I recently updated the PathFinder algorithm with the ability to attempt diagonal paths, and ability to make diagonal movements. Diagonal movements approximately doubles the time required to find paths, but that is easily overcome by publishing for Flash Player 7.

As with the original PathFinder (original code can be downloaded by clicking here), this PathFinder is aimed at being a fast and reasonably accurate solution. It runs exponentially faster than an A* solution (the larger the map, the larger the speed gap), but will not always find the best path (sometimes it won’t even find a path). It was also developed to be scaleable, so you can adjust the processor usage for different scenarios. To this end, you can adjust the maximum depth of the path (max length), and the “level” of the search. The level is a value between 0 and 7 that indicates how many different paths the PathFinder will attempt and compare (a level of 7 will check 8 different paths and choose the best). PathFinder will also return a best fail path if it is unable to find a solution, so that you can have agents move towards a goal even if a full path can’t be found.

Once I have a chance to finish the updates to PathFinder, and test it fully, I will release the source code for non-commercial uses. If you’re interested in licensing the code for a commercial project, you can contact me using the contact button at the top of the page.

Read on for demos…

Demo, with diagonal movements (FP7 required):

Demo, no diagonal movements (FP7 required):