I am currently working on a large scale (solar system and large) simulation. Game servers will be involved.
I have made quite a bit of head way with learning how to get everything working (Stars, planets, systems, etc…) and now I am trying to get into the fine details such as the question at hand (only focusing on one): AI Navigation.
The way I am looking at setting the servers up are with each being specialized: i.e. one handles people AI navigation, another ship AI navigation, etc. This makes it easier to expand as needed.
So for humanoid-type AI navigation, through ships & stations…
Is it possible to spawn everything at Editor coords(0,0,0), with no rendering (its a server no need to display stuff and unnecessarily use precious resources) - and still have everything do proper navigation, collisions, etc?
I should ask is it possible with what UE4 currently has or will I need to create my own navigation and collision handler?
NOTE: since the game is solar system and larger, I am using a custom coord system to handle their current “game” location - and convert it to “local” units for displaying in the game - to keep within UE4’s map size limits.
Thus for the server - they can use the custom coord system and not local world space.
I am pretty sure that all of the built in AI Navigation components (NavMesh, EQS, etc.) will not work in a space game in 3 dimensions. You will most likely have to program your own navigation and path-finding system in 3 dimensions or use one that someone else has made. Take a look at this plugin which seems promising:
As far as splitting this between servers, another approach is to run one server per point of interest (planet, space station, etc.)? You would then just keep track of which Map the player is on along with their coordinates. By doing this you can get around the players per map limit. This is what Star Citizen and many other space games are doing. Just something to think about.
Thank you for your response, for navigating in 3 dimensions - I already have that math worked out - still need to implement it.
BUT I am asking about 2 dimensional - i.e. walking on a floor, through corridors, etc. that kind of navigation and pathfinding
Ah, ok. Well if you spawn everything at 0,0,0 then the collision and navigation isn’t going to work in UE4.
What I would do is spawn a new map for each ship interior or station interior and then continue to use the UE4 coordinate system while inside those locations.