Animals¶

There exists a range of animals in the world of Zanzarah, none of which is essential to gameplay. The only animal type you can call essential would be the Pixie, but it is not seen internally as an animal, so this wiki won't either. Also animals internally usually have three components:

The AnimalBase which is a reference used by the AnimalManager
The AnimalController which holds and controls the actor, its animations, the location of the animal
The AnimalBaseAI (mostly WaypointAI) which control its behaviour.

Every animal has at least one actor description file associated to it and an activation distance. Outside of this distance animals are not updated. Additionally animals use their trigger arguments (most have a speed parameter).

Link	Type	Actor file	Name	Activation Distance
[x]	0	a000sa00 a001sa00	Butterfly	120
[x]	1	a002sa01	Dragonfly	200
[x]	2	a003sa02 a005sa04	Brown bird White? bird	400
	3		unused type
[x]	4	a004sa03	Frog	300
[x]	5	a005sa04	Blue bird	5000
[x]	6	-/-	Firefly	700
[x]	7	a006sa05 a007sa06	Red bug green bug	120
[x]	8	-/-	Collection fairy	700
[x]	9	a008sa07	Rabbit	300
[x]	10	a020sa20 a021sa20	Brown chicken White chicken	500
[x]	11	u010s10m	"Black pixie"	300

Butterfly¶

The butterfly chooses randomly with equal chances between his two actor files. The speed is stored in the ii2 argument (speed = ii2 * 0.001). It rotates in an 8 shape and normally does not check for collisions with the world. In almost all cases it first rotates clock-wise?, but with a very small chance (about 1 to 2^31) it rotates the other way around. This is most likely a bug by the programmer, as the original formula looks like this: randomFloat() <= 0.0

ButterflyAI¶

In Pseudo-code the AI update looks like this:

degreeDelta = timeDelta * 40
newDegrees = lastDegrees + degreeDelta
lastDegrees = newDegrees
if (newDegrees > 360) {
    degreeDelta -= (360 - degreeDelta)
    rotateDir *= -1
    lastDegrees = 0
}
rotateY(degreeDelta * rotateDir)
moveForward(speed * timeDelta)

Dragonfly¶

The dragonfly uses the WaypointAI with a max idle time of 4 and a speed of 5. It does not flee nor crawl.

Bird¶

If there is a single bird trigger in the scene, four bird slots are created for the whole scene. More triggers do not mean more birds. Birds are spawned when their slot is free and they follow a simple movement pattern. Between the two actor files are chosen randomly with equal distribution, their speed is fixed at 4.

BirdAI (implemented directly in their update function, not as AI class)¶

If they haven't spawned yet or are marked as spawnable, they may spawn each frame with a chance of 60% and run this code:

setLocationToTrigger()
v1 = Vector(
    triggerDir.X * -1,
    0,
    triggerDir.Y * -1)
move( normalize(v1) * 10 )

pitchSpeed = ii3 * 0.001
distanceLeft = (randomFloat()+0.5) * 50

if they are spawned their update code looks like this:

moveDistance = speed * timeDelta; // remember: speed is fixed at 4
newDistanceLeft = distanceLeft - moveDistance
if (newDistanceLeft > 0) {
    triggerDir.y += timeDelta * pitchSpeed
    setDirection(triggerDir)
    move( triggerDir * moveDistance )
}
else
    markAsSpawnable();

Frog¶

The frog has just one actor file, it uses the WaypointAI and moves with a speed of 5. It does not flee, but crawl in full cycles and idles at max 5 seconds.

BlueBird¶

The blue bird has just one actor file and uses a custom AI. It circles around a center point defined by moving ii2 * 0.01 units from the trigger in trigger direction. Its speed is ii3 * 0.001.

BlueBirdAI¶

moveSin = sin(timeDelta * speed)
moveCos = sin(timeDelta * speed)
deltaPos = pos - center
newPos = center + Vector(
    moveCos * deltaPos.X - moveSin * deltaPos.Z,
    pos.Y,
    moveSin * deltaPos.X + moveCos * deltaPos.Z)

setDirection( normalize( newPos - pos) )
setPosition( newPos )

Firefly¶

The firefly does not have an actor file, instead it uses the effect 4018. It is controlled by the WaypointAI. Its speed is set at spawn as randomFloat() * 3.0, as well as his max idle time randomFloat(). Also at start his max bounce height is set to ii2 * 0.5 and a start bounce is set as random integer value between 0 and maxBounce.

It uses an additional update functionality:

curBounce += timeDelta * 1000
if (curBounce > maxBounce) {
    curBounce = 0;
    maxBounce = randomFloat() * 600 + 400; // yes this overwrites the parameter ii2
}
moveUp( sin( curBounce * 2 * PI / maxBounce ) * 0.02)

Bug¶

The bug chooses randomly with equal distribution between his two actor files. It crawls at a fixed speed of 0.2 according to the WaypointAI. It does not flee.

CollectionFairy¶

The collection fairy is the only animal type, that can not be put in a scene, as in "it will not spawn if put into a scene file". It is spawned automatically based on the unused fairies of the player and the CollectionWizform triggers, which only occur in London. It uses its own AI and is not influenced by any trigger arguments. The fairy type and thus its actor file is set upon spawn, the frequency at which the fairy bounces is also set at spawn to randomFloat() * 40 + 60.

CollectionFairyAI¶

posOffset = Vector(
    0.1 * cos(allTime * 0.0033333),
    0.02 * cos(allTime / bounceFreq),
    0.1 * sin(allTime * 0.0033333))
dirToPlayer = normalize( playerPos - triggerPos )

setPosition( triggerPos - dirToPlayer + posOffset );
lookAt(playerPos)

Rabbit¶

Rabbits only have one actor file, they crawl at a speed of 2.1 in full cycles lead by the WaypointAI, whilst idling at max 5 seconds. They do not flee from the player.

Chicken¶

Chicken have two actor files, chosen by their trigger argument ii2. They use the WaypointAI and are the only one using this AI, which do flee from the player. They crawl at a speed of 2.1 and idle at max 6 seconds. Furthermore they are placed at a random animal waypoint around their actual waypoint, but not at those whose distance is greater than 500.

Black pixie¶

Before starting: the name "Black Pixie" may not be the internal name. Internal names are not found yet and this name may be highly inaccurate. Maybe some day one of the original developers will tell us more about it. The black pixie only has a single actor file, it uses the WaypointAI and crawls at a speed of 2.1 in full cycles. It idles at max 5 seconds.

WaypointAI¶

Last but not least, the WaypointAI shall be described. It is the most used animal AI in the game, but also has some specialized behaviour for different animals.

TODO