I’m glad the link was helpful, I found it when learning about UE4’s A.I tools and looking at alternatives. It’s a very insightful read as it talks about the strengths and limitations of UE4’s “Navigation mesh” feature, as well as alternatives such as Voxel Navigation.
A.I behaviour is an immensely complex subject, some people dedicate their entire careers to getting anywhere with it, but if it is something you can wrangle with in C++ it will make you a very valuable asset to many companies, and if A.I is your focus it is worth exploring. since things like UE4 only have rudimentary tools for A.I, if you can expand on them by modifying Unreal assets that would be incredible and I’d suggest you do that. You could even make a pretty penny by selling them on in marketplaces and such, as they are very much in demand.
Once I made a Blueprint that allowed me to draw two splines, and then it added Nav Links along the length of them. Which would work for ledges as you describe, but it was hacky. if you can design a C++ alternative that acts on volumes, as you say, that would be a much better and far more efficient solution to the problem.
My best advice would be to make Construction scripts that dynamically place Nav Links as I described, as it is relatively quick and easy to modify. Creating your own nav tools fit for your purpose is ideal, and you can even program A.I prompts such as jumping into the same scripts to save time.
With all that said, I’ll leave a summary of my suggestions:
- The Fastest (But Worst): Place Lots of Nav Links
- The Most Efficient (Cheap): Make construction scripts that dynamically place nav links.
- The Most Efficient (Costly): Buy Sophisticated A.I systems from online sellers
- The Most Useful: Modify Existing C++ Code to create new A.I functionality in engine.
- The Best (But Most Time Consuming and Challenging): Write new A.I Systems and Tools for UE4
I wish you the very best luck! I hope you find what you need.!