So there is still a bit of time left, to give birth to John Connor ;P

John Connor wasn`t a scientist ( I`m not a scientist either for the most part)

the movie also has a lot of fantasy that has nothing to do with reality (like time travel for example)

I don`t believe in magical letters but if we were to believe in them for one second then the letters LT would be just as important.

John Connor wasn`t a scientist ( I`m not a scientist either for the most part)

So no reason to fear you work on Skynet? phew…

the movie also has a lot of fantasy that has nothing to do with reality (like time travel for example)

Yeah. That was a bit too much for me. They do a mish mash of all kind of stupid shit, and that gives the greatest movie of all time?
No wonder game devs try to learn from Hollywood.

I don`t believe in magical letters but if we were to believe in them for one second then the letters LT would be just as important.

Oh. A little riddle? hmmmm…. My guess: You work on commanding units by clicking left trigger button? Good idea! ; )

No wonder game devs try to learn from Hollywood

if you`re talking about the terminator franchise then it doesn`t reveal much that a developer could use.

realistic AI is about reading user action and interpreting/putting it into context. There is also nothing in the movie about the stuff related to creating an advanced biped robot (the physics bit). But at the time (1985/1991) that kind of knowledge was missing of course.

however the discussion is drifting in a direction that doesn`t belong to this blog branch. I`m trying to keep this branch about practical RTS code, fleabay`s voice is taunting in my brain so I try to keep an area for the practical side of things too.

if you`re talking about the terminator franchise then it doesn`t reveal much that a developer could use.

realistic AI is about reading user action and interpreting/putting it into context. There is also nothing in the movie about the stuff related to creating an advanced biped robot (the physics bit). But at the time (1985/1991) that kind of knowledge was missing of course.

Movies are used for inspiration, and Terminator is quite ideal: It's action, explosions and robots. No sharks with laser eyes and dinosaurs, but we can add this.
Gives us some nice background ideas for the next Titanfall or Horizon games. Which is fine.

But the problem i see is another: Games try to adopt the ideas to tell stories about complex characters and their relationships.
Works well for movies which are linear, but not for interactive games which are dynamic. Stories are static and can not adapt to the behavior of the player.
If we try, we get branching stories, as often seen in RPGs. But this is difficult, increases costs, and decreases the quality of the story. No good option at all yet.

The even bigger problem is: Stories are mostly told in form of cut scenes. Impressive, polished and interesting. Yes, Hollywood! We can do do this do! Higher costs, but we can!
But cut scenes are not interactive. So they interrupt and break the game. You either just play to get to the next cutscene, or you try to skip over those annoying video clips to continue the game.
What a nonsense.

We better focus on our strengths of interactive dynamics instead imitating Hollyood. If that means we have to reduce to shallow backgrounds, robots and dinos, i'm fine with that.

But we can make the behavior of our robots and dinos more interesting. Currently it's too much of static animation and basic state machines. That's why we need Terminator tech in games, but not so much in the real world, imo.

I`m trying to keep this branch about practical RTS code, fleabay`s voice is taunting in my brain so I try to keep an area for the practical side of things too.

But it all has been said: Instead clicking message boxes, click on the map to command units.
It's the only way to verify their behavior. You want to see how they react to unexpected changes, like a new command from the player.
The player is the only source of true chaos and dynamics in a game. So your input is the best way to detect flaws and bugs.

I`m trying to get my Robotic Arm working properly. I will send you my source code a couple more times in the next few days if you don`t mind. I can`t move on further with my project without letting my teachers see my progress.

You work on a robotic arm? Now that's ambitious! : )
I'm curious…

Yes, Hollywood! We can do do this do!

You`re talking about music. Nothing is perfect but for a good while it did strike a cord with me ( I got over it in the end). But again no useful pseudo code in there either.

But the problem i see is another: Games try to adopt the ideas to tell stories about complex characters and their relationships.
Works well for movies which are linear, but not for interactive games which are dynamic. Stories are static and can not adapt to the behavior of the player.
If we try, we get branching stories, as often seen in RPGs. But this is difficult, increases costs, and decreases the quality of the story.

