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AI not walking through visportals?

grayman

By grayman
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grayman

grayman

Posted
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I had an AI who wouldn't patrol. I got him to run after me, and I followed his patrol to see what was blocking him. He always got to a certain point, where he would stop and start throwing rocks. It was an opening with a visportal. After trying a few different things, I finally checked the visportal itself. It was one I had clipped to size using DR 1.5.

 

In DR 1.5, when you clip a brush, the new faces get caulked. This is what's supposed to happen. However, if a visportal face that's supposed to be nodraw is instead caulk, the visportal still works, but an AI can't path his way through it.

 

I selected the visportal and used Brush->Make Visportal, which correctly paints the faces, and the AI started patrolling.

 

Just something to watch out for.

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Sotha

Sotha

Posted
Posted

This is a bug to be fixed no?

 

Nah, sounds more like a mapper problem. DR has the create VP function which should keep the issues to minimum. Good to know, though, that visportals must have nodraw.. Didn't expect that.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Springheel

Springheel

Posted
Posted

I've got a visportal that AI refuse to walk through, yet all the other sides are properly set to nodraw. Is there some other reason why AI might not use them? I seem to recall some other discussion on this topic but I can't find it.

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nbohr1more

nbohr1more

Posted
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I recall that Sotha found that if monsterclip intersects with any visportal anywhere in your map the AI will not pathfind correctly.

 

Other than that... make sure some world-spawn is where the AI need to traverse the visportal? (Caulk wells, etc?)

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grayman

grayman

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I've got a visportal that AI refuse to walk through, yet all the other sides are properly set to nodraw. Is there some other reason why AI might not use them? I seem to recall some other discussion on this topic but I can't find it.

 

Is there a door nearby that is not visportaled?

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nbohr1more

nbohr1more

Posted
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One mapper reported pathfinding broke down due to some monsterclip penetrating a visportal. Split in two either side cured the problem. Others have said unsealed non-working visportals or ones crossed by func_statics also might cause pathfinding problems.

 

 

From the pathfinding wiki but the warnings are in language that indicates that these are not fully confirmed issues... :unsure:

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grayman

grayman

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I've got a visportal that AI refuse to walk through, yet all the other sides are properly set to nodraw. Is there some other reason why AI might not use them? I seem to recall some other discussion on this topic but I can't find it.

 

If you want to send me the area exhibiting the problem, I'll be happy to see what pathfinding is doing.

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Sotha

Sotha

Posted
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I am certain that monsterclip penetrating a visportal causes issues.

 

I think any worldspawn brush intersecting a vp causes problems.

 

I am sure that func_statics intersecting a vp does not cause issues. If the fs is monsterclipped, see the first point. You can still have a fs monsterclipped by making two mc brushes so that they do not touch the vp.

 

I think there will be problems if the vp is not snugly fitted in the doorway. Ie the vp should not clip in the worldspawn.

 

My guess is that checking for these issues will fix your vp.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Springheel

Springheel

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All of my VP clip into worldspawn and most of them aren't causing any problems. But I did put a long strip of monsterclip along the wall to keep AI towards the center, and I think it might actually pentrate the VP on all sides. I'll check that tonight.

 

Incidently, that might also explain why one the characters that should be fleeing, isn't. Her path might be blocked by a similar VP.

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Springheel

Springheel

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Huh, I was wrong. The visportal in question doesn't have any monsterclip even touching it, let alone bisecting it. And another visportal that AI are using properly DOES have a big block of monsterclip going right through it. :huh:

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demagogue

demagogue

Posted
Posted

We should add notes like this to a DR section of the FAQ, because I first figured out the no-AI-pathing problem before 1.0 was even released and people keep running into it (along with the other most common flub, the black walls of death, both of which were the two questions I started the "Newbie DR" thread off with.)

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Sotha

Sotha

Posted
Posted

Huh, I was wrong. The visportal in question doesn't have any monsterclip even touching it, let alone bisecting it. And another visportal that AI are using properly DOES have a big block of monsterclip going right through it. :huh:

 

Hm. So have you gotten the VP to work properly or is it still borked? Could a bisected vp break some other nearby vp?

 

What if you go through all VP's, make them fit snugly in the doorway, check that nothing but func_statics intersect them, Check that all the vp's are created with the make visportal function, so that all surfaces have the appropriate textures and not caulk by accident. Then delete all yourmap files except the .map file and dmap?

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Springheel

Springheel

Posted
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We should add notes like this to a DR section of the FAQ, because I first figured out the no-AI-pathing problem before 1.0

 

Did you figure out a solution too? :)

 

So have you gotten the VP to work properly or is it still borked?

 

I loaded my map to test it last night, but some of the AI were acting strange. Even though I didn't get an AAS error, some of them were standing around on their patrols not moving (yet others were patrolling properly). This has happened a few times lately...it seems to go away when I delete all the .proc and .cm files before dmapping. Long story short, I haven't retested the visportal yet.

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demagogue

demagogue

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Did you figure out a solution too? :)

 

I meant when you have some texture other than nodraw, you change it back to nodraw.

If that's not your issue then I don't know another way that will kill it for AI.

If it clips into worldbrush, a tiny crack can kill the VP (also a crack anywhere into another leaf), but I don't know if that kills it for AI; it just makes the VP not exist.

 

I did know about resetting & dmapping when AI start going loopy (even without an AAS notice). Maybe that was the issue but it looked like the VP was involved?

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Springheel

Springheel

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Posted
I did know about resetting & dmapping when AI start going loopy (even without an AAS notice). Maybe that was the issue but it looked like the VP was involved?

 

Nope, I just tested it again and the AI run right up to it and stop when chasing me. I'm going to see if there are other visportals nearby that have monsterclip and see if fixing those does anything. I don't want to mess with the visportal sizes unless I absolutely have to, as I've already spent a lot of time testing them for internal leaks.

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grayman

grayman

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Nope, I just tested it again and the AI run right up to it and stop when chasing me. I'm going to see if there are other visportals nearby that have monsterclip and see if fixing those does anything. I don't want to mess with the visportal sizes unless I absolutely have to, as I've already spent a lot of time testing them for internal leaks.

 

 

When you've exhausted every mapping check you can think of (or even before), I can offer two bits of help. 1 - I can run the *.map file through my visportal checker, and 2 - I can debug what happens when the AI comes up against that vp.

 

 

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Springheel

Springheel

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Ok, I think I'm ready to hand it off. I'm getting massively frustrated by about five different issues that seem to have no cause. There are NO visportals touching monsterclip anywhere near the one the AI won't go through. I tried moving it a bit, and that didn't help at all.

 

I checked the console while the AI were standing there not chasing me, and I saw that AI Movestack contains 100 moves error again; don't know if that's related.

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grayman

grayman

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I checked the console while the AI were standing there not chasing me, and I saw that AI Movestack contains 100 moves error again; don't know if that's related.

That should definitely not be happening with the latest 1.05 RC.

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Springheel

Springheel

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Curiouser and curiouser. I just updated SVN and tried the map again, with the player start moved right to the visportal in question, and the AI charged me normally.

 

So either moving the player start did something (?!) or whatever caused the issue was recently fixed on SVN. :huh:

 

I'll move the player start back and see what happens.

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