Assignment 1 Pathfinding concepts and Algorithms


Path-finding concepts

The first thing I will be talking about in this section of the assignment, under the topic of AI in games, is the concepts of path-finding. This aspect is all to do with AI which in very simple terms is the route that the AI takes to get from point A to B. It will consider all of the options that are at hand. Also it considers things such as time, cost and effectiveness to find the best path. The classic example of path-finding is sat nav as it finds the best route for you to get to your destinations. The points are called nodes and there are many different types of path-finding algorithms such as A*, Dijkstra Algorithm and Cost Driven.          




A* Algorithm 

The second thing I will be talking about in this section of the assignment under the topic of AI in games is A*, which is a path finding algorithm. It is one of the most popular and widely used path-finding algorithms as it is considered simpler to use than some of the other algorithms. So it is mainly used by people who use it because they are more comfortable with it but this doesn't mean it is the best, it's just the easiest to use. Also it can be found in the basic game engine game maker and is the considered the simplest which is an advantage for beginners to make a game. It uses a heuristic function to find the best possible path, which is an advantage for players travelling down a path so they can keep away from any dangerous obstacles in a game. That's the best path solution for A* Algorithm, but if you wanted the quickest path or the most cost effective path A* isn't the best algorithm for this (Rooij, 2017).


(California Institute of Technology, 2011)


Dijkstra Algorithm and Cost Driven

The second algorithm I will be talking about in this section of the assignment under the topic of AI in games is the Dijkstra algorithm. Then I will be talking about another algorithm called Cost Driven. Dijkstra is a path-finding algorithm that is considered the shortest path-finding concept. This means it tries the shortest path out of all of the options, although this doesn't means it is the quickest path-finding algorithm. Then there is the Cost Driven path-finding algorithm that, instead of just finding the shortest route, goes for the route that costs the least,  even if that turns out to be the longest and slowest route. So first thing to talk about is the Dijkstra Algorithms advantage which is that by looking for the shortest routes it is good for a timed game but bad if you are trying to find the best path. With the Cost Driven Algorithm the advantage is that it finds the cheapest path and is therefore the most cost effective, however one disadvantage is that the most cost effective path is not always the best path (Rooij, 2017).


(Computer Science Dept. University of Mayland, 2017)
   

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