Pathing 2k4 Flying Vehicles
FlyingPathNodes are used in UT2004 for navigation of current air-based vehicles. Without these nodes bots will not use these two vehicles.
FlyingPathNodes are placed in your map just like any other kind of path nodes. The following steps are how I approach placing nodes but are by no means the only way but are to be a basic guide.
Creating the FlyingPathNode network
- Using the dynamic view window, Add an Actor >> NavigationPoint >> PathNode >> FlyingPathNode. I place my first FPN in my map somewhere along a road or footpath or other open area. You may want to then set the property Display → Drawscale from a default .40 to a 2. This way my FPNs are easy to find even when I have zoomed high above my map. This is a preference only. You may not want to do this at all or may want to wait until all FPNs are in your map and then select all and increase the drawscale.
- Following the flow of the terrain, roads, paths or open areas I space my FPNs out adding two or three at a time. Once I have several nodes in place, I select all and in the sideview window (you may prefer the dynamic window) I raise then up until they are above my meshes, cliffs, or whatever height I want to use as a starting point. Be careful not to raise your FPNs above your StallZ line (StallZ). Rebuild the pathing.
- FPNs will have a radius that will tell the bot how to navigate to the next FPN. In the Top View window, do Viewport Caption Context Menu → Actors → Radii View. Now select one of your FPNs (here is where the larger drawscale comes in handy), and do Actor Context Menu → Select All FlyingPathNodes. If you have chosen Radii View, a light blue circle should now appear around each node. This indicates the flight range around that node. For a bot to fly between nodes, hence navigating your map, node radii circles must overlap. If you have radii circles that do not overlap, you will need to add in additional FPNs. Sometimes raising your FPNs will increase the radii, which is directly affected by terrain, bsp? and static meshes.
Tips
- If you have large radii circles that overlap several FPNs, you can remove the un-needed ones. Just remember that at least two radii MUST overlap for bots to fly between them. Take a look at some of the stock maps in the editor.
- Create your flight paths wherever you would like a bot to fly. I generally follow the terrain paths and roads as ground vehicles will use these and are prime targets for fly vehicles. Make sure you flypath to powernodes and cores.
- I usually vary the height of the FPNs from where the raptor would take off so it has a nice gradual elevation as a normal plane would take off or swoop in. I also vary the height over the map so the raptors in my opinion look more realistic swooping down at cores or swoop down through mountain passes and zooming back up. This is preference and something fun to play with. Bots will do what they like sometimes and will avoid AVRILs making weird aerial maneuvers. Remember your blocking volumes so you don't have flying vehicles flying outta your map.
Related Topics
- Pathing for Vehicles – Ground vehicle bot pathing
- Bot Support – Main topic
- Bot Pathing – Concepts and elements of the bot path network
- Basic Bot Pathing – A tutorial on basic bot pathing
- Bot Pathing – Concepts and elements of the bot path network
- Mapping for AS (UT2004)
- Mapping for ONS
- Mapping for VCTF
Discussion
GZ: Have fun and good luck mapping. – GroundZero
SuperApe: Hey there, GZ. Good stuff. This just needs to look a little more like the rest of the site. Check out how other pages were edited and this could be a valueable asset to the wiki. Thanks. 
GZ: Thanks bro just something I had posted once over in the UP forum and thought it better served here. Hopefully you meant the layout of the page and this will be a little easier on the eyes now!
King Mango: A bonus with FPNs is that as long as you have a white path between game objectives on the gorund, they don't mind using the raptor along forced paths to get to where they need to go. So you could simplify your FPN network by spacing them far apart, and forcing connections. Nice work GZ. Clear and easy to understand explanation.
Tarquin: Is FlyingPathNodes? a classname? Perhaps move some of this to a page for the class.
SabbathCat: FlyingPathNode is a class name, and the techincal stuff (Collision Cylinders for determining connectivity between nodes etc.) would be useful on another page. Nice start GZ, would be cool with a some images (Otho + 3D )to demonstrate the Cylinders in action. Also - I've not pathed many Flying Nodes, I've mostly done the forced paths like Mango does, as my maps tend to have far too much clutter on them for the cylinders to expand properly - but aren't the collision cylinders red - or does another cylinder/sphere appear when the paths are connected correctly?
SuperApe: Red? Do you mean Radii View?
