How to Implement an AI Actor¶

AI Actor is the way Limon enables custom behaviour for NPCs or enemies. Limon engine has a class named ActorInterface under src/AI, that it used to implement custom AI behaviour.

Limon editor allows selecting Actor per model. After Actor selected, a new instance of the selected Actor is created, and called each frame with current information about the world. It is also possible to expose some settings to be filled by level designer using the same interface of editor.

ActorInterface Class¶

ActorInterface class has two helper structs used to pass information between engine and AI. Those are ActorInformation struct and InformationRequest struct. details are below.

Warning

Information requests are prepared by separate threads, and no guarantees made for when they will return. Check routeReady flag on ActorInformation before using the route.

	ActorInterface(uint32_t id, LimonAPI *limonAPI)
std::vector<LimonAPI::ParameterRequest>	getParameters()
void	setParameters(std::vector<LimonAPI::ParameterRequest>parameters)
void	play(long time, ActorInformation& information)
bool	interaction(std::vector<LimonAPI::ParameterRequest>parameters)
std::string	getName() const

ActorInterface(uint32_t id, LimonAPI *limonAPI)¶

The constructor of the interface.

Note

All Actors must have the same signature, no other parameters should be required.

std::vector<LimonAPI::ParameterRequest> getParameters()¶

Returns a vector of ParameterRequest struct, These parameters are going to be set by map designer using the editor. These parameters should be filled with their current values, because Load/Save logic uses these parameters to persist AI information.

void setParameters(std::vector<LimonAPI::ParameterRequest> parameters)¶

The parameters set by map designer will be passed to this method. It might be just set, or they might be loading as part of map load.

void play(long time, ActorInformation &information)¶

Called on each frame, with current information about player and world, in form of ActorInformation struct

bool interaction(std::vector<LimonAPI::ParameterRequest> &interactionInformation)¶

called by other entities, like Actors or Player. Used to pass information like hits, or alarming etc.

std::string getName() const¶

Returns the name of the Actor.

Warning

The name must be unique, or the results will be undefined.

ActorInformation struct¶

This struct is feeded for each frame, and meant to contain information to trigger AI behaviour. It contains the following information

Type	Name	Description
bool	canSeePlayerDirectly	Is there any object between Actor and Player.
bool	isPlayerLeft	Is Player at left of Actor.
bool	isPlayerRight	Is Player at right of Actor.
bool	isPlayerUp	Is Player higher up than Actor.
bool	isPlayerDown	Is Player lower than Actor.
bool	isPlayerFront	Is Player in front of the Actor.
bool	isPlayerBack	Is Player at back of the Actor.
float	cosineBetweenPlayer	What is the cosine of player and actor front vector.
glm::vec3	playerDirection	What is the direction vector from actor to player.
float	playerDistance	What is the distance between actor and player (unit is close to meters).
float	cosineBetweenPlayerForSide	cosine of the angle between right vector of actor and player.
bool	playerDead	Is player dead?

uint32_t	maximumRouteDistance(128)	how deep the route search should go. (maximum ~128 meters default)
std::vector<glm::vec3>	routeToRequest	Points to follow to reach the player.
bool	routeFound	Was route course successful?
bool	routeReady	Was route course done?

The first part of the information will be filled for each frame. The Route will not be filled until requested, and routeFound/routeReady will be false. To request route to player, check InformationRequest struct below.

InformationRequest struct¶

This struct is part of ActorInterface, and each frame Limon Engine checks all Actors for request changes. When a request is checked, its information will be reset to prevent multiple requests.

Type	Name	Description
bool	routeToPlayer	Request a route to Player
bool	routeToCustomPosition	Request a route to custom position(not implemented yet)
glm::vec3	customPosition	Position to course path

How to enable Dynamic Library discovery¶

Limon engine will try to load custom actors on engine startup, from libcustomTriggers file (extension based on platform). If the file is found, engine will check for a method with following signature:

void registerActors(std::map<std::string, ActorInterface*(*)(uint32_t, LimonAPI*)>* actorMap)

This method should fill the actorMap passed, with all the custom actors, like this:

(*actorMap)["$ACTOR_NAME1$"] = &createActorT<$ActorClass1$>;
(*actorMap)["$ACTOR_NAME2$"] = &createActorT<$ActorClass2$>;