During my 2 years in Alan Wake 2 I was in charge of the footsteps, we thought that since was slow paced they where a important detail.
There were 2 systems, a basic one for where you step and another for when you get remaining in your shoe.
Using Substance Designers I made Different Footstep Decals, that spawned depending of different variables using 2 Footstep Systems, one registering to the Contact material Manager that Daniel made. This Variables where:
Archetype that spawn the decal: Saga, Alan, Big Enemy, Small Enemy, Wolf, Naked Foot, Deer.
Foot: Foot R/L or Paw FR/FL/BR/BL
Physic Material: Sand, Mud, Soil, Puddle, Blood.
Wetness: if its wet or not.
Inside/Outside
On top of the normal footstep system that cast a decal where you step added a extra layer of detail.
This system handled that If you step on dirt/mud and then go inside you will cast dirt for some steps, this also spawned blood steps and wet steps, if you stepped in water/blood puddles or was raining.
This also worked for NPC and enemies. For example, if you shoot a wolf or he attack you and he step on the blood, he will leave blood paws on the floor, helping also gameplay to know in the direction that the wolf went. All these decals could get combined so you could get blood inside the mud, or wet mud, wet soil, etc. Something I didn’t had time to add before leaving was some subtle particles to help to blend the decals in some materials.
After I left the team could have made some changes. © 2023 Remedy Entertainment Plc. All Rights Reserved.