Ambient behaviour - Revision history

Sunjammer: /* ambient_anim_patterns 2da */ Restoring final sentence

2013-12-09T23:16:40Z

‎ambient_anim_patterns 2da: Restoring final sentence

Sunjammer: /* ambient_anim_patterns 2da */ Moving list to disucssion page for evaluation

2013-12-09T23:13:41Z

‎ambient_anim_patterns 2da: Moving list to disucssion page for evaluation

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Ladyofpayne: /* ambient_anim_patterns 2da */

2013-12-08T16:29:13Z

‎ambient_anim_patterns 2da

Ladyofpayne: /* ambient_anim_patterns 2da */

2013-12-08T16:28:53Z

‎ambient_anim_patterns 2da

Ladyofpayne: /* ambient_anim_patterns 2da */

2013-12-08T16:28:20Z

‎ambient_anim_patterns 2da

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Ladyofpayne: /* ambient_anim_patterns 2da */

2013-12-08T16:24:12Z

‎ambient_anim_patterns 2da

Sunjammer: Fixing links, fixing category

2012-03-22T13:48:19Z

Fixing links, fixing category

Sunjammer: /* Local Variables (var_creature) */

2011-08-03T22:20:15Z

‎Local Variables (var_creature)

Proleric1: /* Movement */

2011-05-18T12:34:59Z

‎Movement

Proleric1: /* Animations */

2011-05-18T09:55:49Z

‎Animations

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 == ambient_anim_patterns 2da ==
-The actions used in an animation phase are listed in the [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]]. Each row defines an animation pattern, consisting of up to thirteen actions. Each action is composed of an animation (left of the decimal) and the number of loops it is played (right of decimal). For example, 619.02 will play a sleeping loop animation twice and 619.99 will play an infinitely looping sleeping animation. Non-looping animations require no loop-count (i.e. decimal) component.
+The actions used in an animation phase are listed in the [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]]. Each row defines an animation pattern, consisting of up to thirteen actions. Each action is composed of an animation (left of the decimal) and the number of loops it is played (right of decimal). For example, 619.02 will play a sleeping loop animation twice and 619.99 will play an infinitely looping sleeping animation. Non-looping animations require no loop-count (i.e. decimal) component. The list of all available animations is located in [[ANIM_ 2da]].
 == sys_ambient_h ==

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 The actions used in an animation phase are listed in the [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]]. Each row defines an animation pattern, consisting of up to thirteen actions. Each action is composed of an animation (left of the decimal) and the number of loops it is played (right of decimal). For example, 619.02 will play a sleeping loop animation twice and 619.99 will play an infinitely looping sleeping animation. Non-looping animations require no loop-count (i.e. decimal) component. The list of all available animations is located in [[ANIM_ 2da]].
 ID Label
 * 0	nothing
 * 1	ambient_twitches

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 The actions used in an animation phase are listed in the [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]]. Each row defines an animation pattern, consisting of up to thirteen actions. Each action is composed of an animation (left of the decimal) and the number of loops it is played (right of decimal). For example, 619.02 will play a sleeping loop animation twice and 619.99 will play an infinitely looping sleeping animation. Non-looping animations require no loop-count (i.e. decimal) component. The list of all available animations is located in [[ANIM_ 2da]].
-{{Variable table start}}
+ID Label
-{{Variable table row|ID| Label|
 * 0	nothing
 * 1	ambient_twitches

