Artificial Intelligence for Games

Creating robust artificial intelligence is one of the greatest challenges for game developers, yet the commercial success of a game is often dependent upon the quality of the AI. In this book, Ian Millington brings extensive professional experience to the problem of improving the quality of AI in games. He describes numerous examples from real games and explores the underlying ideas through detailed case studies. He goes further to introduce many techniques little used by developers today. The book's associated web site contains a library of C++ source code and demonstration programs, and a complete commercial source code library of AI algorithms and techniques. "Artificial Intelligence for Games - 2nd edition" will be highly useful to academics teaching courses on game AI, in that it includes exercises with each chapter. It will also include new and expanded coverage of the following: AI-oriented gameplay; Behavior driven AI; Casual games (puzzle games).   Key Features * The first comprehensive, professional tutorial and reference to implement true AI in games written by an engineer with extensive industry experience. * Walks through the entire development process from beginning to end. * Includes examples from over 100 real games, 10 in-depth case studies, and web site with sample code.

Table of Contents:
AI and Games Introduction What Is AI? Model of Game AI Algorithms, Data Structures, and Representations On the Website Layout of the Book Game AI The Complexity Fallacy The Kind of AI in Games Speed and Memory The AI Engine Techniques Movement The Basics of Movement Algorithms Kinematic Movement Algorithms Steering Behaviors Combining Steering Behaviors Predicting Physics Jumping Coordinated Movement Motor Control Movement in the Third Dimension Pathfinding The Pathfinding Graph Dijkstra A* World Representations Improving on A* Hierarchical Pathfinding Other Ideas in Pathfinding Continuous Time Pathfinding Movement Planning Decision Making Overview of Decision Making Decision Trees State Machines Behavior Trees Fuzzy Logic Markov Systems Goal-Oriented Behavior Rule-Based Systems Blackboard Architectures Scripting Action Execution Tactical and Strategic AI Waypoint Tactics Tactical Analyses Tactical Pathfinding Coordinated Action Learning Learning Basics Parameter Modification Action Prediction Decision Learning Naive Bayes Classifiers Decision Tree Learning Reinforcement Learning Artificial Neural Networks Board Games Game Theory Minimaxing Transposition Tables and Memory Memory-Enhanced Test Algorithms Opening Books and Other Set Plays Further Optimizations Turn-Based Strategy Games Supporting Technologies Execution Management Scheduling Anytime Algorithms Level of Detail World Interfacing Communication Getting Knowledge Efficiently Event Managers Polling Stations Sense Management Tools and Content Creation Knowledge for Pathfinding and Waypoint Tactics Knowledge for Movement Knowledge for Decision Making The Toolchain Designing Game AI Designing Game AI The Design Shooters Driving Real-Time Strategy Sports Turn-Based Strategy Games AI-Based Game Genres Teaching Characters Flocking and Herding Games Appendix Books, Periodicals, and Papers Games