Implemented path finding so NPCs can walk from/to anywhere on the map. Path finding happens in small steps over several frames because it's a large map. The NPC might take several seconds to find a path, but the game doesn't pause while it's doing that.
@grumpygamer Someone spilled solder all over the PCB! 😱
@grumpygamer I’m trying to get my head around how it could calculate an entire path incrementally, or are you just silo-ing the resources that the wayfinding algorithm has access to?
@tallstorygames Every from I do 50 steps of the a*, then the next frame I continue.
@grumpygamer Ah! So each increment investigates a portion of the possibilities and compiles them, but it doesn’t know what the final chosen steps will be until it crunches the data at the end?
@tallstorygames correct. Each actor has their own ai* routine and they run a few steps and it returns, then they just wait for it to be done. It does mean they stop in place while "thinking". But only for a few seconds.
@grumpygamer I wish it only took me a few seconds to work out where I needed to be.
@grumpygamer Is there a reason you don't precompute some waypoints on the map when you generate it? Then all the NPC have to do is find the path to the closest waypoint and the path from the waypoint closest to the destination.
@rold2007 Its fast as it is.