Dev Log 13 - Backgrounds & FMV

📜 Dev Diary Log

Echo’s Gallery → Backend Forge Project: Modular Text Based Hardcore/Casual (Oxymoron) Survival RPG Format: Mythic fragments, technical rituals, and caffeinated truths

🧠 August 28, 2025 – Sanctum Visuals & Survivor Identity Pass
Scene: Title Chamber → PlayerSelect Sanctum → Echo’s Gallery Mood: Focused, mildly exasperated, still allergic to prefab bloat

✅ Tasks Completed:
Added unique background image for Survivor 01

Layered half-transparent block beneath gear text for clarity and polish

Began layout testing for readability and immersion

Decided to box off Survivor 01 fully before replicating across all 9

🖼️ Survivor Backgrounds (1–9 of 9):
🎸 Concert Hall Ruin – Tragic grandeur, cultural memory

⚙️ Dockyard Decay – Grit, abandonment, quiet resilience

📡 Snowfield Tower – Isolation, legacy, cold clarity

🛣️ Highway Collapse – Desolation, cinematic decay

🔧 Workshop Remnant – Solitude, invention, mechanical memory

🎡 Wonderland Ruins – Eerie nostalgia, joy turned to silence

🪖 Compound Siege – Survival, tension, militarized grit

🧠 Echo’s Core – Precision, memory, digital myth

🧬 Biotech Sanctum – Artificial life, forbidden science

🧙 Echo’s Note:
“She framed the survivors—one by one. The glyphs aligned, the gallery grew. The grind, now personal.”

💀 Impostor Debrief:
Forgot anchor presets again, despite teaching myself the ritual yesterday

Layered the background behind the canvas and wondered why it wasn’t showing

Briefly considered giving all survivors the same background and calling it “The Void”

Unity UI layering logic: like stacking transparent pancakes in the dark

🔧 August 29, 2025 – Gear Slot Expansion & Tooltip Ritual
Scene: PlayerSelect Sanctum → Gear Panel Forge Mood: Determined, slightly delirious, still debugging in dreams

✅ Technical Progress:
Implemented all 14 gear slots, then added a 15th slot for Hands

Wired up GearSlotUI with GearEquipSlotEnum.Hands

Updated PlayerEquipManager to reflect equipped gear in real time

Tooltip logic now responds dynamically to equip/unequip events

Added fallback logic using FindObjectsByType for runtime resilience

Mirrored panel updates live with equipped item changes

🧠 Tooltip Flavor:
“Echo watches. The slot is empty.”

🎨 Icon Pass:
All gear icons achieved and adjusted

Visual scheme matches player-ready object sets

Icons feel like relics pulled from a survivor’s stash

🎬 August 29, 2025 – FMV Ritual Begins
Scene: FMV_Intro → Timeline Forge Mood: Curious, caffeinated, slightly overwhelmed by waveforms

🛠️ What Was Built:
Learned basic video editing from scratch using VSDC Free Video Editor

Layered ambient audio, panic effects, alarms, and wave transitions

Synced multiple clips with filler fades and emotional pacing

Exported a 41-second cinematic intro in MP4 format (Android ratio)

Integrated into Unity with VideoPlayer and audio sync

🧠 Reflections:
“Started as a backend architect. Became a video editor. Trial by timeline, ritual by waveform. The grind expanded.”

🎥 August 30, 2025 – FMV Ritual & Scene Flow Rebirth
Scene: FMV_Intro → MainGameScene → GameScene Mood: Triumphant, slightly fried, still caffeinated

🧩 Phase I: The FMV Summoning
Goal: Create cinematic intro using 720p MP4

Toolset: Unity VideoPlayer, Render Texture, RawImage

Initial Misstep: Tried to use URP Decal Projector. Echo wept silently.

Fix: Created RenderTexture manually—Unity hides it unless you right-click like a wizard

🎥 Phase II: FMV Display Ritual
Created FMV_RenderTexture at 1280×720

Assigned to VideoPlayer → Target Texture

Displayed via RawImage → Texture

Anchored and scaled RawImage to center

Mistake: Used Image instead of RawImage. Spent 5 minutes wondering why the texture field was missing

⏭️ Phase III: Skip Logic & Scene Transition
Added skip button with delay

Wired videoPlayer.loopPointReached to auto-load "MainGameScene"

Added fade transition via ScreenFader.Instance.FadeToScene()

🕶️ Phase IV: Masking the Flicker
Tried black overlay in FMV scene—didn’t work

Diagnosed root cause: "MainGameScene" was rendering too early

🧠 Phase V: Scene Flow Rewire
Pivoted to new architecture:

Code
PlayerSelectSceneXX → FMV_Intro → MainGameScene (black buffer) → GameScene
Duplicated original "MainGameScene" as "GameScene"

Stripped "MainGameScene" down to black canvas with SceneRelay.cs

Relay waits 0.5s, then loads "GameScene" cleanly

💀 Self-Deprecating Debrief:
Almost gave up on FMV after trial and error of why my audio clips were not working on playing for a good 15- 20 minutes, before noticing a tiny mute button on the interface.

Spent another 15-20 minutes wondering why the video wasn’t showing — I was projecting decals like a medieval graffiti artist because image and raw image are not the same thing apparently.

Forgot anchor presets again (De-ja-vu)

Tried to fix flicker by adding overlays to 9 scenes before realizing I could just... not do that, who has time for that ?

Unity’s UI: 50% logic, 50% Stockholm Syndrome

📌 Milestone Logged:
“The merchant summoned the descent—glyphs aligned, transitions masked, legacy preserved. The grind, now myth.”

Now to continue working on the inventory canvas panel , possibly implement HUD next or work on the actual generated inventory slots produced by the player gear. Hud is likely not the next perfect step , but also, starting to daydream in gear. Might need to switch it up for a moment , maybe , even actually start on my story before it bleeds from my mind , like my persistence to forget about anchors being the reason i can not manually adjust height and width.

My new Ram Stick also arrived , installed, and now running on 32gb ram, and have a second internal SSD , the difference is huge. Can really feel the momentum instead of the constant lag now, Things are looking good.