A Virtual World for Sensate Creatures

aurellem

Written by:

Robert McIntyre

1 The World

There's no point in having senses if there's nothing to experience. In this section I make some tools with which to build virtual worlds for my characters to inhabit. If you look at the tutorials at the jme3 website, you will see a pattern in how virtual worlds are normally built. I call this "the Java way" of making worlds.

  • The Java way:
    • Create a class that extends SimpleApplication or Application
    • Implement setup functions that create all the scene objects using the inherited assetManager and call them by overriding the simpleInitApp method.
    • Create ActionListeners and add them to the inputManager inherited from Application to handle key-bindings.
    • Override simpleUpdate to implement game logic.
    • Running/Testing an Application involves creating a new JVM, running the App, and then closing everything down.
  • A more Clojureish way:
    • Use a map from keys->functions to specify key-bindings.
    • Use functions to create objects separately from any particular application.
    • Use a REPL – this means that there's only ever one JVM, and Applications come and go.

Since most development work using jMonkeyEngine is done in Java, jme3 supports "the Java way" quite well out of the box. To work "the clojure way", it necessary to wrap the JME3 elements that deal with the Application life-cycle with a REPL driven interface.

The most important modifications are:

  • Separation of Object life-cycles with the Application life-cycle.
  • Functional interface to the underlying Application and SimpleApplication classes.

1.1 Header

1.2 General Settings

(in-ns 'cortex.world)

(def ^:dynamic *app-settings*
  "These settings control how the game is displayed on the screen for
   debugging purposes.  Use binding forms to change this if desired.
   Full-screen mode does not work on some computers."
  (doto (AppSettings. true)
    (.setFullscreen false)
    (.setTitle "Aurellem.")
    ;; The "Send" AudioRenderer supports simulated hearing.
    (.setAudioRenderer "Send")))    

(defn asset-manager
  "returns a new, configured assetManager" []
  (JmeSystem/newAssetManager
   (.getResource
    (.getContextClassLoader (Thread/currentThread))
    "com/jme3/asset/Desktop.cfg")))

Normally, people just use the AssetManager inherited from Application whenever they extend that class. However, AssetManagers are useful on their own to create objects/ materials, independent from any particular application. (asset-manager) makes object creation less tightly bound to a particular Application Instance.

1.3 Exception Protection

(in-ns 'cortex.world)

(defmacro no-exceptions
  "Sweet relief like I never knew."
  [& forms]
  `(try ~@forms (catch Exception e# (.printStackTrace e#))))

(defn thread-exception-removal
  "Exceptions thrown in the graphics rendering thread generally cause
  the entire REPL to crash! It is good to suppress them while trying
  things out to shorten the debug loop."
  []
  (.setUncaughtExceptionHandler
   (Thread/currentThread)
   (proxy [Thread$UncaughtExceptionHandler] []
     (uncaughtException
       [thread thrown]
       (println "uncaught-exception thrown in " thread)
       (println (.getMessage thrown))))))

Exceptions thrown in the LWJGL render thread, if not caught, will destroy the entire JVM process including the REPL and slow development to a crawl. It is better to try to continue on in the face of exceptions and keep the REPL alive as long as possible. Normally it is possible to just exit the faulty Application, fix the bug, reevaluate the appropriate forms, and be on your way, without restarting the JVM.

1.4 Input

(in-ns 'cortex.world)

(defn static-integer?
  "does the field represent a static integer constant?"
  [#^java.lang.reflect.Field field]
  (and (java.lang.reflect.Modifier/isStatic (.getModifiers field))
       (integer? (.get field nil))))

(defn integer-constants [class]
  (filter static-integer? (.getFields class)))

(defn constant-map
  "Takes a class and creates a map of the static constant integer
  fields with their names.  This helps with C wrappers where they have
  just defined a bunch of integer constants instead of enums"
  [class]
     (let [integer-fields (integer-constants class)]
       (into (sorted-map)
             (zipmap (map #(.get % nil) integer-fields)
                     (map #(.getName %) integer-fields)))))
(alter-var-root #'constant-map memoize)

(defn all-keys
  "Uses reflection to generate a map of string names to jme3 trigger
  objects, which govern input from the keyboard and mouse"
  []
  (let [inputs (constant-map KeyInput)]
    (assoc
        (zipmap (map (fn [field]
                       (.toLowerCase (.replaceAll field "_" "-"))) (vals inputs))
                (map (fn [val] (KeyTrigger. val)) (keys inputs)))
      ;;explicitly add mouse controls
      "mouse-left" (MouseButtonTrigger. 0)
      "mouse-middle" (MouseButtonTrigger. 2)
      "mouse-right" (MouseButtonTrigger. 1))))

(defn initialize-inputs
  "Establish key-bindings for a particular virtual world."
  [game input-manager key-map]
  (doall
   (map (fn [[name trigger]]
          (.addMapping
           ^InputManager input-manager
           name (into-array (class trigger)
                            [trigger]))) key-map))
  (doall
   (map (fn [name] 
          (.addListener
           ^InputManager input-manager game
           (into-array String [name]))) (keys key-map))))

These functions are for controlling the world through the keyboard and mouse.

constant-map gets the numerical values for all the keys defined in the KeyInput class.

