Monday, June 28, 2010

AI woes...

So I'm finding the base AI in Quake to be totally inadequate for my needs. The inadequacy comes from the fact that a major part of the Quake AI, the part where the monster decides where exactly on the map he wants to move (IE: his goal), is HARD CODED into the engine. That means I can't do any QC magic to change it. Why they decided to do this when the rest of the game relies so heavily on the QC scripts is beyond me.

This means that I have to gut the AI code and put in my own. My only problem? I don't know jack about AI! Sure, I've done the same basic tutorials on how to get an entity to intelligently (and efficiently) move towards a goal using a couple of different methods as everybody else... But now doing it in practice, as well as in 3D space... This is scary!

Luckily, the Quake modding community is there to rescue me. There is some super old code for simple, beautiful bots hanging around. The TutorBot, made by a (former?) community member named Coffee (I'd be hyperlinking the shit out of this, but it is all so old that Coffee's Quake site doesn't exist anymore except in Internet archives and the memories of appreciative Quake modders). It is exactly what I need as a nice base reference from which to build my new AI on top of.

What do I need my AI to do? Well, the base AI can find an enemy (usually the player) and intelligently(ish) move to it and attack it. This means pathing out a bunch of waypoints based on the level geometry so that the monster moves around walls, avoids falling off of cliffs, ect... My monsters, however, will not path around walls. I want my monsters to climb the damn walls.

Imagine having a Quake level in an office full of cubicles, desks, and chairs. Normally, the player would be bounding all over the environment while the monsters would have to awkwardly weave through the obstacles in a maze like fashion. I want my monsters to be able to climb just as well as the player can jump. Maybe even better.

We'll see.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Baddy!


*cough*

Get ready to shoot lots of these. For reference, that is a terrorist looking guy and not an S&M enthusiast in a gimp suit. Although now that I am thinking of it, that would make a far cooler bad guy.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Quicky

So I know what you are all saying. "Handshakes, you devilishly handsome, cunning, and all around sexy man, where is your progress on those bad guy models?"

Well, if I were to be completely honest with you, and I rarely am, I would have to admit that things like Ultima Online and internet porn have been eating into my time lately. But I would also add that this content stuff isn't a cake walk for me, and I'm trying my best to achieve an acceptable level of programmer-art suckery that I wouldn't mind showing off in the end product.

I've been spending a tremendous amount of time studying Blender3D, pouring through huge and oddly written English-as-second-language tutorials, and watching hours of low poly character modeling while taking notes. I want to get this right.

There is also a bit of extra pride on the line for me. I got my start in amateur game development on the 3D modeling side of things, doing low poly weapons and the occasional character in Milkshape 3D for various Half-Life mods that would never see the light of day. - In point of fact, I was only involved in two mods that ever saw the light of release day. One, I did some quicky and ugly-as-sin animations for some guy's proof-of-concept Counter-Strike zombie mod. For the other mod I just rigged a couple models as a favor to the mod leader, a coding child prodigy known as General Dodo, who got me started in 3D modeling for Half-Life working on his Predator themed HL mod which was a first mod for both of us. That mod (not Predator, but the one that saw release), known as General Dodo Coop was, despite the name, pretty special. It never really caught on, and it was accused of having stolen ideas from Sven Coop like the advanced physics and, well, the coop. But the fact is that, while it was a lot like Sven Coop, it was actually better in a number of ways, like the physics being better implemented (which was pretty special for the time), having more complex AI, and having drivable vehicles including airplanes (which made for an endlessly good time). - But, I digress. 3D modeling is dear to my heart, even if the skills have severely atrophied, and I want to make something I can be kind of proud of.

That said, hopefully I will have something to show pretty soon. Until then, more studying.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Quicky Update!

Just a little update on my progress so far. Some shots of my patented fake cell-shading technique.
My Pistol
The SMG

I'm really just trying to get all the content nailed down at this point. Why? Because I suck at doing content (which is made obvious from the above screenshots), and I want to get that crap out of the way first so that I don't have to worry about it. The biggest monster I am going to have to tackle is when I try to get my, well, monsters into the game. Quake's animation system is archaic with a capital thissucks. It also doesn't help that Blender 3D is kicking me in the shins every step of the way.

Next thing to tackle: Getting baddies into the game.
Difficulty level: Oh crap!
In over my headedness: Drowning.

Stay tuned!


Thanks to the invaluable Tara for getting me to get off my ass and make this update.

EDIT: It might be hard to tell in the screens, but they weapons are indeed toon shaded with an outline around them. I made the screens quicky-like in the intro level of Quake, which is really dark and that unfortunately makes it hard to see the toonyness of the guns. Rest assured, my levels will be much more simply colored and brightly lit (and assily made).