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Grid 02: Highlights

In this tutorial we’ll set up grid highlights.

This tutorial is part 2 of a mini-series covering grid battles. You can find the start of this series here.

We’ll set up the grid highlights that are used to e.g. show the use range of abilities, a selected cell or the available move range.

This tutorial is based on the ORK 4 Unity Quickstart 3D tutorials and using a phase battle system, but can be used in any project and with any battle system.

If you haven’t done so yet, please download the following prefabs for your grid cells and line renderer highlights and import them into your project:

Download Grid Cell Prefabs

Battle Grid Highlights #

We’ll use 2 different kinds of highlights – color blinking the cell’s object and using a line renderer.

Most of the cell highlights will use color blinking, but we’ll use line renderer highlights for the move range and move path highlights. The prefabs for line renderer highlights are included in the grid cell prefab package you can download above.

Open the ORK editor and navigate to Battles > Battle Grid Highlights.

Base Highlight Settings #

The base highlight settings allow us to set up default highlights that can be used by other highlight settings.

  • Hide Unused Prefabs
    Enable
    This’ll be enabled by default in a new project.
    In short, this’ll only hide prefabs of unused highlights by disabling their renderers, making them invisible.
    Otherwise it’ll disable the prefab’s object – hiding it can be better for performance, though this can vary based on the use case.

Area Highlight #

Area highlights are used by use range, move range and other highlights that highlight more than 1 cell.

We’ll blink areas blue as the default highlight.

Click on Add Highlight.

  • Highlight Type
    Select: Blink
  • Blink Children
    Disable
  • Time (s)
    Select: Value > Value
    Set the value to: 1
  • Fade Alpha/Red/Green/Blue
    Enable
  • Start Color
    Select a blue color with around a third of alpha value (e.g. A=100 or 0.4, depending on your color picker).
  • End Color
    Select a blue color with around half of alpha value (e.g. A=150 or 0.6, depending on your color picker).

Selection Highlight #

The selection highlight is used for the currently selected cell that is useable, e.g. during a target cell selection or grid move selection.

We’ll blink selections green as the default highlight.

It’s best to use copy/paste via the context menu to copy the settings of the area highlight and only changing the color, i’ll still list the full setup here.

Click on Add Highlight.

  • Highlight Type
    Select: Blink
  • Blink Children
    Disable
  • Time (s)
    Select: Value > Value
    Set the value to: 1
  • Fade Alpha/Red/Green/Blue
    Enable
  • Start Color
    Select a green color with around a third of alpha value (e.g. A=100 or 0.4, depending on your color picker).
  • End Color
    Select a green color with around half of alpha value (e.g. A=150 or 0.6, depending on your color picker).

No Selection Highlight #

The no selection highlight is used for the currently selected cell that isn’t useable, e.g. a blocked cell during grid move selection.

We’ll blink selections red as the default highlight.

Click on Add Highlight.

  • Highlight Type
    Select: Blink
  • Blink Children
    Disable
  • Time (s)
    Select: Value > Value
    Set the value to: 1
  • Fade Alpha/Red/Green/Blue
    Enable
  • Start Color
    Select a red color with around a third of alpha value (e.g. A=100 or 0.4, depending on your color picker).
  • End Color
    Select a red color with around half of alpha value (e.g. A=150 or 0.6, depending on your color picker).

Combatant Placement #

We’ll use the default highlights for the player’s combatant placement.

Placement #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Area

Placement Selection #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Selection

No Placement Selection #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: No Selection

Move Command #

As said, we’ll use a different highlight for the move command, using a line renderer prefab for the move range and move path. The selection and no selection will still use the default highlights.

Move Area #

We’ll highlight the moveable area using a blue line renderer.

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Own Highlight Settings
    Enable

Click on Add Highlight.

