Any-Angle Path Planning for Computer Games

Path planning is a critical part of modern computer games; rare is the game where nothing moves and path planning is not necessary. A* is the workhorse for most path planning applications. Block A* is a state-of-the-art algorithm that is always faster than A* in experiments using game maps. Unlike other methods that improve upon A*’s performance, Block A* does not require knowledge of the map before the search and its paths are never longer than A* paths. In our experiments, Block A* is ideal for games with randomly generated maps, large maps, or games with a highly dynamic multiagent environment. In the domain of grid-based any-angle path planning, we show that Block A* is an order of magnitude faster than the previous best any-angle path planning algorithm, Theta*. We empirically show our results using maps from DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS and STARCRAFT. Finally, we introduce “populated game maps” as a new testbed that is a better approximation of real game conditions than the standard testbeds of this field. The main contributions of this paper are a more rigorous set of experiments for Block A* and introduction of a new testbed (populated game maps).