Entities management :

[YouGroove]

I'm very new to the engine , and i'm asking very basic questions that i really need for future devs !

For example i've made a level in the editor with terrain , assets and entities like different NPCs in a village.

 

My question is how to attach some actions and AI to the entities specifically ?

For example i have some simple AI and dialog code in a Class1 for NPC 1 , and i had another class 2 for NPC 2.

How can i specify in the editor for NPC 1 to use Class 1 and NPC 2 class 2 ?

It is possible to do that in the editor by specifying C++ code for a selected NPC ? Or do i have to use scripting in Lua in the editor for that ?

 

I know there is another solution , by coding directly a main loop in C++ that loads the world , but after that how to do in the program to call a class and method 1 for NPC 1 and a class 2 for NPC 2 ?

And it is possible to to get entities Ids and Names that are in the loaded level to attach classes ?

[Canardia]

You can get a model in C++ with FindChild(scene,"name");

Then you just write whatever classes and AI you want and use that model handle where you need to move it, or do something else with it.

[Rick]

What I normally do is add keys to the model in the editor. When I use C# I actually make the value of these keys be class names that I want this model to create and assign itself to one of it's properties. For one of my demo's I created a class called Bohan which was a boss in an RPG type game. In the Lua scripts I created keys for ClassType which I then assigned Bohan.

 

After the scene gets loaded I loop through all children of the scene entity and look for the key called ClassType and when I found one I would use reflection to create an instance of that class and pass the entity that had that key to the ctor. This was a little more involved but in C++ you can just do a switch statement.

 

I found this to work out really well actually and when using C# it gave me some pretty cool options using reflection and doing it this way as I "could" make Bohan a separate DLL and make changes to how that boss works without touching the main game project.

[YouGroove]

Thanks guys !

I choose C++, so i plan to call some function like FindChild, but instead FindAllChilds !

Or perhaps use a file describing all name entities in a level than call the GetChild, and when found instantiate in an Array or Hashmap

this class for this entitie.

Each instance class will have it's own parameters going on : Life, mana, States AI etc ...

 

For C# , does it cover actually all engine stuff in latest version in the majority like 90% compared to C++ that covers all functions ?

Perhaps i could try tonight C# instead of C++ and CodeBlocks why not ?