Augustine: Ai system, new effects, and much more! news

Hello all!

I'm so excited to show some new things for Augustine right now. The game has been progressing up and down with team members coming in and out periodically, but I've stayed with the game for the most part. First off, I would like to say sorry to all the followers for no constant updates. Life gets pretty hectic when your in your senior year.

AI System

Anyways.. Let's start off this update with a new AI system! I have wanted to implement an AI system into Augustine for a while (Not using pre built AI like frikbot and quake monsters). Now I made it happen. After a week and a half of coding everyday, Augustine AI has been born.. These Ai are fully controllable by myself in the code, and feature:

• a waypoint system
• routing system
• non-waypoint navigation(Even though it's not that helpful).
• Easily adaptable to the needs of Augustine (Like Survival and campaign)
• Can hold up to 4 targets and prioritize them
• Built from scratch

So here is a little demonstration of the base AI.

The AI is subject to change in various ways and be improved. What you see in the video is the base/engine of the AI. From what you saw there, many different variations of the Ai will come to be in Augustine.

HUD

Next off, You may have noticed the HUD.

You may not see much of a difference but it has been rewritten in CSQC. It's not finished(Missing crosshairs, Radar, Scoreboard, gamemode, etc), but there is new features that weren't in the last version of the HUD. Some things look slightly better than others (*Cough* healthbar *cough*).

CSQC

Since I have a grasp on CSQC(Client Side Quakec), I am going to start focusing more and more on it! It's such a wonderful feature in Darkplaces.. Let me explain a little bit of its power.

So if you have played Augustine online with other players, you may have noticed that some players get pretty high ping and server lag often (depending on how exactly you are playing online). Well I have plans to move most items over to CSQC. You may be asking, well whats that have to do with anything? Well when an item is in CSQC Rather than SSQC(Server side QuakeC), the server focuses on it less. Let's say you shoot a rocket while in an online match. The Server would normally track the movement of that rocket EVERY SINGLE FRAME. If everyones shooting rockets, expect some friggen High Ping! But if the rocket was handled in CSQC instead, the server only focuses on it at 2 points: When the rocket spawns, and when it dies(explodes). Thats alot less work for the server. Now imagine most everything being handled that way. Server lag will drastically reduce!

So basically, CSQC Will:

• Reduce Server lag
• focus more on Client effects rather than the server
• Allow Animation interpolation(Bottom body move independently from the upper body)

Graphical Effects

This all sounds good right? Great. Now all the new effects that have been added should make the game look really good! I love adding in new effects to spice the look of the game up.
Note: I updated the Darkplaces engine to its most recent so new features have opened up.

That's just some of the effects. I have spiced up various parts from the Original Augustine effects quite a bit.

Something you won't be able to see in the video, is that the new base model format is .md3. That fixes jiggly models and adds support for attachments onto models. Right now, I use third person weapons as my prime example of that.

When my knowledge in CSQC expands, I will move over to IQM to take advantage of the boned model format.

I also started Creating new Player animations, but they aren't finished(Death animations are all that remains.) You can catch a glimpse of the new animations in the attachments picture. Once they are fully finished, I will post the progress.

Mauler AI

I didn't want to show this, but heck, Why not. It is an AI idea I came up with for Augustine called a Mauler. Maulers basically go in groups and they go bunch on whatever they possibly can. They are easily to kill, but are playful, viscous, and fast. Here is my rough draft in Blender. I SUCK at modeling so don't expect a masterpiece Haha.

Maulers in-game. NOTE! This is a Quake 3 map with realtime lighting
Note: I fail At modeling.. But this is the basic concept of how a Mauler will look.

Quake3 Maps Transition

Lastly, I will start using Q3 maps as the base map format for Augustine. It allows for much richer looking maps, and opens up the ability to use shaders for models, and custom sizes of bounding boxes.

Wrap up

That about wraps up the update. I will show more details for the game as they are created like always. I would like to note, Augustine is in DIRE need of a modeler, animator, and texture artist for models. If you can model, animate, or both at a Decent level, I would love to work with you to get this game polished. I have programming covered, I just can't really model to save my life.
PM me if you are interested at all.

Remember to Track! The Audience and Feedback is what keeps me working on this game. The more people enjoy this game and await updates, the harder I will try to make this game as great as it can be.