Pathfinding in partially explored games environments: The application of the A∗ Algorithm with occupancy grids in Unity3D

One of the key aspects of games development is making Non-Playable Characters (NPC) behave more realistically in the environment. One of the main challenges is creating an NPC that is aware of its surroundings and acts accordingly. The A* Algorithm is widely used in the games development community to allow AI based characters to move around the environment however unlike real characters they are often given information about the environment without having to explore. This paper combines the use of the A* Algorithm with the occupancy grid technique to allow Non-Playable Characters to build their own representation of the environment and plan paths based on this information. The paper demonstrates the application of the approach and shows a range of testing and its limitations.