Hey guys! well this is my first "Dev blog". I plan to post stuff here that I find interesting as we develop the game. So here's the latest coolness...
I've been working on the path finding code for units and enemies in Blackspace. For the nerds out there, we use a variation on A*. For debugging purposes we generate little spheres for each location where a "decision" is made about which direction to take. When it is really hard to get to where the path is headed, it generates more little spheres signifying decisions and tests. Normally a path generation with our debugging spheres will look something like the picture below. The algorithm is searching out in all directions trying to find the easiest path to the destination (where the larger red circle is).
I was testing the performance on a particularly intensive path generation, It was a location where there was no real good, direct route to get to the destination from the position I selected. This was the result …
Nearly half the planet was considered as a potential “best route”. The planet looks like its on fire! With some of the post FX turned on I thought it looked pretty cool. Anyways, there it was, my first Dev blog, not particularly informative, but it’s a start!
-Jerry
