MINERVA - read-only archives

Hmm, now you've got me thinking about adding stealth into a HL2 mod. Gah, I still need to finish my Portal map before I move into that. It just keeps growing and growing... I wonder if I'll ever decide it's done. :P

I wonder when the ability to base AI decisions on an NPC's view will become widespread? I recal the story of Weta testing the software they had written to add some AI to all of the characters in the big battles of the LotR films.
After adding in some code so that the orcs would band together in little groups and react to the enemy. (nobody wants to hand animate 10,000 orcs). So to test, they spawned an orc in Helms Deep (the big valley with a castle across one end), with all of the elves and humans lined up on the battlements.
The orc takes one look at all this and turns and runs straight over the horizon.

Having a stealth system in HL2 would present problems with battles down in the sewers (etc), although that could be interesting...

Well, that would be too hacky, wouldn't it? :P.

The true method is comparing the color of the player with the background behind him; simulating how the brain reacts to constrasts and then use this data when deciding if the NPC has seen the player. I covered the 'details' in a former post, somewhere.