There's a new Navigation package in town!

[system]

It seems like the roadmap “Progressive Rearchitecture” has been put on hold.

What other options do we have for building AI with navigation at a massive scale?

[DavidZobrist1]

@adriant
How would you scale the camera the FOV is set by pico / oculus etc and just scaling the camera has no effect ( or one eye renderes differently than the other)

for now we just dont use unitys nav mesh then, particles and other stuff works fine

[Lukas_Ch]

@impheris

I’m not sure if I fully understand this, but in this case, the asset store should be a place for alternatives, not the only solution. Cost is a significant factor, and many developers, including myself, may not have the resources. It’s essential to remember that releasing a game is not exactly free either.

I completely understand your perspective, and I don’t want to delve into a discussion on the value provided by the asset store versus developer time, as my opinion is quite biased on this topic. What I want to emphasize is that Unity has limited resources that they can allocate to features. If they focus on high-level features, there is a high chance that you may not be part of the target audience. Additionally, this could hinder the possibility of developing your own alternatives due to a lack of low-level API (With removal of UnityEngine.Experimental.AI it will be even more lower).

@adriant

Until further notice, Unity will not release any replacement for the API in UnityEngine.Experimental.AI. Please note that these experimental structs have been deprecated in 2023.2, but they haven’t been removed yet. You can still use them unchanged with what will become the 2023.2 and LTS releases. Also, please be aware that they have limitations and issues that Unity will not address going forward. We recommend you evaluate carefully whether their capabilities, in their current form, match all the needs of your projects.

Due to the lack of response from Unity regarding concerns about this, I will assume that there won’t be a change of stance. We might anticipate the removal of these APIs without a replacement in Unity 2024 (or Unity 6). It’s important to understand that this decision could potentially impact the adoption rate of your packages. I would appreciate insights into the motivation behind this decision. Currently, my package, ‘Agents Navigation,’ has a dependency on ‘com.unity.ai.navigation’ and has attracted thousands of developers over the past year. Without ‘UnityEngine.Experimental.AI’ or an alternative, I anticipate having to remove the usage of ‘com.unity.ai.navigation.’

By the way, I apologize if my message came across as offensive or repetitive. My intention is to express my concern about what I perceive as a downplaying of the importance of this API removal without replacement (Which is seems to be a pattern in Unity).

[Arathorn_J]

Experiment.AI package was the only way to grab points on the navmesh inside the job system, with it now being deprecated we will be forced to do this on the main thread which becomes a terrible bottleneck for a game with lots of NPCs and units. Very shocked it was deprecated without any hope for a replacement?

[crushed_unity_dreams]

I am really not sure how to think about this.

Also:

@2023.2.1 Changelog

Changes

• AI: Built-in navigation components are no longer hidden from the Add Component menu if the AI Navigation package is not installed. Instead, affected workflows provide shortcuts to install the package.

• Burst: Introduced mimalloc as Burst’s native allocator on Windows, to accelerate concurrently executing LLVM work.

• Burst: Removed all code specific to DOTS Runtime. <<<<<<

• XR: The Oculus XR Plugin package has been updated to 4.1.2.

Does this now mean, previous pathing packages that reference DOTS code to some extent are now completely non-functioning within 2023.2.1 dev ecosystem?
Hmmm… OK.

@adriant

Until further notice, Unity will not release any replacement for the API in UnityEngine.Experimental.AI.
Please note that those experimental structs have been deprecated in 2023.2, but they haven’t been removed yet. You can still use them unchanged with what will become the 2023.2 and LTS releases. Also please be aware that they have limitations and issues that Unity will not address going forward. We recommend you evaluate carefully whether their capabilities, in their current form, match all the needs of your projects.

Pathfinding is a super critical functional part of any/every video game since MS-DOS.
Can we get this package open-sourced? It isn’t wholesome development to worry about key functionality simply vanishing into thin air, especially when performance may take dive.

The entire Unity community should be leveraged. Many of them are 30+ year dev vets with ample time on their hands to contribute towards enhanced user experience.

[Shizola]

I feel like I have absolutely no idea what the current plan for Navigation is. Doesn’t seem like it was mentioned at Unite.

[adriant]

@Lukas_Ch

We might anticipate the removal of these APIs without a replacement in Unity 2024 (or Unity 6).

Just to clarify, ‘UnityEngine.Experimental.AI’ remains available, albeit deprecated, in Unity 6, which is the first LTS version where we introduce this change.

@retired_unity_saga

Pathfinding (…)
Can we get this package open-sourced?

Most of the Navigation functionality is implemented in C++ in the “native” part of the engine, and not in the “AI Navigation” package. Both the native code and the package code will continue to abide by Unity’s source policy (e.g. the Unity Companion License for the package).

[Frais254]

@adriant

Just to clarify, ‘UnityEngine.Experimental.AI’ remains available, albeit deprecated, in Unity 6, which is the first LTS version where we introduce this change.

Most of the Navigation functionality is implemented in C++ in the “native” part of the engine, and not in the “AI Navigation” package. Both the native code and the package code will continue to abide by Unity’s source policy (e.g. the Unity Companion License for the package).

Thanks for the information! So does deprecated only mean its no longer supported with updates? It will still work fine in Unity 6?

[Arathorn_J]

The current roadmap doesn’t show anything under development for Navigation AI.

Product roadmaps | Unity

So currently we don’t know if we will get thread safe AI Navigation API calls or if anything is currently in development other than bug fixes.

