Swarm AI Toolkit – Flow Fields Mass Agent Navigation

Swarm AI Toolkit – Flow Fields

Flow Fields is the navigation module of the Swarm AI Toolkit, providing scalable, grid-based global movement for large groups of agents.

Instead of calculating individual paths per agent, Flow Fields generates a shared directional field across a grid. Agents sample this field to determine their movement direction, allowing thousands of units to navigate efficiently toward a target with minimal overhead.

This approach is ideal for RTS games, crowd simulations, swarm behaviors, and large-scale NPC systems where performance and stability are critical.

Flow Fields integrates directly with Swarm AI Toolkit – Core and leverages its system-driven update architecture.

How It Works

1. A cost field is generated from a target position.
2. A direction field is computed across the grid.
3. Agents sample the grid at runtime.
4. Movement remains fully system-driven and physics-free.

No per-agent pathfinding.

No NavMesh dependency.

No Rigidbody movement.

Designed for Scale

Flow Fields allows hundreds or thousands of agents to:

• Move toward shared objectives
• React to dynamic target changes
• Recalculate efficiently when needed
• Maintain stable performance at large scales

It is particularly well suited for:

• RTS unit movement
• Tower defense games
• MOBA minion waves
• Swarm AI
• Large background crowds

Requires

Swarm AI Toolkit – Core

Flow Fields builds on Core’s simulation architecture and spatial systems.