Improving Heuristics for A* Pathfinding

A deep dive into improving A pathfinding performance by enhancing the heuristic function using the 'differential heuristic' (landmark-based) technique. Instead of relying solely on distance-based heuristics that ignore walls, precomputed shortest-path costs to a set of landmark nodes are used to derive tighter lower bounds via the triangle inequality. The approach requires running Dijkstra's algorithm once per landmark, storing a cost table, and replacing the heuristic function — with no changes to A itself. Landmark placement strategies (manual, randomized, automated) are discussed, along with trade-offs for static vs. dynamic maps. Interactive demos on real game maps (Dragon Age, Cogmind) show significant reductions in nodes explored.

Nguồn: https://www.redblobgames.com/pathfinding/heuristics/differential.html. 8 Sync News chỉ tóm tắt và dẫn link; bản quyền nội dung thuộc tác giả và nguồn gốc.