Name: VibeStar
Author: Trent Sterling

VibeStar! Voxel A* Pathfinder

This demo uses Web Workers and A* pathfinding (with a Min-Heap) to navigate agents (boids) through a procedural voxel world. Visualization uses shader-based points or cubes.

Click a lit face in the world to set a global target (Orange Sphere). Boids will pathfind once and stop upon arrival. Click empty space to clear the target; idle boids will then start pathing to random locations (staggered).

Experiment!

Play with all the controls! Adjust sliders like Boid Count, Worker Count, Max Path Nodes, and Worker Viz Sample Limit to see how they impact performance (FPS, Worker Load, Path Speed). Tweak visual sliders like World Opacity or toggle the A* Viz / Boid Paths checkboxes.

Most visual sliders update live (Opacities, Speed, Cooldowns, Path/Debug Rates & Scale). The Worker Viz Sample Limit also updates workers directly.
Changes to world structure (Grid Resolution, Num Rooms), agent count (Boids), core worker settings (Worker Count, Max Path Nodes), and debug visualization limits (Max Instances) require a world regeneration. The Apply & Regenerate World button at the bottom will pulse yellow/orange when changes requiring regeneration are pending.

Visualization

Cyan/Magenta Points/Cubes: A* Nodes (sampled, accumulated, flashed)
Thin white line: Boid's current intent (seeking path)
G/Y/R: Boid Path Line (toggleable, slider for opacity, color indicates length)
Gray/Blue/Reddish/Color: Boid State (Idle/Seek/Failed/Move)
Orange Sphere: Global Target

Vibecoded April 9th, 2024 by Trent Sterling & Gemini 2.5

FPS: --

Busy Workers (Now/Max): --/--/--

Worker Queue (Now/Max): --/--

Idle/Wait Boids:--

Paths/sec: --

World Gen: -- ms

Meshing: -- ms

Avg Path: -- ms

Render Call: -- ms

Manager Upd: -- ms

DebugViz Upd: -- ms

Particles Upd: -- ms

Controls Upd: -- ms

World & Agent Controls

Grid Resolution (Regen Req.)

Worker Count (Regen Req.)

Chunk Size: 16x16x16

Number of Rooms (Regen Req.) 25

Number of Boids (Regen Req.) 150

Boid Speed 15.0

Max Path Nodes (Worker) (Regen Req.) 150k

Interrupt Cooldown Max (ms)500

Failed Path Cooldown (ms)1500

Visual Controls

World Opacity 0.30

Wireframe Opacity 0.02

Debug Viz Type

Show A* Visualization Show Boid Paths

Path Line Opacity 0.90

Max Debug Viz Instances (Regen Req.)16000

Worker Viz Sample Limit (Live Update)500

Debug Viz Opacity 0.40

Debug Viz Scale Multiplier 3.0

Debug Viz Update Rate (ms)150

VibeStar by Tront

VibeStar visualises A* pathfinding as it runs: watch the open set spread, the heuristic pull the search toward the goal, and the final path get reconstructed. The search runs in web workers so the page stays responsive on big grids, and most of the algorithm is exposed as settings you can change.

One page, no install. By Tront (Trent Sterling), who also wrote the shortest-path and maze demos next door.

More from Tront

Short Path: Duan-Mao and Dijkstra shortest-path algorithms visualised in JavaScript.
VibeMaze: ASCII 3D maze rendered with a triangle rasteriser, grown out of an ASCII raycaster.

All games and tools · Devlog · Discord · Source on GitHub · tront.xyz