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 == ambient_anim_patterns 2da ==
 The actions used in an animation phase are listed in the [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]]. Each row defines an animation pattern, consisting of up to thirteen actions. Each action is composed of an animation (left of the decimal) and the number of loops it is played (right of decimal). For example, 619.02 will play a sleeping loop animation twice and 619.99 will play an infinitely looping sleeping animation. Non-looping animations require no loop-count (i.e. decimal) component. The list of all available animations is located in [[ANIM_ 2da]].
 == sys_ambient_h ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{infobox creature}}
 Ambient behaviour begins when the player moves within 50m of a creature and ceases when the player remains more than 50m away for at least 40s. Ambient behaviour alternates between a movement phase and an animation phase, simulating a bubble of activity around the player. In a movement phase, the creature (optionally) moves to a new destination (typically a [[waypoint]] but it could be any object) and turns to face the same direction as the destination object. In an animation phase, the creature (optionally) performs one or more animations either in sequence or at random. Exact behaviour is controlled by local variables set on either the creature instance or template (see table below). All other local variables with the prefix AMBIENT_* are used internally by the ambient behaviour system (see script [[sys_ambient_h]].nss) and should not be manually modified. Never directly modify AMBIENT_* local variables at run time using [[SetLocalInt]] - always use the functions [[Ambient_Start]], [[Ambient_Stop]], [[Ambient_OverrideBehaviour]], and [[Ambient_RestoreBehaviour]] instead. Ambient behaviour is persisted when a game is saved and automatically resumes when a game is loaded.
@@ Line 24: / Line 23: @@
 *  9 (AMBIENT_MOVE_ONCE): Walk through the waypoint set once (1-2-3)}}
 {{Variable table row|AMBIENT_MOVE_PREFIX| string | ap_<tag>| The prefix is used to determine the waypoints the creature can travel to. Note that ''<tag>'' is a placeholder filled in at run-time with the tag of the creature. Hence, for example, if AMBIENT_MOVE_PREFIX is ''ap_<tag>'' and the creature's tag is ''cr_dog'' then the system will look for waypoints with tags ''ap_cr_dog_01'', ''ap_cr_dog_02'', ''etc''. If no waypoint is found with the ''_01'' extension, the system will search instead for all waypoints with tags matching the AMBIENT_MOVE_PREFIX value exactly (i.e. ''ap_cr_dog''). This is useful in cases where you just want to add N waypoints all with the same tag.}}
-{{Variable table row| AMBIENT_ANIM_PATTERN| int | 0 | Index into [[ambient_ai.xls]]. Specifies the list of possible actions the creature can/will perform during an animation phase.
+{{Variable table row| AMBIENT_ANIM_PATTERN| int | 0 | A row ID in [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]]. Specifies the list of possible actions the creature can/will perform during an animation phase.
 *  0: No ambient animation pattern (ergo, no ambient animations).}}
 {{Variable table row| AMBIENT_ANIM_FREQ| float | -1.0  | Animation frequency. The part left of the decimal specifies the minimum and the part right of the decimal specifies the maximum number of random animations to play during an animation phase. So, for example, a value of 1.3 will play between 1 and 3 random animations from the animation pattern listed in ambient_ai.xls. A value of -1.0 plays all animations in the animation pattern in the order they are listed in ambient_ai.xls. Animation pattens that are highlighted in green on the worksheeet should always be played in order (i.e. AMBIENT_ANIM_FREQ is -1.0).}}
@@ Line 39: / Line 38: @@
 {{Variable table row|AMBIENT_ANIM_OVERRIDE_COUNT|int|0|}}
 {{Variable table end}}
-== ambient_ai.xls ==
+The actions used in an animation phase are listed in the [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]]. Each row defines an animation pattern, consisting of up to thirteen actions. Each action is composed of an animation (left of the decimal) and the number of loops it is played (right of decimal). For example, 619.02 will play a sleeping loop animation twice and 619.99 will play an infinitely looping sleeping animation. Non-looping animations require no loop-count (i.e. decimal) component. The list of all available animations is located in [[ANIM_ 2da]].
-The actions used in an animation phase are listed in the ambient_anim_patterns worksheet of [[ambient_ai.xls]]. Each row defines an animation pattern, consisting of up to thirteen actions. Each action is composed of an animation (left of the decimal) and the number of loops it is played (right of decimal). For example, 619.02 will play a sleeping loop animation twice and 619.99 will play an infinitely looping sleeping animation. Non-looping animations require no loop-count (i.e. decimal) component. The list of all available animations is located in [[ANIM_base.xls]].
 == sys_ambient_h ==
@@ Line 47: / Line 46: @@
 The script [[sys_ambient_h]] contains the implementation of the ambient behaviour system. The AMBIENT_* local variables should never be directly modified at run-time. Instead, use the following functions to customize a creature's ambient behaviour through script.
 <dascript>
 // Normally this function is called automatically to begin or resume  ambient behaviour when a
 // creature perceives the player. However, it can be called explicitly to force a creature to begin
@@ Line 73: / Line 72: @@
 {{Variable table start}}
-{{Variable table row|AMBIENT_ANIM_PATTERN_OVERRIDE | int | 0 | Index into [[ambient_ai.xls]]. Specifies the list of possible actions the creature can/will perform during an animation phase.
+{{Variable table row|AMBIENT_ANIM_PATTERN_OVERRIDE | int | 0 | A row ID in [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]].  Specifies the list of possible actions the creature can/will perform during an animation phase.
 * 0: no animations.}}
-{{Variable table row| AMBIENT_ANIM_FREQ_OVERRIDE | float | -1.0 | Animation frequency. The portion left of decimal specifies the minimum and the portion right of the decimal specifies the maximum number of animations to play during an animation phase. A value of -1.0 plays all animations in the animation pattern in the order listed in [[ambient_ai.xls]].}}
+{{Variable table row| AMBIENT_ANIM_FREQ_OVERRIDE | float | -1.0 | Animation frequency. The portion left of decimal specifies the minimum and the portion right of the decimal specifies the maximum number of animations to play during an animation phase. A value of -1.0 plays all animations in the animation pattern in the order listed in [[ambient_anim_patterns 2da]].}}
 {{Variable table row| AMBIENT_ANIM_OVERRIDE_COUNT | int | | Used internally, do not modify}}
 {{Variable table end}}
 == Customising Ambient Behaviour ==
@@ Line 151: / Line 149: @@
 Changing the movement path for a creature is [[Bug:_Ambient_movement_erratic_when_a_new_path_is_specified | bugged]].
-[[Category:Ambient behavior]]
+[[Category:Ambient behaviours]]

