Visual Pathfinding Lab

Interactive pathfinding algorithm visualizer. Watch A*, Dijkstra, BFS, and DFS explore a grid in real-time — or race all four simultaneously and see which reaches the goal first.

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Algorithms

Algorithm	Method
A*	Priority queue with Manhattan distance heuristic + O(1) hash set lookup
Dijkstra	A* without a heuristic — explores uniformly in all directions
BFS	Queue-based, finds shortest path in unweighted grids
DFS	Stack-based, finds a valid path (not necessarily shortest)

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Features

• Live visualization — color-coded cells show exploring (blue), visited (purple), calculating (yellow), and final path (green)
• Multi-path racing — run all 4 algorithms at once, each in a different color. Paths can't cross each other's explored cells. First to goal wins.
• 6 maze generators: Recursive Division, Recursive Backtracker, Perlin Noise, Rooms & Corridors, Spiral Pattern, Random Obstacles
• 5 grid sizes: Small (30×40) up to Mega (200×270 = ~54,000 cells)
• Turbo mode — up to 10,000 algorithm steps per frame
• Mouse painting — draw walls with Bresenham's line for smooth strokes

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Controls

Key	Action
TAB	Cycle algorithms
F1–F5	Grid sizes (Small → Mega)
F7–F12	Maze generators
Space	Pause
Enter	Run
R	Reset
+/-	Adjust speed
Scroll	Turbo / slow mode

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Running it

pip install pygame
python main.py

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Structure

main.py             # App, grid presets, controls, UI overlay
algorithms.py       # A*, Dijkstra, BFS, DFS — all with visualization hooks
maze_generator.py   # 6 maze generation algorithms
grid.py             # Grid class, cell states, coordinate mapping
visualizer.py       # Color-coded cell rendering
multi_path_runner.py# Runs multiple algorithms simultaneously with collision rules

~1,575 lines across 6 modules.