Tag: a*

Pathfinding and more!

Pathfinding and more!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello golfers!

Today’s update for Boss Golf is about pathfinding. Well, part of it.

I’ve added a new tile type, Path, that allows you to build more scenic routes through your golf course, that the AI will use when deciding how to go from point A to point B. You can see the tile in the course below:

pathspathsautomobiles

Next step is to add this to the pathfinding system, so that the AI actually prefers to use it. Should be done with that this week.

Under the hood I’ve also done some other improvements:

  • Created a vertex bank so that editing it is quicker, there’s no more issues of double vertexes, and is it far easier to save/load.
  • Changed the height system to one using an integer to decide the HeightStep of the vertex, and set a height modifier that I can change easily for tweaking that decides how much in Y each HeightStep is worth
  • Removed the current component for the decoration objects, which was causing some overheard when there were thousands of decoration objects on the scene. Instead, added a simpler class that pretty much works as a struct to keep information, and modified the way that the randomization of size/rotation/position is done to use integers so that I can more easily save/load the details of the decoration
  • Began reformatting a couple of things so that I can actually save and load the stuff that is being built

As such, the goal for Alpha 0.3 is:

  • Save and Load capabilities
  • Pathfinding system for the AI
  • Golf gameplay for the AI

Meaning that Alpha 0.3 will be quite a vertical slice! You’ll be able to build your course, play it, and watch the AI go around trying to score something good. The game is coming along well!

I’m getting my winter break soon as well, so expect a major rush of progress this coming week!

That’s all for now, folks! Enjoy your holidays!

-Gus

Quirk #3: Shorter, but is it?!

Quirk #3: Shorter, but is it?!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

In the process of today’s update, I came upon an interesting quirk when using grids.

I have finished implementing the hole creation in the new terrain, works like a treat. Now I’m in the process of processing the tiles in between the hole and the tee, so it can make calculations regarding base shot, par, actually distance etc.

Using A* to find the shortest path between the hole and the tee, leads to some interesting visuals:

astarlol

Above, the path traced by A* is marked with black spheres. The drawn red line shows the actual shortest path (a straight line) between the two points. When in a grid, the path marked by A* does signify the shortest path between two certain points in the grid. It can be set to ignore diagonal traversals, or to allow them (as is the case of Boss Golf).

Visually, though, it looks so quirky. To us, it’s clear to see that the shortest path is the line between the start and the finish. To the game, though, the shortest path ends up creating these doglegs all over the course.

That’s all! Almost done with the processing of the base shot, coupled with a lot of refactoring and reinforcement. Once it’s done, it’s demo time!

Stay tuned!

Dev Update #2: Refreshing the Base shot

Dev Update #2: Refreshing the Base shot

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Tonight I’ve finished the first pass at implementing the function to refresh the base shot, for use when you are landscaping your beautiful course. Right now it needs to be triggered manually via a button, but once I refine it a bit it will happen automatically if you place a tile in the “path” of the course. Time for pictures!

Here we have a first pass at refreshing the base shot of the course. The origin point of the red/blue/yellow lines are the end/begin point of every stroke. These lines are the directions we cast a ray when trying to find eligible tiles for the shot. It looks only for green/hole/fairway tiles at the moment, as that’s where the player would be regularly aiming for:

firstPass

With 441m for a Par 5, this is slightly on the shorter end, so it could theoretically land on the green with 3 shots without a terrible amount of effort.

Next I tweaked the fairway a bit, and refreshed the course again:

secondpass

The slight change in layout produced a slightly larger course in the same area, rising up to 450m. But this shows one limitation of the current system: If the angle of the yellow/red lines was smaller, we would have been able to hit the green in our third shot, instead of necessitating a fourth shot to be in a better range. Or even, upon finding the hole, exploring the nearby tiles to find the extent of the green, so that we could have a better decision. Maybe I could reduce the angle of the check/tweak number of rays based on distance to the hole. So further away strokes can explore the area better for possibilities, while nearby strokes need to be more specific towards the hole. Or even simply adding the neighbours of the tiles to the list would suffice. I’ll test this tomorrow!

Still, I didn’t really want the course to fall down that side, so I changed it once again:

thirdTry

This produced an even shorter course (potentially), much more straightforward, and easier. A very short Par 5, barely a Par 5 even. Extremely easy, but I like it, as it provides some good base to increase difficulty, specially on the first stroke. It barely lands on the fairway, so less confident golfers might instead burn a stroke on getting to the earlier fairway patch first, to get into a better position. And I could add a bunker at the entrance, like below:

thirdB

Now this would really discourage less confident golfers, as the position of the bunkers ups the stake in case of a mistake, and would reward confident golfers who were able to land the shot, making them feel great and more willing to pay the price of membership. Capitalism, yo!

That’s it for today! Tomorrow I’ll automate the base shot generation process, to reduce clicking amount, and improve the function further so that it can make better decisions when mapping out the course. Afterwards, I’ll make it detect if there’s hazards on the way, so as to avoid and look for a better alternative. Maybe ace golfers would try the hazard shortcut, but the base shot isn’t for them anyway!

Til next time!

Dev Update #1.1: A* Update

Dev Update #1.1: A* Update

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So one last update before calling it a day, just improved the A* pathfinding to take into account undesirable tiles while tracing the basic shot from the Tee, and to sample in all 8 neighbours instead of just the regular four. You can see it in action below:

codemagic

  • The solid white line represents the direct distance to the hole
  • The blue tiles are the tiles selected by the A* algorithm as the best candidates for strokes
  • The dashed line is the combination of strokes creating the basic shot of this course

The distance to hole also changes based on the strokes created by the basic shot, and of course so does the Par rating. At 282m, this is a rather short Par 4 that can decently be accomplished in 3.

Next step is to make the algorithm take into account if there’s any fairways between the tee and the hole, in order to create more desirable base shots.