DOTS Air A* Pathfinding for large Terrains

(upcoming Unity Asset)
A high-performance, terrain-aware A* pathfinding solution built on Unity's Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) with Burst compilation. Designed for games requiring efficient pathfinding across complex 3D terrain with elevation changes.

Core Features

Octile Distance Heuristic Unlike traditional Manhattan or Euclidean distance, this implementation uses the octile distance formula for more accurate diagonal movement estimation:

h(n) = D × max(|dx|, |dy|) + (D × √2 - D) × min(|dx|, |dy|)

This provides optimal paths with natural-looking diagonal movement patterns while maintaining admissibility for A* guarantees.

3D Terrain-Aware Pathfinding
The system incorporates vertical movement costs through a configurable fly cost multiplier:

Upward movement: AdditionalCost = heightDifference × flyCostMultiplier
Downward movement: No additional cost (gravity-assisted)
Enables realistic path planning for flying units, climbing mechanics, or terrain traversal

Optimized Neighbor Evaluation

Cardinal directions (N, S, E, W) processed with cost factor of 1.0
Diagonal movements use √2 ≈ 1.414 cost factor
Smart corner-cutting prevention ensures paths don't clip through obstacles

Performance Optimization

DOTS Architecture

Burst Compilation: Leverages Unity's Burst compiler for near-native performance
Job System Integration: Fully parallelizable pathfinding calculations
Native Collections: Zero garbage collection pressure using NativeArrays
Cache-Friendly Data Layout: Struct-of-Arrays design for optimal CPU cache utilization

Use Cases

Strategy Games: Calculate hundreds of paths simultaneously for large unit groups
Open World Games: Efficient long-distance pathfinding across varied terrain
Flying/Climbing Mechanics: Natural path generation for 3D movement with elevation costs
Tower Defense: Real-time path recalculation for dynamic obstacles
Procedural Worlds: Works with runtime-generated terrain

Key Components

Pathfinding Service Layer

Boundary Handling: Automatic position clamping for out-of-bounds requests
World-to-Grid Conversion: Seamless coordinate system translation
Path Caching: Reusable working arrays minimize allocation overhead

Visualization & Debugging

Heat Map Visualization: See terrain costs at a glance
Path Overlay System: Visualize calculated paths with customizable colors
Grid Debug Mode: Inspect individual cell states and costs

Technical Specifications

Grid Size: Configurable up to terrain limits
Cell Resolution: Adjustable cell size for precision vs performance tradeoffs
Height Sampling: Automatic terrain height integration
Memory Footprint: ~16 bytes per grid cell (highly optimized)

Configuration

The system provides extensive configuration through ScriptableObjects:

Pathfinding Configuration: Core algorithm parameters
Visualization Configuration: Debug and display settings
Runtime adjustable parameters for dynamic gameplay needs

Algorithm Complexity

Time Complexity: O(n log n) where n is the number of cells explored
Space Complexity: O(n) for the open list and path storage
Optimizations: Early termination, efficient priority queue implementation

This asset provides a production-ready pathfinding solution that scales from small indie projects to large-scale strategy games, combining mathematical elegance with raw performance through Unity's cutting-edge DOTS technology.