Reference: .streamingsector node types

Which node types exist: What do they do?

What do they do?

Nodes are what make up the entire game world, from visible things like meshes, entities and light, to invisible things like area nodes, markers and collisions.

There are a number of node types, be they a static wall, a random object or an interactive entity. There are nodes for defining trigger areas, spawn points, lighting, weather and so on. The nodes carry the information for what mesh to use, which appearance of it, what physical properties to give them and so on. In the sector files there are two lists, the nodes, which define the nodes themselves, and the nodeData which defines where to put them, a single node can be referenced by multiple nodeData entries.

Nodes go beyond just what is immediately visible, there are also ones for optimization (E.g. Occluders and proxies), markers used by quests, reflection probes ensuring consistent lighting, community nodes which spawn NPCs (With options to change their spawning behavior based on time of day), guard areas to restrict enemy NPCs to their mission area and more.

Node Types

For a full list of node types (as of 2.1), see DocPresto's github

List below is the node types I've found so far while building the blender sector import script.

MinimapDataNode
worldAISpotNode	Usually used within worldCompiledCommunityAreaNode as a spot to spawn an entity.
worldStaticMarkerNode	Used as a general purpose marker, used by anything that needs to reference a position (E.g. Scenes)
worldAcousticSectorNode
worldAmbientAreaNode	Area node which controls the acoustic environment, e.g. muffling interior or playing ambient sounds
worldBendedMeshNode	Used for roads (not implemented in blender import yet)
worldBuildingProxyMeshNode	Proxy mesh for building at further distance. Textures are normally embedded so canonly export with wscript currently.
worldCableMeshNode	Cables, like between utility poles.
worldCollisionNode	Adds collision, can be either box/sphere/capsule, or a mesh
worldCompiledCommunityAreaNode_Streamable	Defines a community that spawns a group of dynamic entities such as NPCs and vehicles.
worldCompiledSmartObjectsNode
worldDestructibleEntityProxyMeshNode
worldDeviceNode	Essentially the same as worldEntityNode but with the ability define connections to other device entities. Imports as just an entity in blender.
worldEffectNode	Places .effect file in the game world
worldEntityNode	Defines an object defined by an .ent file (door, vending machine, fan etc)
worldEntityProxyMeshNode	Proxy mesh, linked to a owner node, which is a worldEntityNode
worldFoliageNode	Puts down lots of small things like boxes, garbage bags, plants. Uses a buffer to define positions that we haven't worked out yet.
worldGINode
worldGIShapeNode
worldGISpaceNode
worldGenericProxyMeshNode	Proxy mesh for objects at distance. Also used for some low poly buildings at a distance without mesh node counterpart.
worldGuardAreaNode
worldInstancedDestructibleMeshNode	as worldInstancedMeshNode but breakable
worldInstancedMeshNode	Instanced copies of a static mesh uses a worldTransformBuffer in the nodeData to define the number of copies and positions of all the copies
worldInstancedOccluderNode
worldInterestingConversationsAreaNode
worldInteriorAreaNode	Defines a trigger area and applied restrictions such as no combat, prevent quests from starting, etc.
worldLightChannelShapeNode
worldLightChannelVolumeNode
worldPerformanceAreaNode
worldPhysicalDestructionNode
worldPopulationSpawnerNode	Spawns entity using TweakDBID. Mainly used for vehicles.
worldReflectionProbeNode	Places a .envprove with a specifc size, controls the overal lighting and base cubemap reflections in an area
worldRoadProxyMeshNode	Road Mesh.
worldRotatingMeshNode	Mesh node with an axis/angle/period defined for rotating
worldStaticDecalNode	Static Decal, can use any .mi that uses one of the base\materials\decal_.mt files
worldStaticFogVolumeNode	Places fog with specified properties within a volume, very subtle
worldStaticMeshNode	Static mesh, has no collision
worldStaticOccluderMeshNode
worldStaticParticleNode	Places a .particle file
worldStaticSoundEmitterNode	Plays a sound from a single point in space
worldTerrainCollisionNode
worldTerrainMeshNode	The ground, textures are embedded, can export with wscript. UVs are messed up for some reason, auto generated for plugin >1.5.1
worldTrafficCompiledNode
worldTriggerAreaNode	Defines an area to which triggers can be assigned to. Include thing like vehicle forbidden, instant death, quest notifier etc.
worldSmartObjectNode
worldStaticLightNode	Defines a light, either point, spot or area
worldInteriorMapNode
worldAdvertisementNode
worldMeshNode	Base class for all mesh type nodes
worldSplineNode	Defines a path using a bezier spline. Used for NPC walking paths etc. Imported to blender as curve.