Hello everyone!

I'm very glad to announce the release of Intense Pathfinding 2.0!




Intense Pathfinding 2 has the following features:
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Points Of Visibility Pathfinding - node based
Pure Dijkstra Search Algorithm - fast
999 Max Nodes per level
999 Max Pathfinding-Entities per level
Obstacle Avoidance Using Repulsion Vectors - avoids other dynamic entities, without using c_traces NEW!
Three Dimensional - can handle floors, slopes, stairs, rough terrain, etc
String Pulling - smooth paths
Runtime Search - handles dynamic enviroments like doors, bridges and demolished walls
Volume Raycasting - Size of entity is considered, making sure the path is wide and tall enough
Gravity RayCasting - Making sure there's ground below the path
Polygon Precise RayCasting - Supports model-only levels and terrains
Advanced Selection System - selects single/multiple entities, drag box available NEW!
Intelligent Targeting - if target point is inaccesible, selects nearest valid position NEW!
RTS sounds - user-defined sounds are played, every time an entity is selected or ordered NEW!
Graph Generating Tool - automatically link nodes to each other. You just need to place them in the level
Written in Lite-C - faster and cleaner code NEW!
Open Source Script - no dlls
Works with all A7 editions - Extra, Commercial or Professional NEW!
Debuging Tools - Visually seeing the Graph, Obstacle avoidance vectors and every c_trace made at runtime
Fully documented



Intense Pathfinding 1 had won 1st prize on Conitec's Spring competition in 2006. It has now doubled its features, by supporting obstacle avoidance, multiple selection, RTS sounds and on. The demo has been improved too by adding a terrain, multiple Npcs and dynamic objects. The goal of the demo is to show how Intense Pathfinding can be applied to any sort of game, be it an FPS, RPG, Adventure or Real Time Strategy.


Enjoy the Screens:












Intense Pathfinding 2 is completely free, like its predecessor, and can be downloaded from here(14mb). You can use this in non-commercial or commercial games, with no credits required.


Known Issues
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The selection box does not always work correctly. I will try to improve this on a later version.

If multiple Npcs are commanded to move to one location, they will rarely make it all there. This is a normal limitation of A*+Obstacle avoidance and nothing can be done to fix it. (f.e. If two npcs try to avoid each other on a bridge, A* holds no information of where the bridge ends, causing Npcs to occasionaly fall off whilst avoiding dynamic obstacles). A solution for this is to use NavMeshes, which are mostly available only to AAA game engines. Since this demo tries to show all of IP2's capabilities in a single level, in your own game don't use complex geometry when handling multiple pathfinding entities.

The Manual is not updated fully for IP2 and still contains some old screenshots. I plan on fixing that soon.

IP2 needs A7.07 or later to run properly. Beta versions (A7.08x) will not work either due to faulty collision detection in all latest betas.




My hope is that more and more people will begin to use Intense Pathfinding for their projects and make use of its features. To my knowledge, this is the most complete pathfinding solution available for A7 and can be used for most types of games successfully. Please let me know if you have any questions, either generic or technical(this is showcase afterall).

Feedback is very much appreciated,

Friendly,
Aris