Hello Day 1!!

I'm updating during the first hours of Day 2 cuz I had to ride back into town earlier... I hadn't eaten much of anything by the time we left (in the midst of a storm -- as a desert native, I'll never get used to this much rain.) Since I have the tendency to get car sick, I spent the 6hr ride dozing on and off to deal with the weariness. Note to self: if you think you need to grab a snack before the road-trip, please do!

Recap

Today I wanted to familiarize myself with some basic controls and operations of the engine. The UE4 documentation has a lot of "Quick Start" tutorials scattered throughout. A few days before I gathered a couple of the most relevant ones on a page in OneNote; the Epic Launcher also had links to resources, so getting started was easy. I even made sure to update everything the other day, just to remove any obstacles to instant progress!

Except, there was somehow another Launcher update available today. No problem -- I'll just make a sandwich in the meantime.... if I can find the peanut butter before then. (I didn't.)

When I finally got the editor to open, my little ol' laptop was wheezing. I almost forgot my poor baby wasn't exactly the best machine to do 3D work on -- nevermind the Unreal Engine. I waded around the load of menus and buttons for almost an hour, trying to optimize performance so I can move at a decent pace in the viewport. I will honestly admit I briefly considered going back to Unity... (except I really don't feel like programming right now. =u=;;;;) I did what I could, found out what the Quick Menu was, and ticked the necessary fidelity options available there. After that, I hopped into the Level Designer Quick Start, fiddled with assets and....

Yeah. Ha. It looked simple enough but it was quite the exercise! One that I failed visually, though conceptually, I think I got a handle on how things work. This week is all about learning how UE4 functions anyhow. :> A baby stopped by, so I took a break before moving onto the next task. (Learning BSPs/Geometry brushes... I didn't take any screenshots cuz I was playing before I had to hit the road.)

I didn't do too much today... considering my hands were growing sore after the first 3 hours, I think that's okay. (More notes to self: stand up, stretch, and go talk to babies more often. And drink more water, dude.)

Task List

Done	To Do	Dropped/Revised	"?????" Research.
Getting Started tut (set up a simple level... no interactions.) Also figured out a file/folder structure.	Geometry brushes, Mouse controls; Level Events, Variables. (2 days)	Whatever the original idea was. Good thing too. Open worlds are huge. I can barely build a room.	Why aren't particles showing up on my computer?

Brain Dump

Some songs that kept me goin' today:

• Toppdogg - Amadeus (OH VI-VI-VIVACE~!)
• iKon - Rhythm Ta (AWOO- BOUNCE! RHYTHM TAAA)
• Paradise - SES (*more grooving, less lyrical screaming*)

Some thoughts:

• I planned out the two weeks day-to-day, even though I told myself not to...... OTL It was actually useful. Sometimes I was like, "Ok, now what?" and that schedule answered the question.
• I didn't want to paint any game assets, but I might have to... need to schedule time to really flesh out the look of the game (and some sorta method to achieve it. Something that uses a few pieces very well and maybe blends with 3D.)
• Today's post isn't very detailed (i am weak rn,) even though I still took an hour to write lol... wonder how long the next one will be.
• I also post tiny updates to twitter and instagram, btw..
• I'm dumping particles! Still wanna know why they don't work. If I have time this week, I'll look at the official project sample.
• Must check out other logs again soon ><;

[Edit: the headers looked funny...]