REQ:Path lookup tables

[Devoto]

Dear all,

I am looking for a good tutorial about pathfinding. What I have read so far is, Path lookup tables are faster than other techniques. The algorithm I want to design is to be used in flash game.

I will appreciate your help.

Thanks

Devoto

[Ed Mack]

A* is very good, and has been efficiently programed in actionscript - so you may not need to bother making lookup tables. Google pathfinding for good tutorials.

[Devoto]

Thanks Ed. I already checked some A* tutorials but practically in each forum a read about the topic, people said that when you have a big map A* becomes slow and here is where pre-computed method is better.

I will continue my quest
Thanks

[GroundKeeper]

A* is can be made VERY fast and there is no restriction that you can't use precomputated data in your implementation of A*. The most basic A* would look at the complete instance of the world but in most cases you can use an A* network and futher enhance it with a layered network. A* is more of a heuristic (and I'm using this term in a loose maner) or guidence to a preference of choice when making a choice of direction. To make a possibly long story short: Google A* and try it!

[TheNut]

A complete path lookup table would require quite a bit of memory, and it’s limited to maps that are statically defined (so paths cannot be blocked at all).

A* has excellent runtime performance and even supports step-by-step computing, so you can calculate the path synchronously with your frame rate for maximum performance. In addition, the weighted system can be dynamically defined, so you can add modifiers to your maps, such as blocked off sections, heavily saturated areas, and so on to modify the paths of other objects to avoid such things. And just as GroundKeeper said, you can still use the A* to precalculate paths if that’s what you want in the end.