I’ve put coverage of Pathfinding in several updates this week (29). This post has some of the unique items less related to other topics.
Vehicles
Right now the main Pathfinding concern is how vehicles work with the new Havok Physics Engine version. Depending on who one asks, they work well or not at all. So, far that seems to be a matter of whether the vehicle is built well or not. I know saying ‘well’ is an over simplification.
The concern is not really with Pathfinding. It is Havok. But, Pathfinding precipitates the change from height maps to terrain mesh. That change is breaking some content…
The Lab does not resist breaking what they consider poorly made content, at least not in all cases. This seems to be one of those cases.
One of the big problems with vehicles and the new Havok is the use of collision surfaces made from sculpties and tori. Using either for the physical items in a vehicle is going to fail.
Report vehicle problems in PF regions in the PathBug project, so the right Lindens will see it.
Viewer Pathfinding Tools
The Pathfinding Project Viewer has been merged with the main development trunk of viewer development. That seems to have worked well. So, everything seems to be on target for the PF roll out and PF integrated viewer roll out.
There are a number of issues that can delay getting out either. But, for now it looks good.
LEA regions in PF Beta
Lorca Linden put some of the Linden Endowment for Arts regions in the PF Beta. I’m not sure which ones and I suspect builders there may be unaware of the change. It is mostly unnoticeable without a PF Viewer.
PF RC
There were a number of region owners that requested they be added to the PF Beta. Those that did not make it into the Beta have been added to the RC.
Animation
Animation with PF is a bit of a challenge. A new wiki web page was made in June by Silent Mole and Maestro added a PF note in late June.
Second Life Animation Streamlined
Understanding how animation works with the server is the difference between creating extreme lag or creating almost no lag. Most of that depends on what you are doing to the regions physics engine. Pathfinding changes things a bit.
Nalates, the link to SecondLife Animation Streamlined leads to a 404 error, Page Not Found.
Thanks! I hate it when that happens. Fixed.
It’s possible to argue that these problem vehicles were not poorly-made, because they worked in the past. They were made according to the current standards at the time. Now, if the Lindens documented the bad elements, and advised against them, they have snark-rights. But betting on the Lindens doing such things is a bit like betting on slow horses. A slow horse could win the Grand National, but a lot of very uncommon things would have to happen.
Well, I logged into the latest pathfinding viewer, as there is an issue I’m having with a vendor system and people can’t get their payouts. When I try to open the Linkset window, It takes forever to load, and when it does, I get logged out of SL. So basically, I’m screwed. I think I’m just going to have to get my sim out of the beta testing of pathfinding. It’s been a headache from the start.