting tool for bee conservation.

Ever played a game like Trackmania? How about underwater??

What’s happened?

I am making a racing inspired game with beautiful underwater visuals. Currently working on the smooth ahh submarine movement as well as BUBBLES!

• Realistic Bubbles: I created a sphere and slapped on a realistic transparent bubble shader that I had spent hours looking over the internet on how to code in shader text and finally got something working.
• Dynamic Trails: I duplicated a few of the GPU particles and slapped them on all sides of the submarine.
• Full Directional Logic: Then with a few lines of code, I got them to dynamically emit bubbles wherever I go. It works for the strafing side-to-side as well as climbing and diving.

Overall, a good start to the movement of the submarine.

What’s next?

I will be making a missile that can shoot walls of rock down! This will be apart of the underwater obstacle course I will be making.

Making Movement for the Submarine