Vertical Discontinuities

PathEngine supports vertical discontinuities in the ground for steps, staircases and so on. (See Steps and Staircases.)
The important point is that the ground mesh can 'connect' across vertical discontinuities, meaning that agents are allowed to cross those discontinuities without being obstructed.

The PathEngine content processing will automatically collapse any exactly vertical edges in the content geometry, and connect the adjoining faces directly across these edges.

A basic mesh containing a vertical discontinuity in Max.

The same mesh exported and displayed in the PathEngine testbed - agents can now walk freely across this step.

It is important to note that in order to be collapsed edges must be perfectly vertical. If not then you will either get a ramp or a validation error depending on which way the edge slopes.