The enabling technology that helps support the creation of these large navigation contexts is the new Multi-Edge Meta-Connection that was also introduced in v.5.4.
As its name implies, the Multi-Edge Meta-Connection connects neighboring navmesh tiles together using multiple points instead of only using a single point as was possible before. By having multiple connection points, a character that is navigating this new larger environment is able to cross from one tile to another at any point along the connection line instead of only being able to cross at a single point as was the case previously. This provides much smoother pathfinding and better navigation across large environments.
The creation of a Multi-Edge Meta-Connection is quite simple as the users (or automated content creation tools) only need to specify two multi-edge meta-connection points, then specify a width for them. With this information, AI.implant will be able to stitch all of the edges of the neighboring tiles together, even if the edge faces are not aligned. The width of the connection area, starting from the connection point, is shown in purple on the right-hand part of the diagram that is shown above.
By having the ability to quickly connect tiles together, users can create large environments and look at loading and unloading tiles based on the position of their characters to create large-scale scenarios. Look for Multi-Edge Meta-Connections as a new option when creating MetaConnections under the AI.de user interface in AI.implant v.5.4.
