Week 3 of Session Spring B

This week was also just review of what I already know for my #D's max class. However, In my AI class I was able to get a seek, flee, arrive, and wander algorithm working.

For my AI class we just learned about singleton classes. Singleton classes is to put it simple a master AI that tells all the other agents what to do. For example if your going to be doing a game that you need to hide and there guards looking for you, you will want to set two things. First you have to set up the way points for each agent then set a singleton class if one of the agents finds you and have them all look for you, but you still need to have them make sure there not walking into any walls or objects. So your going to have to always check if the agent is colliding into something but not have the singleton class (Master AI) check for it because if one of the agents is hitting a wall all the other agents will think there hitting it as well.

In my 3D's max class we just went over how to create a simple box man and how to rig it. When you rig something that means that your inputting the "skeleton" to the model so that you can animate it. We also learned how to import a model or object to the Unreal Development Kit. I also learned how to this about 2 or 3 months ago so it was just review for me. On my current assignment we have to import 5 different models that we created make sure they have collision . I already have two from last week and the professor said that it was ok to use those but we need to make sure they all have collision and at least have a general theme that would make sense. An example he used was that don't have a tea kettle surrounded by mountains on all sides.

Here are the new models I made. I also included how it would look like in the Game Engine UDK. The Slight Grey is the Collision and doesn't show in the Game.

Week 2 of Session Spring B

This week I didn't learn a lot of new things in class.

In my Artificial Intelligence class we learned about path finding. Dijkstra's algorithm is a way to calculate a path to a certain point. The way Dijkstra's algorithm works is by making a grid and assigning values to it depening on many factors. For example, if you have a flat surface then the formula would calculate all possible ways to get to the end path but if there was a lake or a long table between you and the end point then it would check if it's less work to jump over the table (if the game/simulation allows it) or to walk around the object. This formula is good the only problem with it is that it calculates everything.

There is another formula that gamer developers use and that is called the A Star Algorithm. This formula is better for games because it would just calculate the necessary path to the end point and nothing else. For example, if you start a point in Dijkstra Algorithm it would calculate if there is less work to travel backwards, A star won't do that, it would just calculate from the beginning point to the end point. The problem with using A star is that in the process of finding the path you might lose the shortest and best path, the only good thing about this is that you would use less processing power and be able to make faster decisions as illustrated in the diagram.







In my 3Ds Max class I didn't learn a lot of new things this week mostly review for me. All we did was create normal maps which I already have been doing in ZBrush, unwrap UVW maps, and learning how to import to UDK. For normal mapping we were given a program that generates a normal map from a texture file we give it. It is really neat but the only thing is that you are looking at text boxes the whole time and there is no way you can preview it until you import it to 3Ds Max.The program that I use to make normal maps is ZBrush. What you do there is import your 3d mesh and increase the poly count on it, then you would mould it however you want after that is done you just have ZBrush create the normal map and you just save it.

Next we learned how to create UVW maps and that is when you make a map of how your model will get textured. What I do is simply flatten the mesh and texture it that way instead of cutting the model by steams. My method is fast and simple but you have to know what each of the parts do before you start texturing it because it can get really easy to get lost in it. The best solution for this is by connecting the broken pieces of the map together so that you can get a general understanding of what your looking at when you start texturing in Photoshop. Here some examples if you don't know what a normal map is.











Besides that we were given a Lab to do in which we had to create, UVW map, and texture two meshes and a terrain. Seeing as how I have some prior experience with 3Ds Max this only took me about 30 minutes to do. What im most proud of is how I was able to texture the wood. Yes the texture looks horrible and blurred but that's how I wanted it to look like. I wanted to be able to compare to Nintendo 64 graphics which were great at the time but with the consoles that we have now is considered "bad" Here are screen shots of my meshes and terrain. These meshes are separate from my mid-term game and are just examples of what were are being taught in class.

Week 1 of Session Spring B

Things I learned: Since this week I had my first couple of classes of 3Ds Max and AI programming I learned a couple of things.

