Cannot get get GraphUpdateObject to set penalties

General
1

I have several objects in the scene. They have the following code in Start():

    GUO = new GraphUpdateObject(MyCollider.bounds);
    GUO.addPenalty = 10000;
    //GUO.modifyWalkability = true;
    //GUO.setWalkability = false;
    AstarPath.active.UpdateGraphs(GUO);

It does not set the penalties, paths go right through the objects. If I uncomment the lines about walkability, that works fine. This is straight out of the documentation. What could be wrong?

2

Check if it shows up when you use the A* Inspector -> Settings -> Debug Mode = “Penalty” (and adjust the gradient max value to be 10000).

A penalty of 10000 is roughly equivalent to the cost of moving 10 world units, so you might want to increase it.

Also, try to set
GUO.updatePhysics = false;

That might be something I forgot to add in the documentation… Though I think it should work even with it enabled.

3

Okay, I got it working. These objects that interrupt the pathing move slowly, so I need to restore the normal penalties once they have moved off of some nodes. This is my approach - I have a GUOAdd that adds 100000, and a GUOReset adds -100000.

I keep a copy of the previous bounds, and apply them like this when the object has moved sufficiently:

 GUOReset.bounds = _previoiusBounds;
 AstarPath.active.UpdateGraphs(GUOReset);

 GUOAdd.bounds = MyCollider.bounds;
 AstarPath.active.UpdateGraphs(GUOAdd);

 _previousBounds = MyCollider.bounds;

This works for a short while, then I get this error:

"Very high penalty applied. Are you sure negative values haven't underflowed?"

and Unity hangs. Is there any way I can accomplish this safely?

4

Most likely you have applied the negative penalty multiple times on some nodes (or added the positive penalty more than 20000 times, but that is unlikely).
Set Debug Mode = Penalties in A* Inspector -> Settings and enable Show Graphs. That will color nodes depending on what penalty they have, make sure it works correctly.

Also, make sure you set GUO.updatePhysics=false for this because when updatePhysics is enabled, it will first recalculate all parameters on those nodes (which among other things, sets the penalty to the default value).

5

Okay, thanks!