Finite State Machines

A “Finite State Machine” is a concept from computer science. Strictly speaking, it means any system that involves a finite number of different states, and a mechanism to transition from one state to another.

In Panda3D, a Finite State Machine, or FSM, is implemented as a Python class. To define a new FSM, you should define a Python class that inherits from the FSM class. You define the available states by writing appropriate method names within the class, which define the actions the FSM takes when it enters or leaves certain states. Then you can request your FSM to transition from state to state as you need it to.

You may come across some early Panda3D code that creates an instance of the ClassicFSM class. ClassicFSM is an earlier implementation of the FSM class, and is now considered deprecated. It is no longer documented here. We recommend that new code use the FSM class instead, which is documented on the following pages.

• FSM Introduction
• Simple FSM Usage
• FSM with input
• Advanced FSM Tidbits