Navigator Settings
Main settings
This section is for players.
enable
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
True
Enable navigator to make all settings in this category take effect. When enabled, a navigation mesh (navmesh) is built in the background for world geometry to be used for pathfinding. When disabled only the path grid is used to build paths. Single-core CPU systems may have a big performance impact on existing interior location and moving across the exterior world. May slightly affect performance on multi-core CPU systems. Multi-core CPU systems may have different latency for navigation mesh update depending on other settings and system performance. Moving across external world, entering/exiting location produce navigation mesh update. NPC and creatures may not be able to find path before navigation mesh is built around them. Try to disable this if you want to have old fashioned AI which doesn’t know where to go when you stand behind that stone and cast a firebolt.
max tiles number
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
512
Number of tiles at navigation mesh. Nav mesh covers circle area around player. This option allows to set an explicit limit for navigation mesh size, how many tiles should fit into circle. If actor is inside this area it able to find path over navigation mesh. Increasing this value may decrease performance.
Note
Don’t expect infinite navigation mesh size increasing.
This condition is always true: max tiles number * max polygons per tile <= 4194304
.
It’s a limitation of Recastnavigation library.
wait until min distance to player
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
5
Distance in navigation mesh tiles around the player to keep loading screen until navigation mesh is generated. Allows to complete cell loading only when minimal navigation mesh area is generated to correctly find path for actors nearby the player. Increasing this value will keep loading screen longer but will slightly increase navigation mesh generation speed on systems bound by CPU. Zero means no waiting.
enable nav mesh disk cache
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
True
If true navigation mesh cache stored on disk will be used in addition to memory cache. If navigation mesh tile is not present in memory cache, it will be looked up in the disk cache. If it’s not found there it will be generated.
write to navmeshdb
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
True
If true generated navigation mesh tiles will be stored into disk cache while game is running.
max navmeshdb file size
- Type:
unsigned 64-bit integer
- Range:
> 0
- Default:
2147483648
Approximate maximum file size of navigation mesh cache stored on disk in bytes (value > 0).
Advanced settings
This section is for advanced PC uses who understands concepts of OS thread and memory.
async nav mesh updater threads
- Type:
platform dependant unsigned integer
- Range:
>= 1
- Default:
1
Number of background threads to update navigation mesh. Increasing this value may decrease performance, but also may decrease or increase navigation mesh update latency depending on number of CPU cores. On systems with not less than 4 CPU cores latency dependens approximately like 1/log(n) from number of threads. Don’t expect twice better latency by doubling this value.
max nav mesh tiles cache size
- Type:
platform dependant unsigned integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
268435456
Maximum total cached size of all navigation mesh tiles in bytes. Setting greater than zero value will reduce navigation mesh update latency for previously visited locations. Increasing this value may increase total memory consumption, but potentially will reduce latency for recently visited locations. Limit this value by total available physical memory minus base game memory consumption and other applications. Game will not eat all memory at once. Memory will be consumed in approximately linear dependency from number of navigation mesh updates. But only for new locations or already dropped from cache.
min update interval ms
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
250
Minimum time duration required to pass before next navigation mesh update for the same tile in milliseconds. Only tiles affected where objects are transformed. Next update for tile with added or removed object will not be delayed. Visible ingame effect is navigation mesh update around opening or closing door. Primary usage is for rotating signs like in Seyda Neen at Arrille’s Tradehouse entrance. Decreasing this value may increase CPU usage by background threads.
Developer’s settings
This section is for developers or anyone who wants to learn how navigation mesh system works in OpenMW.
enable write recast mesh to file
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Write recast mesh to file in .obj format for each use to update navigation mesh. Option is used to find out what world geometry is used to build navigation mesh. Potentially decreases performance.
enable write nav mesh to file
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Write navigation mesh to file to be able to open by RecastDemo application. Usually it is more useful to have both enable write recast mesh to file and this options enabled. RecastDemo supports .obj files. Potentially decreases performance.
enable recast mesh file name revision
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Write each recast mesh file with revision in name. Otherwise will rewrite same file. If it is unclear when geometry is changed use this option to dump multiple files for each state.
enable nav mesh file name revision
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Write each navigation mesh file with revision in name. Otherwise will rewrite same file. If it is unclear when navigation mesh is changed use this option to dump multiple files for each state.
recast mesh path prefix
- Type:
string
- Range:
file system path
- Default:
“”
Write recast mesh file at path with this prefix.
nav mesh path prefix
- Type:
string
- Range:
file system path
- Default:
“”
Write navigation mesh file at path with this prefix.
