Pathnode and User Interface Watchdog Thread

PATHFINDING

As you know, as of version 7.6.0 of the modpack, most large maps have been repathnoded to abide by a very strict grid in favor of 'routes,' or preferred modes of getting from point A to B such as by following a path or road. The maps that have been repathnoded are:

• Hickory Branch exterior
• Quarry exterior
• Verbobonc Exterior
• Verbobonc City Hall
• Welkwood Bog Exterior
• Water Node
• Hommlet Exterior and WotGS
• Moathouse Exterior
• Temple Interior
• Temple Entrance
• Temple House
• Temple Tower
• Coliseum
• Emridy Meadows
• Imeryds Run
• Moathouse Cave Exit
• Nulb Exterior
• Random Forest
• Random Forest Road
• Random Riverside
• Random Riverside Road
• Random Scrub
• Random Scrub Road
• Temple Deserted Farm

This may sound like a wonderful thing, but it will almost surely not be perfect. Without delving into too technical a discussion, a strict grid would work great for a map that had absolutely no obstructions. However, pathnodes cannot exist in blocked tiles, so any map with an obstruction (basically all of them) will feature places where there are nodes missing from the grid. Once that happens, the pathnoding system attempts to compensate and starts searching for alternative routes. That's when your characters start moving in odd patterns and bizarre trajectories.

Here's a simple example image:



Grey lines are tiles. Grey dots are pathnodes. The black dot party at top right goes to the blue dot destination at bottom left without issue, because there are no obstructions. But the violet dot party at top left is not so lucky. There is an evil obstruction of death and associated blocking tile in their way. As you can see, they therefore do not get to their bottom right blue dot destination without issue. :sadblinky

The good-ish news is that we may be able to optimize particularly egregious instances of this happening by basically breaking the strict grid rule and adding a route to get around the obstruction. If you find really really bad cases of pathfinding on any of the maps listed above, here's what you should do:

1. Take a screenshot of the map and post it here.
2. Describe how the pathfinding is failing.

USER INTERFACE

As you also know, as of v 7.6.0 we are seeing various updated user interfaces. If you see any issues with these (text out of boundaries, weird artifacts, weird colors like pink, text in odd places, etc.) do like above:

1. Take a screenshot of the UI and post it here.
2. Describe what is wrong with the UI.

Thanks.

 

Can you post a screen?

 

Okay, thanks. How does this look? Bear in mind that we're talking about adjustments of single pixels here, so if something still looks slightly not perfectly centered, bumping it up another single pixel would probably make it look the same way to the opposite. Also bear in mind that the horizontal positioning needs to be somewhat approximate, as different letters are of different widths in most fonts, including Priory. (i.e. there is no absolute horizontal position with a variable width font.)

I is narrower than E in the forum's Arial font, for example, but not Courier New - I, E.

ps. This is also one of those weird eye trickery things, because in reality the stat and its output fields are no longer on a level plane in my fixed version, whereas before they were. I believe its some element of the output box that influences the brain confusion. Likewise, if we move the stat description up to match the centered position of the output, it then looks vertically off-center even though it's not. Wacky.

 

Daryk is correct, though actually there is one pixel on both top and bottom. Some numbers/letters just don't use an extra pixel on the top, so moving them up another pixel would just bias them toward the top. See image below zoomed to maximum magnification and with a grid to demonstrate the specifics. The grid is on the scale of a single pixel. The numbers 2 and 8 have a one pixel border on top and bottom, while 1, 4, and 7 don't use an extra pixel on the top.



i.e, this is as good as it gets. Be happy people, it looks ten times better than the old way. Here's a real-size side-by-side to remind you.

 

Sorry people but I'm not going to nit that thing at every request or statement of a lack of affection for #3d4fbb, etc., etc. You're just going to have to jump in for the big win and learn to love it for the sake of the playing public, even if it's not your personal best 100% perfect configuration of perfectness that floats your personal boat to the point of sublime delight and so on.

With that, let's direct this thread back to its original purpose please - reporting problems with pathnodes and UI.

 

Okay, good call. And fixed! :thumbsup: