Walkabout Navigation Toolkit help thread

#161 Erk, sorry about that. findCover should already be in public. It's getCover that needs to move, as the compiler warning said. I mistyped!

#162 ok i'll try that, thanks again dan...

#163 Ok dan got it to compile with no errors, thank you very much, I moved it to here;

void repath();
   /// Get cover we are moving to.
   CoverPoint *getCover() { return mCoverData.cover; }
   
   bool findCover(const Point3F &from, F32 radius);

hope thats a good spot, now for scripting.....

#164 Dan, you said if I knew the handle I could access the size of the coverpoint in question... I have each coverpoint named A thru N, how can I obtain the name of the coverpoint?? I tried getName to no aval!! also heres my idea for setting the pose accordingly...

//Get Player position...
      %position = LocalClientConnection.getControlObject().getPosition();
      // Try to take cover....
      %this.findCover(%position, $AISK_WALKABOUT_COVER_RADIUS);
      //Get CoverPoint Name
      %coverName = %this.getName();
      %cover = %this.findCover(%position, $AISK_WALKABOUT_COVER_RADIUS);  
      if(%cover != -1) 
      {  
         %pose = %coverName.size;  
         echo("Cover:" @%cover);
         echo("CoverName:" @%coverName);
         echo("Pose:" @%pose);
      }

if i can get the size to workout then i plan on using this to set the poses...

function AIPlayer::SetCoverPose(%obj)
{
   // If cover pose is Stand, we set AIPlayer pose to 0
   // If cover pose is Crouch, we set AIPlayer pose to 1
   // If cover pose is Prone, we set AIPlayer pose to 2
   // Default cover pose is stand.....
   switch$(%obj.action)
   {
      case "Stand":
         %obj.setAIPose(0);
      case "Crouch":
         %obj.setAIPose(1);
      case "Prone":
         %obj.setAIPose(2);
      default:
         %obj.setAIPose(0);
   }
}

If this is all wrong or a bad idea plz by all means tell me....

#165 OK need help bad, tried everything to get %cover.size to no aval???

#166 Sorry Donnie, I meant to get back to you! There's some stuff going on in that fragment you posted. I've added some of my own comments.

// Ok this is fine. Get the player's current position.
      %position = LocalClientConnection.getControlObject().getPosition();
      // This will make the AIPlayer immediately run to cover, and return
      // the cover point that was found.
      %this.findCover(%position, $AISK_WALKABOUT_COVER_RADIUS);
      // Okay, now this line, which seems like you want to get the name
      // of the cover point, actually gets the AIPlayer's name, because
      // %this is the AIPlayer this method is called on. Same as in the line
      // above.
      %coverName = %this.getName();
      // Okay, this is closer - this time you capture the cover object
      // that was found by the search. But this call makes the first call
      // redundant!
      %cover = %this.findCover(%position, $AISK_WALKABOUT_COVER_RADIUS);  
      // Yep, good, make sure that cover was actually found.
      if(%cover != -1) 
      {
         // Okay, so currently coverName is set to the name of the AIPlayer.
         // You probably want to use %cover here, since that refers to the
         // actual cover object.
         %pose = %coverName.size;  
         echo("Cover:" @%cover);
         echo("CoverName:" @%coverName);
         echo("Pose:" @%pose);
      }

#167 Hey dan, thank you for explaining, %cover is the only thing that echos anything..... this is the console!

Cover:1
Pose:
Cover Size:

this is what i have in code??

%cover = %this.findCover(%position, $AISK_WALKABOUT_COVER_RADIUS);  
      if(%cover != -1) 
      {  
         %pose = %cover.size;  
         echo("Cover:" @%cover);
         echo("Pose:" @%pose);
         echo("Cover Size:" @%cover.size);
      }

#168 Hey, just for giggles, try this:

%cover = %this.findCover(%position, $AISK_WALKABOUT_COVER_RADIUS);    
      if(%cover != -1)   
      {
         // %cover should be an object, right?
         if(!isObject(%cover))
             echo(" !! %cover is not an object");
         %pose = %cover.size;    
         echo("Cover:" @%cover);  
         echo("Pose:" @%pose);  
         echo("Cover Size:" @%cover.size);  
      }

That way if findCover() isn't returning an object it will be readily apparent. It looks like it's returning "true" instead of the object to hide behind.

