Path Finder
1. Introduction
Path Finder is a game and a problem-solving tool for TSP (Travelling salesman problem).
Find My
Path (Solving tool for TSP) you will provide either the locations or distances
between the locations (or cost) and the App will give you the shortest path to
follow. If have an image of the map of locations you can easily load the map (snap
or gallery) and point at the desired location to which want to find the
shortest path.
Choosing input method:
·
Choose a location by typing if you have the coordinate and the distance
(cost) equals the displacement (or distance by going by road is equal going by
air) --- location important, graph important.
·
Choose a location by loading the image when you have the map image with the locations.
Note locations generated are only equivalent to the actual location.
·
Choose distance when the distances or costs are known and coordinate are unknown. Cost is important, the graph is not
important.
2. Operation (User guide)
A. Playing the game.
Firstly open the app, if don’t like the sound
disable it at the top right side icon. Press Shortest Path (game model) Select new for a game in the popup as a new
user and the initial level will be started. If you are not a new user pressing new will take to place where you can
start from a level that you have unlocked.
Press resume to continue from
the previously played game. When a game is over you can only start new but have
the chance of choosing a higher level than initial but the scores will not be
gained.
Alphabets are indicating various cities. Click on city
directly to indicate the interest in; starting or moving to it. The one clicked
on will have a different circle colour round it and it moves from lower keys to
top keys or left keys to right keys in the key list. Note the current location
will always have its distinct colour apart from already visited. Click the next destination and a path with being
drawn. Click or already visited cities to undo (that means attempting to select
an already selected city will cause it to deselect). Continue to your desire points until you
exhaust the points. After exhausting the points you will prompt with a win or
lose; when losing up to three times, the game over will be replaced with loose.
When you win, you can go to next or you can return to see your path before
moving. When you lose, you try again or return like in the win. Click the play button if you wish to resume
after pressing return in lose, win or game over.
Menu (menu
icon)
have the preference setting about sound, keyboard, refreshing point on try
again, and using timing. It also contains the highest score ever played.
Sharing a
Game Stage: You
can share your highest played game or current game to another person by press
share in the Lose, game over, resume the game. The shared value will be in form
of text. Once the text is received from the next user, he will highlight and
share it with the game as it appeared. For example, using the Facebook web.
B. Solving a TSP problem
Open the App and click Find My Path for the
solution model will be visible to work on. Select your input method by click on
the current input method which now helps you to toggle between “add by
location”, “add by loading map” and “add by distance”. After changing the
desire input method click on the plus icon (top right) to add. You can always
clear all by clicking on the clear icon (top left). After adding the problem
click on the bottom right icon to get the shortest path. ). Clear data to start
afresh problem when adding a new problem.
Adding by
image
is not incremental, which means when you add an image you are required to
finish adding all the locations before clicking the finish icon (bottom right).
Also, note you load an image by press the map icon (bottom left first). Now toggle
add switch (bottom left, second icon) to enable adding points. You can click on
the desired position on the loaded image to add points. If you made a mistake
click on the third icon to remove the previous point. When you are done adding
the point you can then press the bottom right icon as the finish or fourth icon
from the left, it will take you back to the main TSP solution with location
extracted. Note once you click add (plus icon) when “add by Loading map” is
active the exiting data will be discarded.
Adding Location select it to be active the
click the add icon. Again click add icon (bottom left first). The next view
will require you to put the latitude and longitude of the location and the
location name. Click add button when done inputting the location. Again click
add if you have another point. Once done adding location click the check icon
(bottom right). It will take you back to the main where you can click on the right
bottom icon to find the shortest path.
Adding by distances or cost, select add by distance. Next, click add icon and type the only city name in the next edit text and click finish when done just like in add by location. The next will require you to add the city name and its distance to the first. The third will require you to add the city name and its distance to the first and second. Repeatedly you add all the cities and their distances as the number of distances increment.
Note a problem must have up to three cities at minimum.
Game images
Privacy
The App will not send your data to any one. Such data as map captured through camera, game played. This data can only be transferred through third app like Facebook or any that you authorised.
