Can anyone point me towards a guide for using way points effectively?

I can't help but think that there is some trick to it that I'm missing. I find my characters taking the long way around to get to a different area. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to go for a complex web or as simple as possible. It's frustrating.

The issue seems to come from not being able to connect one series of way points to another. I try placing points on top of another to make a connection, but that doesn't seem to work.

Can someone point me towards a guide that will tell me the best way to set these up, or perhaps post an example of a well made way system?

Thanks in advance.

It's all kind of complicated when it comes to the way system. It's more of a case of trial & error until you find the best method that works for your scene.

You can select previously created points. I think right click away from the way points will deselect the current way point, which will allow you to select another. In that way you can add new lines from previous points.

I believe the idea is to create lines that go from nearest way point to each object etc. You can even use separate way points. They don't all have to be joined up as far as I'm aware. The system should automatically choose the closest path from current position to target position.

P.S: I'm no expert on way points (paths). They are just - as I already mentioned - a case of trial & error.

Good luck.

You have to think of waypoints as "helpers" that tell your character how to get to its destination when the start and end points cannot see each other (there is an obstacle in the middle, for example.)
I am not a Visionaire developer, but I believe this is how the action flow works:

- you click on a destination
- if there is line of sight between the character position and the destination, the character walks towards the destination.
- if there is NO line of sight, Visionaire finds the nearest waypoint with line of sight from your character location, and the nearest waypoint with line of sight from the destination point.
- Visionaire then calculates the route between these two waypoints using an algorithm, probably A*, and directs the character along this route.
- When there is visibility again between the character and the destination point, the character abandons the waypoint route and directs itself to the destination point.

You have to make sure that all points in your walking area have visibility to at least one waypoint for this to work properly.
With waypoints, you also have the nice side effect that when the destination point cannot be reached at all (you click outside the walking area, for example), the character will still walk to the nearest waypoint.

Thanks guys.
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THIS helped me alot to really understand what to do with the Way Points. We used them way too much and so our character walked the weirdest ways to its destination