PathfindingLagFix

Moves many AI pathfinding tasks off the main thread to improve frame rates significantly, especially for hosts.

Most patches must be tailored to each AI, so this will not affect modded enemies in most cases.

The asynchronous pathfinding jobs are rendered safe from crashing through PathfindingLib.

Frametime graph comparisons:

Before/after on March with late night spawns:

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Thanks!

Patches

The enemy behaviors currently patched to run their pathfinding off the main thread include:

• General enemies:
  • The roaming search patterns used by many enemies (thumpers, hoarding bugs, jesters, etc), including any modded enemies that use this vanilla functionality
  • The checks for valid paths to players to be targeted
• Bracken:
  • The search for a hiding spot away from the main entrance when no players are targetable
  • The search for a hiding spot away from a player when it is spotted
  • The pathing towards the player out of line of sight when it is hunting
• Snare flea:
  • The search for a hiding spot at a certain number of paths away from main when no players are present
  • The search for a hiding spot near a player when they are targetable
• Spore lizard:
  • The search for a hiding spot away from a player when it is spotted
• Tulip snake:
  • Selection of a node to run away to after dismounting the player
• Manticoil:
  • The search for a node to fly to when it is disturbed by a player at close range

Other changes include:

• Bracken:
  • A vanilla bug that causes the bracken to stand in place if spotted within 5 units will no longer occur with the async pathfinding solution.
• Tulip snake:
  • A patch to prevent small stutters due to calls to Object.FindObjectsByType<FlowerSnakeEnemy>().

Thanks to

• Lunxara - Tested the early beta versions that were crashing due to Unity silliness.
• mattymatty - Brainstormed, assisted in reverse engineering Unity, and helped implementing synchronization to prevent crashes.
• XuXiaolan - Helped test asynchronous pathfinding by becoming an early adopter of PathfindingLib in CodeRebirth.
• Zehs - Pointed out the calls to FindObjectsByType<FlowerSnakeEnemy>() that are patched since v2.0.0.
• qwertyrodrigo - Made this meme:

Version 2.0.1

• Updated the manifest description to no longer state that it is a beta version.

Version 2.0.0

Note that this has the same mod ID as PathfindingLagFix Beta, but a lower version, so that will need to be disabled in order to run the stable version.

• Rewrote the mod to run all pathfinding patches off the main thread using PathfindingLib, reducing the performance impact of many forms of vanilla enemy pathfinding to near zero. This provides a general framerate improvement when many enemies are spawned, especially for hosts.
• All patches have been completely rewritten.
• Patched behaviors now include:
  • All roaming AI (i.e. thumpers, lootbugs, coilheads, and many more)
  • All omniscient player targeting (i.e. blobs, jesters, brackens, and more)
  • Bracken hunting, evasion, and hiding spot pathfinding
  • Snare flea hiding spot pathfinding
  • Spore lizard evasion pathfinding
  • Tulip snake dismounting pathfinding, and calls to FindObjectsByType<FlowerSnakeEnemy>()
  • Manticoil evasion pathfinding

Version 1.4.0

• Brought back the patch for lag caused when the Bracken has no player target and is therefore pathing to the furthest position from the interior entrance. This would often occur when the player jumps.

Version 1.3.1

• Updated mod icon and Thunderstore summary.

Version 1.3.0

• Updated to support v60/v61, removing patches for the Bracken and Spore Lizard now that vanilla uses an async method for those AI.

Version 1.2.1

• Removed some debug spam that would happen while a Snare Flea is retreating with no target players.

Version 1.2.0

• Prevent stutters caused by Snare Fleas finding a far location when there are no players to target.
  • This pathfinding would always happen if a Snare Flea spawned while no players are within the building.
  • More often in normal gameplay, it would occur if the Snare Flea fell off the playable area, since this would make all players untargetable, as well as make the search for a far location eventually fail.
  • NOTE: This may not cover all cases of lag caused by Snare Fleas. When they are running from a kill, they look for the nearest location that is accessible out of line of sight. If all line of sight checks fail, there may be stutters.

Version 1.1.0

• Fixed stutters that would happen when Spore Lizards run from the player.

Version 1.0.1

• Removed printing of the FlowermanAI.DoAIInterval() bytecode.

Version 1.0.0

• Fixed stutters that could occur when Brackens are retreating.
• Fixed stutters that always occur when Brackens spawn outside or are not on the nav mesh.