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

Summary

In this chapter, we learned that game AI and academic AI have different objectives. Academic AI researchers try to solve real-world problems and develop AI algorithms that compete with human intelligence, with the ultimate goal of replacing humans in complex situations. On the other hand, game AI focuses on building NPCs with limited resources that seem to be intelligent to the player, with the ultimate goal of entertaining them. The objective of AI in games is to provide a challenging opponent that makes the game more fun to play.

We also learned about the different AI techniques that are used in games, such as FSMs, randomness and probability, sensors, input systems, flocking and group behaviors, path following and steering behaviors, AI pathfinding, navigation mesh generation, and behavior trees.

We'll learn how to implement these techniques inside the Unity engine in the following chapters. In the next chapter, we will start with the basics: FSMs.