PathEngine SDK 5.31 goes live

Version 5.31 of the PathEngine SDK has gone live, enabling a number of new features for developers.

The latest update to the pathfinding AI tech includes features for unobstructed space optimisation – by boundary simplification – as well as an incremental boundary update.

Unobstructed space is the area inside a ground mesh where agents can be placed without overlapping either the mesh edges or place obstacles. This is generated using what PathEngine describes as a ‘minkowski sum’ expansion of obstruction boundaries by the agent’s pathfinding shape.

Connected region queries are now also provided through the iCollisionContext interface, with these either forwarded on to a pre-processed obstacle set or to the base mesh connected region pre-process.

The new update has also added support for incremental updates to unobstructed space representations after certain run-time changes, stating it is now possible for developers to track connectivity through unobstructed space and to perform connection region queries against changing door obstacle states.

Other additions and fixes to PathEngine include improvements in the ‘find closest point’ functionality and a new group movement example code, demonstrating an approach to group pathfinding based on preventing agent overlap in common situations.

As well as numerous feature updates, PathEngine revealed that since its last public release in June earlier this year, the SDK has been licensed to developers such as Firefly Studios on Stronghold Crusader 2 and Nexon for use on Maple Story 2.

For further details on the latest release of PathEngine, visit the full changelog here.