Book Image

Hands-On Artificial Intelligence with Unreal Engine

By : Francesco Sapio
5 (1)
Book Image

Hands-On Artificial Intelligence with Unreal Engine

5 (1)
By: Francesco Sapio

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: The Unreal Framework
9
Section 2: Designing and Implementing Behavior Trees
13
Section 3: Debugging Methods
14
Debugging Methods for AI - Logging

Going Beyond

In this final chapter, we are going to discuss what we have been covered in this book, and what has been left out. There will be some general thoughts on AI and Psychology that every Game AI Developer should be aware of. Therefore, this chapter will conclude with some suggestions on how to explore the concepts that were presented (and others) in this book and some thoughts about AI.

It is not possible to imagine a future where artificial intelligence (AI) will not be omnipresent. It will be integrated into everything in ways that we haven't even imagined. Therefore, for AI to be designed in a way that can truly connect with human beings, psychology will need to remain at the center of the design of such experiences. Year by year, we can observe the world becoming increasingly reliant on technology, and in some cases, technology fills the void of human interaction...