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AIPath Class Reference

AI for following paths. More...

Detailed Description

AI for following paths.

This AI is the default movement script which comes with the A* Pathfinding Project. It is in no way required by the rest of the system, so feel free to write your own. But I hope this script will make it easier to set up movement for the characters in your game. This script is not written for high performance, so I do not recommend using it for large groups of units.

This script will try to follow a target transform, in regular intervals, the path to that target will be recalculated. It will on FixedUpdate try to move towards the next point in the path. However it will only move in the forward direction, but it will rotate around it's Y-axis to make it reach the target.

Quick overview of the variables

In the inspector in Unity, you will see a bunch of variables. You can view detailed information further down, but here's a quick overview.
The repathRate determines how often it will search for new paths, if you have fast moving targets, you might want to set it to a lower value.
The target variable is where the AI will try to move, it can be a point on the ground where the player has clicked in an RTS for example. Or it can be the player object in a zombie game.
The speed is self-explanatory, so is turningSpeed, however slowdownDistance might require some explanation. It is the approximate distance from the target where the AI will start to slow down. Note that this doesn't only affect the end point of the path but also any intermediate points, so be sure to set forwardLook and pickNextWaypointDist to a higher value than this.
pickNextWaypointDist is simply determines within what range it will switch to target the next waypoint in the path.
forwardLook will try to calculate an interpolated target point on the current segment in the path so that it has a distance of forwardLook from the AI
Below is an image illustrating several variables as well as some internal ones, but which are relevant for understanding how it works. Note that the forwardLook range will not match up exactly with the target point practically, even though that's the goal.

This script has many movement fallbacks. If it finds a NavmeshController, it will use that, otherwise it will look for a character controller, then for a rigidbody and if it hasn't been able to find any it will use Transform.Translate which is guaranteed to always work.

Public Member Functions

virtual Vector3 GetFeetPosition ()
 
void OnDisable ()
 
virtual void OnPathComplete (Path _p)
 Called when a requested path has finished calculation.
 
virtual void OnTargetReached ()
 
virtual void SearchPath ()
 Requests a path to the target.
 
float TrySearchPath ()
 Tries to search for a path.
 
virtual void Update ()
 

Public Attributes

bool canMove = true
 Enables or disables movement.
 
bool canSearch = true
 Enables or disables searching for paths.
 
bool closestOnPathCheck = true
 Do a closest point on path check when receiving path callback.
 
float endReachedDistance = 0.2F
 Distance to the end point to consider the end of path to be reached.
 
float forwardLook = 1
 Target point is Interpolated on the current segment in the path so that it has a distance of forwardLook from the AI.
 
float pickNextWaypointDist = 2
 Determines within what range it will switch to target the next waypoint in the path.
 
float repathRate = 0.5F
 Determines how often it will search for new paths.
 
float slowdownDistance = 0.6F
 Distance from the target point where the AI will start to slow down.
 
float speed = 3
 Maximum velocity.
 
Transform target
 Target to move towards.
 
float turningSpeed = 5
 Rotation speed.
 

Protected Member Functions

virtual void Awake ()
 Initializes reference variables.
 
Vector3 CalculateTargetPoint (Vector3 p, Vector3 a, Vector3 b)
 Calculates target point from the current line segment.
 
Vector3 CalculateVelocity (Vector3 currentPosition)
 Calculates desired velocity.
 
virtual void OnEnable ()
 Run at start and when reenabled.
 
IEnumerator RepeatTrySearchPath ()
 Tries to search for a path every repathRate seconds.
 
virtual void RotateTowards (Vector3 dir)
 Rotates in the specified direction.
 
virtual void Start ()
 Starts searching for paths.
 
float XZSqrMagnitude (Vector3 a, Vector3 b)
 

Protected Attributes

bool canSearchAgain = true
 Only when the previous path has been returned should be search for a new path.
 
CharacterController controller
 Cached CharacterController component.
 
int currentWaypointIndex = 0
 Current index in the path which is current target.
 
Vector3 lastFoundWaypointPosition
 
float lastFoundWaypointTime = -9999
 
float lastRepath = -9999
 Time when the last path request was sent.
 
float minMoveScale = 0.05F
 
Path path
 Current path which is followed.
 
Rigidbody rigid
 Cached Rigidbody component.
 
RVOController rvoController
 
Seeker seeker
 Cached Seeker component.
 
Vector3 targetDirection
 Relative direction to where the AI is heading.
 
Vector3 targetPoint
 Point to where the AI is heading.
 
bool targetReached = false
 Holds if the end-of-path is reached.
 
Transform tr
 Cached Transform component.
 

Properties

bool TargetReached [get]
 Returns if the end-of-path has been reached.
 

Private Attributes

bool startHasRun = false
 Holds if the Start function has been run.
 

Member Function Documentation

virtual void Awake ( )
protectedvirtual

Initializes reference variables.

If you override this function you should in most cases call base.Awake () at the start of it.

Vector3 CalculateTargetPoint ( Vector3  p,
Vector3  a,
Vector3  b 
)
protected

Calculates target point from the current line segment.

Parameters
pCurrent position
aLine segment start
bLine segment end The returned point will lie somewhere on the line segment.
See Also
forwardLook
Todo:
This function uses .magnitude quite a lot, can it be optimized?
Vector3 CalculateVelocity ( Vector3  currentPosition)
protected

Calculates desired velocity.

Finds the target path segment and returns the forward direction, scaled with speed. A whole bunch of restrictions on the velocity is applied to make sure it doesn't overshoot, does not look too far ahead, and slows down when close to the target. /see speed /see endReachedDistance /see slowdownDistance /see CalculateTargetPoint /see targetPoint /see targetDirection /see currentWaypointIndex

virtual Vector3 GetFeetPosition ( )
virtual

Reimplemented in MineBotAI.

void OnDisable ( )
virtual void OnEnable ( )
protectedvirtual

Run at start and when reenabled.

Starts RepeatTrySearchPath.

See Also
Start
virtual void OnPathComplete ( Path  _p)
virtual

Called when a requested path has finished calculation.

A path is first requested by SearchPath, it is then calculated, probably in the same or the next frame. Finally it is returned to the seeker which forwards it to this function.

virtual void OnTargetReached ( )
virtual

Reimplemented in MineBotAI.

IEnumerator RepeatTrySearchPath ( )
protected

Tries to search for a path every repathRate seconds.

See Also
TrySearchPath
virtual void RotateTowards ( Vector3  dir)
protectedvirtual

Rotates in the specified direction.

Rotates around the Y-axis.

See Also
turningSpeed
virtual void SearchPath ( )
virtual

Requests a path to the target.

virtual void Start ( )
protectedvirtual

Starts searching for paths.

If you override this function you should in most cases call base.Start () at the start of it.

See Also
OnEnable
RepeatTrySearchPath

Reimplemented in MineBotAI.

float TrySearchPath ( )

Tries to search for a path.

Will search for a new path if there was a sufficient time since the last repath and both canSearchAgain and canSearch are true and there is a target.

Returns
The time to wait until calling this function again (based on repathRate)
virtual void Update ( )
virtual

Reimplemented in MineBotAI.

float XZSqrMagnitude ( Vector3  a,
Vector3  b 
)
protected

Member Data Documentation

bool canMove = true

Enables or disables movement.

See Also
canSearch
bool canSearch = true

Enables or disables searching for paths.

Setting this to false does not stop any active path requests from being calculated or stop it from continuing to follow the current path.

See Also
canMove
bool canSearchAgain = true
protected

Only when the previous path has been returned should be search for a new path.

bool closestOnPathCheck = true

Do a closest point on path check when receiving path callback.

Usually the AI has moved a bit between requesting the path, and getting it back, and there is usually a small gap between the AI and the closest node. If this option is enabled, it will simulate, when the path callback is received, movement between the closest node and the current AI position. This helps to reduce the moments when the AI just get a new path back, and thinks it ought to move backwards to the start of the new path even though it really should just proceed forward.

CharacterController controller
protected

Cached CharacterController component.

int currentWaypointIndex = 0
protected

Current index in the path which is current target.

float endReachedDistance = 0.2F

Distance to the end point to consider the end of path to be reached.

When this has been reached, the AI will not move anymore until the target changes and OnTargetReached will be called.

float forwardLook = 1

Target point is Interpolated on the current segment in the path so that it has a distance of forwardLook from the AI.

See the detailed description of AIPath for an illustrative image

Vector3 lastFoundWaypointPosition
protected
float lastFoundWaypointTime = -9999
protected
float lastRepath = -9999
protected

Time when the last path request was sent.

float minMoveScale = 0.05F
protected
Path path
protected

Current path which is followed.

float pickNextWaypointDist = 2

Determines within what range it will switch to target the next waypoint in the path.

float repathRate = 0.5F

Determines how often it will search for new paths.

If you have fast moving targets or AIs, you might want to set it to a lower value. The value is in seconds between path requests.

Rigidbody rigid
protected

Cached Rigidbody component.

RVOController rvoController
protected
Seeker seeker
protected

Cached Seeker component.

float slowdownDistance = 0.6F

Distance from the target point where the AI will start to slow down.

Note that this doesn't only affect the end point of the path but also any intermediate points, so be sure to set forwardLook and pickNextWaypointDist to a higher value than this

float speed = 3

Maximum velocity.

This is the maximum speed in world units per second.

bool startHasRun = false
private

Holds if the Start function has been run.

Used to test if coroutines should be started in OnEnable to prevent calculating paths in the awake stage (or rather before start on frame 0).

Transform target

Target to move towards.

The AI will try to follow/move towards this target. It can be a point on the ground where the player has clicked in an RTS for example, or it can be the player object in a zombie game.

Vector3 targetDirection
protected

Relative direction to where the AI is heading.

Filled in by CalculateVelocity

Vector3 targetPoint
protected

Point to where the AI is heading.

Filled in by CalculateVelocity

bool targetReached = false
protected

Holds if the end-of-path is reached.

See Also
TargetReached
Transform tr
protected

Cached Transform component.

float turningSpeed = 5

Rotation speed.

Rotation is calculated using Quaternion.SLerp. This variable represents the damping, the higher, the faster it will be able to rotate.

Property Documentation

bool TargetReached
get

Returns if the end-of-path has been reached.

See Also
targetReached

The documentation for this class was generated from the following file: