Polygon Pathfinding

This document presents a simple algorithm for a pathfinding algorithm done for non-degenerate polygons.

API

In order to make a searcher we first need to declare a polygon.

const { Point, Polygon, Search } = require('polygon-pathfinding');

let polygon = new Polygon();

// Push points from a polygon.

// Push is boolean method that returns true if the point has been pushed to the polygon
// or it returns false in case the point will make the polygon degenerate (self intersecting).
// The check can be deactivated by pushing with "polygon.push(0, 0, woChecker = true);"
polygon.push(0, 0);
polygon.push(5, 0);
polygon.push(5, 5);
polygon.push(2, 5);
polygon.push(2, 3);
polygon.push(0, 3);
polygon.closePolygon(); // This method closes the polygon and completes it. The push method will return false in case (y, x) is point that already exists in the polygon.

polygon.triangulate();

let searcher = new Search(polygon);

// This will return a path of points that will represent a path between (0.3, 2.7) and (2.4, 4.5).
console.log(searcher.searchForPath(new Point(0.3, 2.7), new Point(2.4, 4.5)))

And the graphical representation of this simple polygon is.

Testing

You can test this pathfinding algorithm on this page: https://soucupb.github.io/BoringPathfinding/

Here is a simple example of a drawn polygon. And here is a simple path for it. The path are the lines with yellow.

Support and notes

Version	Navmesh Polygon Triangulation	Holes Support	Triangle Searching Complexity	Searching Algorithm	Searching Algorithm Complexity	Point push in polygon complexity
0.1.0	✔️	❌	O(n) (where n is the number of triangles)	AStar	O(m ^ 2) (where m is the number of triangles in a path found)	O(n ^ 2) (where n is the number of points in the polygon) (O(n) in case of using woChecker=true)

Contribution

If you're intrested in upgrading this package with better performing algorithms, adding new features or solving bugs, do not hesitate to create issues and then, making pull request for them.