development screenies
 

Hello :)

Just thought it would be a good idea to put some screenies in a separate thread to show a bit of the progress of RACC...

here goes! first one
http://racc.bots-united.com/screen000.png
this is for me the first proof that the cognitive system of the RACC is working well. These bots really decide WHAT they want to do and think about HOW they will do it! this may sound very little for you but it means a lot for a bot. Here you can see the first RACC bot which decided to plant a bomb by itself, and not because I've told it to :)
... okay, this one needed a lot of work, so just for testing now, the bot's duties and desires will be hardcoded. But the infrastructure is such that it will be very easy for it to be plugged into a database, turning this bot in an expert system ! 8)

Re: development screenies
 

http://racc.bots-united.com/screen001.png
another one for the road, here it's the FIRST racc bot EVER to go through that tiny hole. I was having a LOT of problems with the ability of the bots to follow paths accurately all the way, because contrarily to bots like POD-bot and other ones, these bots are not following their paths as if they were on a track (meaning, they don't face perfectly their next waypoint until they reach it exactly, jumping right on time with the right speed, moving on the same path always and then skipping to the following waypoint etc.) Here the bots press the forward, strafe, jump and duck keys just like humans, continuously deciding which key to press by evaluating their environment... that's what makes it so difficult to evaluate when they have "reached" a navigation node and when they should skip to the next one. Anyway, I've been rewriting the BotWalkPath() function today and seeing that I believe I'm on the right track :D

Re: development screenies
 

wow thats looking amazing PMB :D and the bot still navigates completely autonomously with no help whatsoever?

and there i was thinking that such tricky movement was *almost* impossible without any kind of hint lol :P

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nice indeed, i hope for faster servers to handle some of those bots :-)

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PMB this is impressive. How's the performance, is lag an issue due to the amount of processing?

Re: development screenies
 

So, Pierre-Marie, what capabilities will you bot have in this upcoming preview... we know you have a very brilliantly customized navigational system, but what does the combat and objective systems look like? (It sounds as if you're reffering to them as having "emotions" since they "want" to plant the bomb, etc.???)

Re: development screenies
 

very nice the whole project
its great that you make this amazing things in your freetime (i saw people making things worse and they get paid for it i dont want to say names [ \ / 4 L \ / 3]

i want to give some feedback
i hope you continue the work and i look forward to the result

if you wait 5-7 years (then i will have finished school and finisching study coding) than i will help you with the coding work ok?

Re: development screenies
 

lol OK :D

I sincerely hope the bot will be finished before that date though :D

@Fooska
Following discussions I had with STIcazzi-Slayer on Nukebox a long time ago, I will try to make the bots follow two basic instincts, the desire and the duty, both of them maybe conflicting each other. I am currently working on the duty part, and especially the "goal" selection. Since I don't want to implement a task queue in my bot (because I believe all the actions of an individual must be the expression of the thought of each instant), I have a system in which the bot knows about what it is doing in several levels of cognition. The first level is the task, that is, what the bot is doing right now (e.g, walking a path, defusing a bomb, thinking about a route, etc.) At a deeper level is the goal, which encompasses the task, and make the bot able to remember the greater plan behind the single task it's doing right now. The last level is the mission objective, which does not belong to the bot but to the whole team (as in a "collective consciousness", although this term is greatly exxagerated ;)). Don't be afraid however, this is not much coding at all, rather a long-time thought-of design.

@botmeister: curiously the lag issue is not as important as in the 1st template. There are still a lot of things to optimize in the code, but it runs quite OK so far. I believe that in the tempate #1 I must have made something terribly wrong regarding this issue.

I'm also fighting hard to make a REALLY efficient BotWalkPath() function, since it will be the BASE to test all the rest. I'm unable to test the desire/duty behaviour of the bot if it fails in getting from point A to point B. So far I'm getting closer to the podbot level regarding this issue, hmm... I'd say I'm currently at the realbot WIP level ;)

Re: development screenies
 

Your bots have really evolved, Pierre-Marie. I found a link to your site(racc-ai.com) almost a year ago, and since then, I've checked back every once and awhile to see how everything was coming. Props on all of your hardwork, it's really paying off.

