Diegetic = something that exists in the narrative world of the game
From greek “diegesis”. Think “In-world user interface”.
Diegetic vs Non-diegetic gets very much into semantics in some cases, especially in VR, so overall dont worry too much about it.
Good test questions are:
“Can the Player Character see the UI and do the action?”
”Can a Non-Player Character (NPC) see the UI and do the action?”
Specific examples:
3D drawer that needs to be dragged open
—> diegetic because lets say the player controls a robot character (Player Character) then that robot will be grabbing the handle and moving the drawer
In-game pause menu (VR & 2D) “resume, settings, exit” etc
—> non-diegetic flat UI that has nothing to with the story
In-game HUD in 2D games (health, minimap, mana, mini inventory, spells etc)
—> non-diegetic
floating in-game HUD in VR games (health, minimap, mana, mini inventory, spells etc)
—> non-diegetic if it’s “just there” for the user without any reason why & how the player character would see it
watch on Player Characters wrist tells armor status, health etc
—> diegetic usually
glowing in-world path/trail that helps wayfinding
—> diegetic if there’s a story explanation (a kind wizard created it to guide the hero)
—> non-diegetic if “it’s just there” (game developer just put it there without a story reason backing it)
Couple links:
See the video below for one example of how to implement diegetic door, lever and drawer using Joints. Drawer part starts around 8:30 but recommend at least skimming most of the video for context.
Below a couple more videos of another approach how to implement diegetic UI. These videos miss some scripts and context from before so might be tricky to implement based on these.
Diegetic = something that exists in the narrative world of the game
From greek “diegesis”. Think “In-world user interface”.
Diegetic vs Non-diegetic gets very much into semantics in some cases, especially in VR, so overall dont worry too much about it.
Good test questions are:
“Can the Player Character see the UI and do the action?”
”Can a Non-Player Character (NPC) see the UI and do the action?”
Specific examples:
3D drawer that needs to be dragged open
—> diegetic because lets say the player controls a robot character (Player Character) then that robot will be grabbing the handle and moving the drawer
In-game pause menu (VR & 2D) “resume, settings, exit” etc
—> non-diegetic flat UI that has nothing to with the story
In-game HUD in 2D games (health, minimap, mana, mini inventory, spells etc)
—> non-diegetic
floating in-game HUD in VR games (health, minimap, mana, mini inventory, spells etc)
—> non-diegetic if it’s “just there” for the user without any reason why & how the player character would see it
watch on Player Characters wrist tells armor status, health etc
—> diegetic usually
glowing in-world path/trail that helps wayfinding
—> diegetic if there’s a story explanation (a kind wizard created it to guide the hero)
—> non-diegetic if “it’s just there” (game developer just put it there without a story reason backing it)
Couple links:
See the video below for one example of how to implement diegetic door, lever and drawer using Joints. Drawer part starts around 8:30 but recommend at least skimming most of the video for context.
Below a couple more videos of another approach how to implement diegetic UI. These videos miss some scripts and context from before so might be tricky to implement based on these.