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 {{Variable table row|AMBIENT_SYSTEM_STATE| int| 0| Bitmask controlling ambient system operation. (ergo, values below are in hexadecimal).
 * 0x01 (AMBIENT_SYSTEM_ENABLED): Ambient behaviour enabled. For non-looping animations this is the only bit that need be set.
-* 0x02 (AMBIENT_SYSTEM_SPAWNSTART: Begin ambient behaviour immediately after spawning. Generally, only infinitely looping animations require this.
+* 0x02 (AMBIENT_SYSTEM_SPAWNSTART): Begin ambient behaviour immediately after spawning. Generally, only infinitely looping animations require this.
 * 0x04 (AMBIENT_SYSTEM_NOPLAYNEXT): Sets '''bPlayNext''' parameter to [[CommandPlayAnimation]] to false. Only infinitely looping animations require this.
 * 0x08 (AMBIENT_SYSTEM_NOBLEND): Sets '''bBlendIn''' parameter to [[CommandPlayAnimation]] to false. Set this to force a creature to resume an infinitely looping animation after a conversation.

@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 Intercepting the Ambient AI is tricky. By default, EVENT_TYPE_COMMAND_COMPLETE is handled directly by the rules_core script, which kicks off the next Ambient AI action before we can stop it. Presumably, this is for performance reasons.
-Set the AI_CUSTOM_AI_ACTIVE variable on the creature template to 1 (i.e. TRUE) to generate a new event (EVENT_TYPE_CUSTOM_COMMAND_COMPLETE) which can be handled in the creature script.
+Set the AI_CUSTOM_AI_ACTIVE variable (see [[Custom AI]]) on the creature template to generate a new event (EVENT_TYPE_CUSTOM_COMMAND_COMPLETE) which can be handled in the creature script. If the creature is a non-combatant, CAI_INACTIVE (1) works fine.
-−
 Using AMBIENT_MOVE_ONCE, when the final waypoint is reached, Ambient AI will reset the move pattern to AMBIENT_MOVE_NONE before this new event fires.
@@ Line 145: / Line 145: @@
 </dascript>
 Note that when using any movement pattern other than AMBIENT_MOVE_ONCE, Ambient AI will issue the next movement command before EVENT_TYPE_CUSTOM_COMMAND_COMPLETE fires.
 == Bugs ==

@@ Line 85: / Line 85: @@
 New ambient_anim_patterns can be added as an M2DA.
-Provisionally, it seems that some animations are cutscene-only. They don't work when scripted. This requires further investigation and documentation.
+Provisionally, it seems that some animations are cutscene-only. They don't work when scripted. This requires further investigation and documentation, as there is a [[Bug:_Some_animations_in_ANIM_base_won%27t_fire | bug]] which may account for some or all of this.
 === Movement ===