Interactive Tablet UI

Category: Interface Architecture
Context: The InteractiveTabletUI system was originally authored during a separate personal project but was ported over to POV 3.0 to handle in-world menus. Instead of pausing the game and pulling up an ethereal floating screen, the player physically pulls out a tablet to access objectives, health readouts, and the Neighborhood Store.

Diegetic Constraints

The TabletManager controls the physical transition of the tablet:

  1. Pushing Tab toggles isTabletDisplayed.
  2. The logic physically lerps the tabletParent to a specific focal point in front of the tabletCamera (InUsage.transform.position).
  3. It frees the cursor (Cursor.lockState = CursorLockMode.Confined), but significantly, it does not pause time. The player remains entirely vulnerable in the physical space while checking their tablet.

Scene-Driven State Machine

Because the tablet serves as a master menu (Boot Screen, Main Menu, In-Game HUD, Mobile HQ), the TabletManager.MenuScreenSwitcher() executes a strict switch-case checking the SceneManager.GetActiveScene().name.

Depending on the context (e.g., if the user is in “ApothicaClub” or “LucidWeavers”), the script automatically isolates the tablet’s capabilities. If they are in the active raid space, Boot and Main menus are disabled, and only the live HUD canvas and the TabletMainFunctions() (like holding Tab for quick objectives) are permitted.

Note on Scope Pivot

The tablet was originally scoped to host deep mechanics like the ShopSystem. However, during prototype testing, stakeholders desired more immediate action loops. As a result, engineering bandwidth was pivoted toward systems like TargetPractice and TimeTrials, causing the full integration of the Tablet UI and Shop features to be halted in favor of refining the core execution loop.