aframe-inspector-plugin-recast not maintained

[gmarty]

ICYMI, aframe-inspector-plugin-recast is not maintained anymore, see issue #48.

This plugin was the recommended solution to generate navmesh. The server is still running, but maybe not for long.

The pathfinding README links to a blogpost that contains outdated information (when Blender used to have a video game mode).

I'm concerned that when the aframe-inspector-plugin-recast server goes down, there won't be a way to generate a navmesh.

There are different possible ways to get out of this situation:

• Someone write about how to generate a navmesh using updated tools, ideally accessible from this repo.
• c-frame to take over the maintenance of aframe-inspector-plugin-recast.

[vincentfretin]

I didn't do a lot of scene in blender myself. I sometimes used just a plane and cut some holes with the knife tool.
How to use the Knife tool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4scXty1hsto
Also see articles from Hubs:
https://hubs.mozilla.com/labs/what-is-a-nav-mesh/
https://hubs.mozilla.com/labs/creating-a-custom-nav-mesh-for-your-hubs-scene/
You can try adding ?debugNavmesh to the end of any room URL to see a wireframe version of the nav-mesh in that space.

I know some people used Hubs Spoke editor to generate a navmesh and export it. If I remember, Spoke also use a recast version to generate the navmesh.

Also see Hubs-Foundation/hubs-blender-exporter#194

An alternative to navmesh component from this repo is Ada's simple-navmesh-constraint component. The nice thing about it is you can add navmesh-hole class to an entity and it will dynamically forbid walking on this entity. I don't think you can do that with the navmesh component in this repo.

[vincentfretin]

There is also some tips how to create a navmesh in blender in this article
https://hubs.mozilla.com/labs/creating-retro-worlds/#creating-a-navigation-mesh

[vincentfretin]

There is still an addon for blender apparently, see comment Hubs-Foundation/hubs-blender-exporter#194 (comment)

[vincentfretin]

Keep an eye to recast-navigation-js https://twitter.com/isaac_mason_/status/1647979252569243648 "Big thanks to Babylon.js - their recast extension was the basis of the wasm build."
and a nice demo https://twitter.com/yomotsu/status/1648326941362237440

[vincentfretin]

Creating a navmesh with blender and recast will be included in the hubs addon! Hubs-Foundation/hubs-blender-exporter#213

[vincentfretin]

@arvind-iyer created an aframe component that uses recast-navigation-js to bake the navmesh and export it to glb https://github.com/arvind-iyer/aframe-recast