Below is a comprehensive documentation for the ContextSteering script. You can use this documentation as a reference to understand its purpose, configuration, and inner workings.

Overview

The ContextSteering script is a Unity MonoBehaviour component designed for vehicle AI. It implements a context-based steering system that helps a vehicle determine the best steering direction by evaluating multiple potential directions. This evaluation considers the target direction, obstacles, and the presence of other vehicles. The script uses sphere casts to detect obstacles and dynamically calculates “interest” (how much a given direction aligns with the goal) and “danger” (how much an obstacle or other vehicle interferes with that direction). It then combines these factors to decide on an optimal steering direction.

Key Features

• Multi-Directional Analysis: Evaluates a configurable number of directions (using a radial approach) around the vehicle.
• Dynamic Interest Calculation: Considers both the target direction and inertia (current velocity) to compute how desirable a given steering direction is.
• Obstacle & Other Vehicle Detection: Uses sphere casts to determine the presence of obstacles and other vehicles along each direction.
• Adaptive Ray Length: Adjusts the detection ray length based on vehicle speed and direction alignment using an animation curve.
• Gizmo Visualization: Provides visual feedback in the Unity Editor (both in edit and play modes) to debug the calculated interest, danger levels, and chosen directions.
• Critical Path Detection: Checks for obstacles directly in the vehicle's movement path to determine if immediate action (like slowing down) is needed.

Setup and Configuration

1. Adding Context based Steering Script :

   You can add this script by right clicking on Ai Vehicle Controller Script and selecting Add Context based Steering Option. (you can also remove it using Remove Context Based Steering Option)

2. Steering Settings:

   • directions: Sets the number of directions (rays) around the vehicle that will be evaluated. A higher number gives a finer evaluation but may cost more performance.
   • rayLength: The maximum length for each ray used in sphere casts.
   • raylengthCurve: An AnimationCurve that modulates the effective ray length based on the vehicle’s velocity alignment with each direction.
   • Layer Masks:
     • obstacleLayers and otherVehicleLayers are used to filter the sphere casts for obstacles and other vehicles respectively.

3. Weights:

   Adjust the following weights to balance between reaching the target and avoiding hazards:

   • targetWeight: How strongly the vehicle should favor the target direction.
   • obstacleWeight: The penalty factor applied for nearby obstacles.
   • otherVehiclesWeight: The penalty for detecting other vehicles.
   • inertiaWeight: How much the vehicle’s current velocity influences its steering decision.

4. Vehicle Dimensions and Obstacle Settings:

   • vehicleRadius: Represents the vehicle’s size; used in sphere casts to simulate the vehicle’s width.
   • obstacleCloseDistance: Defines a threshold distance to consider an obstacle “very close”, potentially triggering immediate avoidance maneuvers.
   • lookAheadFactor: Multiplies the vehicle’s current speed to extend detection range in the movement direction.

5. Gizmo Settings:

   Enable or disable gizmo visualizations such as interest levels, danger levels, and the best direction for debugging purposes.