Pattentrick
commented
10 years ago Update: Checking for the neighbors of the node (pathfinding.js --> getPathTo method --> line 1063) will move the player beneath the chest (first picture)! So far so good!
if( currentNode === destinationNode
|| currentNode === destinationNode.neighbors[0]
|| currentNode === destinationNode.neighbors[1] ) {
while( currentNode ) {
path.push( currentNode );
currentNode = currentNode.prevNode;
}
_cleanup();
return path;
}Needless to say that this will just work in this case. But for my other examples (beach, prison, pirateship), or items higher than the chest in the first picture, it won't work because the neighbor nodes of the destinationNode are not walkable, right? So i have to iterate through all of the neighbors and the neighbors of that neighbors (and so on) until i hit the currentNode ... right?
I am still confused .. but i hope that i am on the right way.
collinhover
Hi there @collinhover !
I know that you are working currently on the problems i mentioned on issue #112. So i feel a little bit shabby to bring a new topic on, but right now i am struggling with an pathfinding issue that prevents me to make any progress on my game.
I am working on an old school point and click adventure. I rebuild a simplified version of the famous SCUMM interface. But i can't interact with items "at the wall" because my collision tiles, made for preventing the player going up the wall, are making pathfinding impossible.
Sounds confusing? Example:
The player points at a book located on top of a bookshelf. He can select a command like "walk to book" or "pick up book", the player moves to the desired location and triggers the interaction (no collision needed, he just needs be near the object). But because the book is not at a walkable node, the pathfinding method will return an empty array, the moveTo method will not move the player and the interaction won't be possible.
I made some pictures to illustrate some workarounds i tried:
I pushed the collision box via offset to the feet of the player. Wherever i click, the player will move exactly at that location (respectively position his feet at that position - what is intended). But the collision tiles, that prevent the player from walking up the wall, will also prevent an interaction with the chest (dumb placeholder art in this case, chests don't float usually) or with an item higher than that (e.g a clock).
So making the collision box of the player bigger seemed to be a good idea! Now i can move the player via pathfinding to objects at the wall and interaction is possible. Making the collsion tiles a little bit higher still prevents the player from going up the wall as well.
However normal walking will not be possible anymore. Everytime the player moves via pathfinding, the pathfinding will get a different "reference point" for calculating (sometimes from the feet, sometimes from the head) resulting in a "demonic twister animation" inspired by Taz from the looney toons. On top of that, a collision box so big makes naviagtion through a room with obstacles very difficult.
Next idea: Shifting the collision box up. No demonic animations while using pathfinding anymore! Interaction with items on the wall is possible! But clicking anywhere, the player will position itself at that location with his head, and not his feet anymore. Looks and feels very awkward. Additionally the player can walk "outside the level", which you can see here:
So all of my workarounds failed hard, or had some major disadvantages :O
I think the best solution would be shifting the box to the feet (first picture) and modify the pathfinding. It would be sooo awesome if the pathfinding could return the nearest walkable node of the target, if the selected node is not walkable! So clicking on the chest on the first picture would move the player directly beneath the chest.
However, an option for this behavior is not built in, am i right? I started to mess around with the getPathTo method of the pathfinding.js file. But to be honest ... i don't understand much of the code at that method.
Do you have any idea, an advice or suggestions, how i could achive that needed behavior? If i had a clue how to solve this via modifying the getPathTo method, i would add a new config property, and just trigger that mechanic when that property is set to true.
I think all games with point and click controls could benefit from that in some situations.
Some examples:
I don't take your support for granted. Thank you for any help, tips and thoughts on this topic! I am pretty stuck right now :-/