Coding the A* pathfinding algorithm

With an understanding of the fundamentals of A*, let's start implementing it in our game. This will allow the enemies to follow our player around the level regardless of its topology.

With a complex algorithm such as this, having a visual representation of what's happening is really helpful. Wherever it's appropriate, we will take a look at a visual representation of what's happening using the following example:

The Tile datatype

Let's start by taking a quick look at the Tile struct that was defined in Level.h. As we've seen, a node contains quite a few values. In the implementation, it's the level tiles that will act as nodes. As such, all the information that's required by a node is defined in its type:

// The level tile/node type.
struct Tile {
    TILE type;          // The type of tile this is.
    int columnIndex;    // The column index of the tile.
    int rowIndex;       // The row index of the tile.
    sf::Sprite sprite;  // The tile sprite.
   ...