(take 5 (vals (cortex.world/constant-map KeyInput)))
("KEY_ESCAPE" "KEY_1" "KEY_2" "KEY_3" "KEY_4")

(all-keys) converts the constant names like KEY_J to the more clojure-like key-j, and returns a map from these keys to jMonkeyEngine KeyTrigger objects, which jMonkeyEngine3 uses as it's abstraction over the physical keys. all-keys also adds the three mouse button controls to the map.

(clojure.pprint/pprint
 (take 6 (cortex.world/all-keys)))
(["key-n" #<KeyTrigger com.jme3.input.controls.KeyTrigger@2ad82934>]
 ["key-apps" #<KeyTrigger com.jme3.input.controls.KeyTrigger@3c900d00>]
 ["key-pgup" #<KeyTrigger com.jme3.input.controls.KeyTrigger@7d051157>]
 ["key-f8" #<KeyTrigger com.jme3.input.controls.KeyTrigger@717f0d2d>]
 ["key-o" #<KeyTrigger com.jme3.input.controls.KeyTrigger@4a555fcc>]
 ["key-at" #<KeyTrigger com.jme3.input.controls.KeyTrigger@47d31aaa>])

1.5 World Creation

(in-ns 'cortex.world)

(defn no-op
  "Takes any number of arguments and does nothing."
  [& _])

(defn traverse
  "apply f to every non-node, deeply"
  [f node]
  (if (isa? (class node) Node)
    (dorun (map (partial traverse f) (.getChildren node)))
    (f node)))

(defn world
  "the =world= function takes care of the details of initializing a
  SimpleApplication.

   ***** Arguments:

   - root-node : a com.jme3.scene.Node object which contains all of
       the objects that should be in the simulation.

   - key-map : a map from strings describing keys to functions that
       should be executed whenever that key is pressed.
       the functions should take a SimpleApplication object and a
       boolean value.  The SimpleApplication is the current simulation
       that is running, and the boolean is true if the key is being
       pressed, and false if it is being released. As an example,

       {\"key-j\" (fn [game value] (if value (println \"key j pressed\")))}

       is a valid key-map which will cause the simulation to print a
       message whenever the 'j' key on the keyboard is pressed.

   - setup-fn : a function that takes a SimpleApplication object. It
       is called once when initializing the simulation. Use it to
       create things like lights, change the gravity, initialize debug
       nodes, etc.

   - update-fn : this function takes a SimpleApplication object and a
       float and is called every frame of the simulation.  The float
       tells how many seconds is has been since the last frame was
       rendered, according to whatever clock jme is currently
       using. The default is to use IsoTimer which will result in this
       value always being the same.
  "
  [root-node key-map setup-fn update-fn]
  (let [physics-manager (BulletAppState.)]
    (JmeSystem/setSystemDelegate (AurellemSystemDelegate.))
    (doto
        (proxy [SimpleApplication ActionListener] []
          (simpleInitApp
            []
            (no-exceptions
             ;; allow AI entities as much time as they need to think.
             (.setTimer this (IsoTimer. 60))
             (.setFrustumFar (.getCamera this) 300)
             ;; Create default key-map.
             (initialize-inputs this (.getInputManager this) (all-keys))
             ;; Don't take control of the mouse
             (org.lwjgl.input.Mouse/setGrabbed false)
             ;; add all objects to the world
             (.attachChild (.getRootNode this) root-node)
             ;; enable physics
             ;; add a physics manager
             (.attach (.getStateManager this) physics-manager)
             (.setGravity (.getPhysicsSpace physics-manager) 
                          (Vector3f. 0 -9.81 0))
             ;; go through every object and add it to the physics
             ;; manager if relevant.
             ;;(traverse (fn [geom]
             ;;            (dorun
             ;;             (for [n (range (.getNumControls geom))]
             ;;               (do
             ;;                 (cortex.util/println-repl
             ;;                  "adding " (.getControl geom n))
             ;;                 (.add (.getPhysicsSpace physics-manager)
             ;;                       (.getControl geom n))))))
             ;;          (.getRootNode this))
             ;; call the supplied setup-fn
             ;; simpler !
             (.addAll (.getPhysicsSpace physics-manager) root-node)
             (if setup-fn
               (setup-fn this))))
          (simpleUpdate
            [tpf]
            (no-exceptions
             (update-fn this tpf))) 
          (onAction
            [binding value tpf]
            ;; whenever a key is pressed, call the function returned
            ;; from key-map.
            (no-exceptions
             (if-let [react (key-map binding)]
               (react this value)))))
      ;; don't show a menu to change options.      
      (.setShowSettings false)
      ;; continue running simulation even if the window has lost
      ;; focus.
      (.setPauseOnLostFocus false)
      (.setSettings *app-settings*))))

(world) is the most important function here. It presents a more functional interface to the Application life-cycle, and all its arguments except root-node are plain immutable clojure data structures. This makes it easier to extend functionally by composing multiple functions together, and to add more keyboard-driven actions by combining clojure maps.

Author: Robert McIntyre

Created: 2015-04-19 Sun 07:04

Emacs 24.4.1 (Org mode 8.3beta)

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