Navigation mesh
geometry data for pathfinding
A navigation mesh, or navmesh, is an abstract data structure used in artificial intelligence applications to aid agents in pathfinding through complicated spaces. This approach has been known since at least the mid-1980s in robotics, where it has been called a meadow map, and was popularized in video game AI in 2000.
Description
A navigation mesh is a collection of two-dimensional convex polygons (a polygon mesh) that define which areas of an environment are traversable by agents. In other words, a character in a game could freely walk around within these areas unobstructed by trees, lava, or other barriers that are part of the environment. Adjacent polygons are connected to each other in a graph.
Pathfinding within one of these polygons can be done trivially in a straight line because the polygon is convex and traversable. Pathfinding between polygons in the mesh can be done with one of the large number of graph search algorithms, such as A*. Agents on a navmesh can thus avoid computationally expensive collision detection checks with obstacles that are part of the environment.
Representing traversable areas in a 2D-like form simplifies calculations that would otherwise need to be done in the "true" 3D environment, yet unlike a 2D grid it allows traversable areas that overlap above and below at different heights. The polygons of various sizes and shapes in navigation meshes can represent arbitrary environments with greater accuracy than regular grids can.
“Navigation mesh” enters the record as geometry data for pathfinding. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Navigation, mesh and geometry can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3306837. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Navigation mesh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.