[0.12.33] Biters walking out of radar range get stuck on map

[JasonC]

Minor issue. Occasionally (I do not know the trigger) it seems that when a biter walks outside of radar range, it's red blip on the map does not disappear. However, when the biter walks back into radar range (I think), or if the area comes into the character's vision range, its blip updates, so the problem is not permanent.

The consequence of this is over time you get these lines of red blips that form at the edges of the radar:



Because observing the actual area makes the problem go away, I haven't been able to get any more concrete info. I have attached a save, it doesn't show the lines forming (I haven't been able to figure out the exact circumstances under which this happens), but in it if you watch the biters move around in the map view sometimes you see blips get momentarily stuck on the edge of the radar range as the biters move around, which I'm sure is indicative of the issue.

The attached save has always_day=true and speed=50, and while it doesn't show the issue fully, it at least kind of shows it if you look closely (you have to watch the map very carefully, and sometimes you'll see blips get momentarily stuck at the edges), and is the closest I could get.

[CrispyOMNOMS]

Hi,

This is because the bites are walking out of vision. When biters are no longer in vision their last know position is kept on the map. When the biters wander out of vision their last known position is right on the edge of vision, this can sometimes form red lines when the biters that wandered out of vision do not wander back into it.

The lines disappear the next time you see the biters that left vision, like when you move closer and reveal their positions or when a radar re-scans the locations you cannot see.

Hope this helps.

[Klonan]

Thanks for the report,

This is due to the being detected in a scanned radar chunk,
And then the chunk becoming unrevealed later

I suppose that enemy units should be hidden from unrevealed chunks, and that only spawners and other stationary entities (like a PvP base) be kept on the radar charted chunks

[orzelek]

From what I noticed when using radars from STRS mod those strange lines will remain if you build an impulse radar that will uncover it.
Radar that gives visibility of this area is not enough:

MapView.png (221.8 KiB) Viewed 3956 times

When I go there to actually look at the area the line will dissappear as it should. It might be a bug with increase of the radar visible range tho not exact same issue but seems related.

[Klonan]

This is caused by some optimizations of biters, such that they only are active when the player is within a few chunks of them, and then when they hit the edge of this chunk they aren't updated anymore

[orzelek]

This is caused by some optimizations of biters, such that they only are active when the player is within a few chunks of them, and then when they hit the edge of this chunk they aren't updated anymore

So this is also why radars won't observe movement of biters - they don't actually move at all unless player is around?

[JasonC]

This is caused by some optimizations of biters, such that they only are active when the player is within a few chunks of them, and then when they hit the edge of this chunk they aren't updated anymore

I'm having trouble resolving this in my head.

Just to be clear; does this mean the specific case in which the red lines happen is when the edge of the player's update range coincides with the edge of a radar's visibility range?

I'm trying to think how what you say would cause them to get stuck at the edge of a chunk that they are leaving, even if they're leaving the update range.

If a biter walks out of the player's range and becomes inactive, even though it isn't being updated any more, should its dot not be removed from the map when it leaves that chunk?

Shouldn't they wait until they cross the edge of that last chunk before becoming inactive? I don't know about orzalek's screen shot but in mine they're all stuck on the edge of the chunk they're leaving, not the edge of the chunk they entered when they became inactive.

Plus, in my test save, sometimes when dots get stuck on the edge, they eventually disappear. How could that happen if the cause is a biter becoming inactive, as the only way for the dot to disappear would be if the biter became active again outside that range and walked back into it?

[Smarty]

is it the same when a biter is in pollution range?