Lecture 8 - What is Game AI? Final Thoughts

What is Game AI? Final Thoughts

What is Game AI? • Game AI is not about : ‣ Beating the player ‣ Optimality ‣ “making the bad guys shoot”2

What is Game AI • Game AI is about : ‣ Delivering great experiences to players ‣ Building immersive environments ‣ Automating the functions of a human “Dungeon Master”3

Batman - Arkham Asylum4

Batman - Arkham Asylum • A classic example of the game AI challenge • We could coordinate the thugs, use small unit tactics etc. • Make use of existing AI techniques to make intelligent, successful thugs. • Is this the point?5

Batman - Arkham Asylum6

Batman - Arkham Asylum • The overall aim is to make a Batman “simulator”. • Make the player feel like they ARE Batman. • Recall “Losing with Style” ‣ Epic brawls ‣ Batman can generally win if he’s smart • Player is entertained and immersed in the world of Batman.7

The “Odd Sock Drawer” Stuff That Didn’t Fit In Anywhere Else AKA “The Brain Dump”

Emergence • Emergence is the term for “interesting” things coming from seemingly simple rules. • Recall L-Systems from last week ‣ Basic rules : draw, turn left, turn right ‣ Complicated patterns emerged from the interaction of these rules9

Reynolds Steering • Three simple rules for steering ‣ Separation - avoid crowding local units ‣ Alignment - steer towards the avg heading of local units ‣ Cohesion - steer towards the avg position of local units • From these three rules we can simulate “ﬂock” behaviour10

Boids • Demo - http://lukedicken.com/projects/AITest/ WebPlayer.html11

Cellular Automata • A CA is a grid representation • Individual cells are “off” or “on” ‣ Actually can take a range of values, but usually binary. • Iterative process to determine at a given step a cell’s state • Most famous ruleset is Conway’s Game of Life12

Conway’s Game of Life • Under-population : Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies • Overcrowding : Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies • Reproduction : Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell • Live cells with two or three live neighbours lives13

Gosper’s Glider Gun14

The Glider15

CA and the Universe • There are some people who believe that CA emergence reﬂects the nature of our universe. • The universe is claimed to be a Turing Machine. • Through the property of Turing Completeness any Turing Machine can replicate behaviour of another. • CAs are a Turing Machine. ‣ Some researchers claim to be discovering laws of our universe by analysis of CA systems16

CAs for Games • CAs are of interest in the context of Game AI • Can be used to generate “particles” ‣ Think confetti • Particle systems are used for all sorts in graphics ‣ Smoke, vapour, dust, leaves, sparkles, explosions, flames • Rather than defining a complex particle system • Use a lightweight CA definition and a start state17

Emergence • Emergence allows us to deﬁne complex systems simply. • Diverse behaviour can be exhibited ‣ Novel, unexpected behaviour • Loss of directorial control when AI becomes unpredictable.18

Traditional vs Game AI • Something I hear on a fairly regular basis is how bad AI in games is. • “It’s not intelligent” • “You could do this with <insert algorithm>” • We’ve talked at length about the different motivations of Traditional AI and Game AI19

Processing Time • One of the big things that is different between is the amount of CPU power available. • When we talk about traditional AI systems, that’s typically all that the computer is doing. • Our AI systems need horsepower. • Games need horsepower too. ‣ Graphics, physics, networking. ‣ 1ms of CPU time per frame - <10% of time given to AI20

Memory Usage • Memory is another big factor. • Consider the kind of search trees we’ve been talking about. ‣ Combinatorial explosion ‣ Tracking massive amounts of states • Memory required for non-trivial planning quickly hits multiple gigabytes. ‣ For one planning problem21

Debugging AI Systems • Lots of our AI systems are randomised • How can we accurately test behaviour if it relies on random chance? • We talked previously in Poker context about how to overcome randomness ‣ Many repetitions to minimise variance ‣ Find a way to rig the randomness22

Pseudo-Random Behaviour • We know that computers cannot generate truly random numbers. • What they actually use are complicated functions using a “seed” number to initialise them. • We can generate the same number sequence iff ‣ We know the function ‣ We know the seed23

Car Key • At a very basic level, this is how many cryptography techniques work. • Consider a remote car key • Lots of keys share the same frequency ‣ Need to distinguish our key/car pair • Thieves could intercept the unlock command if it was broadcast in the clear. ‣ Replay Attack24

Rolling Code • Get around this using a pair of pseudo-random number generators between lock and key. ‣ Synchronised by having the same seed number • Both lock and key know what the next number in the sequence is. • If a thief intercepts it, that code is now “old” ‣ Need to be able to predict what the next number is ‣ Lots of extra stuff to make this difﬁcult/impossible25

Debugging AI Systems • We can use the same basic principles to ensure that when we debug an AI system, we are observing the same decisions. • Crash reports always report seed number used. • We can replicate the random number sequence that was generated before the crash ‣ Replicate the behaviour that caused the crash26

A Note on Footprints • Activating debug code and changing your program can alter it’s footprint when compiled. • Can lead to unintentional changes in behaviour. ‣ Debug build takes longer to execute as there are more instructions - different amounts of processor available, behaves differently27

Software Engineering for (Game) AI • By now you will have been told about best practices for Software Engineering. ‣ UML diagrams ‣ Waterfall method • Good for well understood tasks ‣ Write an app that does this • What if the task isn’t understood? ‣ How can we design a system on paper if it isn’t speciﬁed?28

Iteration, Iteration, Iteration • The way we deal with not knowing the speciﬁcation in advance is to constantly test. • Rapid iteration ‣ Building systems incrementally ‣ No monolithic approach ‣ Make it do something, make it do the right thing later ‣ Iterative reﬁnement • Testing code correctness every few lines.29

Reality • Continuous Integration ‣ Code being committed is going through automated tests to ensure correctness • Long build processes • Core reason a lot of AI is based on scripting ‣ No need to alter the code, no need to wait for a recompile. ‣ Script updates can be executed on the same build.30

Scrum • Scrum is a project management technique getting a lot of use in development teams • Growing in popularity since 2001, although dates back to 1986 • Tightly integrates a product-centric view of the development process ‣ Avoids teams working on “cool” rather than “useful” features.31

Roles • Product Owner - Represents the “product”, client’s perspective. Ensures that the team is providing value. • Scrum Master - In charge of ensuring smooth operation of the team. Not leader of the team. ‣ Somewhere between Mum and Fixer • Team - Developers32

The Product Backlog • Created by the Product Owner • Prioritised list of potential features. ‣ Priority based on value of feature and work involved • Product Owner and Team determine priority ‣ Value is set by the Product Owner ‣ Amount of work is set by the team • Items in the Product Backlog must be promoted to the Sprint Backlog before being worked on.33

The Sprint • Building block of Scrum • A development process consists of multiple sprints ‣ Each sprint lasts between a week and a month ‣ Firm deadline for the length of the sprints • Sprint Planning Meeting selects what items from the Product Backlog are going to be tackled. • Sprint Review Meeting analyses what has/hasn’t been accomplished at the end. Demo.34

The Scrum • Daily Team meeting - 15m ‣ What have you done since yesterday? ‣ What are you going to do today? ‣ Are there any obstacles right now? • Scrum of Scrums ‣ Daily summary ‣ Each team sends a delegate ‣ Allows inter-team communication and progress checking35

Maslow’s Hammer • “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” - The Psychology of Science, Maslow • This plagues the AI ﬁeld - especially in academia • Experts in one particular aspect ‣ Or grads who learnt about one technique/algorithm • Go on to use it as standard approach everywhere, even when it’s not at all appropriate.36

The Philosophy of this Module • As much as possible I’ve avoided talking about speciﬁc algorithms. • Algorithms are available in books or on Wikipedia • What I’ve tried to emphasise is approaches and application areas. • Teaching ways of thinking about Game AI ‣ Not how to write Game AI37

The AI Toolbox • Different techniques are suited to different jobs. • Whenever you come across a new technique, make a note of it. ‣ Add it to your toolbox • When you come across a new problem : ‣ Do you have a tool that can solve it? ‣ Is there a better one available? • These lectures hopefully give you a “starter kit”.38

Final Summary • Science of playing games • Building mathematical representations of players. • Generating content for games • Tailoring content to players • Managing the experience of players39

Source Material • Largely drawn from articles I’ve written for ‣ AIGameDev.com ‣ AltDevBlogADay.com ‣ Gamasutra.com • Other aspects based on a series of posts forthcoming for Gamasutra • Also based on conversations with / talks from the following people (and more) over the past few years40

Acknowledgements • Phil Carlisle (Namaste) • Alex Champandard (AIGameDev.com) • Kevin Dill (Lockheed Martin Advanced Simulation Center) • Richard Evans (Stumptown Game Machine) • Dan Kline (Electronic Arts - Maxis) • Dave Mark (Intrinsic Algorithm, Game AI Programmers Guild) • Gwaredd Mountain (Climax Studios) • Brian Schwab (Blizzard Entertainment) • Togelius and Yannakakis (ITU Copenhagen)41

Finally • Strathclyde AI and Games research group ‣ Talk to us about postgrad opportunities • International Game Developers Association ‣ IGDA Scotland ‣ IGDA Scholarships • Organising some form of game-development based program here at Strathclyde ‣ Keep an eye on your email in the next week or two42

Lecture 8 - What is Game AI? Final Thoughts

by Luke Dicken on Dec 04, 2011

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Lecture 8 - What is Game AI? Final Thoughts — Presentation Transcript