Game AI Pro 360: Guide to Architecture

Steve Rabin has 15 years at Nintendo of America, 4 years at various game developer start-ups, and 7 years of college teaching experience. He has been the invited keynote speaker at several academic AI conferences, founder and summit advisor for the AI Summit at GDC, GDC speaker, and founder/manager of the AI Game Programmers Guild.

About the Editor

About the Contributors

Introduction

1 Behavior Selection Algorithms: An Overview

Michael Dawe, Steve Gargolinski, Luke Dicken, Troy Humphreys, and Dave Mark

2 Structural Architecture—Common Tricks of the Trade

Kevin Dill

3 The Behavior Tree Starter Kit

Alex J. Champandard and Philip Dunstan

4 Real-World Behavior Trees in Script

Michael Dawe

5 Simulating Behavior Trees: A Behavior Tree/Planner Hybrid Approach

Daniel Hilburn

6 An Introduction to Utility Theory

David “Rez” Graham

7 Building Utility Decisions into Your Existing Behavior Tree

Bill Merrill

8 Reactivity and Deliberation in Decision-Making Systems

Carle Côté

9 Exploring HTN Planners through Example 103

Troy Humphreys

10 Hierarchical Plan-Space Planning for Multi-unit Combat Maneuvers

William van der Sterren

11 Phenomenal AI Level-of-Detail Control with the LOD Trader

Ben Sunshine-Hill

12 Runtime Compiled C++ for Rapid AI Development

Doug Binks, Matthew Jack, and Will Wilson

13 Plumbing the Forbidden Depths: Scripting and AI

Mike Lewis

14 Possibility Maps for Opportunistic AI and Believable Worlds

John Manslow

15 Production Rules Implementation in 1849

Robert Zubek

16 Production Systems: New Techniques in AAA Games

Andrea Schiel

17 Building a Risk-Free Environment to Enhance Prototyping: Hinted-Execution Behavior Trees

Sergio Ocio Barriales

18 Smart Zones to Create the Ambience of Life

Etienne de Sevin, Caroline Chopinaud, and Clodéric Mars

19 Separation of Concerns Architecture for AI and Animation

Bobby Anguelov

20 Optimizing Practical Planning for Game AI

Eric Jacopin

21 Modular AI

Kevin Dill and Christopher Dragert

22 Overcoming Pitfalls in Behavior Tree Design

Anthony Francis

23 From Behavior to Animation: A Reactive AI Architecture for Networked First-Person Shooter Games

Sumeet Jakatdar

24 A Character Decision-Making System for FINAL FANTASY XV by Combining Behavior Trees and State Machines

Youichiro Miyake, Youji Shirakami, Kazuya Shimokawa, Kousuke Namiki, Tomoki Komatsu, Joudan Tatsuhiro, Prasert Prasertvithyakarn, and Takanori Yokoyama

25 A Reusable, Light-Weight Finite-State Machine

David “Rez” Graham

26 Choosing Effective Utility-Based Considerations

Mike Lewis

27 Combining Scripted Behavior with Game Tree Search for Stronger, More Robust Game AI

Nicolas A. Barriga, Marius Stanescu, and Michael Buro