Garden Reconsacred
Project Overview
Garden Reconsacred is a Unity AI ecosystem simulation group project that showcases complex AI behaviors in a virtual garden environment. This project demonstrates advanced AI programming techniques and ecosystem dynamics.
Key Features
- Complex AI behaviors for virtual flora and fauna
- Simulated ecosystem with interdependent elements
- Developed in Unity using C# for optimal performance
- Collaborative group project showcasing teamwork
- Scalable architecture for easy expansion of AI entities
My Contributions
As part of the development team for Garden Reconsacred, I was responsible for several key components:
- Developed the Scavenger state machine, which inherits from a Brainiac state machine created by a teammate
- Implemented various behaviors for the slime scavenger, including:
- Wandering
- Eating corpses
- Dropping corpses
- Fusing into larger entities when threatened
- Fleeing from predators
- Cuddling together
- Transforming into new slimes from long-decayed corpses
- Created a custom shader for the slime scavenger, enhancing its visual appearance
While I focused on the scavenger AI, my teammates were responsible for implementing the predator and herd prey behaviors. The combination of these different AI types created a complex and dynamic ecosystem simulation.
Technical Showcase: Custom Slime Shader
One of the technical highlights of this project was the development of a custom shader using Unity's Shader Graph system. This shader was specifically designed for the slime scavenger entities, giving them a translucent, gelatinous appearance with internal glow effects. The shader incorporates:
- Dynamic color gradients for visual appeal
- Subsurface scattering simulation for translucency
- Internal glow effects for organic appearance
- Real-time rendering optimization for performance