NAV meshes

[daskal]

First of all, I haven't used them or generated them yet for any of the maps that I'm playing on.

But.

I'm really curious on how it affects gameplay and AI unit path finding in practice. Does this solve bridge problems / running into buildings /walls etc? At least thats what I image this whole NAV mesh thing is supposed to sort out. What are the experiences so far?

[Ssnake]

We are only at the beginning of exploiting the full potential of nav meshes. You will already notice the effect of having a nav mesh present when in the mission editor you plot routes on roads (Shift+click), or cross-country with automatic obstacle avoidance (including those obstacles not rendered on the maps screen).

Without nav meshes, the civilian characters and cars wouldn't properly find their way from a spawn region to their destination in a faraway drain region.

These are the immediate benefits. Also, units can finally pass under bridges.

Future versions of SB Pro will bring additional improvements. The only real drawback at this point is that nav meshes inflate the size of scenarios, which can be maddening if you see it in combination with the current (slow) scenario distribution mechanisms in SB Pro. Also, it can take a bit of time, but here I can only recommend to use the batch conversion tool (SB Navmesh Builder V8), so you start the process and let the PC slave away while you go and make yourself a sandwich or read the newspaper or something useful.