Thanks, I recently tried something like this with a coder but we ran into some
problems which he couldnt resolve. We got the NPC sleep radius working pretty
fast, but I really wanted take the optimisation a small step further.
The idea I had was to put the NPC into 'stasis' at a certain distance (done),
but then to also cull it completely from the world and a slightly larger
distance. So I asked if we could somehow destroy the NPC, leaving just a marker
of somekind (for position and possibly rotation) and then spawn NPC back
in again when the player gets within the culling distance. The problem he had
was that when he spawned in the NPC, for some reason it was stuck in stasis, no
animation or anything. It was like it wasn't initialising the AI upon spawning.
If you were to approach this idea, what do you think the best way to approach
it is?
As I've mentioned I dont know much about code but I can quote from an email
which he sent to me:
"I changed the name of the Spawn() function to ActualSpawn(). I added Think()
function which acts as a think function. The think function gets called by
Spawn(), which is what I created. This is the only way I can think of to get
the zombie to check continuously if it should spawn or not. It is the think
function that is making things messed up and I can't figure out what to do just
yet."
Here is the code:
void
{
{
BaseClass::NPCInit();
ActualSpawn();
}CZombie::Think()if(BaseClass::GetAbsOrigin().DistTo(UTIL_PlayerByIndex(1)->GetAbsOrigin())
<=256)else{
SetNextThink(gpGlobals->curtime +1.0f);
}
}void
{
Think();
}CZombie::Spawn()
----- Original Message ----
From: Christopher Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming <hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com>
Sent: Sunday, 29 June, 2008 6:52:13 AM
Subject: Re: [hlcoders] LOD-ing zombie AI, is it possible?
Override NPCThink()
In Psuedo Code
If npc origin - player origin is greater than or equal to 2048
Return;
BaseClass::NPCThink();
This actually makes them not animate or do any AI things. Though it is fine
since player wont see them if he is 2048 units away.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Briscoe
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:41 AM
To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming
Subject: Re: [hlcoders] LOD-ing zombie AI, is it possible?
Apologies, a friend of mine from the steam forums suggested I might have
more luck posting the problem on hlcoders.
----- Original Message ----
From: Tom Edwards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Discussion of Half-Life Programming <hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 17 June, 2008 11:47:02 PM
Subject: Re: [hlcoders] LOD-ing zombie AI, is it possible?
It's best to keep discussions in one place. If you really must
cross-post, link instead of pasting.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7749435
Robert Briscoe wrote:
> Hi,
>
> So I have recently started planning out an idea of a small SP mod for the
source engine which i plan to make over the summer and release around
October. Without going into the intricate details of the mod it's self Im
toying with using either hl2's npc zombies or ideally having slightly
modified versions which act slightly differently than they currently do.
>
> Of course the latter needs code work which as an artist is way out of my
league, but im wondering if anyone here would be willing to help me out, or
at least give me an idea how hard it would be, from a coders point of view,
to implement it into a mod.
>
> To give you an idea of exactly what im looking for here is a basic
description:
>
> A way of LODing out the AI if the zombie is at a certain distance from the
player.
> For example: Once the player is 2048 units away from the NPC it will cease
all AI and just play an idle animation remaining in a 'sleep state' until
the player is within 2048 units radius of the NPC.
> The reason for this is that im thinking of ways to have alot of zombie
NPCs spread over a large area without clogging up the CPU on pointless
walking and pathfinding stuff like they do now while they idle.
>
> Secondly, I recently played the latest version of SMOD and noticed they
they added a pretty cool new type of zombie as shown in this video from
SMOD: Tactical:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIArug7ENk&feature=related
>
> It seems like a pretty simple AI modification to an NPC citizen or
something, where they are idle until they see or hear the player then just
run straight at them causing damage if they come into close contact with the
player. They also seem to run to random path nodes whilst searching for the
player also which also crude looks pretty convincing!
>
> If you're now thinking "why dont you just use SMOD?" its because they have
no source code to implement the zombie LOD system which is more important
atm and SMOD is not very mapper/modder friendly (it doesnt even have a FDG
entity file for hammer). I also need to use some Orange box specific
features for the mod to have some outstanding visuals.
>
> Anyway any advice or help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Thanks!
> Robert Briscoe
> www.littlelostpoly.co.uk
>
>
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>
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