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Possible Bug With DataBlocks? (AIPlayer.cs)

by Quinn Ebert · in Torque Game Engine · 11/28/2006 (2:44 am) · 6 replies

Greetings,

For the past month or so, I've been working on extending the AI Facilities of Torque for use in my own indie game, and, I've run into a really weird quirk...

To create a different AI setup for each of my characters, I create a new AIPlayer-esque DataBlock, such as the following:

---- CODE BELOW -----
datablock PlayerData(AI_Crissy : PlayerBody)
{
shootingDelay = 33;
shapeFile = "~/data/shapes/player/player_zephyr.dts";
enemy = "NONE";
is_firing = false;
team = "Good";
maxEnergy = 200;
maxDamage = 200;
maxSight = "100";
};
---- CODE ABOVE -----

Later, In a new AIPlayer function I've created (AIPlayer::Think()) I have a line that tries to access the "maxSight" item, like so...

---- CODE BELOW -----
InitContainerRadiusSearch(%this.getPosition(), %this.maxSight, $TypeMasks::PlayerObjectType);
---- CODE ABOVE -----

In this case, InitContainerRadiusSearch() is unable to access the maxSight property of the AIPlayer Object. I have also noticed that the maxSight property of the AIPlayer isn't available elsewhere (IE: echo(Crissy.maxSight); returns absolutely nothing.)

I should apologize in advance for tasking you with what is more likely a problem with my code...but I post this here because I am able to successfully retrieve other properties of the AIPlayer using this method from my AIPlayer::Think() function.

Anyway, any help, criticism, flames, rants, etc, will all be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer!
--David Quinn Ebert
--Co-Owner, Beyond-Technical Innovations, Ltd.
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Torque Owner Mathieu
#1
11/28/2006 (2:58 am)
You may need to create an accessor function (in the engine code) that return maxSight.

Torque Owner Quinn Ebert
#2
11/28/2006 (3:33 am)
Mathieu,

Because I have yet to delve into the engine code, could you possibly point me to a resource or tutorial somewhere that could show me how to go about doing this?

Thanks again for all your help!
--Quinn

Associate Stefan Beffy Moises
#3
11/28/2006 (4:45 am)
Could you paste your complete Think() method, I think you've got the %this reference wrong (%this usually refers to the Datablock, but since you are doing %this.getPosition(), I guess %this is holding the AIPlayer object instance, not the datablock...)

Torque Owner Stefan Lundmark
#4
11/28/2006 (6:10 am)
Since you created the variable inside scripts there's no need to make an accessor function.

Other than that, what Beffy said is probably true if getPosition() has been working for you.
I rarely use the %this name anyway in script and just name it appropriatly instead, like %datablock.

Torque Owner Paul /*ilys*/ Symeou
Default Studio Name
#5
11/28/2006 (6:45 am)
Beffy is on the mark with this one. From the code you've quoted I can see you're trying to find the maxSight value in the ai player object, but it is in the ai player datablock. You will need to use %this.getDatablock().maxSight to retrieve the value, unless you copy it to the ai player object upon creation of the ai player.
You may also be using the wrong variable as a reference (%this), so check your code to make sure.

Torque Owner Stefan Lundmark
#6
11/28/2006 (7:41 am)
If you want maxSight to be an object member, declare it when you create your object, like this:

new Player ()
{
 dataBlock = PlayerBody;
 maxSight = 23;
}