Tamer Sioufi
System - Anomaly Highlights
Data Driven Movement
To complement my pathfinding system, I developed a modular, data-driven space movement component designed for realistic spaceship navigation.
Built with reusability in mind, the component features built-in functions that move units through the aforementioned pathfinding waypoints, while adhering to space-based movement principles. Ships rotate before moving, bank during turns, and accelerate or decelerate smoothly based on distance. The system also supports mechanics such as minimum engagement ranges and configurable stats for fine-tuning unit behaviour, all aimed at achieving a fluid, believable space movement system.
Space Movement Component
To achieve movement that felt grounded in classic science fiction, I developed the space movement component to simulate thruster-based navigation. In many sci-fi settings, spaceships rely on rear thrusters and forward-facing momentum, turning and banking slowly rather than pivoting instantly. I wanted to capture that familiar sense of weight and inertia. The component takes data from the pathfinding system and interpolates it through a series of movement functions that handle rotation, acceleration, deceleration, and target approach. Together, these create the believable space movement from 'System - Anomaly'.
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Since I wanted a data driven system I created a data table to easily modify the statistics of individual ships.
The component initializes the ship’s movement statistics and controls the function responsible for driving its motion. Ships move using thruster-based logic, rotating first before accelerating in the direction they’re facing. The movement runs on tick for smoother, more responsive behaviour. This is a best practice in scenarios where real-time updates are critical.
To maintain performance, I’ve added optimizations that prevent unnecessary calculations and ensure the tick function doesn’t run continuously when not needed.
The 'Move To' function was developed as a math-based system to improve the accuracy and realism of spaceship movement. It follows a data-driven design, where unit behaviour dynamically adjusts based on values defined in the data table. This approach not only supports faster iteration and testing but also promotes centralized control and follows common best practices for scalable, modular systems.
Above is an example of the 3D space movement system. You can see how the ships move in a believable fashion in keeping with their design as sci -fi ships
Optimisations
To keep the system running smoothly, I made sure to only tick the space component when units are moving. The maths based movement function will only run if there is a valid destination. This works independently from the detection and combat systems. Both systems are decoupled. This is best coding practise and allows for fast and scalable systems.