There’s no secret that the next LSL (Linden Scripting Language) library update in progress is the Pathfinder Tools, but what are these?
Pathfinder will allow prims to detect other prims around them and react to them in a certain way. A car could “see” the tree in front of it and weer out of its way before a collision (or as the ones who have been in cars in SL before knows, goes THROUGH it). It could also be used in prim people, creating NPC’s that reacts to its surrounding and along with the current library even react to the people around it.
The currently discussed update will contain the following commands:
- Evade – run away from a specified object or avatar.
- Flee – Attempt to get a specified distance from a specified location.
- Navigate – Move to a specific location.
- Patrol – Move through a path defined by a set of “patrol points.”
- Pursue – Chase a specified object or avatar.
- Wander – Randomly move around a specified distance from a specified central point.
This makes for an interesting set of “skills” for NPC’s in RP sims, but also for visual sims, communities and stores. Just imagine having a “mall cop” with one of the chatbox scripts, patrolling the mall and greeting you when it sees you, occasionally chasing after “thief” that just stole something in a store.
Or what about an RP follower that you can issue commands to? I see pokémon/digimon/Yuh-Gi-Oh-ish RP sims in the near future!
For more information and transcripts of the Pathfinding User Group meetings held every thursday, check the LSL Wiki.