Got sensors of different colours working. I also changed the sensor so it can be hit from all sides and removed the little completion indicator animation. Keep it simple for now while blocking levels.
It needs some usability help, though. Like, it’s hard to tell that the colour of the sensor is the colour that it wants. Seems like it should light up like that when it gets hit by the desired colour. Maybe the glow should be the desired colour and the middle gets filled with the colours that are hitting hit. We’ll see. I’m happy with this for now, I can use them to create new levels as-is.
Next: dichroic mirrors.
Bit of a dilemma here. Should light passing through a dichroic mirror (prism?) be refracted? Or should it behave as if there was nothing there at all.
In the image above the red line gets refracted slightly (I used constants for air) and it looks fine now but with internal reflection it gives the player a lot of flexibility.
I don’t think I’d want to have puzzles where fussing with the refractions / reflections in the dichroic mirror is required for the solution. The question is, do I want to give the player the option to use it that way.
Giving the player more options…
- might mislead them into thinking they do need to fuss with it. Bad.
- would give more opportunities for creative solutions. Good.
- makes it harder to ensure the player found the desired solution and so learned the skill being taught. Bad.
Part of the question comes down to realism, too. Do I want the clean “assume no friction” type of environment or the more realistic one?
I’ll go with no refraction for now.