A* Maze Solver

Create your own mazes and watch them be solved in real-time using the A* maze solving algorithm

Installation

Install python and install the pygame library by running;

pip install pygame

python astar.py FILENAME [-optional]

To run the demo maze shown run;

python astar.py mazes/maze2.txt

Values for the maze program can be changed in the config file & passed as optional parameters.

The properties that can be changed in astar.ini are;

Size; The size of the window in pixels
Speed; The speed the solving executes at
Colours; Colours for all the screen elements can be customised in the format R,G,B

Size & Speed can also be overwridden as arguments by adding -Size ___ and -Speed ___ to the end of the python astar.py FILE command.

A* is a very well known graph traversal algorithm.

It explores the mazes empty cells, prioritising those that get the player closer to the goal.

These discovered empty cells are typically called 'Nodes' and are assessed in a queue based on their score.

Mazes are defined as text files with different characters representing different cells.

For example the following text file;

sxe
oxo
ooo

Would produce the following maze;

More examples can be found in the mazes folder.

Graphics
- Window: Class for the pygame screen
- Grid: Classes for rendering cells & the grid and storing their colours/ values
AStar_Logic
- Components: Classes used in the A* structure
  - CellType: Enum for values representing different cell types
  - Node: Represents discovered cell in the maze & its score
  - PriorityQueue: Orders the nodes & prioritises them based on score
- Maze: Stores the grid & player/ goal positions
- Decision_Handler: Implements the A* decision making updating the node queue and current position
Tools
- Load_Arguments: Loads configuration from ini file and command line
- Load_Maze: Loads the maze from the given text file
- Vector: Class representing a position with helper methods