#169 Hey Richard, your right, findcover is not returning an object??? ok now im confused.... lol

#170 i tried everything, getting coverpoint to set ai pose will be great when we get it working. I cant say enough about this kit dan, awsome as ever and thank you so much for your hard work on it....

#171 Donnie, can you try changing $AISK_WALK... to 0? As in try to find cover with 0 radius. What does it return? I suspect the changes to findCover aren't working, and it's returning 1 (true) instead of an object.

#172 Hey Dan, I set the global to 0 and it still isnt returning an object. Cover still returns as a 1 and the bot didnt seek cover..... Set my global back up and he seeks cover and still not returning the coverpoint as an object...

#173 Ok, so this is a bit long and involved: looked a bit into http://www.stevefsp.org/projects/rcndoc/prod/group__crowd.html, but that didn't seem terribly suited to the engine without some hefty reworks.

Experimented with

DefineConsoleFunction(WalkaboutIgnore, void, (S32 objid, bool _ignore), (0, true),
   "@brief Flag this object as not generating a navmesh result.")
{
   SceneObject *obj;
   if(!Sim::findObject(objid, obj))
      return;

      obj->mPathfindingIgnore = _ignore;
}

+

static void buildCallback(SceneObject* object,void *key)
{
   SceneContainer::CallbackInfo* info = reinterpret_cast<SceneContainer::CallbackInfo*>(key);
   if (!object->mPathfindingIgnore)
	   object->buildPolyList(info->context,info->polyList,info->boundingBox,info->boundingSphere);
}

+

getContainer()->findObjects(box, StaticObjectType | DynamicShapeObjectType, buildCallback, &info);

With a trigger once every few cycles per-bot using https://github.com/Azaezel/Torque3D/commits/AI_manager in a 64MB queue (meaning it waits 64 seconds * botcount between bot decisions to keep from flooding the place.). UNfortunately, due to the frequency of the redraw, even at 1 unit density, it ended up leaking like a sieve.

#174 At present, ended up settling for retooling our old racing ai code like so:

bool AIPlayer::getAIMove(Move *movePtr)
{...
         movePtr->x = newMove.x;
         movePtr->y = newMove.y;
		 
		 mNextDodge--;
		 if ((mDodge)&&(mNextDodge <=0))
		 {
			 mNextDodge = mDodgeCycle;
			 Point3F avoidanceOffset = avoidCollisions();
			 if (!avoidanceOffset.isZero())
			 {
				 mMoveState = ModeMove;
				 movePtr->x += avoidanceOffset.x * mDodgeCycle;
				 movePtr->y += avoidanceOffset.y * mDodgeCycle;
			 }
		 }

+

Point3F AIPlayer::avoidCollisions()
{
	disableCollision();
	F32 thetaScale = TickSec * mDodgeCycle;		//think mDodgeCycle ticks ahead

	Point3F start = getBoxCenter();
	Point3F feeler,temp;

	F32 velocity = getVelocity().len() * thetaScale;
	if (velocity <= mMoveTolerance) velocity = mMoveTolerance; //avoid divnull
	Point3F ForwardRot,LeftRot,RightRot;
	getTransform().getColumn(0,&LeftRot);
	getTransform().getColumn(1,&ForwardRot);
	RightRot = -LeftRot;

    Point3F frontFeeler = (ForwardRot * velocity) + start;
	frontFeeler.z = start.z;

	Point3F leftFeeler = (LeftRot * velocity) + start;
    leftFeeler.z = start.z;

	Point3F rightFeeler = (RightRot * velocity) + start;
    rightFeeler.z = start.z;

	// Find closest intersection with objects
	bool intersectionFound = false;
	RayInfo closestRay;
	FeelerState closestFeelerState = Open;

