flow maps

[Klunk]

came across this, thought it could be of interest

http://graphicsrunner.blogspot.com/2010/08/water-using-flow-maps.html

sorry if it's been linked to before.

[trivtn]

Thanks !

[Radikalizm]

I've stumbled upon this some time ago too, never had tried to implement it though, didn't really have any use for it

[aaammmsterdddam]

nice find! thanks!

[REDDemon]

this will be usefull for games like UT with small and detailed level. make no sense using in games like skyrim

[aaammmsterdddam]

might cause performance issues? <---only reason I can think of to why one wouldn't use this for such a game.....
and one can have a large and detailed level, at a cost of performance

[Dareltibus]

Flow maps are also used for AI pathfiding. Hybrid solution (lol "Hybrid") XD is to use both A* and flow map. Flow map generates a "derivate" of the map obstacles and terrain cost. a* search is similiar to a ray of light. It starts for a cell, and then go to another cell (or point of a grid). big derivate values "reflects" the search ray to a more suitable place for find paths. The only hard thing is to compute correct values for flow map. After that search time is reduced. Flow map also works well when many units need to move and avoid obstacles.