A game has to be able to think, or at least imitate thought sufficiently to render a convincing representation of some character or phenomenon. This sort of logic requires planning on the part of the programmer: A swordfighter not only has to find his enemy and engage him in combat, but know how to react if the opponent runs away, dies, or summons his buddies. The better the game designer is at endowing characters with behaviors, capabilities, and reactions, the more realistic and exciting his or her games will be. A soldier that can shoot at targets in the distance is okay, but a soldier that can also lay an ambush, shoot around corners, and fight with a knife is a lot more exciting. AI Game Programming Wisdom 2 comprises a series of article from accomplished game programmers about designing games that feature complex and lifelike behavior.

The contributors--there are dozens--share their professional experience in the field of simulating life in software. Some of their examples are crystal-clear--Nick Porcino's block diagrams that explain the behavior of artificial insects are one example. What's more, the compilation is remarkably comprehensive, addressing such issues as how collectives (such as platoons of soldiers) exhibit behavior that takes into account the perceptions of their members (as well as the lack of information--the fog of war). This book is carefully designed to help game architects plan more exciting and realistic environments for their players. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to design a computer game in which computer-managed characters need to behave intelligently. There's coverage of how to encode a character's motivations, how to make a character relate to a group, how to make characters move through and perceive space, and how to make a character learn over time.

From Book News, Inc.
Sixty-seven papers describe techniques commonly used in game artificial intelligence as well as those that look promising for the future. The contributors discuss search algorithms, pathfinding, group movement, animation control, finite state machines, scripting, and genetic algorithms. Topics include search space representations, a flexible tagging system for AI resource selection, random map generation for strategy games, and player modeling for adaptive games. The first volume in the series is used as a textbook for AI courses at design schools. The CD-ROM contains demonstrations, tutorials, and additional articles.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Book Description
Cutting-Edge Game AI from Industry Experts! AI Game Programming Wisdom 2, the second volume in this cutting-edge series, is packed with all new tricks, techniques, algorithms, architectures, and philosophies—all written by industry experts! The wealth of knowledge and expertise in this volume is sure to surpass your expectations. As with the first volume, this book is designed to provide practical advice for building state-of-the-art game AI for commercial games; however, it also strives to help you look forward to leading-edge techniques that will be critical in future explorations. AI Game Programming Wisdom 2 provides advances, discoveries, and triumphs that will influence and drive game AI for the next decade. The breadth of experience and diverse backgrounds of the authors make this a truly global, cross-sectional resource for game AI. The book is divided into twelve comprehensive sections, including an all new speech recognition and dialogue section. There is also coverage of a wider variety of game genres and a cumulative index is included for easy cross referencing between volumes. This new volume alone is an indispensable tool, but together with volume 1, these books form a remarkable collection that no game AI programmer should be without! SECTIONS: * General Wisdom * Pathfinding and Movement * Group Movement, Tactics, and Planning * AI Animation Control * State Machines * Architecture * FPS, RTS, and Strategy AI * Racing and Sports AI * Scripting * Learning * Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks * Speech Recognition and Dialogue On the CD-ROM (WINDOWS): Includes source code and demos to augment the articles, as well as tutorials, Web resources, complementary articles, and color images. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Intel Pentium-series, AMD Athlon or newer processor recom-mended. Windows 98 or higher required, 3D graphics card recommended for optimal performance, and DirectX 9 or higher. Code and demos were tested on a Pentium 4 2.5 GHz (1GB) machine with a GeForce 3 graphics card, WinXP with DirectX 9, and Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0. CONTRIBUTORS Greg Alt Mat Buckland Phil Carlisle Alex J. Champandard Emmanuel Chiva Alex Darby Julien Devade Mike Dickheiser Kevin Dill Jean-Yves Donnart Penny Drennan Eric Dybsand Euan Forrester James Freeman-Hargis Dan Fu Benjamin Geisler Mario Grimani Sebastian Grinke Harri Hakonen Chris Hargrove Alexander Herz Ryan Houlette Geraint Johnson Soren Johnson Timo Kaukoranta Tom Kent Sandeep Kharkar Kristin King Neil Kirby Brett Laming François Dominic Laramée Lars Lidén John Manslow Stéphane Maruéjouls James Matthews Alex McLean Syrus Mesdaghi Jeff Orkin Nick Porcino Steve Rabin Michael Ramsey Christopher Reed John Reynolds Gilberto Rosado Shawn Shoemaker Jouni Smed P.J. Snavely Alex Sramek Penny Sweetser Dale Thomas Paul Tozour William van der Sterren Neil Wallace Terry Wellmann Steven Woodcock Eric Yiskis

Book Info
Includes tricks, techniques, algorithms, archtectures, and philosophies. Designed to provide advice for building game AI for commercial games. Second volume in this series. DLC: Computer games--Design.

About the Author
Editor Bio Steve Rabin is a video game industry veteran with over twelve years experience. He currently works in developer relations at Nintendo of America, Inc., and has written AI for several published games. In addition to serving as editor for this series, Steve has written several articles in the Game Programming Gems series and served as the AI section editor for volume 2. He has spoken on AI at the Game Developers Conference and holds a BS in computer engineering from the University of Washington, where he is currently completing an MS degree.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

About the Author
Steve Rabin (Redmond, WA) is a 10-year video game industry veteran currently with Nintendo of America. He's written AI for numerous published games and contributed to Game Programming Gems 1,2, and 3. He's also spoken on AI at the Game Developers Conference and holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Washington, where he specialized in robotics.

SYNOPSIS

This ALL NEW volume in the AI Game Programming Wisdom series is filled with over sixty new, ready-to-use expert techniques, ideas, and solutions for game developers. Each article delves deep into key AI game programming issues and provides insightful new ideas and techniques that can be easily integrated into your own games.Everything from general AI architectures, rule based systems, level-of-detail AI and scripting language issues, to expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms is thoroughly covered. If you're a game programmer (AI/logic, front-end, user interface, tools, graphics, etc.) this comprehensive resource will help you take your skills and knowledge to the next level. This second volume in the popular series is a must-have resource for any game programmer.KEY FEATURES￯﾿ﾽ       Provides an All New collection of AI tools and techniques for game programmers￯﾿ﾽ       Contains comprehensive coverage of all aspects of AI programming￯﾿ﾽ       Covers cutting-edge topics in turn-based AI, adaptive AI, and a variety of genre specific issues￯﾿ﾽ       Includes ready-to-use ideas and code that can be used immediately￯﾿ﾽ       Provides skill enhancement for beginning/intermediate programmers, and insightful new ideas from the pros￯﾿ﾽ       Includes a companion CD-ROM with all the source code for easy implementation

FROM THE CRITICS

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