while loops and AI

ID:1664416
 
Aug 23 2014, 8:35 am
(See the best response by Ter13.)
Code:

Ussually when i do AI i do something like this

while(src)
for(var/mob/m in view(2))
do this
sleep(2)

it seems kinda a waste of resources for eevery mob in the game to be searching through a while loop every 20 mili seconds to see if their is a player nearby. Any ideas that would be more efficient
Problem description:

Aug 23 2014, 8:58 am
It is. Lummox has an old article on some good programming practices. He mentions this.

http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=39699

Basically, one option is to use areas which trigger an AI loop of everything in that area and "wake them up" in a sense. The loop is only good as long as the thing is awake. I'd suggest giving that whole article a thorough read.
Aug 23 2014, 8:58 am (Edited on Aug 23 2014, 12:31 pm)
This way is made so the AI is only active if a player is within view (7 tiles in this case) Threw this together real fast for ya.

mob/AI
    var
        active = FALSE
        mob/target = null
    proc
        Activate()
            active = TRUE
            for()
                sleep(10)
                if(!target)
                    for(var/mob/player/P in ohearers(7,src))
                        target = P
                        break
                    if(!target)
                        break
                else
                    if(get_dist(src,target)>7)
                            target = null
                        else
                            step_towards(src,target)
            active = FALSE

mob/player/Move()
    ..()
    for(var/mob/AI/A in ohearers(7,src))
        if(!A.active)
            A.Activate()
Aug 23 2014, 9:04 am
That wouldn't be any better. He's going for efficiency here, and you are calling a for loop every time each player tries to move. Lummox's example is a good option, and I suggest both of you check out that article because it's very helpful.
Aug 23 2014, 9:49 am
In response to Fugsnarf
Fugsnarf wrote:
That wouldn't be any better. He's going for efficiency here, and you are calling a for loop every time each player tries to move. Lummox's example is a good option, and I suggest both of you check out that article because it's very helpful.

My way is also efficient, it's for tile-based movement of coarse.
Aug 23 2014, 10:30 am
In response to Kozuma3
You're dropping the return value in Move.
Aug 23 2014, 10:47 am
In response to Kozuma3
yes youd have to agree its alot more efficient then mine as it only activates when a player moves(which there should be less of then enemies) while mine happened infintiley rather if something was moving and also effected a greater number of mobs.

I also looked at your article, fugsnarf. I tried to copy and paste the code to fool around with it so i could learn. But all that did was bring about errors. When i fixed the errors all it did was do nothing.
Aug 23 2014, 11:11 am
Have a turf trigger the AI once it's crossed.
Aug 23 2014, 12:21 pm
The code wasn't there to be copied and pasted. It's there to learn from and duplicate on your own. I guess that's too much to expect.
Aug 23 2014, 12:26 pm
In response to Fugsnarf
Fugsnarf wrote:
The code wasn't there to be copied and pasted. It's there to learn from and duplicate on your own. I guess that's too much to expect.

We're sorry, oh great one.
Aug 23 2014, 4:36 pm
I didn't intend to come off as arrogant or pretentious, so I apologize if I did.

To the OP: the best way to learn these concepts is to make attempts at it yourself, like any other skill. I highly suggest that over just copying and pasting, but in the end it's up to you.
Aug 24 2014, 4:54 pm
Best response
Take a look at this post for a complete AI solution that doesn't use a mob-search loop for every enemy. Instead, I search for enemies within range every time a player moves.

In theory, there will be less players than AI on a map at a given time, thus the savings should be significant. On top of that, the most a player should be moving is one tile at most per frame, so you can pretty well depend on this scaling linear with your player count.

http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=1447399#comment7868507
Aug 25 2014, 2:42 pm
In response to Fugsnarf
the only problem i have is i have a really hard time following his code in particular just because everything is being cross referenced. If i had build that, no problem. The problem is i didnt. ANd unless i can see clearly what its doing ill just ignore it. But i came up with my own solution