Blog for RTS Kit Account at GarageGames.com

Official upgrade: RTS-SK 1.5.2

RTS Kit Account — 2008-04-27T00:16:14+00:00

Ahh, ye men of little faith!

Here it is! The bundled update, the new version, the RTS Sarter Kit 1.5.2, ready for download from the official links.

For those who dont know what the heck are we talking about, this is the update of the RTS-SK to the latest version of TGE, 1.5.2. It obviously adds all the features, improvements and bug fixes since the 1.3 to the latest TGE, plus around 15 RTS-SK specific bug fixes (more details here).

(Note that the product pages will be updated soon, the download from your account page will give you the new version).

This is the result of the work of many people over the lifetime of the kit and it would be difficult to name them all, but at the very least we have to thank Guy Allard, Andy Maloney, Derek Bronson and all the RTS community for all their work and support.

The TDN page showing the manual procedure will remain there for "historic" and technical reference.

It's done. One step further! And its just the first one, believe us.

James & Novack.-

Pathfinding on the RTS-SK!!

RTS Kit Account — 2008-02-08T02:04:59+00:00

I had this idea since a long time, but just recently -with a more concrete need-, is that I finally got avocated to work on pathfinding, more clearly on the port of the pathfinding part of the Tom Romanos and Gavin Bunney's immersive AI Engine (iAI) to the RTS-SK.

iAI is an excelent resource, and besides thank Gavin and Tom for such incredible work, I highly recommend it to anyone woking on AI and Torque. I also recommend the reading of the thread on the iAI engine. I have to thank everyone on that thread, involved on documentation and fixes for the proper use of Gavin's code. Some of the guys there, Thomas Huehn, opened my eyes about how easy it could be to use just the pathfinding part of the iAI engine. Thomas also did a fantastic mechanism to add a node using a grey scale bitmap to set the weight.

An image is better...

Now without more intruduction, lets talk about the port.

The core of the iAI pathfinding mechanism remains untouched. I also maintained the original filter/folder structure so would be easy to anyone intrested on continue the iAI integration to the RTS-SK.

The changes are on files where just little parts of the code where needed, or a lightwieght version of it would do a better job. Also some general modifications to the eninge are needed.

So, as the majority of the code on iAIAgent.cc/.h were not needed for the cause, I just lefted it out, integrating some of the fields and functions from that class to the RTSUnit.

Also I've included all the needed script functionality on the pathManager.cs file, forever defeating the historically hated comment:

// Clever pathfinding algorithms here! -- BJG

Sorry BJG, whoever you are! (Ben?) ;)

Plus some minor modifications on game.cs and player.cs

And thats all the porting work!

Doesnt look great?

I have writen an artcle on TDN with the description, some documentation, the download, and a step-by-step guide for a proper integration.

The pathfinding engine has some drawbacks, like a huge framerate drop when the node net is displayed (design/debug time anyway), also by default make no distinctions on the weight of each node (which isnt really a flaw), and the 45 degrees turning could result a little clumsy (the path smoothing maybe need some love for the RTS needs).

However, all in all the pathfinding is great, and the good design of the iAI engine, perfectly allows further improvements. The system is designed to work with diferent grids (node sub-networks). Also working on iAIPathNode::updateMoveModifier() would be easy to customize the node weight settings. And is really easy to test changes on the fly, ie. node grid size, paths, etc. To finish, the system has a good work on the engine console messages, so the feedback to the developer its great.

As a disclaimer, I have to say that I have little or no experience on AI, so any comments of mine on the subject, should be taked, at least, with care.

Some gridsize fun...

Ok, Ok, I'll shutup now, here is the TDN link: http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/RTS/iAIpathfinding
And here is the forum thread to discuss any issue: Pathfinding on the kit

RTS-SK Mission Shortcut Button

RTS Kit Account — 2008-01-14T00:16:15+00:00

Oh my fellow RTS brothers!! The testosterone-exceeded barbarians (FPS developers) are invading us!!

