Flowfield SupComFA

[SPAZ31]

Working on a video of SupCom 2, and I know in the past I complained about the flowfield system on SupComFA and how the units did a lot of bumping when units collided. And its been awhile since my last SupComFa video so I was wondering if there has been any changes on FA regarding the flowfield.

[eXcalibur]

there is no flowfield in supcomFA. every units path gets calculated on its own. even when you let them move in a formation.
in supcom 2 flowfield was introduced and there one blob of units gets combined into one group. only the path of this group gets calculated.
that is all i know about the flowfield. correct me if i am wrong.

there have been threads on this forum asking for a flowfield in supcomFA and the answer always was: the calculation of the unit path is in the game engine, which is protected by copyright. it is not allowed to alter it in any way. therefore there have not been (and probably will not be) any changes to the path calculations in supcomFA.

[noobymcnoobcake]

Its hard coded in the game engine. Very difficult to change and even if you do you start getting into legal problems.

[dstojkov]

there is no flowfield in supcomFA. every units path gets calculated on its own. even when you let them move in a formation.

They is surely a way to change this ... You don't need to change the engine.

you have roughly 2 solutions:

wrote a callbacks function that each time recalculate the path of units under a move order (only land ) that are present in a zone
wrote a group move order that assign to all unit a destination roughly a parallel that is revaluate every let's say every 2 seconds.


I am not so far to implements it right now i am working now on the 3599 mod. But if no one want to do this I will but later :-/


Regards

[Ze_PilOt]

I would need some serious reverse-engineering on the engine, and even if you can hook up the correct functions, you still need to implement a flow field system, so you will need tons of extra functions, and good luck making it working without bugs (ie. just making the animation looks right).


If it takes you months to do a 3599 mods, I highly doubt that you can achieve that in years.

I will like to be proven wrong, but I didn't see a trace of a proof of concept (or even a methodology) from people claiming it's possible.

[dstojkov]

If it takes you months to do a 3599 mods, I highly doubt that you can achieve that in years.

First I don't have your experience at modding like you, I had to learn it from beginning lua included

Second you don't want to have a featured mod for the 3599 ... that's mean I can deliver it only once.


I prefer to take the time that is needed to make it right. All the improvement made in the community bug fixing are not all good i am refactoring some of the stuff also i need time


The path finding should be a straight forward method on the engine side. The real logic should have been done on the lua side.
Adapting the path finding shall not be a big issue.

Like I said before after the mod beeing done I will take a look at this pb


Regards

[Ze_PilOt]

The path finding should be a straight forward method on the engine side. The real logic should have been done on the lua side.
Adapting the path finding shall not be a big issue.

Like I said before after the mod beeing done I will take a look at this pb


Regards

I think you under-estimate greatly what need to be done. I really want to believe you, but you don't describe, concretely, what you need to be done and how.

If it's that simple, I'm sure you can do a little proof of concept and move an unit from left to right along a sinusoid curve using your own callback ?

Until you are able to do that, don't give false hope to people.

[dstojkov]

I think you under-estimate greatly what need to be done

I think it's over estimated ...

move an unit from left to right along a sinusoid curve using your own callback ?

Why in the world you need to make a sinusoid curve ? 2 straight lines are enough

You know the foot plant of all the units you know the speed .... you know all what you need to know. Like i said the path finding has to be done incrementally not on the begin of the move order and that's it like it is obviously coded now. you have to recalculate it every certain among of time like it has been done for the regeneration fields of the seraphim.

I didn't say it will be perfect ... Playable is enough

[IceDreamer]

1: The logic for pathfinding is not in the lua files, or anywhere we can access.
2: Reverse engineering the engine as is necessary is probably a breach of the EULA.
3: This has been attempted, pored over, looked at, dissected, and been unsuccessful by better modders than any who currently play.

Good luck.

[Ze_PilOt]

The problem is not how to do a better pathfinding (even it's way more complicated that what you are implying), but how to use it instead of the current one.