It matters to start there because it will be easier if you go backwards.
The maze has 100 cells. For each cell, we can calculate which exit goes back toward the entrance, assigning the letters U, D, L, R:
U R R D L L R D L L
U L L D L U L L L U
R R U D D L L L L U
U L D L L R R D U U
U L L U D L L L U D
R R R U L R R R U D
U D R R U U R R D D
U D U U R U U D L D
U D U U D L L L U L
U L L U L R R U L L
Stats:
L - 33
U - 29
R - 20
D - 18
Left and Up are more frequent back-to-entrance escapes than Right or Down. This is because of the way the maze was generated.
To check the hypothesis, we should analyze it in the other direction. For each cell, determine the exit which heads in the direction of the exit:
D R R D L L R D L L
D R D D L U L L L U
D L L D D L L L L U
D L R D L R R D D U
R R U D D L L L U D
R R R R D R R R U D
U D R D L U R R D D
U D U D R U U D L D
U D U D R R R D U L
U L L R U R R R R D
Stats:
D - 30
R - 28
L - 24
U - 18
There is a weaker bias for the D-R axis toward the exit, compared to the L-U axis toward the entrance. I suspect if we study larger numbers of larger mazes, we will find similar findings.
So that is to say, it is easier to navigate the maze in the reverse direction: the heuristic to try left/up exits will work more often than the right/down in the proper direction.
smartmic•6mo ago
From the book "Mazes for Programmers" by Jamis Buck, 2015, The Pragmatic Programmers (a must-read for any maze/programming enthusiast!):
> Aren't mazes supposed to have starting points and end points? […] honestly, […] it's entirely up to you. […] The maze […] is a perfect maze, and one of the attributes of a perfect maze is that there exists exactly one path between any two cells in it. […] You pick them, and there's guaranteed to be a path between them.
You do not need to choose an entrance or exit only on the sides, but you can also choose "Pacman-style" where the goal is to reach points inside the maze.
"Perfect" refers to the mathematical/logical properties of a maze (i.e. no loops), not the aesthetical aspect. I have not checked though if the mazes in the source here are all perfect.
kazinator•6mo ago
While you can put the entrance and exit wherever you want, if you know that the maze was generated by a recursive branching process which had a starting point somewhere, it probably behooves you to put the start at that point corresponding to the root of the tree, so that the maze wanderer faces the most branching choices.
Laying out the abstract maze tree into the rectilinear grid of cells obfuscates the tree somewhat, but not entirely. A process that generates from upper left to lower right, for instance, will tend to generate cells whose parent-headed exits going left and up more often than not, making the reverse direction a bit easier.
(Again, it depends on the maze generation process.)
kazinator•6mo ago
Making random mazes in a rectilinear grid is a good exercise for one big reason: mazes are not all the same. Mazes have style can be very knotty and twisty, or have long passages. You can add hacks into a given algorithm to vary the style, but there are certain things it won't necessarily do.
tomfly•6mo ago
Jaxan•6mo ago
kazinator•6mo ago
The maze has 100 cells. For each cell, we can calculate which exit goes back toward the entrance, assigning the letters U, D, L, R:
Stats: Left and Up are more frequent back-to-entrance escapes than Right or Down. This is because of the way the maze was generated.To check the hypothesis, we should analyze it in the other direction. For each cell, determine the exit which heads in the direction of the exit:
Stats: There is a weaker bias for the D-R axis toward the exit, compared to the L-U axis toward the entrance. I suspect if we study larger numbers of larger mazes, we will find similar findings.So that is to say, it is easier to navigate the maze in the reverse direction: the heuristic to try left/up exits will work more often than the right/down in the proper direction.
smartmic•6mo ago
> Aren't mazes supposed to have starting points and end points? […] honestly, […] it's entirely up to you. […] The maze […] is a perfect maze, and one of the attributes of a perfect maze is that there exists exactly one path between any two cells in it. […] You pick them, and there's guaranteed to be a path between them.
You do not need to choose an entrance or exit only on the sides, but you can also choose "Pacman-style" where the goal is to reach points inside the maze.
"Perfect" refers to the mathematical/logical properties of a maze (i.e. no loops), not the aesthetical aspect. I have not checked though if the mazes in the source here are all perfect.
kazinator•6mo ago
Laying out the abstract maze tree into the rectilinear grid of cells obfuscates the tree somewhat, but not entirely. A process that generates from upper left to lower right, for instance, will tend to generate cells whose parent-headed exits going left and up more often than not, making the reverse direction a bit easier.
(Again, it depends on the maze generation process.)