Collin kliewe
Introduction
Technology has been improving at an alarming rate in recent years. What we take as entertainment today was sci-fi to the people of the past few generations. For example, you know those recordable birthday cards? The chip inside is more advanced then any technology in world war 2! now we have entertainment such as video games with non-player characters (npc's) that emulate humans! In this project I will be discussing the AI in video games.
Humble beginning
The first game that really “made decisions” based on player input was the classic shoot and evade game Space invaders. Space invaders is a 2D space shooter, in japan it was so popular it caused a national coin shortage! There are two reasons (the developers say) that made space invaders so appealing, one was the music, going faster and faster it was designed to make your heart beat faster and get you nervous. The other reason was its innovative enemy behavior. Space invaders was the inspiration for Galaxian (and eventually Galaga).
AI Today
Today video game AI is much more advanced, one brand of AI in particular. First person shooter (fps) AI is by far the most advanced. In the past few years developers worked day and night to get enemies not to bump into walls, forget important things (like where the player was last seen) and to act more realistic in general.
Here is a (partial) list of what developers of non-player characters have to accomplish:
alertness level: is the character in a combat mindset? Are they talking to their buddy? Perhaps they are leaning against the wall outside smoking a cigarette? Are they in a warzone, or a fortress? How about Both? Are they guarding something? Do they hear gunfire? Has something suspicious happened?
Goal:
a. immediate goal: find cover. Reload. Sneak up on player. Call for backup. Etc
b. broad goal: base infiltration. Guard duty. Sniper. Ambush. Scout out ahead. Etc
combat: what adversary is the biggest threat to me? What enemy is the most vulnerable? Am I in the enemies line of sight? Do I need to change my immediate goal?
As you can see even the most basic of combat AI is highly complex. Not to mention realistic movement, believable reactions and of course the most difficult of all, human error.
Here is a flow chart of a simple capture the flag ai:
http://www.apartment167.com/overload/showcase/CTF4/CTF4_AI_Flowchart.jpg
Impact on world
video game ai has been utilized in many different platforms. Watson the ibm computer that competed on jeopardy uses a direct descendant of early video games.
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