pathfinding advantages/disadvantages for a region

[Alexios Donardson]

are there any advantages or disadvantages to enable pathfanding for a sim?

for example a particular sim doesn't have any pathfinding capable objects/scripts, are we going to see any overall difference if we enable it?

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Alexios,

The only advantage of enabling pathfinding comes if you envision actually using that facility. It does allow for some interesting automated gameplay, but I haven't seen it in use much.

On the downside, to minimize server load, you must run around and mark all stationary objects on your sim as "static". This allows the simulator to add them to the precompiled "navmesh" that pathfinding objects navigate. Objects that are not marked as such must be computed into the mesh in real-time and can cause up to 4ms (1ms for homestead) of server load per 45ms frame. Every time you move a static object, you must rebake the navmesh. The simulator caps the navigation load at those limits, so you'll not notice more than that proportion of additional lag.

Here's the full scoop on pathfinding...

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Pathfinding-FAQ/td-p/1672699

Good luck, and watch your step!

[Theresa Tennyson]

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Alexios Donardson wrote:

are there any advantages or disadvantages to enable pathfanding for a sim?

for example a particular sim doesn't have any pathfinding capable objects/scripts, are we going to see any overall difference if we enable it?

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 Madelaine's answer has good information but isnt' completely accurate anymore. The slight additional load she describes used to always be present on a pathfinding-enabled sim but now only happens when there's an actual pathfinding character present.

What kind of sim do you have - will you do all the building or is it primarily rental?