How much A.I is important to you ? what is the future of A.I ?

AI in games or just AI in general?

Both

General A.I will effect to A.I in games

A.I. in games? Important highly, for very obvious reasons.

A.I. in real use? I'm not to comfortable with sentient AI for reasons many movies have made. I'm okay with limited faux AI, or things that mimic 'real' behaviour, but not true A.I.

AI in games.... depends on the game. Stupid AI can be so funny to watch.

As for 'true* AI, something that is sentient and can think on it's own, I don't think it's actually even possible, though were it I wouldn't care for it. Maybe I'm [word]-ist against non-living things having thought and all, but I'm fine with being [word]-ist

AI that know where you are without having any obvious way of knowing that is soooo annoying.
I like the AI used in Batman AA and AC. The AI in Fallout and Skyrim is a bit iffy since even though they are up on my toes and I'm crouched in a bright room they still can't see me unless they actually bump me out the way.

If I'm creeping around in their face they should be able to seem me unless I'm in pitch black and staying completely still and even at that it should be nearly impossible to sneak when you are in the middle of someones view.
If I'm behind them the only way they should know I'm there is if I knock something over or make some sort of hearable noise, maybe even if my guys unfit and keeps panting heavily.

Agreed, the Arkham games have great AI

Not necessarily.


I've been doing a bit of AI programming lately and I've realised that creating a good AI is really difficult. All I've been able to do it create a basic pathfinding algorithm so my AI can navigate the map.

using my own C# version of the A* search algorithm, which looks something like this:

 function A*(start,goal)     closedset := the empty set    // The set of nodes already evaluated.     openset := {start}    // The set of tentative nodes to be evaluated, initially containing the start node     came_from := the empty map    // The map of navigated nodes.      g_score[start] := 0    // Cost from start along best known path.     h_score[start] := heuristic_cost_estimate(start, goal)     f_score[start] := g_score[start] + h_score[start]    // Estimated total cost from start to goal through y.      while openset is not empty         x := the node in openset having the lowest f_score[] value         if x = goal             return reconstruct_path(came_from, came_from[goal])          remove x from openset         add x to closedset         foreach y in neighbor_nodes(x)             if y in closedset                 continue             tentative_g_score := g_score[x] + dist_between(x,y)              if y not in openset                 add y to openset                 tentative_is_better := true             else if tentative_g_score < g_score[y]                 tentative_is_better := true             else                 tentative_is_better := false              if tentative_is_better = true                 came_from[y] := x                 g_score[y] := tentative_g_score                 h_score[y] := heuristic_cost_estimate(y, goal)                 f_score[y] := g_score[y] + h_score[y]      return failure  function reconstruct_path(came_from, current_node)     if came_from[current_node] is set         p := reconstruct_path(came_from, came_from[current_node])         return (p + current_node)     else         return current_node

Thanks for sending it : )

Ack don't show me that code it's a nightmare reading that stuff reminding me of working on the HL2 AI system *shivers*. Wanted to work on some mods and that code was exasperating just looking at it with the game figuring out player positions.


To the OP.

1. AI in General - This is a VERY big thing as anyone can tell a computer to go in a straight line. However teaching it to think on its own is extremely difficult to do if not impossible at times. In my HS programming class we had to tell a computer robot in a program to do certain things. Easiest command was saying moveD(); or something along those lines having it move in a straight line. The complexity came when teaching the thing to move, pick up items, bring back, move aside items, etc... getting very intricate.

In a sense AI is the same where you have to tell the computer or rather teach it to understand things. FPS games probably demand the most amount of AI programming with RTS games being a not too distant second. The AI needs to learn to take cover, use shields, move around to higher ground, efficient stratagem, calling for reinforcements, weapon usage, etc... . You can make a game exceedingly cheap by repeating commands but teaching that computer program to fly by the seat of its pants can be tricky. HL2 has amazing AI with Fear I think being its successor.

2. Advanced AI - This one is tricky and i've contemplated something along the lines of a human neural net pathway solution whereby a central linking command activates subroutines feeding back into the main program. This way you have a central core "Brain" as it were within every bot out there that has the capabilities to learn. You may even go further with a "collective consciousness" within other organisms where the game actually learns what the player's strategies are then how to counter them.

Example would be a player like myself that likes to snipe + use explosives to take out waves of enemies at long distances. The game could theorize using stealth tactics to avoid detection surprising me and nailing me from the shadows. For a player that likes to run and gun setting up consistent traps in key areas would force their hand making them stop. Dealing with a patient player that creeps up slowly like the sniper would be tricky requiring a zerg force effort to surround the player overwhelming them. Going even further for hybridization players becomes more involved figuring out their quirks then playing off them.

Designing the AI I would dare say is like a real battlefield having to use Sun Tzu's The Art Of War to teach the computer how to eliminate the player. However you don't want to make easy/novice mode the Extreme/Mega hard mode instantly killing players cause that's no fun.

Anyway my 2 cents/thoughts on everything OP

They're going to kill us all!!!

How much AI?

I'd say roughly three AI.

Thanks Predator x ... Do you like a game with a dynamic open and random world with a Realistic A.I game engine ?
In future games will be like this

*We cut to a wasteland Earth in the year 2013 a person is alone in the bleak tundra looking at the world.... if only it had not all ended in 2012*

'Still' they say 'at least fallout 4 has good graphics'

^^

AI in games that react to everything you do, that's what I'd like to see.

Well I don't think the game designers are up to the snuff to create great AI yet. What they lack is knowlege of plot points in stories so that characters can be dynamically generated to follow a dynamic storyline. To implement, you take general "arc" stories. Miniarc for miniquest, and an overall bigger "arc" to tie them together. Think of it as TV shows, with each show a miniarc, and the season a big overall arc. It would get too technical to explain it, but most movies have similar plotpoints reaching climix. I am so disappointed that they merged movies and games by having cutscenes, you dont alternate between movie and gameplay, you merge them with your action triggering plotpoints so that you reach climix within each dynamically generated story (miniarc). Generating the possibilities can be done beforehand, flow or state machine (table look up) to save on taxed cpu usage. Motive, inclination, goals are all simple values like a pathfinding algorithm, but the "cells" to reach destination involve plotpoints and characters (and items depending on motivation), instead of empty "walkable" land.


Free pathfinding algorithm:

http://www.edepot.com/algorithm.html

I agree with you

Really? It would be interesting to see plots unfold via your actions. Similar to how using pathfinding your enemies can locate you via shortest path. The technology is there, just need someone to do it.

In games, AI is getting more advanced, but it will take a while before we get to "realistic" AI. In real life, its next to impossible. Machines can only do what we program it to do, its impossible for it to become sentient (I think).

I think sentience is overrated. It is a simple feedback loop that allows for self-modification "code". In fact any CPU running a program can be sentient if you simply allow for a feedback loop. A non-sentient is a CPU running a static program (like the designers in Skyrim designing a story statically). A sentient CPU running a dynamic program is a program with instructions changeable via external stimulai (the feedback loop). You are what you are because you have a short term memory that processes current information, and when you sleep half of it is stored into the long term memory. If you always do the same thing, then you are static like a program. But if you allow for external stimulai, then you can change and "decide" based on internal and external stimulai. A NPC can be sentient, simply by allowing for it to seek food when hungry, seek mate when hormones kick in, seek this or that depending on current place in environment. In fact, a dog is sentient, and all it does is want to play, bark, or whatever but you can change its behavior depending on what the dog sees in the surrounding. Similar to a lowly amoeba. If it always did the same thing it is not sentient, but when you put nutritious food, it will follow or not depending on where it is.

Yeah yeah, it may be too much of a simplification, but how do you know that your thoughts and actions are not a simple neural network of environmental stimulus of the environment and internal chemistry? If a robot ran the same thing, it would be sentient.

THREE AI? I call shenanigans, sir, for I'd say accurately ELEVENTY AI.

The problem with real-life AI that tries to mimic a human being is to separate things like irony, humor, sarcasm and such when it comes to speaking. For example, it needs to combine what has been said, how it was said and compare it to what has happened and understand the meaning of it and then react appropiately. I could say "I'll kill you! hehe!", to my friend, but joyfully with a smile on my face, obviously as a joke to something he did, perhaps spilled my coke on the floor? Well, real-life AI would have to understand that it's a joke. Not draw a "logical" answer like this: Friend spilled my coke, I'm angry, I want to kill him: Protect friend with lethal force on me. Instead, it should draw the conclusion that: It's just coke, it's a joke, we are friends, nothing is wrong. It's a huge problem when it comes to actualizing AI in real-life.

It's hard to say since the AI will be varied from game to game based upon the overall design behind it. If you're talking about games like GTA, Red Faction Guerrilla, and such then I do like those types of AI since they can be more diverse. Programming those diverse AI types can be especially tricky since you need to simulate different variances based upon real world date. Have your drunk guy, smart guy, very smart guy, weird guy that knows karate, etc... and picking a fight with the wrong one can lead to death in the game.

FPS wise controlling the AI is a bit easier while being more complex since you want an over encompassing AI that gets progressively harder. Example would be your soldiers that are private rank having moderate training but no hardcoe battle experience. After that you would have your progressively difficult AI to the point you face those 5 year veteran Marine/Delta special operations trained people. Those are the hard AI to program for to make sure they understand taking cover, calling for backup, bait/switch, guerrilla style warfare of trap placement/wounding (incase you're doing a squad based game), etc... .

Too many games have been going with the "two AI is enough" rule, but I cry foul. We moved from the one AI standard in 2000 and continue with two AI since? Unreasonable. One AI works for Pong, two AI works for Age of Empires, but three AI is what we need for modern games. Nothing less, nothing more.