[RELEASED] Emerald AI 3.2 (New Sound Detection) - The Ultimate Universal AAA Quality AI Solution

Hey everyone!

This Emerald 2.0 status update will talk about another highly requested feature and that feature is customizable waypoints. This feature allows users to create and position a series of waypoints that the AI will follow them. This allows AI to patrol paths that you set and use their Behavior Type while doing so.

If an AI sees a target while following its path, and it's set to Aggressive, it will attack any targets it sees while patrolling its waypoint path you've created. The waypoint creator is easy to use and is handled directly through the Emerald Editor. Waypoints offer more control of where you AI go which will open up a lot more possibilities for things like quests. For example, if you want an AI to help a player travel through a cave to reach the end, you would simply define a few points for the AI to follow. If there are other opposing targets along the way, the AI will fight as it attempts to reach its overall destination.

Another improvement has been made to Emerald's align AI feature. The new system allows AI to align to any surface, not just the Unity Terrain. This means AI can seamlessly walk along the terrain, across a bridge, and then back onto the terrain all while aligning to the surface of the object it's on.

To see a visual demonstration of these new features, see the videos below.

Patrolling Example
A demo video of an AI patrolling through its path and attacking other AI that it sees. Once the targets are dead, it continues patrolling.

Here's the path the above AI took from the Editor view:


Creating Custom Waypoints
A video demonstrating the creation of a new waypoint path that the AI will continue to loop through.

 

Are you still planning to release at the end of September?

 

I asked you a wek ago and you said:
The beta is actually full, but I'll help you out and add you to the list. Keep in mind that Emerald 2.0 will still be in the beta stage so I can't guarantee you won't have any issues. I am pretty confident that it's pretty solid in its current state though.

 

The new version looks really good so I should pick up the current version in anticipation. Hopefully there'll be good tutorials for the new version when it's released.

 

@BHS - What's the min Unity version that the new 2.0 will work on (being Dynamic nav mesh enabled) - 5.6? Or will it be an earlier version, but making use of 5.6 that doesn't require any additional changes to 2.0 ?

 

That's the plan, but no there's guarantee. If the update isn't out by the end of September, it should be out shortly after. The overall goal is a solid release with no bugs or issues and sometimes that means a little longer development time.

You are in the list of beta testers. What I mean by full is, the list is full and there will be no more users added to the beta list. The beta hasn't started yet. I'm hoping it will be ready next week.

If I remember correctly, the current version of Emerald could utilize the Dynamic NavMesh system. So, the minimum version doesn't have to be 5.6. However, 5.6 is the version that is being used for Emerald 2.0's development.

It is a lot easier and quicker to develop a system when you only have to worry about the newer versions of Unity. This avoids extra code that has to be added because of obsolete or deprecated API. As of right now, plan on Emerald being released on version 5.5, since about 90% of Unity users use 5.5 and above.

 

hey if im buying now, am i getting the upgrade for free ? thanks

 

Yes, Emerald 2.0 will be a free update.

 

Ok then , I'll buy emerald 2day ty

 

Sounds great and you're welcome!

 

i bought it !! do you have any clue how i can make my animals hit the player with
ultimate survival asset ?
and another question because i saw youre the unistorm developer as well ,
do you now how can i make it work with Ultimate survival also ?
i gotta know that it works together perfectly 'fore i buy it
im planning to buy unistorm and Crux so the question is 4 both of 'em thanks bro

 

Buy them man. Seriously buy them and also buy MapMagic, its epic!

 

but first of all ive gotta know if they working together perfectly ....

 

Great to hear! Yes, there is a tutorial here to add Ultimate Survival support to Emerald: https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/r...y-herds-npcs-more.336521/page-22#post-3197100

Keep in mind that both of these assets are getting large updates. The plan is to have integrated support with Ultimate Suvival for the next update, but some stuff has to be done on both ends for that to happen. I'll be reaching out to the developers to make sure this is still the plan.

As for UniStorm, the last time I checked, the Ultimate Survival asset was dependent on their time system making it more difficult to add support. However, I think this may have been fixed. If it has, all you have to do is use UniStorm's Auto Player Setup and UniStorm will automatically setup and assign a UniStorm system to your scene. I'll double check to confirm this will work for you sometime today.

