Another idea for NoAI APi improvement

[Bilbo]

As humans can watch certain vehicles and stations to improve their performance, I think some functions could be added to NoAI API to make that a little bit easier for noAI too.

Now noAI can poll the vehicles, but to see what vehicles are around certain area, AI have to query for all vehicles and then filter them by position.

Adding AIVehicleList_Area(Tile, radius) that will return all vehicles in certain area (the maximal value of radius could be limited to some "reasonable value") would help AI's to monitor performance of vehicles in certain areas and detect queues or another unwanted situations (simply seeing too much vehicles in one area mean usually trouble)
Humans can look at place in map and see there is a problem. This will help AI's to do the same with less CPU time consumed.

Another usable addition would be adding event like AIEventStationFirstVehicle, but that will be triggered for every arrival, not just first. As that could generate lots of event, it could be disabled by default, and AI would have to enable it for certain vehicles or stations of interest - those the AI wish to monitor closely (similar to humans opening another viewports or windows with desired station or vehicle)

[Yexo]

As humans can watch certain vehicles and stations to improve their performance, I think some functions could be added to NoAI API to make that a little bit easier for noAI too.

Now noAI can poll the vehicles, but to see what vehicles are around certain area, AI have to query for all vehicles and then filter them by position.

Adding AIVehicleList_Area(Tile, radius) that will return all vehicles in certain area (the maximal value of radius could be limited to some "reasonable value") would help AI's to monitor performance of vehicles in certain areas and detect queues or another unwanted situations (simply seeing too much vehicles in one area mean usually trouble)
Humans can look at place in map and see there is a problem. This will help AI's to do the same with less CPU time consumed.

The cpu win compared to the following is very small:

Code: Select all

function VehicleDistanceToTile(vehicle, tile) {
  return AIMap.DistanceManhattan(AIVehicle.GetLocation(vehicle), tile);
}
local list = AIVehicleList();
list.Valuate(VehicleDistanceToTile, some_tile);
list.KeepBelowValue(5);
/* list now contains all vehicles in a 5-tile radius around some_tile. */

Another usable addition would be adding event like AIEventStationFirstVehicle, but that will be triggered for every arrival, not just first. As that could generate lots of event, it could be disabled by default, and AI would have to enable it for certain vehicles or stations of interest - those the AI wish to monitor closely (similar to humans opening another viewports or windows with desired station or vehicle)

Personally I don't see a need for this. If you want to follow a vehicle closely, just query it a lot.

[Zuu]

I'd say that AIs written with NoAI API already has the capability to be much better than human on monitoring large areas that a human. Although it will only monitor things you have programmed it to monitor.

[Bilbo]

The cpu win compared to the following is very small:

Code: Select all

function VehicleDistanceToTile(vehicle, tile) {
  return AIMap.DistanceManhattan(AIVehicle.GetLocation(vehicle), tile);
}
local list = AIVehicleList();
list.Valuate(VehicleDistanceToTile, some_tile);
list.KeepBelowValue(5);
/* list now contains all vehicles in a 5-tile radius around some_tile. */

Hmm .... this could probably work, though for large maps (2048 * 2048) and lots of vehicles (hundreds/thousands) it may start to be a little ineffective. I wonder if the code used to display vehicles on screen does have any optimization to select only vehicles visible in the shown area or if it simply uses similar iteration over all vehicles in each frame to determine if they lie withing the displayed boundaries - ineffective if only small fraction of many vehicles (for such large maps, thousands of vehicles is nothing uncommon) is actually visible ...

[Pat]

I think main problem is that there isn't any way how to see competitor's vehicles (or is it possible?). It makes it really hard to detect traffic jams. Same problem is with stations.

[planetmaker]

Hmm .... this could probably work, though for large maps (2048 * 2048) and lots of vehicles (hundreds/thousands) it may start to be a little ineffective. I wonder if the code used to display vehicles on screen does have any optimization to select only vehicles visible in the shown area or if it simply uses similar iteration over all vehicles in each frame to determine if they lie withing the displayed boundaries - ineffective if only small fraction of many vehicles (for such large maps, thousands of vehicles is nothing uncommon) is actually visible ...

How do you determine whether something is within a given area except checking every vehicle? Even a sorting algorithm needs to do that and wouldn't gain speed over checking x and y directly...

[Zutty]

I think main problem is that there isn't any way how to see competitor's vehicles (or is it possible?). It makes it really hard to detect traffic jams. Same problem is with stations.

I've not tested it, but something like this should work...

Code: Select all

function HasTraffic(tile) {
  local _ = AITestMode();
  return  (!AITile.DemolishTile(tile) && AIError.GetLastError() == AIError.ERR_VEHICLE_IN_THE_WAY);
}

ERR_VEHICLE_IN_THE_WAY takes precedence over other errors, at least it does in the GUI, and so you should get this error even if theres a vehicle on a road you don't own.

I'm still working on my traffic handling, but I maintain a list of tiles that are known to have traffic on then. e.g. if construction on a tile failed because of ERR_VEHICLE_IN_THE_WAY I remember it. If it happens enough times then the tile is black-listed.

[Bilbo]

Hmm .... this could probably work, though for large maps (2048 * 2048) and lots of vehicles (hundreds/thousands) it may start to be a little ineffective. I wonder if the code used to display vehicles on screen does have any optimization to select only vehicles visible in the shown area or if it simply uses similar iteration over all vehicles in each frame to determine if they lie withing the displayed boundaries - ineffective if only small fraction of many vehicles (for such large maps, thousands of vehicles is nothing uncommon) is actually visible ...

How do you determine whether something is within a given area except checking every vehicle? Even a sorting algorithm needs to do that and wouldn't gain speed over checking x and y directly...

Well, there are data structures (like quad trees for example) that can help with that, so if you query for vehicles within certain rectangle, you do not need to go through all vehicles.

There are some hash tables for collision detection and for updating viewport, so probably there is faster way (in terms of CPU cycles) to retrieve all vehicles within given rectangle than going through all vehicles in the game. Now just export such fiunction so it is available to AI's :)

[Pat]

I've not tested it, but something like this should work...

Code: Select all

function HasTraffic(tile) {
  local _ = AITestMode();
  return  (!AITile.DemolishTile(tile) && AIError.GetLastError() == AIError.ERR_VEHICLE_IN_THE_WAY);
}

ERR_VEHICLE_IN_THE_WAY takes precedence over other errors, at least it does in the GUI, and so you should get this error even if theres a vehicle on a road you don't own.
I'm still working on my traffic handling, but I maintain a list of tiles that are known to have traffic on then. e.g. if construction on a tile failed because of ERR_VEHICLE_IN_THE_WAY I remember it. If it happens enough times then the tile is black-listed.

wow, it's really smart idea.
But i still think than for new versions we need posibility to get more info about competitors staions (rating) and vehicles. In this area AI has less informations than player.