A* Pathfinding Simulator

Unity, C#

An algorithmic simulator demonstrating how the A* pathfinding algorithm acts on a grid based graph. This was created as a hobby project by myself due to an interest in the algorithm after completing a 1600 word research paper about it in my Data Structures and Algorithms course.

The big focuses for this project were creating a clean user interface and allowing for animations to be paused/slowed down in an effort to make this a useful and satisfying educational tool.

Specifics of Algorithm

This implementation weighs its edges by 10 for cardinal movement and 14 for diagonal movement. The heuristic is calculated using the diagonal distance formula as follows:

dx = |x1 - x2|
dy = |y1 - y2|
h(n) = max(dx, dy) + (√2-1) * min(dx, dy)

If you want a full detailed explanation on the algorithm, feel free to download my research paper on A* completed in my Data Structures and Algorithms class, that did receive an A from my professor.