	RayInfo rayInfo_1;
	closestRay.distance = rayInfo_1.distance = (frontFeeler-start).len();

	if (gServerContainer.castRay( start, frontFeeler, AIPLAYER_LOSMASK , &rayInfo_1 ))
	{
		if (rayInfo_1.distance > closestRay.distance)
		{
			closestRay = rayInfo_1;
			intersectionFound = true;
			closestFeelerState = FrontFeeler;
		}
	}
	RayInfo rayInfo_2;
	rayInfo_2.distance = (leftFeeler-start).len();
	if (gServerContainer.castRay( start, leftFeeler, AIPLAYER_LOSMASK , &rayInfo_2 ))
	{
		intersectionFound = true;
		if (rayInfo_2.distance < closestRay.distance)
		{
			closestRay = rayInfo_2;
			closestFeelerState = LeftFeeler;
		}		
	}
	RayInfo rayInfo_3;
	rayInfo_3.distance = (rightFeeler-start).len();
	if (gServerContainer.castRay( start, rightFeeler, AIPLAYER_LOSMASK , &rayInfo_3 ))
	{
		intersectionFound = true;
		if (rayInfo_3.distance < closestRay.distance)
		{
			closestRay = rayInfo_3;
			closestFeelerState = RightFeeler;
		}		
	}

	//determine rotated offset to pad our movement by
	Point3F offset;
	if (!intersectionFound)
	{
		offset = Point3F(0.0,0.0,0.0);
	}
	else
	{
		mMoveState = ModeMove;
		switch (closestFeelerState){
			case FrontFeeler:
				offset = Point3F(0.0f, closestRay.distance,0.0);
				break;
			case LeftFeeler:
				if (closestRay.distance >0)
				{
					offset = Point3F(-closestRay.distance, rayInfo_1.distance/2,0.0);
					break;
				}
			case RightFeeler:
				if (closestRay.distance >0)
				{
					offset = Point3F(closestRay.distance, rayInfo_1.distance/2,0.0);
					break;
				}
		}
	}
	enableCollision();
	return offset;
}

+

function AIData::onCollision(%this, %obj, %col, %vec, %vecLen)
{
	Parent::onCollision(%this, %obj, %col, %vec, %vecLen);
	
	%pos = %obj.getPosition(); 
	%offset = vectorScale(%vec, %vecLen * -1);
	%pos = vectorAdd(%pos,%offset);
	%obj.setMoveDestination(%pos);
}

Now I'm thinking a more proper methodology would be more along the lines of either treating players as tempobstacles (http://digestingduck.blogspot.com/2011/04/temporary-obstacle-progress.html), or an additional variant on walkaboutupateall that takes a vector of objects and flags a series as dirty to be redrawn in a second step). Anyone look into other resolutions for dynamic avoidance?

#175 Yes, using temp obstacles is definitely the ideal solution. I do wonder if there's value in an alternative system that allows regular dynamic objects to be reflected in the navmesh build. This might be nice in the case of, for example, a vehicle that parks and can be jumped on top of.

#176 As far as it goes, there is a:

dtObstacleRef dtTileCache::addObstacle(const float* pos, const float radius, const float height, dtObstacleRef* result)

and

dtObstacleRef dtTileCache::removeObstacle(const dtObstacleRef ref)

pair. Coming up blank at present on how to tie that back into the engine, however.

#177 Donnie: that suggests to me that the changes I had you make to findCover aren't taking effect. Can you use Visual Studio to set a breakpoint in the findCover console function and step through it? Would be helpful to know what goes on.

#178 Will do Dan and report back....

#179 Hey Dan, I noticed when I step thru the code in VS it shows a bunch of missing rtti file??? dont know if that matters or not and it is enabled but also in the do not look for f:\dd\vctools\crt_bld\self_x86\crt\prebuild\eh\rtti.cpp...... My knowledge is very limited in c++ but im trying...lol I set a break on findcover and step thru the program but I dont see any variables in the output window, it just goes thru the program as I step??? what should I be looking for exactly?? Sorry for being a pain and thank you for your help and patience....

#180 Dan could it be this??

static void findCoverCallback(SceneObject *obj, void *key)
{
   CoverPoint *p = dynamic_cast<CoverPoint*>(obj);

dynamic_cast does depend on rtti file and I dont have it...