Lets put some RTS push here... a little patch for the MainMenuGui.

I have used this since long time, without noticing that it may be useful for other people as well. That, until I saw Martin Schultz's Quickstart your game for debugging resource, which is essentially the same thing I were using.

So, that obviously inspired me to share this for the rts kit, with some changes (more like I am using it, this is not the Martin's resource actually), and a little more elaboration: I asked my always ready companion James, to make some apropriate graphic buttons.

The result can be seen on the screenshot below:

So this patched MainMenuGui adds a new button, which actually is an automated way of do:

1) "Start Game"
2) <Select Mission>
3) <Enter Player Name>
4) "Launch Mission"
5) "Ready"

So as you can see, unlike Martin's resource, you still have to hit "Mission Shortcut" to get to the mission, but this in exchange of flexibility.

If you have the stock kit, the .gui file goes in starter.RTS\client\ui\<mainMenuGui.gui>
and the 4 .PNG files goes in: starter.RTS\client\ui\mainMenu folder
You can customize the values for the mission file, player name (just look at the bottom of the file), and multi or single player with a little more work.

Although this could be used on a final release as a "Quick Mission" option, should be refactored to use some predefined player profile. Right now, its for dev use, just launch the damn mission ;)

Download here.

Thats it, hope it be useful.

P.S.: I think with a little of love this can actually work for the starter.FPS as well.

World Domination Mod RTS-SK 1.5 compat

RTS Kit Account — 2007-11-17T19:11:14+00:00

As the TDN update procedure to port the RTS-SK to the latest TGE version, has some changes that leave the Stephen Zepp's World Domination Mod not directly compatible, we've made a second installer of the mod, for the new version of the kit.

There are now, two versions of the mod for download, the original and the new one. With this new download, any and all readme files and how-tos related to the original mod remain valid.

Btw, we have done some adjustments on the mod's TDN page some time ago, and now there is also this new download.

We were making some work over the mod, but we have some new priorities now, so we'll come back to the mod later. For now, it is at least compatible -without extra work- with the latest kit.

Edit: Forgot the link, here

James & Novack.-

RTSKit Objects Exposed to script

RTS Kit Account — 2007-10-19T01:01:20+00:00

New RTS-SK TDN page: a rough list of objects (conobjects, datablocks and netobjects) and events (netevents and clientevents) exposed from the engine to script, of the RTS Starter Kit.

Hope with time (and with your colaboration), this list get some improvements and detailed info, as functionality description, methods and fileds of each objects, etc.

For now, it is just a listing of declarations, categorized by source file.

Hope it be useful.

RTSKit Objects Exposed to script

New List of RTS Console Functions/Methods

RTS Kit Account — 2007-10-06T19:04:06+00:00

Inspired on the excelent TorqueScript reference guide by Jaroslav Kurcik: new list of all the 57 RTS Console Functions/Methods!

This list include details about syntax, parameters, source file, etc., but it is a very light documentation, so any improvements and contributions would be appreciated.

The new listing is linked from TDN RTS-SK Home Page, on the "RTS-SK Coding Essential Articles" Sections, just on top of the list of "Script" category (Ive added a "new!" alert there anyway).

It is categorized by class, so from the index you will see the categories (with a summary of each category functions), and a link that will lead you to a detailed function listing of each class.

On a side comment, this result to be more work than I expected, so I hope you like the formating on TDN because Im not changing anything :)

And AGAIN and as always, all of you are invited to contribute to this efforts.

Ok thats all, here is the link: RTS Console Functions/Methods

RTSKit port to last TGE - 2nd Revision

RTS Kit Account — 2007-10-06T19:01:49+00:00

Ok boys! the 2nd Revision of the "RTSKit port to last TGE how-to" (and patch) its out.

There are covered:

* Some problems related with the previous patch.
* Some procedural improvements to the how-to were added.
And also:
* Several (sixteen finally) general bug fixes were added.

