I tried out some pathfinding plugins and they are huge resource hogs, very slow, they use a giant grid to navigate which feels really unnatural to me, and other problems.
So I heard there is something called “ray based pathfinding”, and that it doesn’t use a giant grid, but where is it? Is it a real thing?
[non-essential info below]
I am only using pathfinding for my npc enemies. All the pathfinding plugins make the assumption that the pathing entity knows the exact location of its destination at all times. My enemies will only know the location of their target while they can “see” them directly.
I have an idea I could make myself, is it viable for npc enemies? I will just record the last position that they could “see” their target, they will navigate to that position while sliding around obstacles that they collide with, and when they get to the position that they last saw their target, if they still can’t see it, they will “deduce” which way to go judging by the last direction they saw the target moving in, while also firing off a big cone of rays in that direction to find the most viable place to walk.
This means they will not magically know the exact location of their target at all times, unless they have a direct line of sight to the target. Just like reality. And they will use cues to determine which way the target went after that. Such as their last known direction.
They obviously can not nagivate to the end of a maze or anything.