Tutorial Subject - Proximity Triggers and Changing Material Shader Parameters

I am going to do a tutorial primarily on proximity triggers as these are fundamental to triggering events within Crysis. This topic area was critical in my own understanding of flowgraphs. I wanted to use lighting but there were few tutorials except ones which used switches. I spent some time researching flowgraphs but found them to be very specific and related to creating gaming scenes. Russell spent time with me and gave me the first meaningful one on one tutorial working out how to make a light turn on using a trigger. It is from there all the knowledge I have now has grown along with the help of the other tutors.

For the example I will explore the material shader in the material parameter node. Much of my project has been based around lighting but through researching this area I found that only 32 lights may be used without crashing. Using material glow is a much more efficient way to create lighting within the Crysis environment. I have created flowgraphs to turn on glow when entering a proximity trigger; to increase glow when re-entering a proximity trigger; to increase glow whilst remaining in a proximity trigger; and I have used the time delay node to fine tune these.

The reason I have chosen these nodes to concentrate on is they elevate the understanding of Sandbox editor at a foundational level. By gaining understanding at the foundational level, one is able to expand and extend these capabilities creatively. Changing a material allows one to understand fundamental concepts of changing entities within the Sandbox editor. Using the proximity trigger provides a quick and easy way to trigger events. The area trigger may also be used but unless one one requires an irregular shape it is quicker to use a proximity trigger. I believe foundational learning within this area is critical to creating creative scenes within the Sandbox editor. Once this is mastered, one is able to move forward more independently, exploring flowgraphs in creative ways.

One way to demonstrate an elevated understanding of this is to demonstrate in the tutorial how to create repeated copies of glowing entities with triggers which operate independently without having to reimport each flowgraph (this is by creating the flowgraph on the entity and then copying the entity and trigger to several locations). To create a trigger with several entities which glow then you create the flowgraph on the trigger and copy the entity which then continues to be attached to the single trigger.