P0_A6

I am running into a few serious issues with adding support for the dynamic pathfinding.

The pathfinding itself is fine. I am using the A* pathfinding project to generate the navigation graphs, and this can be done asynchronously.

However, the is another issue. I already have an A* component in my project, which I am using for navigation on board the ship, and there can be only one in the scene.

I need to either modify the way that I am using the pathfinding to have just one instance of the pathfinding script for all graphs, or I could try creating a separate A* component for each object that needed it, (such as a large Ship, City, etc), and disabling all of the other A* components.

The second approach seems slightly easier, so this is the one that I am going with for now.

I have also made some minor cosmetic improvements to the GUI HUDs.

I have been continuing to develop the City Generator system for my project.

The City Alignment issue has finally been fixed, this actually took longer than I thought it would, but my solution was quite neat, and I can use that same solution to solve other problems and issues of a similar nature.

I have also added colliders to the road surfaces, and checked that all collision layers work properly (Avatar, Shuttle, etc).

The next goal is to add some very preliminary support for NPC AI. For now, I just want to add in the AI pathfinding system. This will be difficult, since the graph will need to both be built dynamically, and it will need to move as the floating origin system translates the scene.

I have completed most of the integration of the new City Generator system with my procedural placement system.

There are still some bugs which I need to fix, such as issues with the alignment of the city platform with the terrain, and with the city platform being offset from the terrain.

I also need to optimise the city management system, to improve framerate. When all buildings are visible at once, as well as all of the other graphics features, the framerate does drop. I can use more aggressive LOD’s, etc, to fix this.

I also want to add a more realistic looking base platform for the city.

Once this is done, and I have made some improvements and optimisations to the city generator, I can do some preliminary work on dynamic navmeshes for the city (Using the A* pathfinding project) so that I can implement the basics of an NPC AI system for cities.

I also want to look at modular buildings. This will both improve performance (because I am only loading part of a building at a time) and add complex procedural construction options, greatly improving the unique feel of the game.

I have basically completed my concept work with the new city generator.

I can generate very large cities, with hundreds of buildings, with very little, if any, stuttering.

I am using simple instantiate to create the buildings, and even without a coroutine, the code runs quickly. I have added a coroutine for optimisation, however.

I am also loading all of the different building prefabs from a separate scene, this will cut down on the memory requirements by only loading the buildings when they are needed.

The next step is to integrate this system into my main project, replacing the existing system, and then test it.

I have found an excellent series of videos on youtube HERE that uses perlin noise to generate very realistic cities.

I have been experimenting with this system, and I have found that it is much faster than the previous approach that I have been using, and it should be much easier to generate cities in real time using this approach.

I should also be able to modify it more easily to suit my unique project requirements in the future.

The persistent objects have now been added to the multiplayer system.

It is now possible to create and move objects using the mySQL database, as well as pickup objects in the world, store them in an inventory, and then place them at a new location.

All of this is persistent (the data is saved to the database, and loaded again when the server is restarted) and updates in real time for all connected clients.

It also handles extreme (64-bit) distances and high velocities.

The multiplayer concept is now essentially done.

I haven’t done any work on the visual side of things, I am just using dummy objects to test everything, but I have quite extensively tested all cases.

I can update the positions of all of the player objects (ships, shuttles, the player avatar, etc) across all zones, even at extreme distance from the origin.

The system can handle disconnects/reconnects, and extreme velocities, etc.

The next step is to add multiplayer support for persistent objects to, so that the player can create and move persistent objects and have those changes propagate to all connected clients.

The multiplayer development is going extremely well.

I have only had to make some minor changes and additions to my code, there were no major problems to solve at all.

I have designed my project to be multiplayer from the beginning, but this is the first time that I had added multiplayer features.

There is a lot more testing, bug fixing, etc, to do, but the results so far are encouraging.