Question

Given is a Cartesian coordiante system, a from-position A (X/Y), and a to-position B (X/Y). I want to move from A to B. However, I can only move on the eight directions N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW.

I know that I can calculate the “best” of these directions to take from the current position A via the dot product with the unit vectors of the axis (the eight directions), where the biggest dot product is the direction to take. But this approach leads to some kind of “oscillation” between two directions, if A is exactly in between these two.

So I am searching for an algorithm now that sovles this problem of getting from A to B with only one or max. two directions to use. Of course I am ignoring any obstalces now, so that theoretically I can always get from A to B with a maximum of two different directions. I could probably solve this problem with a bunch of if-statements, but I would prefer a more elegant solution…

I hope that was somewhat understandable 🙂

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Kind regards, Matthias

Answer 1

the simplest solution is to head in a “diagonal” direction until you are on the same row/column as the target, and then to use the horizontal/vertical direction.

in other words:

• check if you are horizontally / vertically aligned. if so, move in that direction and finish.
• otherwise, find the closest diagonal direction using the method you have.
• move along the diagonal until you are horizontally or vertically aligned. then move in that direction and finish.