24042020

Started working today on the text input backend for the log entry UI. I’m not sure if I’m entirely satisfied with my current implementation – I imagined it was gonna be a bit more like a traditional text editor compared to what it is now, which is more like… a longform messaging service? – but maybe a good deal of that has to do with the fact that the overall visuals are pretty unsatisfying currently. 

It includes audio, which I’m not sure how to handle: I initially had it so that each keypress input one letter, but the overall process was incredibly slow and taxing upon one’s fingers after a while, and on top of that, the audio for each keypress played too quickly so that it sounded really robotic and not lifelike at all. As a solution to both issues I’ve currently implemented a solution which involves having the player hold down a key to advance the text automatically (as opposed to manually typing in each key), which then loops a prerecorded audio sample over it. It’s still rather tiring in the way that I initially intended as the player has to sit there and “manually” enter the text in a way, without being overly taxing to the point of frustration. This also makes it easier for me to implement controller support later on as well in a very straightforward manner, as opposed to individual keypresses.

Well, I’ll continue experimenting with it moving forward.

Tomorrow I’d like to try to implement a system for it to save/load written entries, as well as the ability to read previous entries. Hopefully I won’t have to build an entirely separate object for it and I’ll be able to keep it all pretty contained… but we’ll see.