Do not remove Pathfinding without a replacement in place
Extrude Ragu
From Inara Pey:-
"Signal Linden requested feedback on the idea of deprecating and removing Navmesh characters / llCreateCharacter (i.e. Pathfinding)."
Here is my feedback:-
I am getting the impression LL intends to remove all pathfinding functionality from simulators including the creation of navmesh and LSL functionality like llGetStaticPath
I spent much of last year designing and putting together NPC's for my sim including scripting systems that use LSL pathfinding functionality, and spent a lot of time setting up my sim to generate good navmeshes.
I will be very upset if this feature is just straight up removed. I can't keep investing my time in pioneering technology in SL if LL are not going to commit to maintaining the technology it implements and destroying my creations at random.
I understand the need to transition, but basic pathfinding functionality should be maintained. I do not want to log in one day and find all of my work broken after all of the time and money invested.
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JenniWindrider Resident
If anything, make it more visible with sane defaults. IMO the "navmesh", by default, should _exactly_ follow the same physics our avis use to get around. Add additional options like exclusion volumes and such to the build floater.
Pathfinding is good, useful functionality - it's just currently so buried and un-intuitive for end users that few know about it and NPC/pet creators shy away from it _because_ it's nigh impossible for customers to properly set it up at their home.
Kinda Vile
100% they should not be removing this. I know plenty of projects that use part of pathfinding. This is
actively
used content and affects sims that bring in consistent traffic. It really is starting to feel like LL is creating a negligent environment for scripters and content devs alike.Tayln Osbourne
Considering I'm slowly working on a system that relies on pathfinding, I'd be furious if it was removed. Genuinely furious. It would seriously make me question investments and desire to stay within Second Life.
Chaser Zaks
I oppose the removal of pathfinding. It's a useful tool, but I think it's lack of adoption isn't a reason for removal, rather it'd be better to address it's lack of adoption.
Me and several others have spent great time optimizing a region for pathfinding, and are excited to see how much further we can utilize pathfinding. Seeing pathfinding removed entirely would be extremely disappointing, if not frustrating.
I propose a alternative:
- Keep pathfinding on the simulator, and remove it from the viewer.
- Instead of sending the havok navmesh file, send a LLSD object that contains the current navmesh to render on the viewer.
- Instead of calculating static paths on the viewer, use a generic message to calculate the static path on the simulator. (I.E. Viewer sends {"start": [14,28,22],"end":[250,28,66]}or similar in a generic message, simulator returns the static path to render)
- Optionally, make pathfinding attributes easier to edit. Currently they have to be edited via the pathfinding tool. Being able to editing these via the build floater would be useful. Although I understand if this isn't feasible, the build floater is already crowded enough as it is.
Snowlord Resident
I feel like in recent more years the "keep legacy content working" is going out the window. between the sunsetting of content we've had for years, removing MP listings, breaking lighting, and now maybe removing pathfining to name a few is not cool. at what point do you say lets stop breaking it to add more. I 100 percent agree things like pathfinding need to keep working as they have even if you do upgrade the engine behind it. I personally don't want to feed more money into LL for years if that ideal breaks cause it's what has made it what it is.
dantia Gothly
Removing pathfinding would be a really stupid decision given the amount of content that relies on it as well as the new Character AI requiring it to move characters around.
I've given feedback multiple times in multiple ways on how pathfinding could be improved for everyone and actually be useful and help create cooler experences. Most of which comes down to UI related things like consolidating all the features into one floater \ making it easy for builders to actually find and use. Make regions auto rebake the navmesh every so often, it already detects changes to the nav mesh prompting you to manually rebake it. I'll actually be pissed off if it gets removed without a proper replacement or at least even the slightest attempt at addressing these things because so far nothing has been done even after years of pointing it out in multiple meetings and jira tickets and feedback requests.
animats Resident
dantia Gothly I've given feedback multiple times in multiple ways on how pathfinding could be improved for everyone and actually be useful and help create cooler experences.
Me too. It's all in the old JIRA at https://github.com/secondlife/jira-archive/issues/4944
dantia Gothly
animats Resident https://feedback.secondlife.com/feature-requests/p/pathfinding-update I can't find my jira tickets but I also made this feedback