Factory Reset
Factory Reset was a game made alongside 12 other course mates where you try to survive in progressively harder rounds, with harder enemies and new weapons. All the VFX and shader assets in the game were produced by me, allowing a large variety of exploration and creation. Made in Unreal Engine 5
Available on itch.io including all others who worked on this project here:
Post Process Material
Factory Reset required three main attributes in the Post Process Material to bring the city to life:
– Custom Gradient Coloured Fog
– Custom Outline Shader with multiple channels
– Custom Halftone Shader
This walkthrough of the environment gives you an overview of those three elements
This custom fog shader offered extensive control over the fog’s visuals. A color curve drove the fog’s appearance, enabling multiple colors to be layered together for more dynamic compositions, giving the city a distinct aesthetic. In such a vast environment, the fog played a key role in directing the player’s attention to their nearby area. This shader seamlessly blended with Unreal’s Exponential Height Fog to produce a layer of volumetric fog, enhancing the atmosphere further.
The Custom Outline Shader played a crucial role in delivering visual transparency to the player. Due to the vastness of the map, it was very easy for the player to lose where the enemies are, especially when hidden behind walls. To combat this, once the player was far enough away from the enemies, they would transition to a bright red outline, letting the player know where the enemies are.
It was also useful to assign an outline to each gun, where they had their own index corresponding to a separate colour, meaning if they dropped it on the floor, it would be easily recognisable and they could find it even if they were far away – due to it’s transparency through walls.
Finally, in Factory Reset, there are vending machines procedurally placed all around the map which is where you buy new weapons and refill your ammo. To provide more visual fidelity to the player, these were also highlighted with a bright red outline, allowing them to know exactly where to go.
This custom halftone shader added subtle vibrancy to the city without becoming a distraction. By combining traditional polka dots with panning noise, it effectively conveyed the glitchy, cyberpunk aesthetic. The shader sampled scene highlights and used them as a mask to apply the effect selectively. This gave the environment a unique visual flair, and with neon lights scattered throughout, the effect seamlessly enhanced the atmosphere, adding more life and character to the scene. This also created an interesting effect when firing weapons, as they emitted light as well. The halftone shader subtly interacts with this, adding another layer of visual intrigue during combat
Player Weapon VFX
Here you can see a culmination of all the Weapon VFX I worked on this project. Using the models, textures and animations from other people, I used this to help inform my decision and create some immersive looking VFX with their associated impact effect and screen shake. In addition, if you notice with both the SMG and Shotgun, I created 2 simple reticle shaders when the player scopes in and out.
Enemy VFX
Here you can see a culmination of all the VFX work I did on the enemies. The Grunt and Drone used the extended red bullet so that when multiple enemies are attacking the player, it fills that dead space and makes the gameplay more engaging. The Brute had several Niagara Systems such as the smoke when he walks and the rings from the pumps. He also has two attacks: a charge attack and a slam both of which were telegraphed using VFX for a better gameplay experience. Finally, a Chaos component was created from the drone and spawned in after death to create this immersive spray of components when they get shot.
Additional VFX
To bring more life to the city, I created this dynamic lightning and rain particle system. Inspired by the way enemies spawned from our previous iteration of this game (Unity Shooter), we wanted to once again use this lightning as a way to spawn the enemies into the world.
Here you can see an example of the enemies spawning using the lightning as a mask whilst still looking visually engaging: inspired by the way we spawned enemies in our previous iteration of this game called ‘Unity Shooter’
To help communicate the player recieving more damage, I created this Post Process Vignette shader for low health in which the shader will dynamically change according to the player’s health.
To help communicate another ability used in game called ‘Vampirism’, I created another Post Process Vignette shader that shows the duration of the effect taking place. This effect heals the player the more damage they do to enemies, indicated by the colour green, contrasting with the red vignette
To provide the city with some more life a few extra shaders were added that contribute to the overall effect of a cyberpunk aesthetic. Additionally, simple fire particles were added onto destroyed cars, and a laser beam was placed above every vending machine for easy navigation to upgrade new weapons/gain ammo.