[DwinTeimlon]

@Arathorn_J

The current roadmap doesn’t show anything under development for Navigation AI.

https://unity.com/roadmap/unity-platform/navigation-game-ai

So currently we don’t know if we will get thread-safe AI Navigation API calls or if anything is currently in development other than bug fixes.

I think the earlier statement from @adriant makes it quite clear, that nobody is currently working on AI.Navigation stuff at Unity.

@adriant

Until further notice, Unity will not release any replacement for the API in UnityEngine.Experimental.AI.
Please note that those experimental structs have been deprecated in 2023.2, but they haven’t been removed yet. You can still use them unchanged with what will become the 2023.2 and LTS releases. Also please be aware that they have limitations and issues that Unity will not address going forward. We recommend you evaluate carefully whether their capabilities, in their current form, match all the needs of your projects.

[Arathorn_J]

@DwinTeimlon

I think the earlier statement from @adriant makes it quite clear, that nobody is currently working on AI.Navigation stuff at Unity.

Oh aye, in reference to the Experimental.AI not the AI.Navigation package which is still getting updates, but there is roadmap or intention update regards the AI.Navigation package features or improvements.

[chriscode]

Hi!
Has this bug been fixed as part of the refactoring, as promised!?

Unity IssueTracker - NavMesh.CalculatePath doesn't work when Agents height is...

if not, please can it be!?

Cheers,
Chris

[impheris]

@chriscode

Hi!
Has this bug been fixed as part of the refactoring, as promised!?

https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/navmesh-dot-calculatepath-doesnt-work-when-agents-height-is-low

if not, please can it be!?

Cheers,
Chris

did you made a bug report?

[TKDHayk]

how about performance? better or worse than the legacy Ai system?

[impheris]

@""

Check out the links for more details and happy navigating!

where are the links?

[klima_de_sa]

Well I’m having a frustrating problem with the new navmesh system. I create a new project, add a navmesh, commit it to a github repo. on another machine, all versions the same, package installed, I have no navmesh surface component,
And evidently, it is because I can’t load an icon:

Unable to load the icon: ‘Packages/com.unity.ai.navigation/EditorResources/NavigationWindowIcon.png’.
Note that either full project path should be used (with extension) or just the icon name if the icon is located in the following location: ‘Assets/Editor Default Resources/Icons/’ (without extension, since png is assumed)
UnityEditor.EditorGUIUtility:TrTextContentWithIcon (string,string)
Unity.AI.Navigation.Editor.NavigationWindow:OnEnable () (at ./Library/PackageCache/com.unity.ai.navigation@1.1.5/Editor/NavigationWindow.cs:108)
UnityEditor.EditorWindow:GetWindow<Unity.AI.Navigation.Editor.NavigationWindow> ()
Unity.AI.Navigation.Editor.NavigationWindow:SetupWindow () (at ./Library/PackageCache/com.unity.ai.navigation@1.1.5/Editor/NavigationWindow.cs:67)

Any ideas?

[EWimsett]

Has anybody here tried modifying NavMeshBuildSettings to dynamically adjust their agent types during runtime? I can only get a copy of the class and cannot set the NavMeshBuildSettings for the agent type itself. Confusing as there is a NavMesh.CreateSettings() method to create a new agent type during runtime, but I can only use its default settings, which seems a bit useless. I hope I’ve missed something…

[lclemens]

@Lukas_Ch

Hey,
This is a super interesting topic, and I hope my opinions won’t offend anybody. I’d love to share my perspective.
First of all, it’s really great to see navigation getting more attention, especially with the increased control over the NavMesh building process. I’ve noticed users creating many cool extensions out of it, like this one: https://github.com/h8man/NavMeshPlus.

@laurentlavigne 's comment might come across as a bit harsh, but I do share a similar sentiment with him. “Improved Collision Avoidance” and “Navigation authoring UX & workflow improvements” seem to fall more into the “nice to have” category. Both of these can already be addressed at the user level, and the asset store offers good solutions for them (of course, as a publisher, my perspective might be seen as biased). However, working on the low-level navmesh side is a true roadblock, at least in my opinion, and probably for others as well. For this reason, I would love to see the roadmap focus more on providing extensible groundwork, rather than trying to tackle specific use cases.

To be honest, I’m quite concerned about this. I understand that the API was never intended to be available as a proper API interaction with the NavMesh in a Burst-compatible way. However, this decision could potentially impact the adoption of Unity’s nav mesh in data-oriented projects. As a matter of fact, I know that I might have to remove Unity nav mesh integration from my packages going forward in 2024. I’m curious to know the main reasoning behind this decision. Perhaps the API can be left as is, with clear communication that it won’t be extended, in order to save development time on your side and ultimately removed once replacement API is set.

P.S. I am creator of Agents Navigation and Local Avoidance.

Will you be able to work around the loss of UnityEngine.Experimental.AI and use AI.Navigation only? Currently whenever I compile my game with Unity 6 while Agents Navigation is installed there are hundreds of warnings about deprecated functions.

[MorpheusXI]

I’m not a coder, but have seen AI agents from a popular store controller get stuck on obstacles with carved NM in my dense environment testing. Overtime they may escape…but often don’t. Not sure if unity need to do further battle testing in a dense obstacle environment with a good number of AI.

NM is the fastest and preferred solution for me to use rather than waypointing for a large world…

Can Unity confirm if this is a known issue?

[DevDunk]

Usually you can increase the radius in the navmesh settings if that’s what you’re talking about. Also for issues make a new thread (: