Pathfinding in Evolving Terrain: A Direction Field Approach

This blog post details a novel pathfinding solution for a Unity browser game, 'Build + Brawl,' where hundreds of enemies navigate towards a moving player in a dynamically changing environment. Instead of A*, the author implemented a direction field approach. This pre-computes optimal movement directions and distances for each grid cell, minimizing updates upon player or obstacle changes. This dramatically improves performance, avoiding browser lag. The post is divided into two parts, explaining the algorithm's construction and obstacle handling, illustrated with clear diagrams. It's a great case study for game developers.