Book Image

Hands-On Deep Learning for Games

By : Micheal Lanham
Book Image

Hands-On Deep Learning for Games

By: Micheal Lanham

Overview of this book

The number of applications of deep learning and neural networks has multiplied in the last couple of years. Neural nets has enabled significant breakthroughs in everything from computer vision, voice generation, voice recognition and self-driving cars. Game development is also a key area where these techniques are being applied. This book will give an in depth view of the potential of deep learning and neural networks in game development. We will take a look at the foundations of multi-layer perceptron’s to using convolutional and recurrent networks. In applications from GANs that create music or textures to self-driving cars and chatbots. Then we introduce deep reinforcement learning through the multi-armed bandit problem and other OpenAI Gym environments. As we progress through the book we will gain insights about DRL techniques such as Motivated Reinforcement Learning with Curiosity and Curriculum Learning. We also take a closer look at deep reinforcement learning and in particular the Unity ML-Agents toolkit. By the end of the book, we will look at how to apply DRL and the ML-Agents toolkit to enhance, test and automate your games or simulations. Finally, we will cover your possible next steps and possible areas for future learning.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: The Basics
6
Section 2: Deep Reinforcement Learning
14
Section 3: Building Games

Exercises

Use the exercises in this section to enhance and reinforce your learning. Attempt at least a few of these exercises on your own, and remember this is really for your benefit:

  1. Set up and run the 3DBall example environment to train a working agent. This environment uses multiple games/agents to train.
  2. Set the 3DBall example to let half of the games use an already trained brain and the other to use training or external learning.
  3. Train the PushBlock environment agents using external learning.
  4. Train the VisualPushBlock environment. Note how this example uses a visual camera to capture the environment state.
  5. Run the Hallway scene as a player and then train the scene using an external learning brain.
  6. Run the VisualHallway scene as a player and then train the scene using an external learning brain.
  7. Run the WallJump scene and then run it under training conditions. This example...