Basics of Navmeshing

[flatline115]

Note: Sorry for the poor grammar and this is intended for newbies who've no idea what they're doing as far as Navmesh goes.

Introduction:
There're two ways you can go about Navmeshing the cell. One way is to just autogen it.. The other is to Navmesh it yourself (manually). There're benefits to doing both despite the end result being mostly same-ish.


Utilities of Navmeshing:
Preferred Pathing:
This is really useful when you've auto-generated the Navmesh; as it still gives you control over where the NPC will path without having to spend a long amount of time Navmeshing it manually. So how do you do this? Hit CTRL+E to open Navmesh mode in the cell you desire. And then you should click on a triangle you've navmeshed as so:

http://i.imgur.com/HbAs0RJ.png

If you did everything correctly you should simply press 'p' and it will make that triangle a preferred path. To make actual use of the preferred path you set out however, you'll need to check "Prefer Preferred Path?" in packages.

Water:

Sometimes you'll want to navmesh over water to indicate swimming, for example. The way to do this is to navmesh normally and just select the triangle and hit the 'O' button.

Creating a Navmesh:

Manually:

Find a good starting area for the cell you want to Navmesh and have the mode open (hotkey to open navmesh mode is CTRL+E). Then simply hold control and left click three times against broad areas as so:

http://i.imgur.com/BdwDJZv.png

You can continue working off that triangle or make a new one and later connect it. Personally I find it easier to work off of an existing triangle and just make new ones when I've too. If when working you find your triangle getting too small you can left click on the edge of a triangle (while holding control). If you click long enough away from the other

Working with open word cells:

Kind of needs a subsection of its own. Essentially you'll run into an issue when navmeshing in Open world cells that you can't navmesh to a cell nearby. What you'll want to do is drag the edge of the navmesh as far as you can to the invisible border and then line up the vertices. An example of this:

http://i.imgur.com/KlSn42z.png

After lining it up correctly you'll want to finalize your navmesh (Hotkey: CTRL+F1) if you lined up correctly the border of the cells will have green lines like this:

http://i.imgur.com/Xz4l409.png

The green lines show that an NPC can make passage between the two cells navmeshes. You also should finalize the navmesh in every cell you're working in.

That about covers the basics of manually navmeshing..
Authors Note:
I did mention that you can create new triangles instead of working off of the one you initially created; which is true. But for the Navmesh to work they need to eventually connect.

Auto-Generating Navmeshing:
If you wish to get it done quickly just hit CTRL+E, then click Navmesh on the top toolbar, Then Generation, Recast and finally on the new window that popped up hit "include landscapes" and select okay. Then Navmesh will be generated by your computer. You'll need to do this in every cell you want to Navmesh in.

That about covers it.. Any questions or feedback could be put below.

[Mattiewagg]

Nice tutorial :)

[sLoPpYdOtBiGhOlE]

One small thing that I find helps when aligning exterior navmesh cell joins.

After dragging a vertices to the edge of the cell hit the F key, this will make the the vertices sit flush to the ground.

Do it on edges from both cells before finalizing.

It just make the green line join between cells perfect flush alignment after finalizing.

[skinnytecboy]

One small thing that I find helps when aligning exterior navmesh cell joins.

After dragging a vertices to the edge of the cell hit the F key, this will make the the vertices sit flush to the ground.

Do it on edges from both cells before finalizing.

It just make the green line join between cells perfect flush alignment after finalizing.

Great tip. I enjoy navmesh as I find it quite relaxing (honest).

 

Perhaps add this here too: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3144679-ck-tricks-secrets-and-hidden-gems/&do=findComment&comment=27953864

[sLoPpYdOtBiGhOlE]

 

One small thing that I find helps when aligning exterior navmesh cell joins.

After dragging a vertices to the edge of the cell hit the F key, this will make the the vertices sit flush to the ground.

Do it on edges from both cells before finalizing.

It just make the green line join between cells perfect flush alignment after finalizing.

Great tip. I enjoy navmesh as I find it quite relaxing (honest).

 

Perhaps add this here too: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3144679-ck-tricks-secrets-and-hidden-gems/&do=findComment&comment=27953864

 

Yep I do enjoy nameshing myself when I'm in the right frame of mind.

I do agree It's quite relaxing when your not in a hurry or on a timeline.

I must admit, I'm not greatly experienced or fast with it, but I do find it soothing

[Mattiewagg]

I love navmeshing. Favorite thing to do in the CK.

[Tlaffoon]

Try navmeshing a spiral staircase in an exterior cell..now thats..fun Edited August 19, 2015 by Tlaffoon

[Mattiewagg]

Try navmeshing a spiral staircase in an exterior cell..now thats..fun

Better than scripting something then finding out it doesn't work and literally punching the wall a couple of times in anger. :)

 

Note: I've only punched the wall once. It hurt. Tables are better. *nods sagely*

[ToppDog]

LOL, I feel you on the spiral staircase outdoors. I'm sure scripting can be even worse, but I have tried very little of that... for that very reason :)

[sLoPpYdOtBiGhOlE]

No object to big, to small to curved or to angled in exteriors are too challenging :tongue:

But doing a drop off waiter pit where your exit out of the water is a ledge protruding off the edge and partially in the water that is across multiple cells .. that's a different story.

It's just something I struggle with, mainly to inexperience.

 

Damn wasted hours only to finalize with abundant triangle facing normals errors...doh

Mainly because of the namesh going up the wall then following under the overhanging ledge, around the ledge then over the top of the ledge out of the water.... fail

(First time I'd seen a navmesh error of this type :smile: )

 

Edit: I do have a lot of broken keyboards, not so much from scripting, more from CK frustration of stability and inconsistency.

Or maybe I should say the consistent CK instability.