DEVLOG - Alpha

This week marks a massive milestone for our team. We have successfully unified our environments, completed the full flight cycle (from takeoff to landing), and finalized the immersive details both inside and outside the aircraft.

Here is a breakdown of all the features and systems we successfully implemented into the build this week.

Level Integration & UI
Main Level Setup: Duplicated Tyler_Airport and established it as our main_level to serve as the project's primary build environment.
Merging: Successfully integrated charchen-level into the main_level, bringing our separate environments together.
Menu Integration: Fully implemented the Main Menu directly into the main_level.
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Flight Simulation: Takeoff & Landing
The Illusion of Flight: Implemented dynamic environment movement. Clouds now move, and the landscape seamlessly loops to create a convincing sense of high-speed motion.
Takeoff Sequence: The takeoff event is fully functional. We added a "rough takeoff" effect with realistic plane shaking, matched audio, and angled clouds to simulate the ascent.
Landing Sequence: The landing event is complete. The landscape dynamically moves toward the plane to simulate the descent, culminating in a cinematic zoom-in to showcase the city.

World Building & Dynamic Weather
Landing Landscape: Built out a complete exterior world. Looking out the window, players will see a detailed tarmac, an airport with a command tower, a surrounding city, and other grounded planes.
Complete Weather System: Implemented full visual states for Sunny, Cloudy, and Rain/Storm conditions.
Storm Audio: Added high-quality ambient weather sounds for rain and storms to match the visual effects and enhance atmospheric immersion.

Cabin Immersion & Player Interaction
Populating the Cabin: The plane is fully populated with passenger actors, complete with idle sitting animations to make the VR space feel alive.
Seatback UI & Guidance: Implemented in-world text prompts on the seatback screens to guide the user through the takeoff process without breaking VR immersion.
Seatbelt Logic: Scripted and implemented the seatbelt safety system. The function to unlock the seatbelt is now dynamically disabled during critical, unsafe flight phases (takeoff and landing).