AI Goodies (Part 2)

Daniel Delp — 2008-07-04T07:36:10+00:00

Well, my short to do list is done plus a little more so I figured I would update. There are now 3 editor menu options (following the terrain editor design); AI Path Editor, AI Path Editor Creator, and AI Path Editor Inspector.
The 'AI Path Editor' is used to quickly change the group of node(s) (click and drag to change) as well as create groups (see image from AI Goodies (Part 1)) and delete nodes.
The 'AI Path Editor Creator' is used to manually place individual interior nodes as well as terrain nodes. There are also options to automatically create a node grid for the terrain or a specified interior. The automatic terrain creator requires only a density parameter. The automatic interior creator requires a starting point (mouse click), a density parameter (node spacing), and a max slope. It then steps through the interior finding all spots traversable and placing nodes. Finally it checks and makes connections. It works fairly well at this point, but it needs some optimization as it is not picky enough at times.
The 'AI Path Editor Inspector' is used to manually create or remove node connections. At this point the gui is not finished, but in the future you will be able to modify the information of any selected node.

Interior Nodes are stored in relationship to the interior transform as apposed to the world transform, so moving an interior around in the world editor will not change the node placement inside the interior. However any connections between interiors and the terrain grid must be created manually so once the interior is moved the connections need to be manually redone. Interior nodes also require that the interior have an 'internal name' for use when saving and loading the Path map information.

I have also started work on the NPC Agent stuff. At this point I can place a spawn point (which looks like the specified player model) using the world editor. I can then classify the number of Agents to spawn as well as the delay between spawns (aka 'think' cycles). The Agents will spawn, then patrol a given area from the spawn point creating and following the AStar paths. Once the editor window is brought up, all Agents are removed from the game and the spawn point drawn (to avoid confusion).

Short to do list:
AI Path Editor Inspector GUI
AI Agent Creator & GUI
AI Goal Creator & GUI
Pray for TGEA on Mac coming sooner than later!

Ideas, questions, request? Let me know!

AI Goodies (Part 1)

Daniel Delp — 2008-06-18T17:41:43+00:00

I've been messing with Torque for a few years now, never done a whole lot with it, too much other stuff going on. Lately it has been consuming quite a bit of my time. I've always been interested in Game AI so decided to play with it in torque. Looked around at several ai examples and the immersive ai stuff intrigued me. I tried to get the stuff working right for a while and decided it would be best to rewrite the player code as it was taking quite a while to squash bugs. At this point I have Agents spawning (via the engine, not in script although scripts would be easy to create) and creating and following a* paths. I realized it really doesn't do a whole lot of good if I can't change the main pathmap they use to get around. So I created an editor that works like the terrain editor. I can now create node groups and set a weight ( 0-100(untraversable) )for that group. Then the file is saved and loaded in much the same way the terrain is.

The yellow is my Default Group (modifier 50), the green is my Paths Group (modifer 10) and the red is my Water Group (modifier 100). The colors represent the modifier; Green to red, Like a stop light! Also, the empty space are just areas where the terrain rises above connection line. The Agents traverse these areas just fine, it's just a display issue.

Yes the ss is from AFX. Yes the system works in Stock TGE.
Yes I am on a Mac. Yes the system works on Windows.
No I do not have RTS kit. No I do not have TGEA (stupid directX)

Short to do list:
Manual node creation
Manual Connection modifications
Interior Map creation

Blog for Daniel Delp at GarageGames.com

AI Goodies (Part 2)

AI Goodies (Part 1)