Intelligent Path Finding for Avatars in Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Path finding is an essential feature of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG). In this paper, we propose a path finding algorithm for peer‐to‐peer online games. The proposed approach intelligently discovers a near optimal but cost effective path between any two points of a connected virtual world. The search space is reduced by the use of artificial anchor points at each zone. As a result, computational cost and memory requirement for the system could be relaxed. Moreover, active peers participate in path discovering process that reduces load on the server. In order to avoid repeated computation of a path, many sub‐paths are smartly reused at each zone whenever possible. Considering its advantages, it is a good solution for path finding in MMOGs