Thank you for downloading the RB: AI Version 1.0!

Waypointing

Waypointing guide for the RealBot: AI Preview Release
NOTE: You should have some knowledge about the console of HL and how to bind keys in the console!

CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. The commands
3. Getting started
4. Precalculation
5. Handling Objects
6. Adding light values (new)
7. Hints and tips
8. Testing your map

1. Introduction:
Waypointing for RealBot : AI is quite easy. Once you get used to the procedures you can waypoint maps within 4 or 5 minutes. Bigger maps , with more complicated objects, like ladders/doors, can take around 6 to 8 minutes. Once you did your part of waypointing a map, RealBot will take care of the rest like connecting waypoints and calculating visibility flags.

Waypoints in RealBot : AI provide information for navigation, but also provide information where to look at, where to hide when in battle , where to go to set up a small ambush and more. The waypoints are sort of 'info-points' which RealBot Beta 2.2 used.

You are limited to 500 waypoints a map, this should be more then enough to waypoint a map. I did not encounter any limitations when waypointing the bigger maps of Counter-Strike.

At the end, it all counts if you can reach waypoint A to waypoint B, this is how the precalculator works too (see section 4 for more information). However, less waypoints mean less information where to camp, hide, look etc.

2. The Commands:
The following console commands are used to waypoint a map:
All commands begin with "waypoint" (without quotes), followed by the actual action that should be performed.

waypoint init - Clears all waypoints.
waypoint draw - Will display all waypoints on your screen.
waypoint connections - displays all connections from the waypoint you're at. Only works after precalculation and is meant to find errors in your waypoint file.
waypoint add - adds a waypoint.
waypoint delete - deletes a waypoint.
waypoint door - will set waypoint into door waypoint, or back into normal.
waypoint jump - will set waypoint into jump waypoint, or back into normal.
waypoint start - will set up important waypoints.
waypoint end - will run precalc, and save all information into a file.

New
Over time, people mailed about having more control over waypoints and bots navigation, the following commands are added to satisfy their needs.

waypoint important .. - Makes this waypoint important for team & camping
waypoint walk - Forces bots to walk to this waypoint
waypoint radius .. - Sets own specific 'touch radius' for waypoint
waypoint loadfromini - Forces map to 'reload' from the INI file and overwrite any existing RBW file with it
waypoint campmode .. - When a bot camps here, it will be forced to camp on this specific mode.

Water navigation is possible now, check out section "handling objects" how to get your bots swimming!

The most important commands are available in the wptmenu, a botmenu for waypointing. It's not enabled by default, but you can do so by editing the bot.cfg inside your realbot folder. That menu won't replace the console though, light values need to be typed in manually.


3. Getting Started:
Ok, you load up a map, there are no waypoints for it yet. No need to worry, cause this step by step tutorial will make out of you a top notch waypointer.

Bring down the console, you do this by pressing the ~ , if it does not come down you should be sure that the command line of HL uses the -console tag in order to activate it.

Now, the console is your best friend, keep that in mind. It allows you to issue all needed commands in order to waypoint a map.

We start by displaying the waypoints we are going to place, type the following command:

waypoint draw

You will see a message that drawing is enabled, and you should be able to see waypoints very soon now. Ok, now the objectives and the starting locations of a map are the most vital waypoints, so, to make sure we waypoint them all we will issue a special command who does this for us, type:

waypoint start

Great! You will be seeing some colorfull waypoints. Depending on the team you have choosen, you will be able to see red, or blue waypoints. The waypoints are also quite short, but not all of them. Short waypoints are 'basic' waypoints. They have no additional properties assigned to them, when they do, they will have another piece on top of them in a different color.

Without & with additional properties.

The lower part of the waypoint can have several colors; with all different meanings:

blue - A counter-terrorist starting waypoint
red - A terrorist starting waypoint
yellow - A door waypoint
light blue - A jump waypoint
purple - A ladder waypoint
white - A 'normal' waypoint


Ladder waypoint

Ok, i really advise you to bind the "waypoint add" command to a key , because we are going to use this one very often! I have bound this command to the "/" key.

Now, all we have to do, is to walk from our spawn position to the other spawn position and add waypoints. Be sure that the waypoints we add can reach each other. This means you can make a skeleton of waypoints. This will work, but, as said in the introduction the waypoints are not only navigation points. You should also place waypoints on places where a bot should look when navigating, where it should camp (it will learn this) etc.


An overview of the waypoints in de_dust
Assuming our map is not using any obstacles, like doors , ladders or jumping stuff. We simply walk to all possible places and add a waypoint. Be sure you add waypoints atleast 60 units from each other. This is only for waypoints of the same type. For example, if you have added a waypoint and made it a door waypoint, then you can add a normal waypoint closer to it then 60 units. For your orientation, a player is 72 units high.

If you want to know how to handle the obstacles, read section 5.

Ok, once done with adding waypoints and such, we should end our session and save all information into a file. Before the bots can use the waypoints, there should be some calculation which connects the waypoints and sets up all paths so the bots know how to get from A to B. This all is arranged by the Precalculation... Bring down the console and type:

waypoint end

Now, the precalculator will do its work. Depending on your computer speed it will take some time. On my machine it took around 1~2 minutes a map. Huge maps (like militia or siege) took around 3~4 minutes.

Please, do not touch anything when running the precalculator! Windows might think that your Half-Life is crashing, but it is NOT. Because the process takes some time , windows thinks the program is dead or something.

Once you can move again, and see the message "waypointing done, have fun playing!", you should turn off drawing waypoints, type again:

waypoint draw

and you wont see the waypoints. Now, you should test the bot with your waypointed map, read section 7 for this!