View pathing grids?

[N0ctrnl]

Is there a (current) tool to load pathing grids from a zone? I know there have been a few of them over the years, but can't seem to find anything current.

I'm trying to assign NPCs to pathing grids in a few zones, but having to find the grid_entries manually and line them up isn't working well at all for me and this would hopefully help.

Thanks!

[Shendare]

There used to be an in-game command to make pathing grid waypoints appear as NPCs so you could visualize them. That still working?

[N0ctrnl]

I guess I've got a disconnect in my mind on that. Yeah, it still works (#path shownodes), but that just loads from the zone's .path file, does it not?

[Shendare]

Ah, maybe it is. Not useful for db waypoints at all, then.

[N0ctrnl]

Doesn't seem to be. I appreciate the reply though!

Here's what I've found so far...

Theeper's grid viewer tool from 2008: http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/sho...d.php?p=159530 - It's old VS source code, so I'm working through getting the environment setup to compile it. No luck yet.

The (deprecated) Map and Path viewer from the source tree years ago: https://code.google.com/p/projecteqe...w.zip&can=1&q= - The EXE actually runs, but that's as far as I get.

[Shendare]

Hopefully somebody's got something more recent and functional they can chime in with.

One idea that I've been rolling around in the palm of my brain has been trying to put together a mapping module that can display npc spawns, grids, ground spawns, objects, etc. as layers on vector maps drawn from the LoY maps for each zone.

Would make some things so much easier. Would also take some time to play with and implement, though.

[provocating]

It would be cool indeed. Ideally something like what we have for the pathing files (ninja's) would be cool. You could even do a format like 15-60 to show waypoint 15, 60 second pause. I find the pathing system pretty easy, as long as you do not have to manually connect nodes too much, which can crash when adding/removing too many manually. The waypoint system would be better if you could see them visually, I guess you could use ShowEq and have it draw trails on the screen.

Totally missed Theeper's program being out there, should be pretty easy to get it to compile again.

[Shendare]

Can you expound on "something like what we have for the pathing files (ninja's)"?

[provocating]

Go to a zone with a working path grid, like unrest. Then do a #path shownodes

[N0ctrnl]

If you're using mq2, make sure you unload the map plugin first or it'll crash in most zones.

[Tabasco]

http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38911

[Shendare]

Oh my.

Gonna have to take a look at this!

[N0ctrnl]

While that tool is super cool and really useful, it still doesn't do what I'm after.

[Tabasco]

You have a full grid list and you can reference an existing NPC's grid just by clicking on it. From there you just click the new NPC, hit the second edit icon, and input the grid. It might be possible to optimize that pipeline, but you're talking about a difference of about two clicks.

Creating a fresh grid might actually yield better results and can be done very quickly.
The interface is daunting at a glance, but it's actually pretty simple once you get used to it.

[N0ctrnl]

The issue at hand here is having dozens of grids in a zone, and not being able to align a zone full of mobs that don't path to a grid that exists somewhere under my feet.

I understand what you're saying as far as copying grids. What I'm after here is something that'll show me what grids exist so I can easily see what a path is going to look like without having to plot it all out. Unless I'm missing something, your tool lacks that functionality.

The only thing I've found thus far is the grid viewer from '08. I got it to compile, but having a couple other issues getting it to work properly.