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V2 NPC Schedule Pathfinding

time, NPC current location id, travel estimate, early-arrival buffer, next transition planning flag, and command issuing flag.

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NPCSchedulePathfinding.V2 turns schedule execution results into deterministic navigation intent. It does not invoke Unreal navigation directly; instead it selects a schedule destination and emits a navigation command payload that runtime AI, pathfinding, or crowd systems can consume.

Runtime Surface#

  • FV2NPCSchedulePathfindingRequest carries the authored schedule, current time, NPC current location id, travel estimate, early-arrival buffer, next transition planning flag, and command issuing flag.
  • FV2NPCScheduleNavigationCommand carries the route source, destination, target schedule block, activity tag, behavior tag, planned departure and arrival minutes, wait minutes, and issue state.
  • FV2NPCSchedulePathfindingResult reports whether the NPC is already at the scheduled location, needs navigation, targets the next transition, should wait after early arrival, and issued a navigation command.
  • EV2NPCSchedulePathfindingIssueType distinguishes invalid inputs, active location routing, transition routing, early wait, command issuance, suppression, and invalid command payloads.

Routing Rules#

  1. Pathfinding first evaluates FV2NPCScheduleExecutionResult.
  2. If the NPC is already at the target block's LocationId, no navigation is emitted.
  3. Otherwise, the result emits a move command from CurrentLocationId to the schedule destination.
  4. When the next block starts within EstimatedTravelMinutes + EarlyArrivalBufferMinutes, the pathfinder targets that next transition destination instead of the current block.
  5. Planned arrival wraps across midnight using authored schedule minutes.
  6. If arrival is before the target block start, WaitMinutes is set and the command asks the NPC to wait at the destination.
  7. bIssueNavigationCommand can suppress command issue while keeping the deterministic route plan available for debug and prediction.

The command is data-only and stable:

  • CommandId is derived from schedule id and target block id.
  • SourceLocationId is the NPC's current known schedule location.
  • DestinationLocationId is the target block's location id.
  • TargetBlockId, ActivityTag, and BehaviorTag preserve the selected schedule intent.
  • PlannedDepartureMinute, PlannedArrivalMinute, and WaitMinutes make transition timing auditable.

Validation Commands#

Run these targeted checks when touching schedule pathfinding:

bash
python3 V2/ue/Tools/check-v2-npc-schedule-pathfinding.py
python3 V2/ue/Tools/check-v2-npc-schedule-execution-engine.py
python3 V2/ue/Tools/check-v2-npc-schedule-data-format.py
python3 V2/ue/Tools/check-v2-ci-workflow.py
python3 -m json.tool V2/ue/Content/V2/Gameplay/NPC/NPCSchedulePathfinding_V2_Contract.json
python3 -m py_compile V2/ue/Tools/check-v2-npc-schedule-pathfinding.py