I`m reading this as instructions to get my robotic arm working.

If we try, we get branching stories, as often seen in RPGs. But this is difficult, increases costs, and decreases the quality of the story.

Terminator the movie provides little to no clue about how to get the stuff working. But Total Recall comes to the rescue. Somewhere at the end of TR there is a scene about simulating the execution of an action, I mean just simulating not actually executing it.

But the problem i see is another: Games try

I haven`t played too many movie-games, not a single one to be more specific. The experience I had that`s closest to what you`re describing is Half Life, I haven`t played anything that followed since HL. I agree games should be open ended with as much room as possible for variation within a quest. If you forget for a second the dark theme I think Diablo did a good job at offering diversity/freedom (with random generated levels and all that) while still preserving the feeling that you`re in a mission. I used to play one MMO a lot (relatively speaking) in the past, my favorite way of playing was to kill creeps randomly in order to lvl up. I hated missions with very narrow conditions.

I`m reading this as instructions to get my robotic arm working.

Obviously you are sometimes just as confused about my comments than i'm about yours : )

> Terminator the movie provides little to no clue about how to get the stuff working. But Total Recall comes to the rescue.

Movies never give any clue about technical workings.
There is a sub genre in science fiction literature, called ‘Hard Science’, which is about providing reasonable explanations of how such new tech could eventually work.
Personally i don't think that's needed, but it would be nice if movies would try to avoid total bullshit. Movies like Matrix or Interstellar were ruined by bullshit, which was not even needed, for really no reason.
In games the bar is usually lower than B movies from the 80's, so using bullshit is just fine.

This comment was not about robotics.

Btw, i have just finished my full body IK solver :D Going back to ragdoll simulation should be really easy now. But i have to work on boring terrain… <:(

I haven`t played too many movie-games, not a single one to be more specific. The experience I had that`s closest to what you`re describing is Half Life, I haven`t played anything that followed since HL.

HL marked an interesting turning point. It's introduction of background story to action games changed the whole industry. At first it seemed for good. I really liked Narrative Shooters til 2010.
But notice: It was more about background story. Implemented by reading notes you can find in the levels, but mostly environment storytelling.

That's not how our great idol of Hollywood does it. So they tried to catch up closer, which gave us modern cut scenes and character centrism.
Still good if done well, e.g. GTA. But very expensive to produce, and most devs could not really compete Rock Star. The stories tried to be more serious, up to topics like relationships. Not the shallow comedy stuff we saw in GTA.
I'm not sure this works for a game, where right after the cutscene you run around and behave like a mass murderer. And there are those ‘interrupting gameplay issues’ i have mentioned.

Though, there is one more game, which to me seems more important than all those big name classics: Outcast.
To me, that's the mother of modern gaming. They did everything which is hip now already 20 years ago, and they did it right. Open World, story connected to missions, side quests, characters.
But modern games could still learn from it. It's lore is not just some blah blah, it exists in the game, and you can find it. And if change soem things, e.g. kill all animals of a species, they don't come back out of nothing. The world is persistent, and your actions have some real effect on it.

Pretty nice. Maybe some RPGs have this too, but i usually quit before i find it out. Imo, RPGs always fail at ‘trying too much’.

Always wanted to try Diablo. But never did, yet.

Btw, i have just finished my full body IK solver

good news. At some point I will have to learn a bit of this stuff too. But not about the bone hierachy part, I`ll need to learn something about basic handling of primitives .

where right after the cutscene you run around and behave like a mass murderer.

sometimes in life you have to chose between two bad options and all you can do is omit to pick the worst of them by picking the other.

i have just finished my full body IK solver

keep posting updates, I`m interested. I for one will never fully (not even half way in) understand the physics behind biped robots but your work does help me understand the Boston Dynamics guys mindset as well as get my own tiny physics setup figured.