Crewmate and Player MovementPlayer Spectator PawnSo far for the Player Pawn, I was able to get it to fly around and have no collision similar to how the Unreal Editor camera works. I also gave it the function where the camera will only turn when the player holds the right mouse button. The cursor will hide and lock in place when this button is pressed. If the right mouse button isn't held, the player is free to use the mouse for clicking in the scene which will be used later in the project. I intend for the player to be able to hover the mouse over a crewmate and have them glow to indicate which crewmate they are going to "Select" if they click the left mouse button. Upon clicking on a crewmate being hovered over, the player will be able to see all of the information that crewmate remembers at that moment and which task they are about to attempt next. I initially planned for the player's camera to attach to that crewmate, but I feel that functionality would just take away from the player's ability to easily swap between "Selected" crewmates. "Camera" BugDuring the creation of the Player Spectator pawn, I ran into a nasty engine bug which took 1.5 hours to resolve. Basically, the pawn's initial name was Player Camera, but Unreal apparently does not like the use of the word "Camera" in any created C++ class, because when I made a child Blueprint class from the Player Camera C++ class, the engine would instantly unload the class whenever the engine restarted. Turns out putting "Camera" anywhere in the name of a class causes the class to not stay valid in Blueprint form. I'm making note of this as a warning to any who read this about this issue and to indicate an extra detail I've learned in the creation of the Player Spectator class. Waypoint Location Name I was able to add the location name to the Waypoint class as an FString. I plan to use this name for helping an NPC to know which room on the ship they are headed towards. However, I'm also thinking of just having the tasks themselves be usable as the indicators to the Crewmate on where they should go to perform said tasks and just use the waypoints for the Crewmates' meandering around the map. Main MenuAs shown in the video about, I am able to reset the game to the main menu at any point by pressing my new debug key: the "M" button. This is done by making a call to the ResetGame function in the AIDeductionGameMode. In said function, the positions of the crewmates are reset along with the player spectator, the player spectator's ability to move and turn is shut off, and the crewmates' behavior trees are stopped. I was, however, unable to make an updated design for the main menu in the allotted time due to trying to correct the "Camera" bug. What's Next?This next week, I will begin the implementation of the core elements of the gameplay: the goals for the crewmates to win the game. This will mean that I will be splitting up the crewmates' behaviors between the killers and the innocents. Specifically, I will be working on:
If I have extra time, I will also implement:
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Character Movement  In the past week, I was able to create waypoints and the beginnings of a crewmate. To do this, this, I hade to create the following classes:
 The current behavior tree of the AI. I created and added the "PickRandomWaypoint" node to have the CrewMateController choose at random from the AIDeductionGameMode's list of waypoints for moving the crewmate to. It's quite small now, but I intend to add more soon to provide goal-based movement so that the crewmate can move to a desired task.  The classes created to begin working on the crewmate implementation and their movements. Player CameraI've decided the best way for the user to be able to spectate the simulation is to create a floating camera class. I intend to use this video as inspiration and converting it from Blueprints to C++ code. The user will be able to float around the map and keep an eye on all the crewmates as they roam the ship. I will also be adding a function where the player can click on an crewmate/press a button while looking directly at a crewmate. This function will then attach the player camera as shown in the YouTube video to the crewmate, and the information of what the crewmate knows and is doing will be displayed. Main Menu I also created a very basic main menu on the first pass. The main goal of this early main menu iteration is to be able to reset the crewmates and the player camera back to their initial positions like they will do when a simulation ends. I have also set it up so that the crewmates do not begin performing their actions until the start button has been pressed. To continue iterating on this menu, I will be working on:
What's Next?This week has been busy for me when it comes to other school projects, thus I fully intend to make more headway on this project over the weekend. I will be doing a "Week 2.1" update post on Sunday to show the progress I've made and then I will discuss Week 3 on that post. This weekend I intend to:
Want to Download the Project?UE4 Observation SystemI will be using Unreal AI Pawn/Controller system to program in the movements and interactions of the NPCs. On top of this, I will be using Unreal's AI Perception component to create the "Sight" of the NPCs since this project is recording details of what they "See" and not the vision of the NPCs itself. The UE4 Sight Perception works by setting the vision range and peripheral angles of vision on the individual AI. I will be giving all NPCs limited 180 vision to mimic the vision range implemented in Among Us. The Sight system depends on specific actors being set as AIPerceptionStimuli sources. I will set all of the NPCs to be Sight stimuli. Then, I plan for the NPCs to know which rooms they are currently in or are entering. When one NPC sees another, they will pass their location to the NPC seeing them to provide the information of which room they are in/entering. This can also be used to pass over information if an NPC is dead or is in the middle of killing another NPC.  Data to Remember  Over the course of the week, I studied what data I wanted my NPCs to try and keep and eye out for what info to record. The info I want for the NPCs to actually "Observe" is as follows: Observational Reasonings (all observations will come with a timestamp):
Dialogue Reasonings:
First Map Iteration The first iteration of the map has been completed! While a very simple implementation that lacks in any of the Level Design flair, this map will suffice for the beginning of testing NPCs. Below, you can see each room has a designated name. The level was inspired by the Among Us map, but I decided to get rid of the narrow hallways and make the map more evenly structured to allow for easier observation by a spectator.  The original sketch.  The map comes with twelve different rooms. Every room comes with a point of interest, which is where the NPC will run to to perform tasks. The cafeteria's point of interest, the table, will instead be used as the point for the emergency button. Even though it looks very unappealing now, the map's overall looks (not the layout) can be updated piece by piece over the course of the project to make something more pleasing to look at, which is what I intend to do. The layout can be changed if it turns out there are not enough rooms to give the killers a fair chance at being alone with a victim. Want to Download the Project? Project SummaryFor my 10 week Programming 3 Personal Project, I will be creating an Among Us-like social deduction in Unreal and then create AI NPCs to play the game and face off against each other. The goal of this project is to take a deep dive into the aspects of AI being able to observe their surroundings, communicating between each other, remembering what they’ve learned, and changing their behavior based on what they know. Weekly Breakdown
Visualization of DataTo help with debugging and showing observers what is being witnessed and learned in the simulation, these elements will be implemented to provide visualization of data:
Risks
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Coleman LevyWelcome to my blog! Archives
August 2021
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