more subtle effects

[marksmanHL2 :)]

i dunno bout that. could be them reacting to the beam but i think its much more likely that theu=y were either reacting becuase its scripted or more likely that they reacted to the gun shots. dunno just my opinion. Btw the strider animation where he impales the guy is not part of any overall scripted sequence in my opinion. I believe that the3 AI is programed so that it takes advantage to its situation
This means taht it simply saw that guy standing there and decided i will impale him cos it looks cool. what makes me laugh is that some people are sugesting that it aint scripted in any way. They seem to think that the strider would decide that its gona impale him on its own (unlikely enough) but then also decide to look donw at its foot and shake it off. sorry guys but that aint possible yet.


just thought i would make this clear while i am here.

 

[Axyon]

Originally posted by marksmanHL2

This means taht it simply saw that guy standing there and decided i will impale him cos it looks cool. what makes me laugh is that some people are sugesting that it aint scripted in any way. They seem to think that the strider would decide that its gona impale him on its own (unlikely enough) but then also decide to look donw at its foot and shake it off. sorry guys but that aint possible yet.


just thought i would make this clear while i am here.

I don't see how that's impossible.. the combined soldiers "decided" to kick the blocked door in earlier on, so why can't the same apply here?

 

[EVIL]

shure it is possible dood.. valva had mspend 5 years devoting itself to the ai, characters etc. and they have made a system thet tells the ai if there are "importand" things in the room. so when a beam comes towards them the beam tells the ai "hey look out.. I am swinging towards you. and it can hurt when I hit you" so the ai reacts to that and treyes to outrun the swinging beams (they fail as seen in the movie.) and the surrounding also tells the strider in the picture that he cant get under the bridge in the position he is in. so he treyes to blow up the bridge. but it fails.. therefore he treyes to crawl underneath it and he succeeds. and succeeds. the ai solves problems as you see.

and the surroundings also tell the ai.. that there is a "enemy" right at his feet and it needs to be killed. so he impales it. instead of waisting ammo. he is aware that there is now a dead corpse hanging on his leg.. and ofcourse it walks alot easier if you shake it of.. (i dont see you walking all day long with a dead body on your legg ).

if you have walked diffrently.. or have stood in the way of that guy who was there. or maby you would have leaded the strider to follow you.. then the dude never got impaled because the strider dident notised him. only you.

the ai is pretty complex.

 

[worldspawn]

"importand" :dozey:

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

sos u guys i was knackered when i wrote taht last post of mine, it dont read how i wanted it to. lol. Let me explain(i hope)

The strider does not figure out that its long spike for a foot could be used as a weopon. its programed to use that specific attack as long as there is room to do so and a viable subject just standing in front of it. proof of this is kinda given imo when the strider shakes the guy off. Becuase it pauses before doing so and then caries on for effect.
Its the same with the combine kicking down the door, it trys to open the door normaly then is told by the AI that the next cool thing it could do is attempt to kick it open.
Looks cool yes but it aint all that amazing as some people think and simily not as bad as some people think . for example it is inverse kinetics at work for the animation. I can see this becuase of when one of them allmost stumbles lol.


Oh and my other bit that said they might have reacted to the gun shots is wrong, i looked again and it aint true, However i believe that the AI probably reacts to the beam becuase its scripted. I am pretty sure about this cos when it is swinging down one of the combine says "Get down" which in my opinion couldent be done any other way atm other tahn scripting. simply cos they would have to teach the AI to speak engish lol


Hope this helped people
:cheers:

 

[Dux]

Originally posted by marksmanHL2
simply cos they would have to teach the AI to speak engish lol

*adds to wish list*

 

[LoneDeranger]

I think the part where the Strider destroys the bridge is not scripted at all. First it uses the energy weapon to blow up the top part, and then it tries to use the laser - which proves useless and it has to go under it.

 

[Dr.Sbaitso]

Yeah when he blows up the big dumpstr thing it is wierd cause it is falling and one combine runs underneath it to get smashed. And has anybody else noticed the wierd thing with the grenades where he pulls the pin on it before switching to a new weapon. In the beam demo i think he even throws one and switches to a different weapon but you dont hear it explode. Oh yeah and when Gordon shoots the barrel that blows the car up and hits the Zombie, can anyone see how many peices the thing gets cut up into? I think i see a leg bone and then some other stuff...

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

i undertand what your saying marksmanhl2. Basically the A.I has all this stuff programmed into it and chooses the best to do at any specific time. This means its doesnt generate these sequences real-time. For example it decided to impale the guy, but it wouldnt do that if Valve hadnt told it that its leg a was a weapon with a cool factor 10 therefore can be used in that circumstance. Ive valve hadnt put that in, it would have just shot him.

Am i understanding you?

 

[infin|ty]

I think some of you are confusing AI with thinking. Basically, the NPCs have a list of things they can do. Based on what is going on around them, they pick the one that makes the most sense from the list. You're right, the Strider doesn't get to choose how he impales the guy, or whether or not he kicks him off his leg or leaves him there. However, he had to decide to use that attack. It's obviously a built in animation for the actual attack itself. On that same token, it isn't scripted, in the general sense, where the Strider impales that guy because the game tells that soldier to run there, then it tells the Strider to impale him. It's all real time.

As far as the guards that try to get into the room, same idea. The guard is programmed to try doors first. If the door is blocked, it looks for a window. If shooting through the window doesn't work, it goes back to the door, and tries harder.

Now there are several areas where AI has room to improve. In HL2, the guards aren't going to throw in gas cans to get you to come out. They aren't going to crawl through the window (I don't think). They also won't scale the building using ropes to get up to a second story window. They won't set up explosive to blow in the door. Some of those things are within the realm of possibility but would take too long to create.

 

[Mr.Reak]

Originally posted by infin|ty
I think some of you are confusing AI with thinking. Basically, the NPCs have a list of things they can do. Based on what is going on around them, they pick the one that makes the most sense from the list. You're right, the Strider doesn't get to choose how he impales the guy, or whether or not he kicks him off his leg or leaves him there. However, he had to decide to use that attack. It's obviously a built in animation for the actual attack itself. On that same token, it isn't scripted, in the general sense, where the Strider impales that guy because the game tells that soldier to run there, then it tells the Strider to impale him. It's all real time.

As far as the guards that try to get into the room, same idea. The guard is programmed to try doors first. If the door is blocked, it looks for a window. If shooting through the window doesn't work, it goes back to the door, and tries harder.

Now there are several areas where AI has room to improve. In HL2, the guards aren't going to throw in gas cans to get you to come out. They aren't going to crawl through the window (I don't think). They also won't scale the building using ropes to get up to a second story window. They won't set up explosive to blow in the door. Some of those things are within the realm of possibility but would take too long to create.

Agree absolutely with all points. I think some people don’t really understand how games are made, so yeah, for each COOL move there must be made a separate animation.

Plus all these actions, AI trying different things, can be stop in real time, as we seen in video, where Gordon knocks over the monitor. So for example, if Strider trying to kill some guy off, you have choice to let him do that or to distract him anyway you want.

 

[infin|ty]

Originally posted by Mr.Reak
Agree absolutely with all points. I think some people don’t really understand how games are made, so yeah, for each move there must be made a separate animation.

Plus all these actions, AI trying different things, can be stop in real time, as we seen in video, where Gordon knocks over the monitor. So for example, if Strider trying to kill some guy off, you have choice to let him do that or to distract him anyway you want.

Good point. In HL1, if a scientist was being pulled through a hole in the wall, there was no way you could stop it. It was pre-scripted to happen when you came to the correct location in the area to view it. In HL2, since very little scripting is being used, if the Strider starts to walk after a friendly NPC, you can intervene and distract him.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by infin|ty
Good point. In HL1, if a scientist was being pulled through a hole in the wall, there was no way you could stop it. It was pre-scripted to happen when you came to the correct location in the area to view it. In HL2, since very little scripting is being used, if the Strider starts to walk after a friendly NPC, you can intervene and distract him.

Although in the movie the strider was pretty much intent on killing that NPC, whether you liked it or not. But thats probably the strider's own decision, not somehting that was scripted.

 

[ValVed RaY]

Originally posted by infin|ty
Good point. In HL1, if a scientist was being pulled through a hole in the wall, there was no way you could stop it. It was pre-scripted to happen when you came to the correct location in the area to view it. In HL2, since very little scripting is being used, if the Strider starts to walk after a friendly NPC, you can intervene and distract him.

you can kill the scientist being pulled making him suffer less

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

yeh i think those who ahve just replied get me. Sos bout my english, i have no excuse lol. its kinda difficult to understand that post.

yeh basicly i am saying that its not all scripted and its not all unscripted.

But i dissagree with the bridge thing, or at least i am unsure. yeh i am definatly unsure, its either the path being told to the strider and then the strider seeing a blockage and tryin to blast it ( clever ) or its the ai being told the path and what to do when it gets to that point ( not so clever ) cant decide which. hehe dont flame me lol.