Virtual AI System

ALiVE Systems

How It Works

The revolutionary Virtual AI System processes a complete set of data about every AI unit allowing them to be despawned from the game world yet still interact with other ALiVE modules. This allows the ‘virtual battle’ to continue in the background without taking up valuable server resources. Units will reappear in the game world as soon as a player comes within visual range.

Usage

Press F5 in eden, and look for the module titled ALiVE Virtual AI System. Place it onto the map, and double click for options.

1. Enable Debug (yes || default no): Enabling debug on this module will show you all profiled groups on the map in game. Groups that are spawned in will be completely colored in, while groups that are currently profiled will retain some transparency.
2. Persistent (yes || default no): enables Virtual AI Persistence for multi session operations with ALiVE Data.
3. Synchronization Options (dropdown):
   1. Only Virtualize Synced Units (default): This option will instruct ALiVE to profile any unit synced to this module. To learn more about how to sync things in Eden, go here
   2. Virtualize All Editor Placed Units except synced units: This option will instruct ALiVE to profile all editor placed units, other than those synced to this module.
4. Spawn Radius (number, default 1500): Sets the distance at which units will begin to spawn in around a player.
5. Spawn Heli Radius (number, default 1500): Sets the distance at which units will begin to spawn in around a helicopter.
6. Spawn Planes Radius (number, default 0): Sets the distance at which units will begin to spawn in around a plane.
7. Active Limiter: Caps the number of Virtual Profiles that can be spawned into the game world at any one time. Note that a Virtual Profile can be a Group of AI, or a vehicle, or a single Player. The Active Limit is NOT the max number of individual units that will ever spawn. The default value is 144. Groups are spawned on a first-come, first-served basis - so whichever happens to be closest to a player at the time will spawn first. Any remaining virtual groups above the limit will be moved outside of spawn range.
8. Profile Speed Modifier: Alters the speed at which virtual units move across the map. None equates to 100% normal unit speed.

Editor Notes

Making a mission with a lot of Virtual AI then artificially spawn-limiting them is inefficient and may get weird results, such as units spawning in behind players and moving into areas already cleared. Best practice is to reduce the density or number of Virtual Profiles in the Placement Modules to improve performance.

The profile system currently only supports Move and Cycle waypoints.

Triggers and other complex editor tools do not function in the virtual battle space, though it is possible to detect the presence of Profiles via scripts. See Script Snippets for details.

Do not sync players to the Profiler - they are handled separately by ALiVE.