New bot pathfinding!

small_sumo · Post by **small_sumo** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 7:31 am

Cawwwwww.

BiG_HeaD · Post by **BiG_HeaD** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 2:12 am

woooooooohoooooooo!

McNamara · Post by **McNamara** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 1:00 pm

the suspence is killing me! come on already@!

Post by **jv_map** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 9:33 am

Ok here it is, sorry for the delay... I had to fix some final issues

Anyway that doesn't mean there's no issues left

though that's basically because a lot of code still has to be written.

The bots don't really walk around as of yet but stay near their spawn position shooting at other bots and players

They're pretty good though; I had problems beating em

Well here's the link:
http://home.student.utwente.nl/a.b.vrij ... _alpha.pk3

Simply put this file in main and run a TDM in Stalingrad (dm/mohdm6)

Never forget this is a very very very early version

BiG_HeaD · Post by **BiG_HeaD** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 5:19 pm

Dont wanna be mean, but makes computer go really slow.

Post by **jv_map** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 6:47 pm

I know

one of the reasons is the large amount of debug prints in this version and the debug lines.

Fixing these performance issues has utmost priority for me now

smartaiguy · Post by **smartaiguy** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 10:02 pm

Can't wait till you get things in shape.

Also did you ever finish that scoreboard for the bots thingy, jv_map?

small_sumo · Post by **small_sumo** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 1:48 am

Dont forget the old manual ones JV, the best cs bot is a manual one and I believe that you will allways, with mohaa ai, need special pathnodes to tell them just how to fight, plus this new bot is for lazy crybabys who wont put in the effort to map and map with bots. Everyone wants the easy way out, if ea released the original maps imagine how many crappy releases there would be. Half the crew that come to these forums dont want to work and they just want a free ride.

Unless of course you find a way to make a set of pathnodes ingame (like podbot for cs) and create a file that can be implemented blah blah, then I would aggree.

The guys who want you to do this "easy bot" are bums!

Post by **jv_map** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 8:15 am

I see it as a challenge to make bots self-sufficient

Also, smartaiguy, I'll try to release bots v1.11 (those with the scoreboard) or maybe 1.2 (for less confusion with mohaa version numbers) asap

smartaiguy · Post by **smartaiguy** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 1:12 pm

OK great!!

small_sumo · Post by **small_sumo** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 8:12 am

jv_map wrote:I see it as a challenge to make bots self-sufficient

Also, smartaiguy, I'll try to release bots v1.11 (those with the scoreboard) or maybe 1.2 (for less confusion with mohaa version numbers) asap

Sorry to let off steam on you, I look forward to bot1.2.

Thanks always.

Yarik · Post by **Yarik** » Tue Nov 04, 2003 3:50 pm

Jv You are the MAN.

Since I dont have the net at home and cant play mohaa online I was like "Why not try it out at home?" "Maybe I can build my own"
So basically I just started getting into bots yesterday (11/03/2003).
And it is awesome. Jv cant thank you enough.

smartaiguy · Post by **smartaiguy** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 1:58 pm

Yarik wrote:

Jv You are the MAN.

Since I dont have the net at home and cant play mohaa online I was like "Why not try it out at home?" "Maybe I can build my own"
So basically I just started getting into bots yesterday (11/03/2003).
And it is awesome. Jv cant thank you enough.

Yeah, he did a really good job.

Post by **Rookie One.pl** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:57 pm

OK, time to dig this thread up.

I'm in need of a pathfinding techinque, but a bit simpler one. I just want the bots to be able to navigate past simple obstacles, like building corners or poles. It would need to be done in real-time. Could this script be applied for it?

Post by **jv_map** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:41 pm

Rookie One.pl wrote:OK, time to dig this thread up.

I'm in need of a pathfinding techinque, but a bit simpler one. I just want the bots to be able to navigate past simple obstacles, like building corners or poles. It would need to be done in real-time. Could this script be applied for it?

Hmm no probably not. In fact being able to avoid small obstacle is an issue not addressed by the global pathfinding script. To do this, a local algorithm is needed.

In stock mohaa, it also occurs that AI gets blocked when it tries to cut off a corner in its path (it does this to make a fluent motion). In that case the bot seems to just move kind of randomly until it can move on the path again. This method is effective in most cases although unreliable and unpredictable. In some cases, bots can get stuck behind corners and small doorways for seconds, moving erratically. This looks outright stupid but the bot eventually gets free and continues its path.

I myself have had much trouble with this issue in bots2, which use roughly the same pathfinding as newbots, except they also take tactical information into account. I never found a truly satisfying method to clear them of obstacles swiftly without duly exposing themselves to enemy fire.

Some possible approaches:

Double or triple sighttrace from self to end point, using different 'via' nodes. Would be difficult to determine a good position for the via nodes, needs some thought. Use sighttrace with a bounding box to make sure the full path is clear. Note sighttrace will go through any grated or otherwise transparent textures, as far as I know there's no remedy against this unless the bsp is modified.

Example bounding box trace:

hit = sighttrace start end 0 vec_mins vec_maxs

where

stepheight = 32
vec_mins = ( -16 -16 stepheight)
vec_maxs = (16 16 (96 - stepheight))

Or the bounding box of a player / AI. Stepheight needs to be subtracted so valid paths over steps or tiny obstacles that the bot can easily step over aren't discarded.