Re: development screenies
 

Another development screenie, this one rather talks for itself...

http://racc.bots-united.com/screen002.png

As you can see I'm still in the WalkPath / cognition system stuff; the WalkPath function gets better but really slowly, because it's a really complicated one and honestly since I don't have much time to spend on it each day I prefer coding miscellaneous funny stuff, such as the AI console you see :)

This one enables me to display each part of the bot AI in real-time for the bot I am spectating. The left column is the sensing part (eyes, ears, body), the right one is the moving part (legs, hand, chat), the middle ones are the other ones I didn't know where to put :D

You can see how the cognition stuff will work BTW: the goal(s) and the task. Each bot can have one or several goal, and in order to get closer to one of them it picks up a task. Here the bot thinks "I must plant that damn bomb" and knows "I'm walking towards the freaky bomb spot (what for? to plant that damn bomb)".

Phew, it's exhausting.

Re: development screenies
 

Great job , PM's !

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It seems nice, as usual...

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exciting...

the ai console...
will this be what dead specs see while spectating the bots?
that would be really cool to see what the bot is thinking as he's playing!
looks like you could have a wicked bot there!!!
just an idea, if you implement the ai console view:
customizability! as in personal skins or effects (like some heat vision while spectating bot in first person; ie: all reds)
Maybe Im intoxicated...:P

Re: development screenies
 

o_O You know what? If you continue like this, one day a black van will stop next to you, some big guys wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses will jump out, drag you into the van and disappear. And then you'll spend the rest of your life coding for NASA or CIA... ;) *
But seriously: I hope this project will take some more time so that I have some months to enjoy your latest PODBot version - after this RACC business is finished, PODBot may look like a stone-age bot!

------
* ...or even worse, Valve! :P Well, at least that would boost the Steamers to levels they never even dared to dream of...

Re: development screenies
 

well, it actually does ...

Re: development screenies
 

seem to work PERFECT until they die for the first time,
First round, I killed one then got naded by your bot! WOW!!! But, once they die they come back the next round not knowing what to do... They just stand there looking around all jittery like they all drank too much coffee!!! Is there an easy code fix to keep them going?
-make them dissconnect when they die (when new bots connect, they are fine too until they die)
-reset bot after death?
-or, I could just wait...;)

Re: development screenies
 

*drool* Looking VERY nice, Pierre! Can't wait for your completed project. It looks to be the most complex bot project EVER. Maybe it'll be just as good as the official CS bot?

Re: development screenies
 

dead_bwoy, my bot is not released yet :D

what you are playing with is probably the old RACC preview... which I'm not supporting anymore. There has been a LOT of changes since then.

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yes this ai system looks very cool if we are all get killed by cyborgs in the future (like in terminator) we know who is guilty for that PMB!

Re: development screenies
 

actually the bot is not that complex at all, most bots already feature task systems, the only thing is that it looks impressive when displayed live on the screen... have you seen the development screenshots of JoeBot XP ?

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Here are other screenshots of the AI console in action
http://racc.bots-united.com/screen003.png
http://racc.bots-united.com/screen004.png
the problem with it is that it's readable only on a dark background...

anyway it's improving. Slowly.

Re: development screenies
 

red may not be the best color for the ai console but i think it looks the best. i imagine yellow is not good, have you tried green?
looks like youve been hard at work, keep it up!!!
I just can't wait...:( ;)

Re: development screenies
 

Or try cycling through different colours...

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or include a public cvar for the client to change the ai console color
ex:
racc_aicolor <1-10>

Re: development screenies
 

the colors are a problem, that's for sure. we'd need text like the one with the say messages, light chars with a black border, that'd be fine :D

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I think the HUD font is much more "AI" tho, from a design standpoint. text you're talking about would be bland...
but thats just MY opinion!

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I'm not displaying the texts to make it look cool, but to debug the bot.

if I wanna see nice pictures to look at, I usually go to the museum.

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I think it would be a very innovative feature of this bot, to display this AI console while spectators are watching a bot. For the final version, maybe you should think about making it look cool. :|

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(c) (R) (tm)



*edit*
for the pictures, I usually don't go that far... I fire up my browser and head up to some russian p0rn site, pictures are worth the look there too. :D

Re: development screenies
 

Heyyo,

PM, dude, seriously, I'm amazed no big game designer has approached you to do the ai for their game, cause I think I'd be a golden bot for any game that your coding would grace. :)

For a future project, you should try to implement team strategies, like "Rush bombsite A" or "Rush left" or something like that for bomb site rushing, or hostage rushing, etc. And bots should decide if they wanna follow orders, or go all "lone wolf" like some people do. And then, the bots rushing properly should be all like, "HEY! get over here n00b!!!" lol....