The complete changelog can be found on TDN.

As always, there is a how-to and patch version for MacOS (Xcode project) and a how-to and patch Version for PC/Windows (MSVS).

And remember: this how-to and patch is made for a fresh install of RTS-SK and TGE 1.5.2

Hope you all can test it and return some feedback.

RTSKit port to last TGE how-to on TDN

Forum thread: http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=67941

New clean how-to for porting RTS-SK to TGE 1.5.2

RTS Kit Account — 2007-09-21T04:15:57+00:00

Finally, after two weeks of work, a new, clean version of the guide/how-to its done.

We take the prior guide and push it fordward to make a new polished how-to. On a step by step approach, we covered the issues of the process. At the end, we got two separate docs: one for Windows (MSVC++) and one for MacOS (XCode) each one with a patch which include needed files, the diff patch itself and project files.

From that point we published it on TDN and made a little redesign of some parts of the RTS TDN front page. On this aspect, we made an "Update_docs" page from where any further ports/updates should be linked/published without modifying the home page, and where you could find important info regarding common aspects of any linked documents.

A special thanks to James, who helped me on the whole proccess and made all the Mac side of the work (and helped me a lot on the PC side). He not only made an outstanding job, but also encourage me to begin this.

Here is the link: RTSKit port to last TGE how-to

As a second iteration, we are planning to include in this (or other) patch file, all the bug fixes present on the forums as we can. We will have news about that soon.

We really hope you all make use and test this how-to, and make some comments about it.

As a sugestion, if you wanna make a technical comment about the guide, make it son the forum thread about this.

...

So! what else could be said about this?

WE WANT YOU TO PARTICIPATE!! No more, no less.

If you wanna join us on this common good cruzade, just send an email or post a comment here or on the forums... we'll found you! :D

BUT! it is really not necessary that you work on this projects, just make some comments on rts blogs, forums, share experiences, post code resources... or whatever little participation you can make, to put some extra movement to this RTS community.

And yes, I got tired of say that once, but some people heard the call, so here I am bothering you AGAIN ;P

Census Partial Results

RTS Kit Account — 2007-09-07T23:40:08+00:00

I just made a new entry to TDN:

"...This are the -partial- results of the RTS Starter Kit Community Census (RTSSKCC :P). The census was published on Aug 11, 2007.

To the date, almost a month after, september 9 of 2007, 24 pepole has participated (thank you all), and the census remains -for the moment, indefinitely- open.

I was tempted for a while to do some concept analisys to put it here, but now I hink its better if you read the info yourselves. I think the numbers (and the answers) speak for themselves.

On a side note, I have to say, I have little or non experience doing surveys or census (I learn a lot about this topic, just making and then reading the answers of this little one), so some questions could be not clear at all. Nevertheless in general I think its an understandable survey, and all in all, it accomplish it mission..."

If you are an RTS Kit owner, and wanna see it, here is the link to the Census Partial Results on TDN

New Index of RTS Related Resources

RTS Kit Account — 2007-08-25T22:48:41+00:00

After the communal blog creation, and the community census, here is another project: an RTS Related Resources Index.

As we all know, the GG resources listings, blogs, and profiles, dont distinguish RTS ones from others, so till now, we dont have an index of resources about rts development.

After a little time thinking about how we can do it from INSIDE GG, I remember TDN. Even when I suck making wiki pages, the format isnt hard to understand (well... kind of), and it seems the perfect place for construct such a thing, like and index of something :)

So! I make an incipient listing. I have made a quick (very quick) pass over the resources, blogs, and profiles, and a search for "RTS", looking for materials usefull to us.

The result is a project (NOT a final resource), where we can add links to resources. That way, we'll have direct access to usefull things that other way, we can waste hours searching for, or even never know about.

I put some links on "resources" and some others on "profiles". Take a look, said something (I'll accept any "stop it bastard!"), but more important: Collaborate!

Here is the link: Index of RTS Related Resources]