AAS

This page is a Stub. You can help us by expanding it.

The Area Awareness System is the navigation system that the AI uses.

An AAS map is a simplified 3D map of the level compiled from the solid brush work in the .map file. Areas are the most simplified volume so navigation within an Area is simple point to point. Reachabilities between Areas are then calculated.

Brushes with the material monster clip (a misnomer since it only clips the aas map, which isn’t used for collision) are also read by the ass compiler.

As noted the aas compiler works on brushes, and ignores models an patches. There is an exception with patch support being a command line option, however with the common usage of using patches for decals it is not an efficient option.

Note: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars only:

The aas compiler has been extended to support compiling the terrain mesh into the aas.

One of the most useful cvars for debugging AAS maps is: Aas_showAreas

The aas compiler can be invoked with the runAAS (console command) .

The aas compiler works by looking for “use_aas” keys on map entities to read the aas type. It creates a different aas map per aas type. It then flood fills from those entities, using the bounding size in the setting. For example: in Doom 3 the common sizes are aas48 - 48x48x82 for humanoid sized monsters and aas96 - 96x96x96 for larger, with very large boss monsters getting their own type.

In ETQW there are two types, one for players and another for vehicles.