Understand the built-in AI systems in Unreal Engine for building intelligent games
Leverage the power of Unreal Engine 4 programming to create game AI that focuses on motion, animation, and tactics
Learn to profile, visualize, and debug your Game AI for checking logic and optimizing performance

Description

Learning how to apply artificial intelligence ( AI ) is crucial and can take the fun factor to the next level, whether you're developing a traditional, educational, or any other kind of game. If you want to use AI to extend the life of your games and make them challenging and more interesting, this book is for you. The book starts by breaking down AI into simple concepts to get a fundamental understanding of it. Using a variety of examples, you will work through actual implementations designed to highlight key concepts and features related to game AI in UE4. You will learn to work through the built-in AI framework in order to build believable characters for every game genre (including RPG, Strategic, Platform, FPS, Simulation, Arcade, and Educational). You will learn to configure the Navigation, Environmental Querying, and Perception systems for your AI agents and couple these with Behavior Trees, all accompanied with practical examples. You will also explore how the engine handles dynamic crowds. In the concluding chapters, you will learn how to profile, visualize, and debug your AI systems to correct the AI logic and increase performance. By the end of the book, your AI knowledge of the built-in AI system in Unreal will be deep and comprehensive, allowing you to build powerful AI agents within your projects.

What you will learn

Get an in-depth knowledge about all the AI Systems within Unreal Engine Create complex AIs, understanding the art of designing and developing Behavior Tree Learn how to perform Environmental Queries (EQS) Master the Navigation, Perception, and Crowd Systems Profile and Visualize the AI Systems with powerful debugging tools Extend every AI and Debug system with custom nodes and functions

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Product Details

Publication date : Apr 25, 2019

Length 552 pages

Edition : 1st Edition

Language : English

ISBN-13 : 9781788835657

Vendor :

Epic Games

Category :

Game Development

Languages :

C++ (Intermediate)

Concepts :

Game Artificial Intelligence

Tools :

Unreal (Intermediate)

19 Chapters

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Get in touch

Section 1: The Unreal Framework

Making the First Steps in the World of AI

Before starting...

Prerequisites

Installing and preparing the software

Becoming an AI Game Developer

A bit of history

Planning our journey

Summary

Behavior Trees and Blackboards

How Behavior Trees work

Blackboards and their integration with Behavior Trees

Creating our AI project

Starting Behavior Trees from AI Controllers

Summary

Navigation

What to expect from a Navigation System

Unreal Navigation System

Generating the Navigation Mesh

Setting parameters for the Nav Mesh

Modifying the Navigation Mesh

Overriding the Navigation System

Summary

Environment Querying System

Enabling the Environment Querying System

Understanding the Environment Querying System

Exploring the built-in nodes

Visualizing Environment Queries

Creating components for the Environment Querying System

Summary

Agent Awareness

Perception of AI in video games

Overview of the Sensing System

The AIPerceptionComponent

Different Teams

The AIStimuliSourceComponent

Hands-on with the perception system – Sight AI Controller

Summary

Extending Behavior Trees

A quick recap on Behavior Trees

Creating a Task

Creating a Decorator

Creating a Service

Creating a Composite Node

Creating new type of nodes or new types of Trees

Summary

Crowds

Crowds in games

Crowds in Unreal

Reciprocal Velocity Obstacles (RVO)

Detour Crowd

Summary

Section 2: Designing and Implementing Behavior Trees

Designing Behavior Trees - Part I

The Expected Behavior

Building the Nodes

AI Controller

Summary

Designing Behavior Trees - Part II

Setting up the environment for testing the Behavior Tree

Service – Update Chasing Behavior

Summary

Designing Behavior Trees - Part III

Building the Behavior Tree

Running the Behavior Tree

Bug Correction

Improving further (C++ only)

Summary

Section 3: Debugging Methods

Debugging Methods for AI - Logging

Basic Logging

Summary

Debugging Methods for AI - Navigation, EQS, and Profiling

Debugging behavior trees

Profiling and visualizing environmental queries

Testing and visualizing the navigation mesh

Profiling AI

Summary

Debugging Methods for AI - The Gameplay Debugger

The anatomy of the Gameplay Debugger

Extending the Gameplay Debugger

Summary

Going Beyond

Why is psychology an important consideration for AI?

What we haven't covered in this book

Some useful resources

AI and philosophy

Goodbye

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Authors (1)

Francesco Sapio

Francesco Sapio received his Master of Science in Engineering in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics degree from Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, a couple of semesters in advance, graduating with summa cum laude; he is currently a researcher at the same university. He is an Unreal and Unity 3D expert, skilled game designer, and an experienced user of major graphics programs. He helped the development of many games (both educational and commercial). He is also an active writer on the topic of game development. Finally, Francesco loves math, philosophy, logic, and puzzle solving, but most of all, creating video gamesthanks to his passion for game designing and programming.

See other products by Francesco Sapio

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