  • Highlight Type
    Select: Line Renderer
  • Prefab
    Select: LineBlue
  • Position Offset
    Set to: X=0, Y=1, Z=0
    This’ll place the line a bit above the cells.
  • Distance To Center
    Set to: 1
    This’ll put the line on the edge of the cell (0 would be at the center).
  • Enclosed Cells
    Enable
    This’ll keep cells that are not highlighted but surrounded by highlights also within the line renderer highlight.
    If disabled, those cells would have a border around them.

Move Selection #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Selection

No Move Selection #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: No Selection

Move Path #

We’ll highlight the moveable area using a green line renderer as a line going from cell to cell.

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Own Highlight Settings
    Enable

Click on Add Highlight.

  • Highlight Type
    Select: Line Renderer
  • Prefab
    Select: LineGreen
  • Position Offset
    Set to: X=0, Y=1, Z=0
    This’ll place the line a bit above the cells.
  • Distance To Center
    Set to: 0
    This’ll put the line at the center of the cell.

Available Target #

We’ll highlight targets that are available for an action using a yellow color blinking.

  • In Action Selection
    Enable
  • In Target Selection
    Enable
  • Above Affect Range
    Enable

Available Target (Player/Enemy) #

Use the same setup for player and enemy highlights.

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Own Highlight Settings
    Enable

Click on Add Highlight.

  • Highlight Type
    Select: Blink
  • Blink Children
    Disable
  • Time (s)
    Select: Value > Value
    Set the value to: 1
  • Fade Alpha/Red/Green/Blue
    Enable
  • Start Color
    Select a yellow color with around a third of alpha value (e.g. A=100 or 0.4, depending on your color picker).
  • End Color
    Select a yellow color with around half of alpha value (e.g. A=150 or 0.6, depending on your color picker).

Selected Target #

We’ll highlight the selected target (during the target selection) – for the player using the Selection and enemies the No Selection highlight, i.e. green for player and red for enemies.

Selected Target (Player) #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Selection

Selected Target (Enemy) #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: No Selection

Target Cell #

We’ll highlight the cell during cell target selections using the default highlights.

Targe Cell Selection #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Selection

No Target Cell Selection #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: No Selection

Orientation Selection #

The orientation selection is used when the player uses the orientation command to turn a combatant, we’ll use the default highlight.

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Selection

Use Range #

We’ll highlight the use range of actions using the default area highlight, i.e. blinking in blue color

  • In Action Selection
    Enable
    The cells will be highlighted when the action is selected, e.g. in the battle menu.
  • In Target Selection
    Enable
    The cells will be highlighted while selecting the target for the action.
  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Area

Affect Range #

We’ll highlight the affect range of actions with blinking cells in red color, i.e. the No Selection default highlight.

We’ll use affect ranges for some of our magic abilities to not only target a combatant or cell, but also surrounding cells.

  • In Action Selection
    Enable
  • In Target Selection
    Enable
  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: No Selection

Examine Selection #

We’ll highlight the cell during examine selections using the default highlights.

Examine (Not Blocked) #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: Selection

Examine (Blocked) #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Base Highlight
    Select: No Selection

Selecting Combatant #

We’ll highlight the player combatant who’s currently selecting actions with purple color blinking.

Selecting Player #

  • Use Highlight
    Enable
  • Own Highlight Settings
    Enable

Click on Add Highlight.

  • Highlight Type
    Select: Blink
  • Blink Children
    Disable
  • Time (s)
    Select: Value > Value
    Set the value to: 1
  • Fade Alpha/Red/Green/Blue
    Enable
  • Start Color
    Select a purple color with around a third of alpha value (e.g. A=100 or 0.4, depending on your color picker).
  • End Color
    Select a purple color with around half of alpha value (e.g. A=150 or 0.6, depending on your color picker).

Save Changes #

And that’s it for the grid highlight setup.

Don’t forget to save your changes by clicking on Save Settings at the bottom of the editor.

The next part of the grid mini-series will set up grid cell types.

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