Pathfinding is making NPC movement choppy

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

So I’ve been experimenting with pathfinding on NPCs recently, and it seems as if all the movement of my NPCs are becoming choppy as they keep on moving. https://gyazo.com/c5b1bacbd724dd600231aabce434ebba

I’ve tried viewing other posts on the forum, but none of them really helped with my specific problem. What I’m trying to achieve is obviously a smoother and cleaner look to the walk of the NPC.

Now, what I’m basically doing with the NPCs is that I’m spawning a recursive function that decides and moves the NPC to a specific location. Frankly, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to spawn recursive functions, so if anyone has alternatives, that would be great. Anyways, in the function, I would then start to decide the destination of the NPC, and the path it would take. The function is listed below.

function NPC:ExecuteBehavior()
if self.Type == (“Roamer”) then

  local EligibleSpawns = {}
  
  for i, Spawn in pairs(Workspace:WaitForChild("MovePoints"):GetChildren()) do
  	if (Spawn) ~= (self.Target) then
  		if (self.Target.Position.X) == (Spawn.Position.X) then
  			table.insert(EligibleSpawns, Spawn.Name)
  		end
  		if (self.Target.Position.Z) == (Spawn.Position.Z) then
  			table.insert(EligibleSpawns, Spawn.Name)
  		end
  	end
  end

local RandomSpawn = Workspace:WaitForChild(“MovePoints”):FindFirstChild(EligibleSpawns[math.random(1, > #EligibleSpawns)])

  self.Target = RandomSpawn 
  
  local Path = self:ComputePath(RandomSpawn)

  for i, Waypoint in ipairs(Path:GetWaypoints()) do
  	self.NPC.Humanoid:MoveTo(Waypoint.Position)
  	self.NPC.Humanoid.MoveToFinished:Wait()
  end

  self:ExecuteBehavior()

end
end

Also, here’s the script executing the functions.

for i = 1, 20 do
local b = a.new(“Roamer”)
spawn(function()
b:ExecuteBehavior()
end)
end

How would I be able to get rid of the choppiness of the NPCs? Also, any other feedback would be appreciated.

3 Likes
Pathfinding bot freezes when it approaches its target
Looking for help with custom pathfinding
#2

The NPCs most likely stutter because of the self.NPC.Humanoid.MoveToFinished:Wait() in your pathfinding waypoint table. You could try moving the NPCs into their waypoint just before they finish with their current one.

2 Likes
#3

Alright, how exactly would I do this?

Would I just move the npc to their waypoint like .1 second before they reach it?

And if so, how exactly would I find the duration of how long it takes for the npc to get to their waypoint?

Sorry, I’m just a bit new to pathfinding, so any help would be appreciated.

#4

While this would work in theory, I cannot guarantee 100% functionality based on dynamic changing environments. I do have a small catch in this code for that though:

local pointA = Vector3.new(0,0,0)
local pointB = Vector3.new(100,0,0)

local walkSpeed = 16
local distance = (pointB-pointA).magnitude

local timeTaken = distance/walkSpeed

wait(timeTaken-0.5)

if (pointB - AIPOSITION).magnitude < 0.5/walkSpeed + 0.1 then --check if the ai is close to the point, specifically, within half a stud
    --finished
else
    repeat -- continue waiting for the ai to get close
        wait(0.05)
    until (pointB - AIPOSITION).magnitude < 0.5/walkSpeed + 0.1
end
2 Likes
#5

You can additionally establish a MoveToFinished listener event to yield and stop the loop early via a while true do loop that plays while the NPC is still moving.

I’m naturally a bad explainer, so I made an example script of this that could possibly help you.

-- example script moving Dummy to Dummy2

local PF = game:GetService("PathfindingService")

local path = PF:CreatePath()
path:ComputeAsync(script.Parent.Torso.Position, workspace.Dummy2.Torso.Position)

local wayPoints = path:GetWaypoints()

local RunService = game:GetService("RunService")

local DestPosition = Vector3.new(workspace.Dummy2.Torso.Position) -- Just as an example
local DistFactor = 3.3 -- Most regular-sized NPCs stop around 3 studs short from Torso - Waypoint Pos.
local Humanoid = script.Parent:WaitForChild("Humanoid")

for i = 1, #wayPoints do
    local wP = wayPoints[i]
    local wPDistance
    
    Humanoid:MoveTo(wP.Position)
    
    local MoveToFinished = false
    local ListenConn
    ListenConn = Humanoid.MoveToFinished:connect(function()
        ListenConn:Disconnect()
        MoveToFinished = true
    end)
    
    while MoveToFinished == false do
        wPDistance = (script.Parent.Torso.Position - wayPoints[i].Position).magnitude
        if wPDistance <= DistFactor then
            ListenConn:Disconnect()
            break
        end 
        RunService.Heartbeat:wait()
    end
end

This uses roughly the same premise as @marfit did, only without speed.

3 Likes