Next steps

The next stage in my application is to get the A* / D* pathfinding working properly. Once this is in place i can move onto the behaviour types to get them working and then finally I can start to see some results from my research.

Also have started working away on the dissertation. According to Dr Ozveren I should have been started on this long ago, but I still feel pretty confident that I will be able to complete this within the time frame available. My literature review is pretty much finished and I have had a few drafts at various pieces of the write up so far. None worthy of posting here mind you :P

I have prepared some screenshots in the next post which detail the different mapviews. The first screen shot is the default view for the user. The entire map can be seen and the agents also can be seen on their respective tiles. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th screenshots all show the different maps stored for each agent unit (each instance of the agent class) At the bottom of each screen shot you can see the placeholder texture for the GUI :p

The pathfinding is the last big challenge ahead of me, as this task will run in parallel with the behaviour programming of the agents. Its quite exciting to start nearing the finish of a project that was conceived before Christmas. Still however much has yet to be done. On with it !

Map Screenshots

One month to go :O

Well its April now, meaning just over a month left of this my final year. It seems like its gone by in a flash, really where did all that time go ? :P

Well anyways, I have made some pretty huge upgrades to my application since the last entry. I have fully implemented my Agent class and started briefly on the GUI class. The Gui class has actually very little coding to it, and could actually be unworthy of a separate class, but it makes organisation so much easier to keep it this way. For the minute at least the class only renders a placeholder texture but the functionality is in place to render a proper GUI which will be worked on in the near future.

The agent class stores a separate map for each agent and depending on the input from the user so that there are 5 different terrains which can be displayed on screen, at any time. One thing to note is that all of the maps are the same in their overall values, but its just that only the sections that have been discovered by the individual agents that are displayed.

New Map Screenshot!

Well my map class is finally starting to come together, Ive edited the positioning somewhat so its more aesthetically pleasing and easier to see whats going on. The proper textures are now in place so that I can see what the map is really going to look like. I've edited the size some, to a size of 80x40 squares. This is to make space at the bottom - the black section that is going to be for the GUI to relay information to the user.

The next goals to work on will be the assignment of the starting and ending zones on the map, and maybe play about some with the density of each tile texture and value, to make maybe more mountains and less desert for example.

Once this is completed, it will be time for construction of the Agent class and the GUI class. What I want is for each agent to have their own version of their map which the user can select and display at any time, meaning the agents progress can be tracked in real time, with the user able to see their known and unknown terrain and how they each individually react throughout their respective journeys.

Current Progress

Well since my last post, i have met with various tutors including Dr King and Dr Lucas about my absence the last couple of months. Also since then I have not really made much progress with my map generator, but instead I have focused on making my code fully object oriented rather than the single C file that it was.

So far I've managed to separate out the code so that there is improved flexibility without losing any of the functionality. As well as a separate map class, I now also have classes for the loading of bitmaps and the conversion of these bitmaps into textures for use within my application. Now that I have this framework in motion, the next step will be to finish off with my map generator class to move onto the next step which will be the implementation of the agent class.

First Screenshot

Here is a screen shot of the map generator spoken about yesterday, it doesn't look like much yet, but its a start.

Hi there, remember me ?

Hmm, well its been a couple of months since I last wrote here. I've spent most of the last 2 months back home in Glasgow for personal reasons, and well its really played havoc with my plans, and my schedule.

Anyways with the project work I finally got started on the application last week, I'm using the OpenGL application and coding it in C++. For a starting point I have used one of the starting Nehe lessons from here specifically lesson no.6 for those interested.

The first thing that i have started to work on is the map generator. My initial idea is to have a map with all the tiles (aside from the starting and ending tiles) being randomly assigned. Each tile will be either green (grass), yellow (dessert), red(danger) and brown (mountains), with varying penalties assigned to each tile or travel costs.

So far I have managed to code a generator that creates an 80x80 size board of tiles that are each individually textured. The chose texture is randomly generated from choice of 2 (huge variety i know, but its the principle that is important) textures. This definitely forms the basis of my project but at the minute EVERYTHING is included into one C file, as the code is done on the Nehe tutorials. This is not acceptable for me, so i think before I advance too much coding into the map generator I will have to sit down and work on building a proper framework to complete this project under.