paths

GoDocs

What is paths?

paths is a pathfinding library written in Golang created mainly for video games. Its main feature is simple best-first and shortest-cost path finding.

Why is it called that?

Because I finally learned how to spell.

Why did you create paths?

Because I needed to do pathfinding for a game and couldn't really find any pre-made Golang libraries that seemed to do this, so... Yet again, here we are.

How do I install it?

Just go get it:

go get github.com/solarlune/paths

How do I use it?

paths is based around defining a Grid, which consists of a rectangular series of Cells. Each Cell occupies a single X and Y position in space, and has a couple of properties that influence pathfinding, which are Cost and Walkability. If a Cell isn't walkable, then it is considered an obstacle that paths generated must circumvent. All Cells default to a Cost of 1; pathfinding will prioritize lower-cost Cells.

import "github.com/SolarLune/paths"

func Init() {

    // This line creates a new Grid, comprised (internally) of Cells. The size is 10x10. Each Cell's 
    // "world" size is 16x16. By default, all Cells are walkable, have a cost of 1, and a blank rune 
    // of ' ' associated with them.
    firstMap = paths.NewGrid(10, 10, 16, 16)
    
    // You can also create the Grid from an array of strings (which are interpreted as arrays of runes), 
    // if you already have it:
    layout := []string{
        "xxxxxxxxxx",
        "x        x",
        "x xxxxxx x",
        "x xg   x x",
        "x xgxx x x",
        "x gggx x x",
        "x xxxx   x",
        "x  xgg x x",
        "xg ggx x x",
        "xxxxxxxxxx",
    }

    secondMap := paths.NewGridFromStringArrays(layout, 16, 16)

    // After creating the Grid, you can edit it using the Grid's functions. Note that here, we're using 'x' 
    // to get Cells that have the rune for the lowercase x character 'x', not the string "x".
    firstMap.SetWalkable('x', false)

    // You can also loop through them by using the `GetCells` functions thusly...
    for _, goop := range secondMap.GetCellsByRune('g') {
        goop.Cost = 5
    }

    // This gets a new Path from the Cell occupied by a starting position [24, 21], to another [99, 78]. The last boolean argument,
    // false, indicates whether moving diagonally is fine when creating the Path.
    firstPath := GameMap.GetPath(24, 21, 99, 78, false)

    // You can also get a path using references to the Cells directly.
    secondPath := GameMap.GetPathFromCell(GameMap.Get(1, 1), GameMap.Get(6, 3), false)

    // After that, you can use Path.Current() and Path.Next() to get the current and next Cells on the Path. When you determine that 
    // the pathfinding agent has reached that Cell, you can kick the Path forward with path.Advance().

    // And that's it!

}

---

And that's about it! If you want to see more info or examples, feel free to examine the main.go and world.go tests to see how the test is set up.

You can check out the GoDoc link here, as well.

You can also run the example by installing SDL with the instructions here and then:

$ cd ./example
$ go run ./

Dependencies?

For the actual package, there are no external dependencies.

For the tests, paths requires veandco's sdl2 port to create the window, handle input, and draw the shapes and text.

Shout-out Time!

Props to whoever made arcadepi.ttf! It's a nice font.

Thanks a lot to the SDL2 team for development.

Thanks to veandco for maintaining the Golang SDL2 port, as well!