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[UPDATED] ICECreatureControl v1.4.0 - creature AI for enemies, animals, monsters, zombies ...

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by icetec, Aug 11, 2015.

  1. dsilverthorn

    dsilverthorn

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    lawsochi, mons00n and Tethys like this.
  2. KeithBrown

    KeithBrown

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    Ootii's Motion Controller works well with Behavior Designer and it is extremely modular and easy to use. It was designed from the ground up to work with anything.
     
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  3. dsilverthorn

    dsilverthorn

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    Update from Apex's website. They have moved all of their products to open source. Lots of tutorials on YouTube.
    "
    Since we have not been actively developing the products for a long time, we have decided to release them to the public.

    You can find the Apex products at https://github.com/ApexGameTools/Apex-Game-Tools

    We wish you all the best in the development of your games."
     
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  4. lod3

    lod3

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    Can a creature send updates to its health to an external script using default ICE functionality, or would this require custom, under the hood modifications?

    Thank you for reading, and for any replies (especially considering the year difference between the last reply in this thread.)
     
  5. Harekelas

    Harekelas

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    Not that I'm aware of. It can call custom functions in the behaviour section but I've never tested it, so not sure if it's called every frame or on certain events.

    ICE is not fully developed and now is deprecated, I don't suggest continue to use it in your project. You can create your own ai system or combine several other assets together to achieve complex ai behaviours.
     
  6. AGregori

    AGregori

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    +1.
    ICE was abandoned nearly 3 yrs ago and never even released as open-source.
    I never thought I'd say this but Emerald AI now surpassed ICE in most ways, and it is the recommended AI solution if you don't wanna script too much or at all.
     
  7. TonanBora

    TonanBora

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    That, is where i'd have to disagree with you. :)
    ICE is, even to this day, better than Emerald.
    Emerald just cannot match ICE's flexibility and utility. Emerald is just too simplistic compared to ICE (which is both a good thing and a bad thing).

    I have found that to get even remotly complex behavior with Emerald, you actually have to do MORE scripting, since it does not allow for even half of what you can do with ICE right out of the box.

    That said, I cannot recomend using ICE unless you already know it, are willing to try and keep it updated yourself, and are happy with the features it provides, since it has been abandoned and no new updates will be out for it. :(
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2020
    dsilverthorn likes this.
  8. AGregori

    AGregori

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    @TonanBora hey I agree, ICE was unique in its dedication to include complex features without having to script.
    Emerald is much simpler, but it proved to be an advantage: it's still being updated years later, and the newer features are impressive. When I said it surpasses ICE, I meant how it still survives and just works out of the box. :)
     
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  9. dsilverthorn

    dsilverthorn

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    I agree too.
    I really miss ICE. Especially for ambient life. I could set them up and they would roam around.

    I now use Emerald, but really miss the endless amount of animations I could add with ICE.

    I’m still looking for a replacement, but am using Emerald until I find one.
     
  10. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    If you guys are looking for Emerald to do more than its basic out the box features, Magique has start his own product called LifeLink that use a few different assets. The main driver he is doing is Playmaker in conjunction with Emerald. He also have PoolBoss and other assets he is doing!

    https://discordapp.com/channels/695793919794872350/695793919794872354
     
    gearedgeek, AGregori and magique like this.
  11. dsilverthorn

    dsilverthorn

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    I have great hopes for Magique's project!
    That could fill in the gaps that are missing between ICE and Emerald. :)
     
    magique likes this.
  12. zKici

    zKici

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    I've started using NodaCanvas and FlowCanvas because Emerald just didn't cut it for me... took too long to do features and updates... and of course flexibility, but yeah NC/FC do take some work...
     
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  13. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    Behavior Tree take ages to do... Better off extending Emerald with Playmaker
     
  14. AGregori

    AGregori

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    Yeah, ICE was like an innovative middle ground between Nodecanvas and Emerald. You could achieve everything from its inspector alone without graphs.

    Frankly, using Nodecanvas or Bolt for AI sounds like a nightmare.
     
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  15. magique

    magique

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    Using Bolt for anything is a nightmare. Anyone want to code with jigsaw puzzle pieces? Welcome to Bolt. lol
     
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  16. Harekelas

    Harekelas

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    I've learned a lot from your tutorial videos about ICE!
    But then I realized the best way is to code my own ai system, I've taken inspirations from ICE and other ai assets in the store and made a state machine based ai system, but now I'm going to rebuild it to a data oriented system with jobs system and burst compiler implemented.
     
    dsilverthorn likes this.
  17. tcz8

    tcz8

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    I've tried ICE, Emerald, Behavior designer... if you can code do yourself a favor and DON'T bother.

    ICE and Emerald like solutions are ok (and maybe a time saver) for very simple/animal like AI, but doing anything more is not worth it. If you don't plan on using their scripts for everything they have a script for, you will have to start modifying code which means learning how their system works internally. It would be much better if they allowed us to call our own API instead.

    That said, it's time better spent learning to use DOTS and the Jobs system.

    Behavior designer allows much more complex behaviors but is also much more complex... you will have to code again for anything out of the ordinary which means, once again, spending time learning a complex system. Also, when I had a lot of nodes its Editor UI suffered performance issues which made debugging in BD a pain.

    Additionally if you were hoping to fill a screen with enemies I can tell you right now to forget all of these solutions. AFAIK not a single AI system on the asset store is built using dots/entities so its not gonna happen.

    I tested emerald and it works best when you stay under 100 AI on a i5 2500k 16GB Ram + Vega64. Behavior designer wont get you further either. In my case AI built on BD were actually much slower. I may have been doing something wrong but it wasn't worth my time to investigate further as we need to "Fill the screen".
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2020
    dsilverthorn and SickaGamer like this.
  18. AGregori

    AGregori

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    IMHO that's where NodeCanvas and GPU Instancer + Crowd add-on can save the day, even without much coding.

    Complex AI is a touchy subject in any game engine because the existing assets want to perform AI in a hardwired way, as you say. The above is the best workaround I know as of 2020.
     
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