[General] Pathing Blockers

[MURDER KING]

Hello,guys.
I have a problem using Pathing Blockers.
I don't know how to use them.
Or how can be shown on Editor because it's show me only a square.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Pathing blockers are invisible objects that block the cells they are placed on from being entered by units.
In the editor, you will see a purple box (that is invisible ingame) if you have "display info" checked in the editor.

You can check the map pathing by checking "display pathability". Red areas are unpathable, transparent areas are pathable.

 

[MURDER KING]

So if i put custom pathing to block an area ,the units cannot enter in blocked area wich means the area cannot be explored.
I think i understand.

 

[Deleted member 242951]

So if i put custom pathing to block an area ,the units cannot enter in blocked area wich means the area cannot be explored.
I think i understand.

The area can be explored if it comes under the vision of any other unit but it cannot be walked upon by ground/air units depending upon the type of pathing blocker u have placed there. Example :

Pathing blocker both : blocks both land and air units
Pathing blocker air : blocks only air units
Pathing blocker ground : blocks ground units.

 

[Veritas 117]

press P to see the pathing on the ground. Pink is unwalkable, teal is unflyable, and white is both. You can also increase the pathing blockers occlusion in the object editor to make them line of sight blockers. This will essentially make it so you cannot see past them.

I also like to experiment with the pathing map of pathing blockers in the object editor to make custom sizes. You can make them 4x8 or 4x12 or 12x12 etc for whatever you want to be unwalkable.

You can also hold shift while placing them to overlap them. This is good for filling in odd areas without using a bunch of 2x2 blockers.

 

[Wietlol]

"Pink is unwalkable, teal is unflyable, and white is both."
It is slightly more advanced than that

Every color is made out of three subcolors or primary colors (dunno really why green replaced yellow though)
Red, Green and Blue.

White for example is made out of 255 reds, 255 greens and 255 blues.
Black for example is made out of 0 reds, 0 greens and 0 blues.
Pink for example is made out of 255 reds, 0 greens and 255 blues.
etc, etc, etc.

When red is 255, it is unwalkable. When it is 0, it is walkable.
When green is 255, it is unflyable. When it is 0, it is flyable.
When blue is 255, it is unbuildable. When it is 0, it is buildable.

So you can imagine that now you can have a walkable, buildable, non-flyable area by using a pathing texture that is completely green.
Ussually, you wont see that color except when you use custom textures or follow tutorials about it.

 

[MURDER KING]

I never knew the pathing having so much options but i will try to learn step by step.
In the Object Editor i see i can use the import files, so there are other types of blockers?

 

[Wietlol]

Well... as I said, the pathing is defined by a color code.
With this you can create custom .tga or .blp images (because these are usable as textures in WC3) to create custom pathing textures.

The size of the pathing is in pixels of the 64x64 grid (from the top of my head).
At least a pathing texture of 4x4 is equal to the size of a watch tower.

You can create a 4x4 pixel image and fill it with a full green color and use it for your watch tower to make flying units not able to fly over the turret (be aware that only green means that it is still buildable and walkable for other structures or units).

Anyway, this means that you can create any shape of pathing texture in any pathing type per pixel.
Using this, you can make almost realistic pathing for a HQ-gamplay game.

For example, I have an octagon text and give it the pathing texture like this:

This will make you be able to walk perfectly around it.

To be able to work pixel wise in an image of 4x4+ you should use an Image editting program that can zoom like 1600%
The one that I use is GIMP, which is a free image editting program similar to photoshop.

Anyway, you can give it a try when you want to get some more perfectionism in a map.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Custom pathing textures are extremely nice when you want to build a tower defense or maze-type map.
This allows you to create, for example, towers that can be stacked, but not crossed by units.

It's also a neat way to make clean pathable bridges and ramps.

 

[Veritas 117]

"Pink is unwalkable, teal is unflyable, and white is both."
It is slightly more advanced than that

Every color is made out of three subcolors or primary colors (dunno really why green replaced yellow though)
Red, Green and Blue.

White for example is made out of 255 reds, 255 greens and 255 blues.
Black for example is made out of 0 reds, 0 greens and 0 blues.
Pink for example is made out of 255 reds, 0 greens and 255 blues.
etc, etc, etc.

When red is 255, it is unwalkable. When it is 0, it is walkable.
When green is 255, it is unflyable. When it is 0, it is flyable.
When blue is 255, it is unbuildable. When it is 0, it is buildable.

So you can imagine that now you can have a walkable, buildable, non-flyable area by using a pathing texture that is completely green.
Ussually, you wont see that color except when you use custom textures or follow tutorials about it.

This is good info. I was merely saying what your pathing will look like in the editor when you make it visible. Purely from a simplicity standpoint. I guess actually explaining what they mean is more useful though. Good work.

 

[MURDER KING]

And how do i make good pathable roads or bridges or shores?
I need to use only the terrain editor ?
I think this is not so easy.

 

[Veritas 117]

Normal terrain is walkable by default. Cliffs and water will make things unwalkable by units. If you want to make something walkable that is not you can use invisible platforms in the doodad palette. These give you small areas that are walkable (but are invisible) so you can make a custom bridge then use these platforms to make a path for it. You can raise or lower the invisible platforms by selecting them and using ctrl+page up or ctrl+page down.

 

[MURDER KING]

Many thanks.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Every color is made out of three subcolors or primary colors (dunno really why green replaced yellow though)

It is based on the technology available more than anything.

When red is 255, it is unwalkable. When it is 0, it is walkable.
When green is 255, it is unflyable. When it is 0, it is flyable.
When blue is 255, it is unbuildable. When it is 0, it is buildable.

Actually pathing is an array of flags, at least for the base pathing map. Each cell is given 1 byte if I recall. The colours you mention are used only by overlays and by the RoC beta (before ".wpm" was introduced).

The base map pathing is computed by World Edit from a combination of terrain mesh data (cliffs, buildability of tiles, water overlay height above terrain when water flag set etc) and doodads (all doodad pathing is "burned" onto the base pathing layer). Destructibles and Buildings apply pathing modification overlays to the base pathing map.

It is always more efficient to use the base pathing map for static pathing when possible. Destructibles should only be used for dynamic pathing (pathing you want to change during a game).

 

[Wietlol]

Ofc, in-game it may be different but we dont really have to know that.
The booleans are created using a color code and with the pathing texture, you can create the desired pathing.
Because we are here to see how to work with the pathing of WC3 instead of making our own, we dont really have to consider more than the color codes and size.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Everything you need to know is here http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/pathmaps.php