Category Archives: Videogame AI

Videogame Artificial Intelligence posts.

PC Videogames, Videogame AI, Videogames

Red Alert: Gameplay and Singleplayer AI

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Red Alert!

EA recently released the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert as a download, both discs meaning the full game, as ISO’s. It is a promotion for Red Alert 3, but since I loved the game and after going back to it, still do for all it’s flaws, it was a good excuse to replay one of the campaigns.

I decided, why not write about the gameplay and AI in this classic? Well, why not indeed! This might also tempt you into trying it, if so, it does work on XP, with a note it can also crash for no reason, which I found out rather tediously. If you decide to play this on NT-based systems, prepare for saving a lot, since there are no autosaves. WINE is meant to work well with it too, which is nice. Continue reading Red Alert: Gameplay and Singleplayer AI →

AI, Projects, Videogame AI

OpenTTD AI

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Wright AI likes airports, I hope mine will be a bit more varied

I’ve decided to finally get into OpenTTD’s AI, and after some failed attempts got the build available to compile on Windows, since annoyingly no build is done automatically for the win32 platform. In any case, I’ve got the tutorials up and running, and it should be interesting. Since the game itself is passive-competitive, with players facing off against AI’s (with multiplayer available too), and the AI uses the same “interface” for commands, it is quite an equal game. That is, once the game’s inherent AI cheats are removed perhaps 🙂

If I get anything good going, I’ll post more on it. I prefer some personality rather then milking routes with a ton of vehicles doing the same thing. I’ll have to keep up with builds however, since it’s not a complete API yet, sadly, and there will be complexity abound with players and AI’s being able to build across routes, and alter terrain as parts of a route is built.

Events, Videogame AI, Videogame Conferences

GDC08 Notes – AI Roundtable day 3 (AI for Beginners)

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Me looking more moody then I felt, honest 🙂 (Dave Mark’s picture)

The final AI roundtable on Friday was AI for Beginners – we were in one room again, but it wasn’t as crowded. Some varied questions asked (not all of them for beginners, but a lot was explained for those that were). Dave Mark put up notes and audio from this roundtable too, if you want a better set of notes 😉 Continue reading GDC08 Notes – AI Roundtable day 3 (AI for Beginners) →

Events, Videogame AI, Videogame Conferences

GDC08 Notes – AI Roundtable day 2

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The left of me

So day 2 of the AI roundtables was a lot easier, although for some reason I didn’t use my laptop to take notes, sigh. This day, we did split into two rooms – I covered the “Action / FPS genre” side, while Dave Mark covered the “RTS / RPG” side. It’s tough to divide this day up (having read about past years), but I think if it was made into “strategic high level” and “actor” divisions, it might make more sense. TBS/RTS is just too different to FPS / RPG AI for the most part, but I digress (and it’d mean too many people in the actor side 😉 ). Continue reading GDC08 Notes – AI Roundtable day 2 →

Events, Videogame AI, Videogame Conferences

GDC08 Notes – AI Roundtable day 1

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1057Right side of the room

This Wednesday roundtable was meant to be in two rooms, sadly, we got only one. However, a lot of discussion was had, and I got 3 pages of notes from it. These notes are somewhat hard to follow, but are pretty much in linear order of what came up. For some more notes, see Dave Mark’s grand offerings, with audio too! Continue reading GDC08 Notes – AI Roundtable day 1 →

Events, Videogame AI, Videogame Conferences

GDC08 Notes – Building a Better Battle: HALO 3 AI Objectives

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1260Eager crowd…

So I made lots of notes on the Building a Better Battle: HALO 3 AI Objectives talk by Damian Isla, and I finally wrote them up! You can find his slides on this page (direct link), and if you don’t have Office 2007, I made a quick printout to PDF from the 2007 viewer, which is oddly smaller then the original file. I’d recommend glancing through it if you read these, since I don’t usually copy all the stuff off the slides if I can help it. Continue reading GDC08 Notes – Building a Better Battle: HALO 3 AI Objectives →

Events, Videogame AI, Videogame Conferences, Videogame Industry

I’m going to the Game Devlopers Conference!

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GDC 2008

I’ve received the IGDA Foundation’s Eric Dybsand Memorial Scholarship for AI Development, to go to the Game Developers Conference 2008 in San Francisco!

I’m honoured! 😀

I’ve been withholding this up until it was announced on the IGDA’s website, but now that the organisation has sorted the passes and the winners, I can post. I’m still very much busy with exams, but have booked my hotel and flight to get over there and now need to sort what I’ll be doing.

If anyone does read this and is interested in meeting up there, I’m on MyGDC too, or email me 🙂

Expect photos, reports and whatnot since I’ll be taking over my Macbook, and will be primarily looking at AI sessions – some very interesting ones are going to be put on, which I’ll be sure to attend.

Videogame AI, Videogame Design, Videogames

PvP + PvM = PvPM

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Tank NPC Enemy; the Halo Hunter
I was chuckling a bit after reading BBspot and their report on the AI being dumped in Halo 3 for cheaper outsourced human intelligence.

However, it is an interesting possibility to have players partially take over the roles usually assigned purely to the AI – making the players Player Monsters as it were. Continue reading PvP + PvM = PvPM →