So i am trying to grasp the difference between a utility function, an evaluation function and an heuristic function in terms of the minmax algorithm with alphabeta on top.
So far my understanding is this:
Utility function gives us the utility of the TERMINAL states thus if a leaf returns win for a given player the utility of that route is win.
Evaluation function gives a numerical value for a given state and a player.
Heuristic function is an approximation of the utility function and is used when we can not explore the whole tree down to the leafs.
My questions:
There does not seem to be any difference between the heuristic function and the evaluation function in terms of the minmax game?
Is the utility function solely based on the leafs(terminal states)? if not, is it not equal to the evaluation function?
can someone fill in the blanks?
