Dark ai is very good at avoiding obsticles on a 2d plane. you basically assign objects to be static obsticals, it reads for collision within a certain section of the y axis(assigned by the user)
any object that has been assigned as an entity will take steps to avoid the collision points. you can place nodes to better guide them, but i didnt bother, it works pretty well without them.
so far as multi story goes, i would use an if statement along the lines of...
if target is upstairs
make way to co ordinates at bottom of stairwell
move between nodes leading up the stairs.
use your own collision routine to keep the character on the stairs
load next levels ai collision map.
continue to target path
endif
I like it, there are simple commands for basic FPS AI functions.
you can also turn off automatic mode and use its functions to build a more complex custom routine.
you can place them into teams, set them to be aggressive, evasive or idle. make them hear sounds or "see" objects you can set the range of their detection. With a little customization you can make it as complex as you want.
so far as how many, I made a very basic program where there was a village of 3dplane people who got hungry thirsty bored and tired. I had quite a lot of them going at once. I haven't noticed much of a performance hit using it. i imagine it would be similar to how many moving objects you can have on screen at one time before performance is compromised.
the demo in my sig link uses Dark AI for the enemy monsters.
kezzla
