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

Prerequisites

Since this book is targeted at people who are getting started with AI in game development, I will not assume any prior/background knowledge in AI. However, please take the following into account:

  • Blueprint users: You should be familiar with Blueprint programming, and know how a Blueprint graph works in general.
  • C++ users: You should be familiar with programming, especially with the C family languages (such as C, C#, C++, or even Java), and in particular with C++, since it's the language that Unreal Engine uses. Being familiar with the Unreal Engine C++ API is a great bonus, although not strictly required. So, even if you are not a master, don't worry—follow along and you will learn.

Also, it would be great if you had some knowledge about vector math and physical kinematic principles at least the ones commonly used in video games. Either...