Ashley can you please elaborate on the subject? I tried to implement a simple collision avoidance with events, but that ended up with so much hacking around with picking instances of the same type, very cluttered logic and bad performance.

This one is an interesting approach based on Diffusion/Heatmaps:

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/TylerGlaiel/20121007/178966/Some_experiments_in_pathfinding__AI.php

Vector field pathfinding:

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-goal-based-vector-field-pathfinding--gamedev-9007

Yes, A* is just too much calculations for crowds and it doesn't work with moving units. Not saying that it's very slow. I already proposed collision avoidance and other steering behaviors as an alternative for pathfinding in this topic: https://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=116644&p=839955&hilit=avoidance#p839955

Another interesting alternative is using heatmaps for collision avoidance and pathfinding: http://gamasutra.com/blogs/TylerGlaiel/20121007/178966/Some_experiments_in_pathfinding__AI.php

Hello there,

a question Ashley:

According to the description on Cocos2d website:

" Cocos2d-Js supports running game code as native application in Cocos2d-x JavaScript Bindings without or with little modification" http://www.cocos2d-x.org/wiki/Cocos2d-JS.

"All graphics, rendering and physics code will run natively and only the game logic will run in JavaScript. Cocos2d-x uses SpiderMonkey, the Firefox JS virtual machine (VM), to execute JS code.

The JS VM is extended to support all the cocos2d, Chipmunk and CocosBuilder Reader APIs. So, when you create a CCSprite in JS, you are actually creating an C++ CCSprite. When you create an action in JS, you are actually creating an C++ action, when you create a particle system in JS, you are actually creating an C++ particle system… and so on. This approach is about 10x ~ 20x faster than HTML5 games even when they use accelerators like directCanvas" http://www.cocos2d-x.org/wiki/How_to_bind_C++_to_Javascript

This framework is opensource and has many games in their showcase, even zynga used it. Can it be used for development of "native" exporter for C2? Does it make sense technically?

Hello,

Ashley

Current pathfinding is way too much calculations for multiple units on the screen and it doesn't work well with moving obstacles. But there's a solution called Collision Avoidance, which is actually not that complex to implement.

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-steering-behaviors-collision-avoidance--gamedev-7777

And here: http://www.math.u-psud.fr/~maury/paps/foules/a_model_of_human_crowd_behavior__group_i_378448.pdf

Here's a js library: https://github.com/palmerabollo/rvo2-js

Units have a target position, they try to evade closest threats/obsticles while moving to the target.

I'm trying to implement it with events, but it gets pretty clunky with some picking corner cases.

Actually it's a very interesting topic - crowd behaviour simulation. I was not aware of it before.

I think it could be described as crowd behavior. And I found this paper, it goes much into depth, but there's a section called collision avoidance, "math" part seems not to be so complex. In general, interesting read: http://www.math.u-psud.fr/~maury/paps/foules/a_model_of_human_crowd_behavior__group_i_378448.pdf

Something like this:

Flowfield Pathfinding

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/crowd-flows/

Potential Fields:

http://aigamedev.com/open/tutorials/potential-fields/

Hello,

do you know any approaches how to implement classical RTS unit movement/evading behavior? Without using A*star path finding, because it is slow as hell. Basically the unit should check his nearest surroundings and try to evade static objects, another units, moving enemies in the vicinity and constantly move to the target position.

Unfortunatelly push out solid is glitchy and units get stuck all the time and jump back and forth.

It's sort of flocking with evading behavior. I tried this plugin by rexrainbow https://www.scirra.com/forum/behavior-rex-ljpotential-attracting-or-rejecting-objects_t112786, but can't achieve it 100%.

Added distance checks - it attracts within some distance, and if it's very close it starts rejecting. This plugin is fun.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8knf66mys6n6cgh/AttractReject.capx?dl=0

Thanks! That's what I'm trying to achieve. After some configuration tweaking it will be magic.

rexrainbow

Here's the capx, but it doesn't work and events are kind of stupid/redundant.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8knf66mys6n6cgh/AttractReject.capx?dl=0

rexrainbow

Hmm, still can't figure out how to reject the same unit type and attract to the opposite units. Basically it's like magnets: blues reject blues but attract reds, and reds reject reds but attract blues.

What I'm doing right now:

• unit on created > add to the "reject&type" group, add to the "attract&type" group
• for each unit > clean force; pick "reject&type" group; set LJ potential B to 10; Attracted by source Units; set angle to force

> pick "attract&type" group; set LJ potential A to 10; Attracted by source Units; set angle to force

Please, halp