Game AI Uncovered

Paul Roberts is a Lead AI programmer at Sumo Digital. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence, where he focused on pathfinding and developed the DRS algorithm and ways to test the believability of generated paths. He has worked for a variety of studios in the UK from Team17, Traveller’s Tales, Activision, and some smaller indie studios. Paul also managed the Games Programming department at Staffordshire University for several years where he oversaw the development of new degree programs that saw a close collaboration with the games industry. Paul has written a number of books – some fiction, others academic – the latest of which is Artificial Intelligence in Games published by CRC Press in 2022.

Preface. Acknowledgements. Editor. Contributors. Chapter 1 The Changing Landscape of AI for Game Development. Chapter 2 Implementing an AI Framework in Unreal for Medium- to Large-Scale Numbers of Disparate AI in Hood: Outlaws and Legends. Chapter 3 Predicting When and Where to Intercept Players in Hood: Outlaws and Legends. Chapter 4 Getting Caught Off Guard: Situational Awareness in The Escapists 2. Chapter 5 Stitching It Together: The Enemies of Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Chapter 6 Squad Behaviour Using a Task Stack Approach for Call of Duty: Strike Team. Chapter 7 Reactive Behaviour Trees. Chapter 8 Tailoring Racing AI to the Genre. Chapter 9 Believable Routes: A Pathfinding Acceptability Metric. Chapter 10 AI Under Lockdown: Various Approaches to NPC Tethering. Chapter 11 Low-Cost, Mutable Path-Planning Spaces. Chapter 12 Auto-Generating Navigation Link Data. Chapter 13 Fluid Movement. Chapter 14 Combining Behaviour and Animation Systems in Luna Abyss. Chapter 15 How to Make Your AI Fireproof: 25 Years of AI Firefighting. Chapter 16 Pedal Control for Cars: How to Maintain Speed, Change Speed, and Stop at a Point. Chapter 17 Bots for Testing. Chapter 18 Infinite Axis Utility System and Hierarchical State Machines. Chapter 19 Tactical Positioning through Environmental Analysis. Chapter 20 Level of Detail: Saving Crucial CPU Time. Chapter 21 Agent Coordination: Designing a Generalised Coordination Layer. Index.