enable nav mesh render
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Render navigation mesh. Allows to do in-game debug. Every navigation mesh is visible and every update is noticeable. Potentially decreases performance.
nav mesh render mode
- Type:
string
- Range:
“area type”, “update frequency”
- Default:
“area type”
Render navigation mesh in specific mode. “area type” - show area types using different colours. “update frequency” - show tiles update frequency as a heatmap.
enable agents paths render
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Render agents paths. Make visible all NPC’s and creaure’s plans where they are going. Works even if Navigator is disabled. Potentially decreases performance.
enable recast mesh render
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Render recast mesh that is built as set of culled tiles from physical mesh. Should show similar mesh to physical one. Little difference can be a result of floating point error. Absent pieces usually mean a bug in recast mesh tiles building. Allows to do in-game debug. Potentially decreases performance.
wait for all jobs on exit
- Type:
boolean
- Range:
True/False
- Default:
False
Wait until all queued async navmesh jobs are processed before exiting the engine. Useful when a benchmark generates jobs to write into navmeshdb faster than they are processed.
Expert settings
This section is for developers who wants to go deeper into Detournavigator component logic.
recast scale factor
- Type:
floating point
- Range:
> 0.0
- Default:
0.029411764705882353
Scale of navigation mesh coordinates to world coordinates. Recastnavigation builds voxels for world geometry. Basically voxel size is 1 / “cell size”. To reduce amount of voxels we apply scale factor, to make voxel size “recast scale factor” / “cell size”. Default value calculates by this equation: sStepSizeUp * “recast scale factor” / “cell size” = 5 (max climb height should be equal to 4 voxels). Changing this value will change generated navigation mesh. Some locations may become unavailable for NPC and creatures. Pay attention to slopes and roofs when change it. Increasing this value will reduce navigation mesh update latency.
max polygon path size
- Type:
platform dependant unsigned integer
- Range:
> 0
- Default:
1024
Maximum size of path over polygons.
max smooth path size
- Type:
platform dependant unsigned integer
- Range:
> 0
- Default:
1024
Maximum size of smoothed path.
Expert Recastnavigation related settings
This section is for OpenMW developers who knows about Recastnavigation library and understands how it works.
cell height
- Type:
floating point
- Range:
> 0.0
- Default:
0.2
The z-axis cell size to use for fields. Defines voxel/grid/cell size. So their values have significant side effects on all parameters defined in voxel units. The minimum value for this parameter depends on the platform’s floating point accuracy, with the practical minimum usually around 0.05. Same default value is used in RecastDemo.
cell size
- Type:
floating point
- Range:
> 0.0
- Default:
0.2
The xy-plane cell size to use for fields. Defines voxel/grid/cell size. So their values have significant side effects on all parameters defined in voxel units. The minimum value for this parameter depends on the platform’s floating point accuracy, with the practical minimum usually around 0.05. Same default value is used in RecastDemo.
detail sample dist
- Type:
floating point
- Range:
= 0.0 or >= 0.9
- Default:
6.0
Sets the sampling distance to use when generating the detail mesh.
detail sample max error
- Type:
floating point
- Range:
>= 0.0
- Default:
1.0
The maximum distance the detail mesh surface should deviate from heightfield data.
max simplification error
- Type:
floating point
- Range:
>= 0.0
- Default:
1.3
The maximum distance a simplfied contour’s border edges should deviate the original raw contour.
tile size
- Type:
integer
- Range:
> 0
- Default:
128
The width and height of each tile.
border size
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
16
The size of the non-navigable border around the heightfield.
max edge len
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
12
The maximum allowed length for contour edges along the border of the mesh.
max nav mesh query nodes
- Type:
integer
- Range:
0 < value <= 65535
- Default:
2048
Maximum number of search nodes.
max polygons per tile
- Type:
integer
- Range:
2^n, 0 < n < 22
- Default:
4096
Maximum number of polygons per navigation mesh tile. Maximum number of navigation mesh tiles depends on this value. 22 bits is a limit to store both tile identifier and polygon identifier (tiles = 2^(22 - log2(polygons))). See recastnavigation for more details.
Warning
Lower value may lead to ignored world geometry on navigation mesh.
Greater value will reduce number of navigation mesh tiles.
This condition is always true: max tiles number * max polygons per tile <= 4194304
.
It’s a limitation of Recastnavigation library.
max verts per poly
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 3
- Default:
6
The maximum number of vertices allowed for polygons generated during the contour to polygon conversion process.
region merge area
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
400
Any regions with a span count smaller than this value will, if possible, be merged with larger regions.
region min area
- Type:
integer
- Range:
>= 0
- Default:
64
The minimum number of cells allowed to form isolated island areas.