Navigation and navigation meshes
The world terrain is now fully created. In reaching this stage, we must now start thinking about the main aims of our project. Specifically, the level should be an AI experiment: we want to create enemy NPC characters that can wander freely around the terrain and will chase and attack the player whenever the player enters their field of view. To achieve this, the level must be properly configured for path-finding, which is considered here.
On thinking about NPC AI and NPC movement around the level, it's clear that the terrain is bumpy and features many hills, mountains, dips, and inclines. For an NPC character to navigate this terrain successfully, many complexities are involved. For example, an NPC cannot simply travel in only straight lines from point A to point B because doing so would cause the NPC to pass through solid objects and terrain. The NPC needs to maneuver intelligently around, under, and over appropriate parts of the terrain, just as human intelligence...