Forgotten Hope Public Forum

Forgotten Hope 2 => Singleplayer and Coop => Topic started by: Michael Z Freeman on 02-04-2011, 21:04:48

Title: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 02-04-2011, 21:04:48
OK, I got the templates stable. No CTD ! At least, I don't get one. But I need help with testing. I've used the grenade in game and it seems to work but I have not confirmed this. Doesn't bf2 have a mode that shows visually the ai target ray tracing ?

Add the attached templates and collisionmesh to objects_weapons_server.zip/Weapons/Handheld/AN_M8_Smokegrenade

Keep the collision mesh in it's own directory. The grenade is the German hand thrown smoke grenade.

The screen works by spawning a transparent collision mesh (a sphere) that blocks the bot targetting. This is a beta and therefore there are more tweaks to do before final release, and at the moment it may not be any use for actual game play.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 02-04-2011, 22:04:43
wow, nice! Will give this a try. If this works though, it will be give our AI for Fh2 an outstanding lead for this engine.

Great going, man!

Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 02-04-2011, 22:04:19
Thanks  ;D. This is only fair. @ the moment the bots fog me out with smoke grenades with smoke that they can see through. The toads.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 03-04-2011, 02:04:48
haven't tried it yet, but are you saying, they can't see through YOUR smoke but they can through theirs?
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 03-04-2011, 16:04:40
No, no. I was just saying how including this mod will level the playing field with bots. But your posts brings up something I had not thought of. Will bot deployed smoke block them as well ? The answer - of course it will. Their smoke should work the same as human deployed smoke. Anyway this will be examined in testing.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 03-04-2011, 17:04:55
Will check this out soon - But it will also be wonderful to see it work for tank smoke also.

I will say, don't know how doable it is, but can that interruption radius be smaller than the smoke screen? Because there are always the fringes of the screen that players can see through. Dont want to leave bots even more shorthanded.

A couple of questions,
Does the radius grow with the build? Or does it appear as soon as the smoke is deployed? Or does it appear once the smoke reaches it full size?

Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Raziel on 03-04-2011, 17:04:48
Nice one DJ! Really great work!!  :)
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 03-04-2011, 18:04:48
LOL, thanks :D ... but the 64 millions dollar question has yet to be answered. Does it work ?

Will check this out soon - But it will also be wonderful to see it work for tank smoke also.

I will say, don't know how doable it is, but can that interruption radius be smaller than the smoke screen? Because there are always the fringes of the screen that players can see through. Dont want to leave bots even more shorthanded.

A couple of questions,
Does the radius grow with the build? Or does it appear as soon as the smoke is deployed? Or does it appear once the smoke reaches it full size?

This is all being tweaked ATM.

The sphere spawns whole. It's simple a case, by the look of it of synchronising the time to live with the smoke time to live.

If this works, then yes, tank shells.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 03-04-2011, 19:04:41
 ;D

*giggles like a little girl*
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 23-04-2011, 12:04:22
Yep. this works  :D

I noted that the German nade is at full concealment for 10seconds, before and beyond which time its now building up or diminishing.

 ofcourse, the way that particular smoke grenade works, same for Americans, it conceals almost immediately. Bots probably get affected by it for no more than 3 seconds though. I did have bots almost run into me before firinf when I deployed it, but it didn't take long for them to start firing right through it. So what I say is, increase the time a bit, otherwise it wont be tactical enough.

great work man, can't wait for this to be in all grenades


Remick, I sure hope you're seeing all this - One more addition for FH2 AI coming up!!

CannonFodder, I think this solution needs to be put as a link the DL section.

DJ, I think you should take over where Drawde left of. PM if you are interested. You certainly have some skill with AI :)
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 23-04-2011, 12:04:43
Thanks for the confirmation. Been wondering if this is working or not. I ran it in AI debug mode (where you can see AI raycasting drawn on the screen), but I don't understand enough about that mode to check if this is working. If it's only for a few seconds as you say then that would make sense from what I was seeing ... bot's raycasting to targets with an occasional lapse as the grenade does its thing. I want to replace the texture on the sphere spawn with a visible texture so I can see what is going on, but I've not had much time for this recently ... I should be back on it soon.

BTW, remember this is still in beta, so I'm not sure about the download thread yet .. although I suppose it could be on there if clearly labelled BETA.

Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 23-04-2011, 13:04:05
Always welcome.

And I suggested it for DL because well, blocking bot's line of sight is better than nothing, right?


Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 05-05-2011, 05:05:28
Hi, DJ... any update on this... Either in how long smoke lasts for German grenade, or any new grenade additions ?

Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 08-05-2011, 12:05:03
Got some other things going on at the moment, but I'm looking forward to getting back to this after the 16th of May.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 01-07-2011, 13:07:27
Any word of this?

I am really hoping the next Fh2 RC ships out with your smoke AI, and chances are, it might be soon.

Not too caught up with RL are you? Cuz the Germans have suddenly developed an unfair advantage.. jk :)
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 01-07-2011, 15:07:31
It will be released when it's ready.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Jimi Hendrix on 01-07-2011, 16:07:32
(http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac348/jaciolli/carrey_dumber.jpg)

 So, you're saying there's a chance



 :P
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 01-07-2011, 18:07:50
Hey, there's always a chance with Forgotten Hope  ;D
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: RommelBr on 06-08-2011, 02:08:39
    Hey!, I tested the AI Smokescreen and it seems to WORKS perfectly :o !!!
   It's amazing the AI ​​acting as if he had a real brain.

   But i have made a little changes before the test, i actually imported the attached templates and collisionmesh from the Nebeleihandgranate 42 (The German hand thrown smoke grenade) to the No77 Smoke Grenade (The British hand thrown smoke grenade).

   By now i only tested the No77 Smoke Grenade (British) instead of the Nebeleihandgranate 42 (German), and so far seems to work with no problem.
   Sometimes some friendly Bots are on the front of the smoke and the enemy Bots begin to shoot to kill they and sometimes the missed shots kill me or someone behind the smoke.
   Another good thing is that the bots interpret the smoke as just a blocking against the shots, so they practically CHARGE!!! between the smoke, which creates some immersive war moments.
   The map i used to test was Tunis.

   Now I hope this will be officially implemented in Mod.

   Ps: I am not 100% fluent in English.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Maretti on 06-08-2011, 06:08:46
Good to see it's (at least some of it) working. The bots seems to love throwing grenades, specially the smoke ones.
Way to go! Things like these keeps the devs working for the SP as well.

ErwinRommelBr, may I ask you to make us a tutorial for applying this fix? I would be very greatful.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: CosmonautVince on 07-08-2011, 14:08:21
Kudos!
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 07-08-2011, 14:08:47
    Hey!, I tested the AI Smokescreen and it seems to WORKS perfectly :o !!!
   It's amazing the AI ​​acting as if he had a real brain.

Great to hear that you have tested it  ;D Here's a funny "doh" moment story. I originally altered the AN_M8_Smokegrenade and then tested the Nebeleihandgranate 42 in error and wondered why I could not confirm if it was working or not  ::). So this is doubly good to hear.

The AI might start moving forward once their ray cast targeting is broken by the smokescreen collisionmesh. There's always the possibility that the behaviour may be imagined (but it doesn't sound like you are imaging anything), which is why I was trying to use debug mode to actually SEE the smokescreen collisionmesh altering  AI behaviour. However this depended on spawning a VISIBLE smokescreen collisionmesh sphere which I was not able to achieve (I think it needs a material putting on it or the transparency changing). Anyway, by the sound of it it's working.

I can see tank shell smoke templates in my future.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 07-08-2011, 17:08:29
Have you been able to adjust it for the various types of grenades yet? The American and German work the same, but the British one starts slow and builds, and I think it lasts longest.

But yer, would really like to see this in use
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 07-08-2011, 18:08:40
Have you been able to adjust it for the various types of grenades yet? The American and German work the same, but the British one starts slow and builds, and I think it lasts longest.

But yer, would really like to see this in use

Not yet. I was just concentrating on getting it working at all first. But it's an important point. The behaviour of the modification should match the behaviour of the core FH mod.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: CosmonautVince on 08-08-2011, 08:08:01
So, to clarify. The smoke becomes an "invisible" object that the bots think is blocking their path? Would this result in the bots running around the smoke thinking its an obstacle or coming through it?
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 08-08-2011, 10:08:08
No, the bots see the smoke visually. They will walk right through it, but they see it as something throwing off their 'vision'... Vision or aim...

Like engaging an infantry and popping behind a wall and having them still take a few potshots at the wall, the bots will engage you shortly after the smoke goes up i.e. through the smoke. But will quickly go silent and start to move through the smoke until they get visual of their target once more.

Its really a perfect solution and creates exactly the same effect as with humans.

What DOES need to tweaked is how large the radius is (The obscuring feature is a growing and shrinking sphere for the bots) so that it extends at the same rate as the smoke it works on, reaches the same limit and dissapears at the same rate. And this goes for the various types of smoke there are.

!. American and German smoke is identical in its behavior and so can use the same template
2. British smoke starts slow and scattered (and unobscuring), spreads in a pattern I am yet to understand, and stays a tad longer than German/ American smoke.
3. Tank deck smoke for tanks without apparatus or tank shell act similar to German smoke
4. Tanks with apparatus for short range fire, act another way - I will reach and say similar to British smoke, after the scatter effect is through
5. Tank shell act similar to that of the apparatus when the shell lands.


Its not small work, but I can foresee one of the big tactical achievements for bot play in Fh2 once implemented. I just hope the rest of bot-dom willl follow suite, as I'm afraid besides DJBarney's achievements with this and the Bug-Tracker, much of, if not all of AI work has ground to a halt
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: CosmonautVince on 08-08-2011, 10:08:26
Programming really is an artform.
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 08-08-2011, 11:08:46
I'd say. But what do I know; I am no artist. DJBarney is  :)
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: Michael Z Freeman on 08-08-2011, 11:08:04
... much of, if not all of AI work has ground to a halt

That's not true. This template was just tested by another member. Stop ya moanin' !
Title: Re: *BETA* AI Smokescreen Grenade
Post by: djinn on 08-08-2011, 12:08:01
'This template', AI smokescreen... Not any other aspect of AI fan development.

Void is MIA, I can't reach Remick_04, and without those 2 key people, we might as well be shouting in a dark room with no door. Only aspect moving IS smoke-screen research.

I'm not saying the fans aren't doing what they can, but nothing will move until we have our tactically positioned people to work with us. I'm not moaning, just saying it like it is.