Re: development screenies
 

Perhaps no game company approaches me simply because my bot isn't released yet, hmm ? :)

Don't hype something you haven't seen yet in action... I talk, I talk, but you'll see for yourself.

About the tactics, as I said earlier these bots won't rush and chase their opponents. They will on the contrary behave exclusively regarding to the mission's goal. For example if there are 2 bomb sites, the CT bots make 2 squads and each squad goes and secure one. NO bot will go and hunt the enemy on its own, instead they all camp around the bomb sites, pointing their guns in every possible incoming direction. Sorry if a lot of players don't like camping opponents, but the goal for the bot is to make its team win the round, not to hunt for frags. Bots don't give a shit about their stats.

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:D:D:D

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that what i expect them (and my team mates) to do, get the level done :-)
i acctually learned a lot from bots, esp. realbot (uh *g*) about how to win a level. i dropped to rank 3 on my server, but my win / loss ratio and my damage caused increased constantly. i now play mostly with the weak team.

sometimes i simply attac like a bot would do, no mery, no fear just run and shoot. thats the point i get called a cheater, the best award i can imagine, since the enemy is resigning.

i'm eager to fight RACC 8)

OT: who made the smilies shuffel around, i have to search the right one each time i click a smiley with the mouse ;)

Re: development screenies
 

this behavior that the ct secure the bombspots is really good. Its better than the deathmatch-behavior like podbot you will need to use taktics and flashbangs and these things it would be much better than anything else i think it sounds n1 pmb

Re: development screenies
 

That would make the bot a good opponent for clanwar training - very exciting!

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Heyyo,

Yeah, I think it's a pretty nice idea, cause it does encourage more teamplay like CS was meant to be. :)

But, there should also be important defense areas bots can cover. A good example is on DE_Dust, in the upper tunnels, if the CT's get in there, from the 3 sides closest to the CT spawn point, and the bomb site, they can own almost all the T's that come in, so they don't even get close to the bombsites. But I'm just thinkin' out loud, cause your idea should get the job done nicely. :D

Re: development screenies
 

maybe add a 10% chance of a bot becoming 'rambo', otherwise it will be easy to kill bots with things like nades, cause you will know they will be camping :/

The occasional lone bot can throw an entire team off, especially if it aproaches from behind with a knife :p

A reletivly important part of CS practicing is learning to 'Watch Your back', if all the bots camp, you wont need to do this anymore :p

btw, GREAT BOT! it rocks :)

Just my 2c

Re: development screenies
 

looks really impressive
san you say on what ssytem you are testing bots and the performance?

also one ting that ame upt o my mind
when the bot was jumping etc on de dust 2 to get to the high hole - maybe it could save some data for future use as normal human does, so he could jump later without wasting too much cpu for finding the best way....

i guess then some things could be more like waypoint paths that you try to avoid, but as we all know even the live plyers use some "learned" ways of moving

most bos works well on flat maps where is no jumping etc, the problems begins when hey gotta find a path with ladder, stairs etc...

last thing -about 2 years i go i saw your projects of racc and was thinking -impossible! to much cpu consuming.. till this screenshots :D
(the best visible font is bright green,yellow, white, blue)

Re: development screenies
 

PM, looks impressive indeed! I can't wait to see that in action. I can imagine making bots really tactical (not hunting for frags) is not that easy as it looks like (ie, keep the game fun as well, and not boring, bots should not always camp at bombspots and such). I also wonder how you will tackle the problems like "when i rush i die, i need to go slow and stealthy'. Even more cool would be if you eventually end up with:

"Team A always seems to rush ( i am on Team B), when we rush, we mostly die. Team A expects us to do stealth, so we not stealth, we rush , shorter, and camp and hunt the bastards" hehe ;)

i always the best result achieved when mixing togethere bots , but the best if they use and obey sometimes radio messages - then they are really nice working