A* Pathfinding Visualization

This is my first attempt at A* pathfinding. I made this visualization to show the beauty of pathfinding. You can modify all major features of my algorithm through the graphics interface. Here I will go through the major features of my program.

Basic Controls

You must create a map to start the pathfinding. The start node is blue, end node is red and the walls are black.

To create nodes:

• Start: hold 's' + left click
• End: hold 'e' + left click
• Wall: left click

To delete nodes:

• same as creation, except right click!

Diagonal

My algorithm supports both diagonal and non diagonal pathfinding.

Simply check the "diagonal" box at the bottom left of the screen.

Variable Speed

You may change the speed of the visualization during runtime.

• By default, speed is 50%.

Notice: speed only works when showSteps is true.

if showSteps is false, well, that leads into the next section..

Show Steps or Timed Efficiency

You may choose to view a step-by-step process of the algorithm by selecting "showSteps" box at the bottom left.

• If showSteps is false, the algorithm will skip visuals until the end, and process as fast as possible.

This is useful for when you want to analyze the efficiency of my algorithm in different coniditons. The example below shows "showSteps" as false, where it times the algorithm and outputs "Completed in 4ms" at the bottom left.

Complicated Stuff

Those are the basics! Now you can be free to make the map as complicated as you desire. (Not really, because making the map too large will overflow the stack). But go ahead!

Zoom

You can (kind of) zoom in and out. I wouldn't really advise it. It does not zoom into your mouse, only towards the top left corner, and making the map too big will crash the program. This needs some work. However, If you zoom in far enough you can view each nodes information. The top left is the "F cost", bottom left is "G cost" and bottom right is "H cost". I will work on properly implementing a zoom feature soon.

a project by Devon Crawford.