HARE HOUSE DEVELOPMENT UPDATE #2
Development continues on the player’s core survival and environmental interaction systems. This update introduces stamina and exhaustion, expands the physics interaction system, and begins turning lockers into fully physical hiding spaces.
Everything discussed below remains a work in progress and may be adjusted during testing.
STAMINA SYSTEM
• Added a complete player stamina system.
• Stamina is only consumed after the player enters the actual sprinting gait.
• Walking and regular jogging currently do not consume stamina.
• Added adjustable maximum stamina and sprint-drain values.
• Added an adjustable delay before stamina regeneration begins.
• Added adjustable stamina-regeneration speed.
• Added a normalized stamina value ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 for the future HUD.
• Added an optional on-screen stamina debugging display.
The debugging display reports:
• Current and maximum stamina.
• Remaining stamina percentage.
• Whether stamina is full, draining, recovering, delayed, or exhausted.
• Whether the sprint input is being held.
• The player’s current movement gait.
• The active maximum movement speed.
• Whether the normal or exhausted movement asset is active.
PLAYER EXHAUSTION
• The player now enters an exhausted state when stamina reaches zero.
• Sprinting is immediately cancelled upon exhaustion.
• Jogging and sprinting remain unavailable while exhausted.
• The player is forced into the walking gait.
• Exhausted movement speed is currently limited to 125 cm/s.
• Added an adjustable stamina threshold that must be recovered before normal movement is restored.
• Holding the sprint input during recovery will not instantly return the player to maximum speed.
• After recovering, the player must progress normally through walking and jogging before sprinting again.
An optional exhausted movement data asset can now be assigned to the player. This allows exhaustion to affect acceleration, friction, directional response, and the overall weight of movement.
Audio, breathing, camera effects, animations, and minimal HUD feedback will be added during a later presentation pass.
PHYSICS-BASED LOCKER DOORS
• Expanded the existing physics interaction system to support constrained locker doors.
• Players can now look at a valid locker door and hold left click to grab it.
• The exact point under the crosshair is used as the physical grab position.
• Moving the camera or character allows the player to push and pull the door.
• Releasing left click releases the locker door.
• The door automatically releases if the player moves beyond the allowed interaction distance.
• The existing Physics Constraint remains responsible for the hinge and allowed opening angle.
• The grab system controls position without taking control of the door’s rotation.
• Added adjustable interaction distance and Physics Handle interpolation settings.
• Added optional highlighting for valid locker-door targets.
• Added a separate on-screen debugging display for locker-door interactions.
The system is currently designed specifically for physical locker doors, although it may later be expanded to other physically operated doors and environmental objects.
INTERACTION PRIORITY
Left click now checks interactions in the following order:
• If the player is looking at a valid grabbable door, left click grabs the door.
• Releasing left click releases the grabbed door.
• If no grabbable door is detected, the input continues to the equipped weapon’s normal firing system.
Ordinary loose physics objects remain separate and continue using the existing pickup and throwing controls.
TAGS AND REQUIRED SETUP
GRABBABLE
Add the Grabbable tag to the simulated locker-door mesh component.
The tagged component must:
• Have Simulate Physics enabled.
• Block the Visibility trace channel.
• Have suitable simple collision.
• Be connected to a correctly configured Physics Constraint.
The tag can technically be placed on the owning actor, but applying it directly to the locker-door component provides more precise control.
PHYSICSPICKUP
The PhysicsPickup tag remains reserved for loose physics objects the player can carry, reposition, drop, and throw.
Locker doors should not use this tag because they are constrained environmental objects rather than portable items.
IK_STAIRS
The IK_Stairs tag remains in use for stair detection.
Tagged stair collision:
• Activates dedicated stair movement limits.
• Reduces regular stair movement speed.
• Allows a limited jogging speed while the run input is held.
• Prevents the player from entering the full sprint gait on stairs.
The tag can be assigned to the staircase collision component or its owning actor. The collision must block the Visibility trace channel.
LOCKER PHYSICS IMPROVEMENTS
• Continued configuring locker-door Physics Constraints.
• Restricted doors so they open outward instead of swinging into the locker.
• Adjusted angular limits to provide a more natural locker-door opening range.
• Continued improving collision to prevent doors from becoming trapped inside the locker.
• Prepared the locker system for future hiding animations and player transitions.
The physical door interaction is being established first. Entering, exiting, hiding, peeking, animations, enemy searches, and locker-specific audio will be introduced later.
DEVELOPMENT FIXES
• Resolved an Unreal Engine 5.7 issue that prevented FBX static meshes from importing correctly.
• Returned the project to Unreal’s legacy FBX importer after the experimental Interchange FBX path failed to recognize valid meshes.
• Corrected a C++ distance-conversion build error introduced while adding locker-door grabbing.
• Continued preserving compatibility between physics interactions, weapons, movement, stamina, and stair handling.
WHAT’S NEXT?
• A minimal stamina bar that shrinks inward from both sides.
• Exhausted breathing and recovery sounds.
• Subtle camera and screen effects during exhaustion.
• Locker entry and exit functionality.
• Locker hiding and peeking controls.
• Locker-door and hiding animations.
• Enemy interactions with occupied lockers.
• A reusable health and bleeding component.
• Medical items with different healing and bleeding-control effects.
These additions continue building the underlying systems needed for the first private playtest. More presentation work will follow once the core interactions are reliable.
Side note another patch is coming soon, this has been completed since last week.