Artificial Intelligence for Games

Table of Contents:Descriptions have been added to sections which will have significant changes in the 2nd edition.1 INTRODUCTIONWill now make the code available exclusively online. This section would describe how to access the code and what it contains, in broad brush strokes. I have a completely new codebase for the second edition, with many more demos.2 GAME AIThis chapter has been reorganised to include an additional section: AGENTS, PERCEPTS AND ACTIONS. This is a new section that looks at characters in a game in a more systemic way. It helps set up several of the later chapters that didn't have an organising principle.This section also includes updates on the current generation of hardware. In particular multi-core consoles.3 MOVEMENTAdding new section (ACTIONS AND MOVEMENT).Also, including more information on the representation of motion in a game engine, particularly a game engine with a physics core. There is additional material on COMBINING STEERING BEHAVIORS. 4 PATHFINDINGA short subsection on path finding in the presence of uncertainty will be added. This is an interesting new subfield. 5 DECISION MAKINGAdding a new section (BEHAVIOR TREES): a single technique set.A new section will be added to discuss goal oriented action planning outside the context of the Sims-like game from the 1st ed. Additional techniques will be discussed to allow readers to implement GOAP in other game genres. In particular two techniques: Hierarchical Task Planning and Partial Order Planning, will be introduced and applied at their most basic level.6 TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC AIAdding a new section (STRATEGY AND PERSONALITY) that discusses how to build strategic AI that follows distinct styles, without being too predictable and exploitable. 7 LEARNINGThe examples in the section on REINFORCEMENT LEARNING will be modified. Readers found it difficult to understand why and how this technique should be used. The textual demo will be expanded to a graphic demo which will be walked through in detail.8 BOARD GAMES9 EXECUTION MANAGEMENTThe section on ANYTIME ALGORITHMS will be expanded to include information on how to go about any-timing existing algorithms. Topics such as making recursion explicit, storing data between updates, and anytime algorithms on multi-core processors will be addressed.10 WORLD INTERFACINGThe section on GETTING KNOWLEDGE EFFICIENTLY will be expanded to bring in the idea of the percept introduced in chapter 2. In addition, there will be a new subsection on g