Pathfinding Object > Fun > Generate Maze

[Krush_Brother]

Is the Generate Maze function of the Pathfinding object broken?
I can't seem to get it to work.

I don't need to use this for anything that I'm working on at the mo, but I occasionally like to take a short break from my main project and potter around with things that I might want to do for future projects.

I've looked at the various maze algorithms mentioned here and elsewhere, and I'm going to knock something up in C++ later before trying it in MMF2, but I'd just like to see whether the "Generate Maze" function of the Pathfinding object would be useful or not.

On a separate note, I'm in need of several extensions that various example files need to work, and was wondering if anyone knew where I could get them, and if they can work in MMf2.

The extensions are:
ScrollBar.mfx
SliderBar.mfx
ColourPicker.mfx
PrintIt.mfx

Thanks for any help,
Krush.

[Jeff]

If you have installed all the bonus packs and if you don't see them on the Extension list here

http://ext.neatwares.ath.cx/

They are most likely old MMF 1.5 extensions that can not be ported.

You can get the bonus packs on the side bar ----->

[Krush_Brother]

I installed all the bonus packs when I first bought MMF2, but I'll check them all again just in case I missed one.
I've a feeling that some, if not all of them are 1.5 extensions, so it might be a lost cause.

Any idea about the Generate Maze function?
All the other functions of the Pathfinding object seem to work fine.

Cheers.

[z33z]

I tested it a few minutes ago and it worked then.. What's the version number of the pathfinding object? Latest should be 1.3 I think. I'll upload an example to the file archive (but there is a bug which can make it crash that I know of. I fixed that a few days ago and sent it to Yves, so he might have updated the extension pack).

[Krush_Brother]

Thanks mate.

I can't understand what it was I was doing wrong last night, as it seems to be the same as your example.

When I tested it last night, I did the following:

:: Set the size of the maze
:: used Generate Maze
:: used nested fast loops to display the maze using a default diamond shape pasted into the background when an obstacle was found in the map data.

Pretty much what you've done, except yours works.

I either did something wrong in the fast loops where reading the data is concerned (although I can't see how to get that wrong), or maybe I had an earlier version of the object.

After my post yesterday, I went and downloaded all 4 packs on the right side of the page.
Although I was sure I'd done this when I first installed MMF2, I thought it wouldn't hurt to make sure.
Is it possible I had a real old version from somewhere that didn't work?

Anyway, thanks for saving my sanity with your example.

One more thing; Is there a randomiser that can be used with the Generate Maze function?
I can't find one, and generating a map of the same dimensions creates exactly the same map every time.

Thanks again for your help.

Krush.

[z33z]

Does it create the same maze every time? For me it doesn't.. Try start the example, press F2 (restart the game) a few times to see if the maze changes. Because they can look a lot the same.

[Krush_Brother]

Lol, yeah it would be easy to become maze blind, but they're definitely the same maze.

Pressing F2 does create a new and random maze, each time different to the last layout, but if you run the program from scratch, it's always the same maze that appears first, and all the subsequent mazes are the same as they were the last time.

It also happens in a compiled exe.

So it appears to be using the same sequence of numbers each time it's run fresh.
I could always loop through the maze creation a random amount of times, but there would be some duplication if the random number was the same as a previous time. i.e. rather than creating random mazes, it would almost be like picking a maze from a set of pre-calculated mazes.

In C++ or Z80 you'd just use the contents of whatever location the computers Program Counter was pointing at as a seed, which always gave a good random result, but I don't know if MMF2 has a randomising seed function like this, or whether it would be need to be programmed into your PathFinding object.

I think I remember seeing a random object or function somewhere in MMF2, but I haven't got time to have a look now.

I'll give it a go later and let you know how it goes.

Cheers.

[z33z]

Sorry, then random might be disabled by me, since the maze generation function is more there for fun, not to be useful.. But I can ask Yves to add a seed to rand function when he compiles the other update I gave him a few days ago. Just one line of code, "srand(time(NULL));"

[Krush_Brother]

If you could z33z, that would be great.
All my attempts to make MMF2 randomise the outcome have failed.

since the maze generation function is more there for fun, not to be useful..

Ahh, but it is useful.