 

thanks for the reply bro , ive done it with emerald ! working great right now im trying to figure out how to use Crux as well.. but for some reason it doesnt work...

 

Hey everyone!

The video below demonstrates an example quest made with Emerald 2.0. Everything in the video was achieved by not altering or adding to any portion of the Emerald script itself. The quest was done be using an external script and changing the AI's action during runtime. The quest has an AI set to Stationary (an option to stay in one place and not use wandering) until the quest becomes active. When this happens, the AI's action will change and the AI will attempt to make its way to its Destination Point. A Destination Point is a new setting added that allows AI to have a single point destination. AI will react according to their Behavior Types while attempting to reach it. A Destination Point has a similar visual editor similar to the waypoint creator posted earlier. However, Destination Points can also be set through a custom script.

When an AI reaches their destination, a variable is set. This public variable can be accessed programmatically for many game related mechanics such as adding an additional step to a quest, finishing a quest (demonstrated in the video), or change the music (also demonstrated in the video). The player cannot complete the quest until the AI reaches its Destination Point and the AI cannot reach its Destination Point without fighting all the AI in its path.

Setting an AI's Destination Point is simple. Below is the AI's destination point, but there are multiple AI in its path. An AI will always put its Behavior Type over its destination so it will always react to targets with the appropriate tags. AI use Unity's NavMesh to reach the destination. An AI also has the option to use a running or a walking animation to make it to its destination or waypoints.

 

looks great !! coming by the end of Sep right ?

 

hey , how can i use more animals animations that i have on the UI ? thanks..
and another question how can i sign up a bird you know make her fly land seat on a branch etc

 

Does the current version of Emerald AI and the aligning AI thing work on Unity3d 5.6? I can't get them to align to the terrain on slopes.

 

I saw Dynamic NPC Battle on YouTube. Will Dynamic NPC Battle be better in 2.0?

 

Well hello !

Just a small message to thank you for the work provided on the new version 2.0. I use Emerald AI (and other assets made by BHS) and seeing the videos of the 2.0 I do not regret my money well spent for once

Good continuation, hoping to be able to use this version 2.0 soon with Ultimate Survival

 

Yes, it should be working. With the current version, it usually takes the AI's first move to calculate the alignment. Also, ensure that the align feature is enabled.

Yes, it will be improved quite a bit. That video is quite old.

You are welcome and thank you for the kind words

When Ultimate Survival is released, the plan is to have integrated support with it.

 

Yes I have it enabled and yes they move, but no they do not align. Can you make a tutorial on how to animate the animals using the ANIMALS FULL PACK by PROTOFACTOR, INC. and how to set up the animals with Emerald AI please?

 

I've the same issue I bought the bear from him and the animations doesn't work ...
I'm planning to buy the full pack as well .
Tutorial would be nice

 

hello nice to see the update, i have a question how i can change the distance from player to enemy for get damage.At the moment my player is go in the attack radius the npc attack my player but when i run so 5 meters ago from enemy and he countine the attack i became damage.i will get only damage when the player are stand near the enemy and no damage when i run away from enemy.

 

me too

 

Hey guys,

I'm talking with the developer of the animal pack to see if we can find out what's going on. I'll get back to you guys when we've found a solution.

Hey there!

If I remember correctly you adjust the AI's stopping distance. This is what controls the distance that the AI can attack. If you want the AI to attack while running, you need to enable Attack Whil Running.

 

Sounds great , thanks for both of you . Appreciated .

 

I don't think the rotation issue is specific to this animal pack (which I also plan to use)? I'm using a wolf model from another asset author and it also doesn't align to the terrain. It's especially noticeable when it's running up hill and the back legs are floating above the ground.

Another issue I'm seeing is that a fleeing AI stops and shakes when it hits a gap in the navmesh instead of re-routing to another waypoint. Any tips for correcting this?

 

What's the spine like on the animals? Is there a join that you could have two colliders / rigid bodies attached to them so it will bend the spine to the height of the terrain?

 

hi there, indeed we're currently trying to identify the issue.
For the alignment on slope feature, it doesn't seem to come directly from our model. However maybe Emerald is aligning the model according to the character's root axis. Maybe having a variable in there with X / -X / Y / -Y / Z / -Z would be helpful to set the right local forward axis or something.
Protofactor, Inc and BHS are from different time zones which means the communication is not super easy so please bear with us on this. Also, it's the week end...

