Related to this idea is the "Jump Point Search" algorithm, an optimization of A* which does this sort of straight-line optimization for exactly this use case.

Related to this idea is the "Jump Point Search" algorithm, an optimization of A* which does this sort of straight-line optimization for exactly this use case. http://zerowidth.com/2013/05/05/jump-point-search-explained.html http://zerowidth.com/2013/05/05/jump-point-search-explained....