Day 35 - Rise (and Stumble) of the Dudes

Always travel in packs.

Coding

Firstly, that thick NPC thing was not so difficult to track down.

Assets/Managers/NpcManager.cs GitLab

231

thisNpcScript.newScale = new Vector3(1.0f / dimension, 1.0f / dimension, thisNpcScript.transform.localScale.z);

All of the NPCs are 0.1 units thick, and 0.1 decimal is a non-terminating binary value. Reading the value out of the engine, doing math on it, and plugging it back in requires some care. Over decent intervals of time, the error was building up, so we got thick NPCs. It’s hardcoded now.

Using the test code I threw together, and a little tweak to give them all the same material, it’s easy to get a horde of dudes wandering blindly north-ish through town.

experiment0.rb GitLab

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  9999.times do
    host.cmd({"String" => ['w','nw','n','ne','e'].sample, "Match" => / ->/}) { |c| puts "14 #{c.gsub(/\e/, "[ESC]")}" }
  end
end

threads = []
20.times do
  threads << Thread.new do
    have_fun
  end
end
threads.each { |thr| thr.join }

But why are some of them rendering as wolves?

There's something you don't see every day.

Worse yet, why am I rendering as a wolf?

Full moon?

This is not my beautiful GameObject!

Not just a visual defect, but a very specific wolf. All symptoms point to a problem with the object pool.

Assets/Managers/NpcManager.cs GitLab

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if (npcScripts.ContainsKey(npc.worldNpcID)) {
    tempNpc = npcScripts[npc.worldNpcID];
} else {
    tempNpc = npcPooler.GetPooledObject().GetComponent<NpcScript>();
    tempNpc.Reset();
    tempNpc.npcManager = this;
    tempNpc.npcId = npc.worldNpcID;
    tempNpc.name = npc.Name;
    SetMaterials(tempNpc);
    tempNpc.toBeSeen = (position.z <= mapManager.zTop + 1);                    
    npcScripts[npc.worldNpcID] = tempNpc;
}
tempNpc.gameObject.SetActive(true);

I’m beginning to suspect that nothing before the SetActive(true) is actually happening, or at least isn’t having a real effect. Let’s check that theory.

Assets/Managers/NpcManager.cs GitLab

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tempNpc.gameObject.SetActive(true);
if (recycledNpc) print("Recycled NPC has ID " + tempNpc.npcId + " when it should be " + npc.worldNpcID);
if (tempNpc.npcId != npc.worldNpcID) Debug.Break();

No good, it always has the right ID. But some further playing saw my PC being inactive at the gameObject level. How could that be happening?

Assets/Managers/NpcManager.cs GitLab

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if (npcScripts.ContainsKey(npc.worldNpcID)) {
    tempNpc = npcScripts[npc.worldNpcID];
    if (!tempNpc.gameObject.activeInHierarchy) {
        print("NPC " + npc.worldNpcID + " not active!");
        Debug.Break();
    }

Well, that triggers a bunch if we cycle through some gangs of dudes. So we’re pulling references out of the npcScripts dictionary even if they’ve been thrown back in the recycler. I think we can fix that.

Assets/Managers/NpcManager.cs GitLab

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if (npc.lastActiveRound < maxGameRound - 10) {
    NpcScript tempNpcScript;
    if (npcScripts.TryGetValue(npc.worldNpcID, out tempNpcScript)) {
        tempNpcScript.gameObject.SetActive(false);
    }
    npcScripts.Remove(npc.worldNpcID); // oops, forgot to do this
    npcLocations.Remove(npc.worldNpcID);
    if (npc.isPC) activePcs.Remove(npc.worldNpcID);
} else {

and now everything works as it should. I’m beginning to look forward to rewriting most of this code with what I’ve learned, but that will have to wait.

More to come

Day 35 code - tests

Day 35 code - visualizer

Decimal/Binary Converter

301 Days (redux)

Another metric leap year of gamedev experiments and such

Day 35 - Rise (and Stumble) of the Dudes

Coding