For AI I learned that a lot of the code derives from just a simple three line code and the there about 9 different variations of AI. the simple one that everything is from is seek, the way that seek works is by having a force pull the actor to the object. Then there is flee which is the same formula expect its negative, What flee does is puts a force between both objects. A way to picture this would be to have to magnets together if there opposite they are going to slowly move to each other and that's seek then if you have two of the same that would repel each other. Pursue is almost like seek but is pursue the object is moving and with seek its in one position and with pursue the AI calculates position, speed, and targets position, targets speed so that it can estimate where it's going to be and head there. A funny thing with pursue is that there is nothing that can predict where humans go and reach what you do is assume that the object is going to head in a straight line. A example of pursue would be a 'Aim bot' what the aim bot does is just pursue the target and the displacement it sets your cross hair is very small so that it gives the illusion that your following the player, but what its really doing is just calculating the trajectory of the person. So if the player would just stop and turn instantly they would fowl the aim bot for a second but then it would just recalculate to the new position its heading. Evade is just like flee but with the principles of pursue, the object is moving all the time. Wander is another form of AI and the way it works is that it draws a invisible circle in front of the object and chooses a random point in it then follows it and keeps rotating around the circle and that it makes it look like the object is wandering randomly, smaller movements in the circle the smoother and realistic the movement looks. Obstacle avoidance makes a box in front of the agent and checks if it hits anything if it does it will adjust the box and position so that it will be less and less until there is no collisions. Wall avoidance works a bit like obstacle avoidance but instead of making a box it makes two lines horizontally to you and checks how far the walls are from you. Hide finds a obstacle and hides between you and something else. Flocking is one of the coolest forms of AI in my opinion it is when a group of agents move in the same way like a flock of birds or a bunch of little fish together. What flocking does is that it generates a force based on proximity to other agents which is called separation or don't crowd. Keeps them heading aligned with neighbours, alignment or stay in step. Opposes of separation, cohesion or stay together. Having them not crowd but stay together makes them not wonder in random directions. A way flocking is used is that when you want to generate a crowd in a game you set up flocking points and place a whole lot of people in a lets say city and since they cant move through the city they just looks like there walking around the world minding there own business. So in a game like assassins creed or a simulation where you have a huge market place you set about four or five flocking groups and about 30-35 agents in them and have them flock to points in the map and as long as the map doesn't get to crowded it would look like people are just wandering like in real life, and that's why this form of AI is my favourite. When you make a really good AI that you don't question the purpose of it you have succeeded in giving the illusion of intelligence that's what game AI does it gives the illusion of intelligence. One important thing I forgot to mention is that the correct amount of force that you add cant be measured, that means that you will have to run things in trial and error to get a good understanding of the force you need to have for each of the different types of AI.

In my 3DS max class I learned how to create a terrain in two different ways. one is simple you just grab vertex points and move them around or you can use a type of paint tool to select one point and the points around the center. I liked this but when you want to create a world that just flows nicely I wouldn't use this method this is more if you want to edit a terrain you already have. The other way that I learned and I personally like is creating a displacement map. The way that worlds is that you have a black and white picture and black is the floor level and white is the peek everything between is the levels to create it smooth. So you can go to Photoshop or even MSpaint

Mid Term Progress: Something I'm am going to start adding in my blog is having a picture of what I wanted to go so that you don't just have to read text after text of what I'm trying to do and actually get a visual of what going on my mind. The progress I made in my midterm wasn't very much I tried to have a single bone structure like I have in the picture. When I went to rig or animate the character the points didn't act the way I wanted them to. If I would try to move Uno's foot it would reach a point and then the mesh would invert and break. So I'm back to the drawing board on finding a way to make his bones so that I can animate him correctly. I was talking to my Professor and he was talking about new way to create bones he said that it uses boxes and all you need to do is make use you have a box wrapped around the arm or leg of your character and it would automatically envelop it and UDK accepts them as normal bones. He says once the school upgrades the 3Ds max to the newer version he is going to stop teaching bones and just use the box method because it is the future and everyone is going to start using it in the industry so it would be useless for use to make things with bones its still good practice but the box method makes things so much simpler and faster. When your creating a game or movie you want fast and simple because half the time you are going to be in a strict schedule.