{"id":514,"date":"2024-11-11T19:20:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T19:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/?p=514"},"modified":"2024-11-24T13:03:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T13:03:20","slug":"blog-3-hive-mind-progress-update-bringing-realism-to-ant-movement-with-blend-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/?p=514","title":{"rendered":"Blog #3 Hive Mind Progress Update: Bringing Realism to Ant Movement with Blend spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><br>The journey with <em>Hive Mind<\/em> continues, and this time, I&#8217;m diving into perfecting the movement and animations of my ants. Adding the low poly ant mesh with 17 premade animations was a big leap forward, but making those animations work correctly has presented some interesting challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:27px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Challenges with Animations and Movement<\/strong><br>One of the trickiest parts of this stage has been using the animations effectively. Ants in <em>Hive Mind<\/em> don\u2019t just move forward; they can move backward, sideways, and in combinations like diagonally forward. Ensuring that these directions are represented naturally has pushed me to learn and adapt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:29px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>First Time Using Blendspaces<\/strong><br>To address this challenge, I\u2019m exploring blend spaces in Unreal Engine for the first time. Blend spaces will allow me to blend animations smoothly between these movement directions, making the ants&#8217; movement look as lifelike as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:31px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"937\" height=\"617\" src=\"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Unreal-Blendspace.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Unreal-Blendspace.png 937w, https:\/\/hivemind.science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Unreal-Blendspace-300x198.png 300w, https:\/\/hivemind.science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Unreal-Blendspace-768x506.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 937px) 100vw, 937px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:32px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Testing with Manual Control<\/strong><br>Before letting the AI take over, I plan to use a player controller to manually control the ants&#8217; movement. This will help me verify that the animations play correctly, seamlessly transition in all directions, and maintain the right speed. It\u2019s a critical step to ensure that when the AI starts moving the ants autonomously, the movement remains realistic and smooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Basic-Ant-Movement.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Testing the manual control movement. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:34px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Next Steps: AI-Controlled Movement<\/strong><br>Once I\u2019m satisfied with how the animations work under manual control, I&#8217;ll integrate AI to manage the ants&#8217; movement randomly. The goal is to check if the animations still look natural when controlled by the game logic. This will be the true test to ensure that <em>Hive Mind<\/em> feels immersive and believable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:36px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><br>This stage of development has been both challenging and rewarding. Learning to use blend spaces is adding a new tool to my Unreal Engine skill set and moving <em>Hive Mind<\/em> one step closer to being a seamless ant colony simulation. As always, I&#8217;m eager to see how these changes will enhance the project and bring it to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:32px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stay tuned for more updates as I continue refining the mechanics and perfecting the details!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction:The journey with Hive Mind continues, and this time, I&#8217;m diving into perfecting the movement and animations of my ants. Adding the low poly ant mesh with 17 premade animations was a big leap forward, but making those animations work correctly has presented some interesting challenges. Challenges with Animations and MovementOne of the trickiest parts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-progress-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hivemind.science\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}