Automatic Waypoint generation (from NavMesh)

[anonymous_user_af553a2a]

Hi all,

i am trying to port a solution i built for Unity and another engine to UE4. Basically it creates two kind of Waypoint-Graphs, one dense graph for local spatial tactical decisions and another skeleton graph of the walkable area so i have spatial knowledge of what “corridors” are blocked or how to split troops to block open corridors and the like. Very valuable spatial knowledge This screenshots show the basic results. Since they are simple graphs i can also easily build cheap heat maps and the like or query the graph for places to be defended to prevent breakthroughs. Also flanking tactics and the like are a easy to create and run this way. So it is obvious why i want to port that?

So now to my problems…
I am just starting with unreal engine but i have to make sure this feature will work so i have to dive into the hard stuff right away.

Short description of my current problem:

I need to pass data during the NavMesh-Creation Process. So i have to change the engine-sources. I found the part in RecastNavMeshGenerator.h and i was able to add a UPROPERTY to RecastNavMesh.h to reference a AActor. During the Recast-Tile-Creation Process i now know that there exists a property set to some AActor (or not).

So now in my project i would need to have a AActor subclass which could handle rcCompactHeighfield (a recast class) and spans, cells, constants of recast. AND the recast part i described above would have to know about this AActor subclass and that it is able to handle a rcCompactHeighfield as argument so that it can pass it over.

So basically how could i possibly pass over data from changed source code files like a RecastNavMesh over to a project class or how could i approach this in a proper way?

Thanks,

[anonymous_user_af553a2a]

I ended up creating a AActor Subclass (AZecastProcessor) and add it to the source in /Runtime/Engine/Classes, /Runtime/Engine/Private. Then i changed the source of RecastNavMeshGenerator and subclassed FRecastNavMeshGenerator to hold a weak pointer of AZecastProcessor. I also added a UPROPERTY in ARecastNavMesh to hold a pointer to AZecastProcessor. So now i can subclass AZecastProcessor in my Project and add it to the scene and select the RecastNavMesh and assign it my AZecastProcessor in the editor. I changed the RecastTileGenerator to call the AZecastProcessor if it exists and hand over each rcCompactHeightfield for further processing.

Don`t know if this is a sensible approach but at least it works and now i can start my processing of the heighfield to eventually in the end i will get my waypoint-graph like in Unity