Ai in Computer Games

AI in Computer Games
Dr. Nick Hawes

www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~nah
First, some background...

• AI & CS degree here (avoided as much CS as
was humanly possible)
• PhD sponsored by Sony Computer
Entertainment Europe (including some
pointless work experience).
• Post-doc at Media Lab Europe (they have a
games group, but I wasn't in it).
• Now working here on the CoSy project.
Overview
• Why is AI good for games?
• Why are games good for AI?
• AI techniques for games.
• AI in existing games.
• Halo
• The Sims
Overview
• Halo
• The Sims
Why is AI good for games?

• In other words: What makes the games
industry need AI?
The Main Reason

• Suspension of disbelief is crucial for games.
Better AI makes it easier to accept what you
see.
• Typically this means generating behaviour
for opponents.
The Past...
• Originally AI was used to control very, very
simple characters.
The Past...
• Originally AI was used to control very, very
simple characters.
The Past...
• Or provide simple, pattern-based challenges.
The Past...
• Or provide simple, pattern-based challenges.
The Past...
• Does that really count?
• What's the difference between the AI in
Donkey Kong and that in Pac-Man?
• Decisions: In some sense the agents “choose”
what to do next.
• Is this AI if it's a random choice?
The Present...
• AI is still used for opponents, although the
range of possibilities is now much bigger.
The Present...
The Present...
• ... well that's still pattern based. How about...
The Present...
• ... well that's still pattern based. How about...
The Present...
• Or even...
The Present...
• Or even...
The Present...
• AI is also used to provide non-opposition
characters such as team-mates or scene-
setting wildlife.
The Future...
• If current trends in gaming continue, AI
techniques will be for the following things at
least...
World Fillers
• Massively multi-player games need to
populated by non-player-character (NPC)
agents.
• Key problem: The world is persistent.
• NPCs are needed to;
•
Sell things and make things.
• Play key roles in story telling.
World Fillers
• Who wants to be a reliable baker when they
can be a dashing hero? (well, some people
do, but not enough to build future in-game
economies)
• Who wants to abstain in order to build
dramatic tension when they are paying to
play?
Team mates
• Not just characters you can order around,
but truly interactive entities (whatever that
may mean).
• Convincing AI is necessary in order to help
build relationships with characters (cf Catz,
and Dogz).
Better Opposition
• Opponents that provide a real, dynamic,
challenge.
• Not just foot soldiers, but generals, political
manipulators etc.
Overview
• Halo
• The Sims
Why are games relevant to AI?

• In other words: Why should we (and future
generations of AI programmers) care about
games?
Why should we care?

• They provide advanced, existing test-beds.
Why should we care?

• They are limited, but not too limited.
(compare toy worlds such as the Blocks
World).
Why should we care?

• They are limited, but not too limited.
(compare toy worlds such as the Blocks
World).
• They are one of the few domains that allow
us to build “proper agents”.
Why should we care?

• Crucially, any AI code in a game is put under
at least 3 serious (-ly necessary) tests;
•
A real-time environment.
•
A dynamic environment.
•
Playing a robust and convincing role.
Overview
• Halo
• The Sims
Lots and lots of “If” statements.


• Pros:
•
Not many really, expect they are easy for an
inexperienced AI programmer to write.
•
Simple solutions to simple problems.

• Pros:
•
Not many really, expect they are easy for an
inexperienced AI programmer to write.
•
Simple solutions to simple problems.
• Cons:
• Difficult to maintain and extend.
•
Unpredictable interactions grow with size.
• Cost of matching conditions may get
considerable (cf. Ginsberg's critique of Universal
Plans).
Scripting Languages (not a

technique as such)
• Click to add an outline

technique as such)
• Pros:
•
Allow non-programmers to write AI code.

technique as such)
• Pros:
•
Allow non-programmers to write AI code.
• Cons:
•
Very strict limits on functionality (unless
complexity is exposed).
• Behaviours may not be decomposable.
Finite State Machines


• Pros:
•
Goes beyond pure conditionals to give states.
• Predictable behaviour.
• Easy to comprehend.

• Pros:
•
Goes beyond pure conditionals to give states.
• Predictable behaviour.
• Easy to comprehend.
• Cons:
• The problem needs to be easily decomposable.
• Visible state (non)transitions and fluctuations
can destroy illusion of intelligence.
The Future of AI in Games

• What techniques and approaches may make
an appearance in the future?
Nature-inspired Computation
• Everybody likes the idea of “evolving
something” for games.
• The problem comes when you try to define
evolutionary units and operators...
• What level should behaviours be represented at?
•
What is a good fitness metric for game AI?
• ... and also what comes out at the end.
• Do you have something the designers can use?
Level of Detail AI
• Cut AI processing costs by prioritising AI
code (cf. LOD graphics).
• Some interesting questions for AI (thinkers)
• How can we abstract an action and what are the
crucial parts of an action?
• How can this be done automatically?
•
Can we actually define varying levels of detail at
all?
Natural Language Interaction

• Nothing spoils the suspension of disbelief
like a dialogue menu.
• Interactions with game characters would be
much more natural using spoken language.
• A BIG problem: although we can do speech
recognition now, language understanding is a
very, very hard problem. (AI complete?)
Learning
• NPCs that learn are the holy grail of game AI.
• It has been tried...
•
Black & White (Decision-Tree learning)
•
Virtua Fighter 4 (?)
• Loads of problems though...
•
Huge state spaces.
•
Unpredictable play experiences.
Cognitive Agents
• Can we develop game agents that are
indistinguishable from a living being.
• A sort of gaming Turing test.
• Although this is another very, very hard
problem, the limited scope of game
interactions may make it achievable.
• That said, it is a very, very hard problem (...
see Birmingham's CoSy project).
Overview
• Halo
• The Sims
Overview
• Halo
• The Sims
Why look at Halo?

• Great resources. E.g. (Google for...)
•
The Integration of AI and Level Design in Halo,
by Jaime Griesemer, Chris Butcher. The following slides
are shamelessly “inspired” by this.
•
In the Mind of the Enemy: The Artificial
Intelligence of Halo 2, by Robert Valdes
• Very clear on the role of AI in games.
• It's pretty much state-of-the-art in terms of
game AI.
The big(ger) picture

• The AI in Halo is designed to create the
illusion of intelligence, not intelligence itself.
• AI is recognised as the place where design
and coding overlap. (and this isn't always a
nice place)
• Responsibilities:
• Design: 3 minute scope, personalities, strategy.
• Code: 30 sec scope, decision making and
reactions.
Design Goals for AI

• Agents should be:
•
Intelligible
• Interactive
• Unpredictable
Intelligible AI
• Obvious goals
• Personalities
• Roles
• Transparent thought processes.
• Backed up throughout the game with
language, posture, gesture and attention.
• Supported by the agent design.
Interactive AI
• The player shouldn't just shoot at enemies.
• They should be able to:
•
Impress them.
•
Fool them.
•
Thwart them.
• And they should receive some feedback on
these things. (interesting question... how can
this be done without prior specification?)
Unpredictable AI
• No randomness as this goes against
previous goals.
• Instead rely on the combination of:
• Reactive AI.
• Complex, simulated world.
•
Analog quantities (time, aiming, position)
• An unpredictable player.
• ... to generate emergent behaviour.
Agent Architecture
• Simulated world.
• Restricted
perception (allows
stronger interaction).
• Decision logics
selects from
actions.
Decision Logic
• Specific for each in-
game race.
•
Grunts flee easily.
•
Elites seek cover if
hurt.
Overview
• Halo
• The Sims
Why look at The Sims?

• An almost pure AI game.
• It does things backwards!
The premise
• A game world populated by intelligent beings
with needs that must be satisfied.
• These needs can be satisfied by interacting
in a particular way with a a particular object.
The problem
• The game should be extensible so we can
make loads of cash.
The solution
• Put all the behaviours (and their related
animations etc.) into the objects!
The Sims Approach To AI

• Make an intelligent world instead of an
intelligent agent.
• Distill the reasoning about an object into the
object itself.
• Get that object to advertise the results of
the reasoning.
• All the agent has to do is choose which
object to interact with.
Why this is good

• Agents don't need to know anything about
objects.
• So new objects can be easily created and
added to the game.
• A massive decision problem is simplified to a
much smaller problem...
• Which desire should I satisfy and how?
Why this is bad

• It rules out any more advanced decision
making.
• Objects can only be interacted with in pre-
determined ways.
• It feels wrong somehow! (but in a game, if it
works then that doesn't matter)
Some resources...
• For information on AI in Computer Games:
•
AAAI Spring Symposia on AI and
Games/Entertainment/Media
•
Articles on gamasutra.com
• Proceedings of the Game Developers
Conference (which you can attend as a
volunteer)
So, you want to program games...

• No you don't.
• Learn C++.
• If you want to do AI in games...
• Have cool demos.
•
Be prepared to do other, less stimulating things
to “learn the ropes” first.
•
Resign yourself to the fact that there are very
few (interesting) jobs out there.
Dr. Nick Hawes
www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~nah
Thanks!

Ai in Computer Games

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AI in Computer Games

Dr. Nick Hawes

First, some background...

Why is AI good for games?

The Main Reason

Why are games relevant to AI?

Why should we care?

Why should we care?

Why should we care?

Why should we care?

Lots and lots of “If” statements.

Lots and lots of “If” statements.

Lots and lots of “If” statements.

Scripting Languages (not a

Scripting Languages (not a

Scripting Languages (not a

Finite State Machines

Finite State Machines

Finite State Machines

The Future of AI in Games

Natural Language Interaction

Why look at Halo?

The big(ger) picture

Design Goals for AI

Why look at The Sims?

The Sims Approach To AI

Why this is good

Why this is bad

So, you want to program games...

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