Reference Implementation for Search Assignment
Requires [pygame] 🐍
Tested with Python 2.7.9
Check out this Python tutorial!

• common.py - Constants and map reading method
• game.py - Engine with drawing functions
• pathfinder.py - A* solver reference implementation
• player.py - Character drawing calls

• test_pathfinder.py - Test suite for pathfinder

• Execute interface with default map or filename.map

python game.py [filename.map]

• Execute terminal with default map or filename.map

python pathfinder.py [filename.map]

• Execute tests

python test_pathfinder.py

The questions regarding your implementation (described in Section 4 of ai-t1a.pdf) are already included in the readme.txt file, for your convenience. You should answer them in the text file and them together with the code.

• Maps hold the initial configuration of the scenario, namely:

  • The player's starting position, (X,Y)
  • Occupied tiles at each cell in the grid, (0: Clear, 1: Closed, 2: Goal)

• Method read_map(filename) in common.py loads maps from the maps folder

• All maps are text-based files (.txt) and follow this specification:

player_x (0...width - 1)
player_y (0...height - 1)
cell0x0 cell1x0 ... cell(width-1)x0
cell0x1   ...
...
cell0x(height-1) ... cell(width-1)x(height-1)

• First line is player X

• Second line is player Y

• Map data in the following lines

• Why?

  • Uncompressed format that any text editor can modify
  • Easy to generate and check if valid:
    • Use Find 2 to check if single goal tile is present
    • Use Monospaced font to see if map data matches a rectangle (this means you're better of with notepad than word)
  • Player position is defined outside of map data to allow any start configuration
    • Starting above the goal for example

• Constraints

  • All maps must be equal or larger than 1x1, and all rows must have same length
  • Only one player can be defined and must be within the limits of the map
  • Only one goal position can be defined
  • All tiles must be clear, closed or goal tiles

• Example

4
8
1111111111
1111111111
1111000211
1111011111
1000000111
1111011111
1111011111
1111011111
1111011111
1111111111

• Folder sprites contains the images used.
• The images must match the sizes specified by common.py both in dimensions and poses.
• Default character poses are (Right 0, Left 1, Up 2, Down 3), therefore MOVE_UP = 2.
• Tileset is loaded according to hardcoded numbers, default is 3 tiles in a single line: [][][]
• The current sprites are copyrighted by Nintendo from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Pokemon Red/Blue games, they are a subset of the original being used for educational purposes.
• Linktocat is part of the Octodex: https://octodex.github.com/linktocat/ [pygame]:http://www.pygame.org/news.html

Unfortunately, some things do not work as expected on Python 3.4 (so we do not recommend using it):

• prints require parenthesis print("Hello").
• Queue does not need to be imported, comment line import Queue from file pathfinder.py.

To facilitate your the process of handing in your code, we have included a python program called zipper.py that creates this zip file for you, in the correct format. Use it to create your deliverable package.