This is a large revision for our server browser and match making system that we hope to eventually release as a stand alone game menu and server browser system like we did for Unreal 4. There were a lot of improvements including a friends only option and the ability to password the listen server. This isn't a secure authentication mechanism. It's a simple one that is designed to stop average users from joining a server they aren't invited to. We weren't able to make Unreal 5.1 work with crossplay while also offering the option for Steam users to optionally link their accounts to Epic. So, in this release, we are defaulting Steam users to unlinked accounts. This removes the ability for Steam users to join their friends and it also removes Steam friends lists. We hope to fix this in the future by offering optionally linked accounts by migrating to Unreal 5.3 which hopefully offers more fine tuning of the crossplay features.
We implemented a new key re-binding system that uses the newer Unreal 5 blueprint nodes and replaced Rama's system, but doesn't use the new enhanced input system. We believe the old input system is good enough for now. This implementation is easier.
We also fixed the issues with the ending credits. The ending credits issue was caused by text paragraph vertical spacing being different in Unreal 4 vs 5. We also improved the method used to time the elements by using a set timer by event.
Furthermore, we fixed various issues with the maps.
After migrating to Unreal 5.1 from 4.26, items appeared to bounce and slide in ways that they didn't before. We fixed this by assigning a physics material to the physics box on BP_Item with a Friction of 3.0 and setting the Restitution Combine Mode to Max. Also, in this commit we fixed and unreported issue where the tram wasn't replicating on clients. This was fixed by raising the Net Cull Distance Squared to 900,000,000. (~30k away units linearly)
The white flash before the intro video was fixed by placing a half second delay before the media player material panel was set to visible in Widget_PlayGameIntroVideo. The bouncing door code buttons when pressed were fixed by setting the pressed padding to the same value as the normal padding. Also, this push changes the outline colors on the spawn buttons to match the changes made to the doorcode widget and it rounds the corners on the vitality and stamina bars. This also removes the older and unused version of the intro video.
The intro to the game had missing pauses between audio files after upgrading to UE5. After investigation, we discovered this is an issue with UE5 and latency with loading audio files that wasn't in UE4. Using the bp node Prime Sound helped. For good measure, we also combined two audio files into one. We experimented with a small Callback Buffer Size in Project Settings, but decided against it due to increased cpu usage.
Also, we removed the use of delay most nodes for the intro sequence and used timers instead for better consistency between different hardware. We also added a new feature where Velma's "not the only echo" dialogue only plays in multiplayer sessions.
This issue was caused by a lack of attenuation settings on the player character's footsteps, ladder climbing, item tossing, and melee actions. It's unknown how this happened since it wasn't an issue in older builds. Perhaps a sound attenuation was renamed or deleted. It doesn't appear to be an engine upgrade bug. Also, a sound is now played when an item is tossed, security has footstep sounds, we adjusted some attenuation settings on other sounds, and we pushed updates to the project's notes.
This fixed the issue where the HostGame widget panel was blank after upgrading to Unreal 5.1 This was caused by a duplicate variable with the same name that referenced this widget. It's unknown how this happened. It appears the same duplicated variable with the same name was in Unreal 4.26 as well but it did not cause an issue. Also, the About text in the HostGame panel was set to have a Line Height Percentage of 0.95. It appears UE5 has increased spacing between lines of text compared to UE4. As a result, the text was taking too much space.
This fix addresses the issue when the player character first appears in the level, the character mesh appears discolored and too bright in Unreal 5.1 compared to how it did in Unreal 4.26. This effect only appears around the spawn point and it's more obvious towards the character's feet. It was caused by the decal M_Mod_Water_DCL_Tunnel_Inst that was placed below the character's spawn point.
This fix sets the panel widget ScaleBox_Interactions from Stretch: "Scale to Fit" to "Fill" because Widget_HUD was not displaying any of the possible player interactions when BP_Character overlaps with BP_Interact. These interactions should be displayed on Widget_HUD by adding Widget_InteractionsLine as a child. The blueprint was working as intended, but the panel widget setting wasn’t allowing Widget_InteractionsLine to be visible to the player. This bug appeared after upgrading from Unreal 4.26 to Unreal 5.1.
