Book Image

Unity Artificial Intelligence Programming - Fifth Edition

By : Dr. Davide Aversa
Book Image

Unity Artificial Intelligence Programming - Fifth Edition

By: Dr. Davide Aversa

Overview of this book

Developing artificial intelligence (AI) for game characters in Unity has never been easier. Unity provides game and app developers with a variety of tools to implement AI, from basic techniques to cutting-edge machine learning-powered agents. Leveraging these tools via Unity's API or built-in features allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating game worlds and characters. The updated fifth edition of Unity Artificial Intelligence Programming starts by breaking down AI into simple concepts. Using a variety of examples, the book then takes those concepts and walks you through actual implementations designed to highlight key concepts and features related to game AI in Unity. As you progress, you’ll learn how to implement a finite state machine (FSM) to determine how your AI behaves, apply probability and randomness to make games less predictable, and implement a basic sensory system. Later, you’ll understand how to set up a game map with a navigation mesh, incorporate movement through techniques such as A* pathfinding, and provide characters with decision-making abilities using behavior trees. By the end of this Unity book, you’ll have the skills you need to bring together all the concepts and practical lessons you’ve learned to build an impressive vehicle battle game.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Part 1:Basic AI
6
Part 2:Movement and Navigation
11
Part 3:Advanced AI

Generating random maps and caves

Another widespread application of PCG is the generation of maps and dungeons. For example, in the roguelike genre (a type of game that takes its name from the 1980s game Rogue), players face a randomly generated dungeon every time they start a game. Likewise, in Minecraft, players begin the game by generating a random world to explore and in which they need to survive. The examples are numerous – too many to be listed here.

There are significant numbers of algorithms to create game worlds. Some use fractal noise to generate random heightmaps. Some others create dungeon-like structures by creating random rooms and connecting them with corridors. Others build maps by randomly arranging manually premade rooms into a myriad of different combinations like in a puzzle (if you have ever played the tabletop game Carcassonne, you know what I am talking about).

This demo will explore a simple technique well suited for the generation of caves or natural...