P-0

I have finished the final major coding challenge of this project. I have created a relatively complex system to randomly place interior objects in each of the rooms of the level.

The hardest part of this was placing the objects in a random way without having them intersect with the walls or each other. The conventional collision mechanics don’t work when placing the objects like this, so I had to try a few different approaches (various complex calculations to check the extents of the shapes, various raycasting techniques, etc).

As it turned out, the solution was quite simple, I just needed to do a containerradiussearch() from the objects position to the maximum extent of that object, given by getworldbox(). This will work very well as long as the object is mostly square. I had to write a little hack to ignore the z-axis of the search, since objects on multiple floors may be directly above each other without colliding.

I have a little more work to do here with regards to improving the realism. I want to add a system to assign each room a “room type”, and make sure that only objects from that room type are created in that room. This will make sure objects “make sense” in their location and surroundings.

I have finished the door implementation in T3D. I ended up having to use two objects for each door, the animated door object itself (with no collision) and another Tstatic with collision that I would move using script as the door opens and closes.

This is obviously not an ideal solution, but it works quite well, and using the correct naming conventions, I can dynamically create doors and open and close them without having to make any changes in the editor at all.

I have also learned the T3D doesn’t support player collisions against items by default, only raycasts. I spent more time than I would have liked trying to figure out why my collision meshes weren’t working before I realised this! To enable player collision against items, simply add ” ItemObjectType” to the “sCollisionMoveMask” variable at line 109 of player.cpp.

Items can now block the players path, requiring them to “Push” them using applyimpulse(), which will produce a sound, giving away the players position.

I have implemented the basics of the interior object creator for this project. It is very simple at the moment, but it should not be too difficult to expand it.

Creating a system to randomly populate the interior of a structure with objects has been an interesting challenge. I am not quite sure if my solution will work, but I think it should. Instead of randomly placing object within a given radius (which would look chaotic and haphazard) I can place objects by room. So for example, each room would have a designation “room type”, Kitchen, Corridor, Bedroom, etc etc, and only object of that room type would be randomly placed in that room. This has the benefits of random placement, without the disadvantage of being truly random and breaking the immersion in the gameworld.

The problem with this approach is that furniture and objects are not placed at random in rooms, they are generally placed in sensible locations, against walls, or stacked neatly, etc. I am hoping that since my game takes place in an abandoned building, that this lack of organisation will not be a problem. If it is, I will have to rethink this. I may need to have designated points in each room where objects can be placed, and I will choose a random point and pair it with a random object. That way the placement won’t be truly random, but it will differ from room to room.

The other issue is making sure objects don’t intersect or collide with the walls. I will have to implement my own collision detection algorithm here, since creating objects with SetTransform() ignores collision. I can simple use mathematics to get the centerpoint of the bounds box of each object, and extend a vector from the center to each of the 4 corners of the object. I can then extend a ray down from these 4 points to the ground, and if it does not hit an object other than the floor, the object can be placed. This should work find for smaller objects, and by extending a ray from the centerpoint as well, it should work for larger ones too.

I am using items for the interior objects, not static shapes. This is because I want the player to be able to move these objects out of their way. This will firstly prevent them from getting stuck if the item randomly appears near a door or corridor, and secondly, it will make noise, which will attract the hunter. Items in T3D support physics functions, so they can be easily pushed or pulled using applyimpulse().

I have been working on putting doors into this project, and I have come across the same issue that I have seen previously, which is that T3D still doesn’t have a built-in resource for doors. What makes this a problem is that it is not possible to simply export a shape with an animated collision hull, since in T3D, collision geometry doesn’t seem to update in all cases.

What I usually do is to create my own solution, usually by exporting a door object with no collision object, and then exporting another shape with only a collision hull (an invisible shape). I then place the invisible shape over the door object in the world, and move it from script when the door is opened and closed. This seems to work, but it is quite a messy solution.

I did find one door resource HERE, which I got compiling, but I couldn’t get it to work properly, it also seemed to have issues with collision. There is a discussion on the T3D forums HERE on this issue.

I will probably have to resort to my invisible collision object solution for this project, but I will look into fixing this problem in a more elegant way in future.

I have done a lot of work recently on the debugging for this project, and I have implemented some new gameplay features, such as a flashlight. The player will only have a limited amount of power for the flashlight, and it can’t be recharged.

I have also done a lot of work on the AI for the game. With the help of T3D’s Navmesh’s, this turned out to be very simple. The AI will now plot a path to the player and chase them.

I have also implemented most of the game logic. I am keeping the gameplay very simple. The player will need to navigate around the randomly generated “maze” looking for a key to open the exit door, which they will also need to find. Every action, from walking and running, to opening doors, will produce sound. The “Hunter”, which is the main enemy, will have poor vision, but will roam the maze listening for any sounds the player makes, forcing the player to walk carefully, and avoid walking or running on stone floors. It will also be possible for the player to knock over items accidentally, thus making a sound, and attracting the hunter. There will also be “seekers”. These are AI entities who will not harm the player, but who will have excellent vision, and will notice the players flashlight in particular. Upon noticing the player, they will “shriek”, alerting the hunter to the players position.

The player will not have any weapons or any ability to defend themselves at all, forcing them to sneak, and if necessary, run and hide from the AI.