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AI Techniques for Game Programming Welcome to AI Techniques for Game Programming. I think you’re going to find that it just might be one of the most useful books on game programming that you’ve ever picked up. Mat first came to my attention back in 2000 or so when he began posting in the GameDev (www.gamedev.net) forums on various aspects of game AI, answering questions of all kinds. He quickly garnered attention and praise from his fellow posters, particularly when he posted two tutorials he’d done on neural networks and genetic algorithms for public consumption. Mat saw a need for AI technologies such as these to be more accessible to game developers in hopes that they might incorporate them into their games, and his tutorials and patient answering of questions in the GameDev forums were obviously a way to try to make that happen. It is with some pride that I find myself now writing a foreword for a book on the subject; may it be the first of many.
[...]...x Foreword The chapters that follow explore these technologies in an easy-going, friendly way The approach is by a game developer for a game developer, and Mat maintains that focus throughout AIs that can learn and adapt are an emerging technology that clearly point the way to better games, more satisfied gamers, and, most importantly, more sales Steven Woodcock ferretman@gameai.com Acknowledgments... who has combed my work for bugs, and to Heather for correcting all my mistakes and for suitably “Americanizing” my text Many thanks to Gary “Stayin’ Alive” Simmons who suggested I write a book in the first place, to all the fans of my Internet tutorials whose e-mails provided daily encouragement, to Steve “Ferretman” Woodcock for taking the time to write the foreword, and to Ken for answering my many... developer producing games for Gremlin Software This paid a lot less but was a whole lot of fun—besides he got to wear jeans on weekdays! He now works as a freelance programmer and AI consultant Mat has been interested in evolutionary computing and AI in general since he first read about these techniques back in the early ’80s He is the author of the ai- junkie.com Web site (www .ai- junkie.com), which... and bumping into trees Games players want a lot more from their games They want to see believable, intelligent behavior from their computergenerated opponents (and allies) For these reasons, I firmly believe the development of AI is going to take off in a big way in the next few years Games like Black & White and Halo have wooed us with their AI, and games players are screaming for more of the same What’s... series editor for the Premier Game Development series leaves me little time to write books these days, so I have to find people who really have a passion for it and who can really deliver the goods If you have read any of my game programming books, you know that I always include heavy coverage of AI from state machines to fuzzy logic—but I have never had time to write a complete book just on AI Alas, we... can be very difficult topics for the novice to start out with—especially for someone who hasn’t spent much time treading the hallowed halls of academia Almost all the books out there are written by academics, for academics, and are consequently full of strange mathematical formulas and obscure terminology Therefore, I’ve written the sort of book I wished would have been available when I first got interested... a long way from the days of the Sinclair ZX80 The speed of hardware keeps getting faster and the cost of components keeps falling The quality of the graphics we see in games has improved incredibly in just a few short years However, to date, that’s where almost all the effort developing games has been spent—on eye-candy We’ve seen very little improvement in the AI of our favorite computer opponents... are changing, though Hardware has now gotten to the point where game developers can afford to give more clock cycles to the creation of AI Also, games players are more sophisticated in their tastes No longer do people want the dumb monsters to be found in old favorites like Doom and Quake No longer do they want their computer-controlled game characters blindly stumbling around trying to find paths that... 411 Contents xxv Part Four Appendixes 413 Appendix A Web Resources 415 URLs 416 www.gameai.com 416 www .ai- depot.com 416 www.generation5.org 416 www.citeseer.com 416 www.gamedev.net 416 www .ai- junkie.com 417 www.google.com 417 Newsgroups 417 Appendix B Bibliography and... Acknowledgments irst and foremost, I’d like to thank the love of my life, Sharon, for her patience, understanding, and encouragement while I was writing this book Not even after the umpteenth time I turned away from my keyboard, blank-eyed, muttering “sorry, what was that you just said?” did she once throw a plate at me F Thanks to Mitzi at Premier for babysitting me through the whole process and for all her help . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" AI Techniques for Game Programming This page intentionally left blank AI Techniques for Game Programming Mat Buckland © 2002 by Premier Press, a division of Course. Shock Proofreader: Marge Bauer ISBN: 1-931841-08-X For Sharon—whose light never fades. This page intentionally left blank Foreword W elcome to AI Techniques for Game Programming. I think you’re going to find that. on game programming that you’ve ever picked up. Mat first came to my attention back in 2000 or so when he began posting in the GameDev (www.gamedev.net) forums on various aspects of game AI,