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

Creating decision-making AI with FSM

In Chapter 2, Finite State Machines, we saw how to implement a simple FSM. In this section, we are using the same technique, but will apply it to the more complex scenario of this demo.

First, we need an FSM plan. We are interested only in connecting the FSM to the existing game for this demo, so we will keep it simple. The FSM for our tank is composed of just two states – patrolling and shooting.

The plan is nice and straightforward:

  1. The AI tank starts in the Patrol state and wanders around the previously defined patrolling points.
  2. Then, if the players get in range, the tank switches to the Attack state.
  3. In the Attack state, the tank turns toward the player and starts shooting at it.
  4. Finally, if we are in the Attack state and the players leave the AI's range, the tank will return to the Patrol state.

Figure 12.8 – The simple FSM for the enemy tanks

For the implementation...