Voxel based pathfinding with jumping for games

Abstract

Pathfinding plays a vital role in video games, whether in terms of gameplay mechanics or player immersion. Commonly used methods only allow the simplest types of movements like walking and running. Although seldom, other types of movement like swimming and flying are also considered. Even rarer are mechanisms that natively contemplate jumps, without the need of extra intervention of game developers. Most games overlook these movements on Non Player Characters, affecting player experience. This article discusses the limitations of Navigation Meshes when it comes to take jumps into consideration and proposes a new solution using grid-based any-angle pathfinding. Each cell of this navigation grid constitutes a voxel that delimits a small 3D space and is expressed in a shape of a cube. Voxels discretize the game world and are explored by a search algorithm to achieve pathfinding with jumps. Performance is critical and found paths should be optimal and efficient. Results show that the proposed solution can be successfully applied in game development.