Placeables Specification

[Legacy_Hardcore UFO]

               I've been reading through past posts and while there is a lot of documentation on how the game reacts to placeables being on grid lines, I still wonder how this translates in the toolset. What I mean, taking a tree placeable as an example: should I avoid having the trunk on the red line, or is it the entire green box that displays when it's highlighted that has to be kept away from the lines?

Been wondering this for a while, though it's not super important; it would mean that some larger "boxed" placeables would be incredibly unweildy to put down anywhere if it's the latter, though.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               The entire green box is the personal space (perspace) for that object.  Thus, it is what is being referred to when they suggest that you avoid crossing the tile outside edges with those.  Of course, the pwk (placeable walkmesh) can be smaller than the perspace, and typically for trees, this is true... only the trunk blocks you from walking.  Having a the canopy of a tree overhanging the edge should not really be much of an issue as long as you keep the trunk from crossing the edge.  The toolset draws the perspace large enough to cover the object itself, in a 3d cube type box.  So for trees, since it has a larger canopy, it extends well beyond what would actually affect the walkable space.

This is MOST important for objects that the player can actually interact with... like opening a box, a barrel etc... A static object has less issues, but should still be avoided when possible.  

This "suggestion" is not really written in stone, but the fewer objects you have crossing the tile boundaries the better the game will perform.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Bannor Bloodfist, 15 août 2011 - 08:05 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Hardcore UFO]

               Good to know. I wasn't sure if the perspace was a thing, or if that box was just there as a visual aid in the toolset.

Thanks for the reply. I'll be more alert to placement now.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

Hardcore UFO wrote...

Good to know. I wasn't sure if the perspace was a thing, or if that box was just there as a visual aid in the toolset.

I just read through this and I wanted to make sure you didn't get the wrong impression.  The green box that you see in the toolset has nothing to do with how the engine handles the placeable.  Only the placeable's PWK does.  NWN sees the world for pathing purposes as a 2D plane and only data from a placeable's PWK is fed into those calculations, not any data from the bounding box.  The concept of "personal space" does not exist for placeables.  Only creatures or players have perspace.  Placeables have PWK's. 

The entire green box is the personal space (perspace) for that object.  Thus, it is what is being referred to when they suggest that you avoid crossing the tile outside edges with those.

The green bounding box for placeables and/or creatures in the toolset is merely an aid to placement and entirely cosmetic.

So, if you have a large tree placeable (and presuming the PWK for that tree is just as wide as the trunk, which is typical) the only thing you need to be concerned about is the trunk being close to or over the edge of the red line where the tiles join.  The canopy of that hypothetical tree could arch over several tiles and the NWN engine would not care one lick.  It just cares about the PWK.

You can learn more about how NWN sees the game world from this article.  I wrote to Stan earlier this year for clarification on some points and things like beveling didn't make it into the engine (to his knowledge).  But it's basically accurate: Creatures/PC's are cylinders and placeables' PWKs, walkmesh and all that other stuff is represented by angular shapes.

Bannor, if you could provide some information on why you think that I'd really like to look at it.  I'd hate to come into a thread and make what appears to be a correction to another poster's information but those first two sentences and the stuff about perspace on placeables threw me for a loop.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par OldTimeRadio, 15 août 2011 - 10:15 .