Pathing error in farm-map

[scamp]

I had a farm map today and during the night had a lot of trouble to path. It seemed like my soldiers were not pathing into some dark places once they went into "light" places ( during the night, some buildings have lights... once my soldiers were in they couldn't move out of it again ). Luckily I had 1 patrol sniper in the back which hadn't been anywhere and I could send her step by step close enough to the enemy ship, but otherwise I would have had to cancel the mission : My soldiers simply didn't move where I wanted them to move.
I'm not 100% sure it has to do with light , but I could physically 'see' where my soldiers would probably still go due to it being lighter, and they did. They just didn't want to move into the darker pieces of the map ( there weren't walls or anything, nothing barring them to go there, just their own 'fear of the dark' I guess Like I said before, 1 of my soldiers managed to move where my other soldiers could not, so it's not like they could not move there ( another soldier could ? )

[Valis]

It is a known problem. Devs are already fighting with it. This has stopped the whole project for a while now [2-3 weeks]

We all hope it will be fixed soon.

[scamp]

Ah, didn't know, haven't read the whole dev thingie yet. Maybe there's a problem in the 'lighting-check' somewhere then ?
Anyway, if more people report their pathing issues, that should help developers in the right direction I suppose ?

[scamp]

Ok , today took some screenshots. The pathing bug is definately related to the mapping. The way the map pieces are 'bound together' creates the pathing error in some way. It's visible on the screenshots as a little line between the map 'zones'. I can upload these screenhots if needed. But it's definately a mapping issue, not a pathing issue.

[geever]

Ok , today took some screenshots. The pathing bug is definately related to the mapping. The way the map pieces are 'bound together' creates the pathing error in some way. It's visible on the screenshots as a little line between the map 'zones'. I can upload these screenhots if needed. But it's definately a mapping issue, not a pathing issue.

How do you know that? Did you debug the pathfinding code? Did you check the maps in uforadiant? Screenshots cannot say this, I'm sure. Maybe the map tiles are not matched correctly when the sys assembles the PATHFINDING-MAP. Maps didn't change much for quite a long time and If Richlv says they're okay, I believe it.

-geever

[Borsti67]

Sure, geever, but anyway I see the same strange little line scamp mentioned, outlining exactly (!) the impassable area(s). I never noticed those before pathfinding broke.

Maybe the map tiles are not matched correctly when the sys assembles the PATHFINDING-MAP

At least it is an interesting side-effect, that the map reflects problematic zones.
Do you have a hint, if/how we can make further investigations? I'd bet there's something hidden in this context!
Something within the map makes the pathfinding believe, there's an obstacle - an unlinked chain, a height difference? Strange enough, that these areas are quite large and connected to an outline which is "straight-ahead", not curvy. May be at last it's similar to the good ole Pentium thingy (4 : 2 = 1,99999873)?! 

[geever]

Pathfinding is a black magic, only Wilminator and Duke nows that, and sometimes they loose the way either.

-geever

[Duke]

I'm sure that it's not a map issue.

The RMA is composed of maptiles. The 'routing' part of the pathfinding code has then to recalculate the connections along the borders of the tiles. And that's exactly the code we're still having some issues with...

[scamp]

I'm sure that it's not a map issue.

The RMA is composed of maptiles. The 'routing' part of the pathfinding code has then to recalculate the connections along the borders of the tiles. And that's exactly the code we're still having some issues with...

Ah ok , admittedly I know nothing of the code , it's just strange that the pathing issue is visible on the map as a small dotted line for some reason. Maybe it would help to know why this line is formed during the initial map build ( because it seems static after the initial map has generated ) and that might solve the pathing issue. Let's all hope that Duke and his team finds the bug , this mapping issue makes testing 2.3 very hard. I had an alien who didn't even try to shoot me or lob a grenade and he was 2 tiles away , I guess his AI said "knife him" but there was no path from that alien to my squad.

[Duke]

...Duke and his team...

LOL. I'm still a noob here. The pathfinding code is the *only* part of the code that I understand to some extent. However, the fact that was able to assist wilminator a few times seems to have earned me quite some respect from those devs who have already contributed much more to this project. Thx guys *bows*

@scamp:
The dotted line may or may not be a map issue. If you post a good screnshot of it, richlv probably can tell you.

[Borsti67]

good enough?


I can't get into this upper square, I've marked some ends of the lines also!

[Duke]

Yup ! Good enough.
Those lines shouldn't be visible imho.
richlv ?

[scamp]

Ye borsti posted a pic where the lines are pretty obvious. That's the lines I was talking about

[richlv]

for the record, i don't read forum much, so if somebody wants my input, ping me on irc (like borsti did )

as for the issue, i have tested farm map several times. i managed to see lines like that a few times, but they are barely visible for me, and only at some angles, as if tiles are misaligned for a pixel or two. i suspect this to be a renderer issue, and not connected to the pathfinding problems (unless tiles are misaligned enough to cause pathfinding issues, which i don't view as a likely cause)

as for the cause of inpassable tiles, i think duke is correct - this gotta be pathfinding, maps indeed haven't changed in a notable way since pathfinding merge. and given that even non-rma maps have pathfinding issues, i'm pushing the blame here

[Duke]

@richlv:
Good to know that you don't read the forums too much. Unfortunately I don't use IRC.
We are a great community, so it'll work out somehow. Thx, Borsti

I already took the blame. It's pathfinding imho.
However, those lines shouldn't be visible. I remember that I did NOT see such lines when I toyed with the RMA village map some weeks ago, so it's probably not a general fault in RMA.

Just a thought: could it be some screen resolution thing ?