Abstract A navigation mesh is a representation of a 2D or 3D virtual environment that enables path planning and crowd simulation for walking characters. Various state-of-the-art navigation meshes exist, but there is no standardized way of evaluating or comparing them. Each implementation is in a different state of maturity, has been tested on different hardware, uses different example environments, and may have been designed with a different application in mind. In this paper, we develop and use a framework for comparing navigation meshes. First, we give general definitions of 2D and 3D environments and navigation meshes. Second, we propose theoretical properties by which navigation meshes can be classified. Third, we introduce metrics by which the quality of a navigation mesh implementation can be measured objectively. Fourth, we use these properties and metrics to compare various state-of-the-art navigation meshes in a range of 2D and 3D environments. Finally, we analyze our results to identify important topics for future research on navigation meshes. We expect that this work will set a new standard for the evaluation of navigation meshes, that it will help developers choose an appropriate navigation mesh for their application, and that it will steer future research in interesting directions.

中文翻译：

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比较导航网格：理论分析和实践指标

摘要 导航网格是 2D 或 3D 虚拟环境的表示，它支持步行角色的路径规划和人群模拟。存在各种最先进的导航网格，但没有评估或比较它们的标准化方法。每个实现都处于不同的成熟状态，已经在不同的硬件上进行了测试，使用了不同的示例环境，并且可能在设计时考虑了不同的应用程序。在本文中，我们开发并使用了一个框架来比较导航网格。首先，我们给出 2D 和 3D 环境和导航网格的一般定义。其次，我们提出了可以对导航网格进行分类的理论属性。第三，我们引入了可以客观衡量导航网格实现质量的指标。第四，我们使用这些属性和指标来比较各种 2D 和 3D 环境中的各种最先进的导航网格。最后，我们分析了我们的结果，以确定未来导航网格研究的重要主题。我们希望这项工作将为导航网格的评估设定一个新标准，它将帮助开发人员为其应用选择合适的导航网格，并将引导未来的研究朝着有趣的方向发展。