Maze Builder

Create and customize mazes on multiple platforms and languages. Below is an example of the string generated from the command-line interface example.

+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|                 |                       |                 |
+-----+-----+     +     +-----+-----+     +     +     +     +
|                 |                 |     |     |     |     |
+     +-----+-----+     +-----+-----+     +     +     +-----+
|     |           |     |           |           |           |
+     +     +     +     +     +     +-----+     +-----+     +
|     |     |           |     |           |           |     |
+     +     +-----+-----+     +-----+     +-----+-----+     +
|           |           |     |           |                 |
+     +-----+     +     +-----+     +-----+     +-----+-----+
|     |           |           |     |                       |
+     +-----+-----+-----+     +     +-----+-----+-----+     +
|                       |     |     |                       |
+-----+-----+-----+     +     +     +     +-----+-----+     +
|                 |     |     |     |           |           |
+-----+-----+     +     +     +     +     +     +     +-----+
|                 |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+     +-----+-----+     +     +     +-----+     +     +     +
|                             |                 |           |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Exports

The library provides multiple export formats like Wavefront object, PNG and JPEG images, JSON, and plain text or stdout.

Here's an example JSON output:

{
  "rows": 2,
  "columns": 5,
  "levels": 1,
  "seed": 2,
  "algo": "dfs",
  "distances": false,
  "str": "+---+---+---+---+---+\n
          |           |       |\n
          +   +---+   +---+   +\n
          |       |           |\n
          +---+---+---+---+---+\n"
}

Help Message

Usages: maze_builder.exe [OPTION(S)]... [OUTPUT]
Generates mazes and exports to different formats
Options: case-sensitive, long options must use '=' combination
Example: maze_builder.exe -r 10 -c 10 -a binary_tree > out_maze.txt
Example: mb.exe --rows=10 --columns=10 --algo=dfs -o out_maze.txt_
  -a, --algo         dfs, sidewinder, binary_tree [default]
  -c, --columns      columns
  -d, --distances    show distances using base36 numbers
  -h, --help         display this help message
  -j, --json         run with arguments in JSON format
  -s, --seed         seed for the mt19937 generator
  -r, --rows         rows
  -l, --levels       levels or the height
  -o, --output       [txt|text] [jpg|jpeg] [png] [obj|object] [stdout]
  -v, --version      display program version

Examples

Run the binary_tree algorithm with long arguments:

mazebuildercli.exe --rows=25 --columns=25 --seed=42 --algo=binary_tree --output=bt.obj

Run the dfs algorithm with short arguments:

mazebuildercli.exe -r 25 -c 25 -s 42 -a dfs -o dfs.obj

Use the C++ API in a modern C++ program:

#include <iostream>
#include <MazeBuilder/maze_builder.h>
 
void main() {
    auto m = mazes::factory::create(
        mazes::configurator()
            .rows(10).columns(10));
 
    auto s = mazes::stringz::stringify(m);
 
    std::cout << s << std::endl;
 
    return 0;
}

CMake Configuration and Testing

CMake 3.2 or greater is required. The examples and tests require external dependencies which can be grabbed from the Internet:

box2d
catch2
SDL
SFML

Use the following CMake options to configure the project:

CMake Option	Default	Description
MAZE_BUILDER_EXAMPLES	OFF	Build with project examples enabled.
MAZE_BUILDER_COVERAGE	OFF	Build with code coverage using `CppCheck`.
MAZE_BUILDER_TESTS	OFF	Build with testing using `Catch2`.
MAZE_BUILDER_DOCS	OFF	Build the docs using `doxygen`.
MAZE_BUILDER_MEMCHECK	OFF	Build with `Valgrind` and `Memcheck` support.
CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE	`cmake`	Building with a specific toolchain. Useful for `Emscripten` builds.

Example Commands

Configure it: cmake -GNinja -S . -B build-examples -DMAZE_BUILDER_EXAMPLES:BOOL=ON

Build it: cmake --build build-examples --config Release

By default, both a shared-object library and static library are produced. The shared and static files have different naming conventions depending on the platform:

Platform	static lib	shared lib
Windows	`mazebuildercore_static.lib`	`mazebuildercore_shared.dll`
Linux	`libmazebuildercore_static.a`	`libmazebuildercore_shared.so`
MacOS

Testing

Configure the project for testing: cmake -S . -B build-tests -DMAZE_BUILDER_TESTS:BOOL=ON

Run the tests: ctest --test-dir build-tests/tests --verbose -C Debug

Build for the Web

Configure examples for the browser using Emscripten and their toolchain file.

cmake -S . -B build-web -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE:FILEPATH=${my/emsdk/repo}/upstream/emscripten/cmake/Modules/Platform/Emscripten.cmake

Scripts

The Ruby script mazes.rb generates PNG images of mazes using algorithms and methods similar to the C++ library. It is a good place to start learning about the maze-generating algorithms. The Python script solver.py plays with the maze generation by loading PNG files and finding paths and networks.

Script dependencies:

gem install chunky_png
pip install numpy pillow networkx

Web Interface

Provided is a web interface in a voxel world that enables interactive maze generation.

Check out the this example in a live app!

The web app can be run locally with the provided secure_http_server.py script. Once the provided script is running, then open the browser to http://localhost:8000.