 

WE understand ! and i think its something with the models cuz the other models (not the animals pack worked for me as i told you)

 

Animals and creatures have been created using the same softwares and the exact same pipeline. Bear is behaving absolutely normal when dropped in an empty scene with just an animator controller telling it to perform animations. No weird orientation etc... to me it sounds like a script telling the model to orientate in a certain way. We've been trying to use emerald AI with our models. So far not so lucky, nothing is animating. Looking at the online documentation there is a legacy check box that is not inside the inspector window in our version of Emerald. Not sure if emerald is only using legacy rig system or something else now.

 

Can I show u what I mean on team viewer/ Skype?

 

Did you look under the Animations toggle? I'm using the latest version of Emerald (downloaded from asset store a few days ago) and there is an 'Animation Type' drop-down under the 'Animations' toggle. So far, I've only tried it with Legacy.

 

all right, bear work as expected in Legacy mode with Emerald AI. We're going to create a slope on the terrain and report back. It looks like the mecanim system isn't working at all on our end. Maybe we're missing something though...

 

made the slope , model align as expected...

 

@RAZD112: Please follow these instructions to the letter and report back:

1. in the project window, select all the fbx files from the bear (Bear.fbx and Bear@AnimationName.fbx) then go to the inspector windown , Rig tab,set the rig to LEGACY and apply.
2. drag and drop the bear prefab you want or the bear.fbx in the scene
3. check out the inspector window when you have the bear selected in the scene. If it doesn't have an "Animation" component (not the "Animator" one) then add it.
4. If the component animation list is empty, then drag and drop all animations files in the slots one by one.
5. add the emerald AI script and use you animations you see fit
6. if you have a terrain in the scene then bake the navmesh for it
7. enter Play Mode
8. The bear should behave as expected.

 

I'm not sure how to provide any more help on this. The animations of the models works as intended and the Emerald AI scripts work as expected too... Awesome script btw @BHS First time I used it. After some little figuring out stage I managed to get it to work pretty quickly.
@BHS I was confused between your current online documentation and the current look of the Emerald AI script in the inspector. No check box for whether or not to use Legacy mode... You might want to update the documentation. Also, we're not versed with Mecanim etc... but we really couldn't managed to get it to work... Maybe add in the documentation, how a standard looking Animator controller should look like for say an Animal, a NPC etc...
just my 2c

 

what version are you using? I think we downloaded the Emerald a While back. imported it from direct access to hard drive... I guess I'll have to delete the file locally and re download the latest version....
Thanks for pointing that out

 

Argh... We locally deleted the Package in order to re download the latest version and now we no longer have access to it... Just great...

 

Managed to recover the package we were using. Version we tested with is v1.3.1 on unity 5.2.2. For some reason we can't update the package in our Asset Store window...

 

Finally managed to update to latest version (v1.3.5) on unity 5.2.2. either legacy or Mecanim mode work as expected. not problem on slopes either so far.

 

@rosor I'm using Emerald 1.3.5 on Unity 5.6.3.f1

 

On our end we didn't encounter any issue so far....

 

ill try it out i hope this works otherwise idk what to do ...


edit : its working !!
but simple issue thats happening also with the giant scorpion the animation is a little bit laggy
look like he's going backwards for a split of sec ... the immediately goes back something really weird

 

Soumds,like you're using a root motion animation in legacy mode...

 

WHAT DOES IT MEANS
edit: sent u a demo vid on FB

 

Thanks for all the help, it's appreciated.

Apply Root Motion can be controlled through the Emerald Editor under Animations Options. The model's Animator Controller will take the value from the Emerald script so you need to make sure it's checked within the Editor.

 

For aligning with the terrain, are you using a Unity terrain or a mesh terrain? The current version of Emerald only supports Unity terrains.

It's worth noting that Emerald 2.0 will support aligning with all objects and can smoothly transition between the terrain angle and terrain angle.

Emerald's fleeing algorithm has been greatly improved with Emerald 2.0. It allows AI to automatically re-route when a path becomes unreachable.