Maze solver is an application which allows the user to:
- Generate mazes using various maze generation algorithms.
- Edit maze using tools such as a brush or a fill-bucket.
- Run selected search algorithm to find a path from start to finish cells.
Maze solver's user interface is very simple, containing only a single window of controls on the right side of the screen called control panel. Control panel contains 4 sections:
- Generate - used to generate mazes.
- Edit - used to edit mazes.
- Search - used to search mazes.
- Save/Load - used to save and load mazes to/from files.
Generate section is used to generate mazes and offers the user following options:
- Generator - option that allows the user to select the maze generation algorithm. Possible options are:
- Recursive backtracker - generates long passage, hard to solve and visually appealing mazes.
- Binary tree - generates easy to solve mazes that will have a diagonal solution bias.
- Sidewinder - generates medium difficulty mazes that will have a vertical solution bias.
- Prim - generates medium difficulty mazes with medium length passages.
- Width - defines the width of the maze.
- Height - defines the height of the maze.
- Wall density - defines the percentage that the wall cell won't be deleted after the maze has been generated.
NOTE: The actual number of cells in width is Width * 2 + 1. Similarly, the actual number of cells in height is Height * 2 + 1. This is made so that the number of cells in any dimension is always odd, which allows for a better looking maze generation.
Edit section is used to edit mazes and offers user the following options:
- Toolbox - option that allows the user to select the edit tool. Possible options are:
- Brush - paints the maze terrain with selected cell type.
- Bucket - flood-fills area with selected cell type.
- Start marker - defines the start cell position.
- Finish marker - defines the finish cell position.
- Brush - allows the user to select the cell type used for editing the maze terrain.
- Indestructible - list of cell types which cannot be edited by the brush tool.
- Radius - radius used by the brush tool.
- Density - density used by the brush tool.
- Outside - cell type used to paint area outside the of the maze.
Search section allows the user to search mazes using the preferred search algorithm. It offers the following options:
- Algorithm - algorithm used for the search. Possible algorithms include:
- A* Search Algorithm
- Dijkstra's Algorithm
- Greedy Best-First Search
- Breadth-First Search
- Depth-First Search
- Step duration - defines the search animation speed.
Mazes can be saved to and loaded from files.
Saving the maze
- Click on the Save button - the save dialog should open.
- Define the save file name - extension .maze will be automatically added to the file name.
- Select save destination by navigating the file system.
- Click on the Save button in the opened dialog to save the maze to the specified location.
Loading the maze
- Click on the Load button - the load dialog should open.
- Locate and select the file which contains the maze data - it should be a file with .maze extension.
- Click on the Load button in the opened dialog to load the maze from the selected file.
And that is all! Have fun playing with the maze solver! 🙂