eightway

Eightway refers to a control or navigation scheme that allows movement or selection in eight discrete directions corresponding to the eight compass points: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, and northwest. The term is used across fields to describe input, movement, or routing options that cover all eight directions rather than just the cardinal ones.

In video games and hardware, eight-way input originated with arcade joysticks and later with directional pads that can detect eight directions either physically (joystick) or logically (two-axis with combinations). It contrasts with four-way control that only detects the four cardinal directions. In practice, many games implement eight-direction movement by combining inputs from two axes to produce diagonal movement.

In computing and mathematics, eight-way connectivity or Moore neighborhood refers to the set of eight surrounding cells in a grid. This concept appears in image processing, cellular automata, and pathfinding algorithms where movement can occur to any adjacent cell, including diagonals.

In robotics and autonomous systems, eight-way movement informs navigation and obstacle avoidance. It offers finer directional granularity than four-way systems and can be used in vector field methods, potential fields, or grid-based planners.

See also: eight-directional movement; Moore neighborhood; eight-way joystick; D-pad.