Escapist Report: AI Innovation
In depth, expert interviews on where video game A.I. is going.
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In depth, expert interviews on where video game A.I. is going.
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The Escapist Presents: Escapist Report: AI Innovation
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I've always thought AI could be truely magnificent if there was a great movement towards making it better, like Graphics or Physics have had in the past.
Ultimately though there's a big barrier between what the AI could be capable of and what the player expects. Really if the shooters shoot and the talkers talk nobody really faults it.
Ultimately though there's a big barrier between what the AI could be capable of and what the player expects. Really if the shooters shoot and the talkers talk nobody really faults it.
First time I saw the show, but I liked it, felt a lot like a documentary, but from a gamers perspective, which is nice, because I think it may offer some more insight into the "problems" that needs to be overcome to attain any "real" progress with the video game medium.
They should have included S.T.A.L.K.E.R though, that game has some amazing AI, with packs of animals migrating, eating, sleeping etc, human stalkers who organize patrols, search for artefacts, sleep, play guitar and so on, and it's all dynamically generated, nothing is scripted.
Alas, CSG Game World finished the feature, but never included it into the "vanilla" Shadow of Chernobyl, most likely because it risked having important story-characters wander of and get killed, rendering the "main quest" impossible to complete. However, the dynamic AI (A-Life) have been reactivated in several mods, and I think it is present in S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky as well.
They should have included S.T.A.L.K.E.R though, that game has some amazing AI, with packs of animals migrating, eating, sleeping etc, human stalkers who organize patrols, search for artefacts, sleep, play guitar and so on, and it's all dynamically generated, nothing is scripted.
Alas, CSG Game World finished the feature, but never included it into the "vanilla" Shadow of Chernobyl, most likely because it risked having important story-characters wander of and get killed, rendering the "main quest" impossible to complete. However, the dynamic AI (A-Life) have been reactivated in several mods, and I think it is present in S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky as well.
I've had the sense for years now that the end was nigh for graphics being the all important stage in the development of a game, beyond maintaining the status quo, and it was the opponent a game presented you with that would make the difference in the desirability to play that game. A good opponent makes for a great game and depending on the type of game, it is very desirable to have a variety of opponents to keep things exciting.
way too overly dramatic. good concept, but seriously, there was nothing informative about this video. the information included was minimal, and it seemed the video was just a litany of obstacles rather than an expose on AI in games. also talk to the guys over at monolith about the fear AI. it was radically different than normal AI and made that game standout among a million other shooters. its probably the best AI ive ever encountered in games.
The problem is that scientific research into AI has proven tricky too. The idea that we could develop dynamic, complex, unique, good stories through AI without a REAL sentient program inside to design such a world is unlikely at best. Procedural levels/content has and continues to lack anything better than either a cookie-cutter world, or a random world with no real unique feeling/characters/etc.
Spore, though a bad game, might have a glimmer of answer in its use of the players as designers, but the gameplay itself was very cookie cutter.
Spore, though a bad game, might have a glimmer of answer in its use of the players as designers, but the gameplay itself was very cookie cutter.
Nice video, but it would have been cool to hear about some breakthrough instead of how stuck we are in AI development.
It would have been nice to report such a breakthrough. Sadly, most AI research doesn't go toward developing better games, and the development that does go toward game AI is grossly underfunded and underappreciated.randommaster said:
I tend to think of AI in games as it relates to the movie industry, and the saddest truth of the world of entertainment (in all forms) is that the blockbuster system dictates "more, faster" rather than "better." Game AI is a lot like practical effects like makeup and puppetry - they are only implemented when the content demands it, and the quality can swing wildly from "amazingly well done" to "slapped together in 20 minutes."
What is up with that narrator? It almost sounds like you used a text-to-speech program to read a script.
Really nice report and a good one too. One of the areas ( AI ) I'm most interested in concerning design since this is what games are lacking but also one of the most challenging parts of it since you challenge a human. It's like building a chess computer to beat a chess master. You're challenging human abilities with a machine and that's most probably the trickiest job you can do. Let's see what future has in stock for us. Hopefully more interesting and better games through better AI.
I know that advances in AI are slow and I really appreciate all the work that goes into making these videos. I just thought that this only covered the current state of AI, which isn't going anywhere fast. I would have had a more documentary- or report-like feel if there was some discussion about the major advances in AI.CaptainCrunch said:
Or you could, you know, completely revolutionize the field of artificial intelligence so that you haave some cool stuff for the video. That seems totally plausible.
AI. No matter how well you program it, AIs still get stuck or walk into a wall. AIs can probably be programmed much better then "run here to here, shot people who you see and go to power-ups." With some effort, you could program an AI to recognize its surroundings and calculate what objects are around it and "make" decisions on what to do. Unfortunately this would suck up a lot of processing power. On more advanced modern systems I guess that's possible but it still seems like every time computers each out another section of power, its immediately taken in order to produce slightly more real ripple effects that on a puddle of water. I think before AI can evolve beyond what are still mostly very dumb bots with simple AIs we need to first decide that were not going to funnel all our advances in processing speed on adding to graphics and instead focus more on AIs. Graphics are largely really good now and I hope that really good is good enough and we can work on other things because I foresee a diminishing return value on continued graphic advances. Its getting so good that making it better offers minimal changes in the visuals but takes more power While AI can still be vastly improved and even small advances can make a real difference in how good it is.
I agree here. Overall the video was excellent. The shortcoming stemmed from just presenting us with the problem, as opposed to the problem and how people are working to change it.randommaster said:
I would have liked to see someone presenting research saying "We're doing *this* to move AI forward." Or even compare some really well done AI to poorly done AI (both created in the same time frame).
The only thing that really got to me was the voice of the narrator. Didn't feel like it fit the overall feeling of the video. Other than those minor gripes, I enjoyed it! Keep it up guys, I'll be looking forward to more
I almost responded to this with a post about Samus, which would have been really confusing and embarrassing.Frizzle said:I agree here. Overall the video was excellent. The shortcoming stemmed from just presenting us with the problem, as opposed to the problem and how people are working to change it.randommaster said:
I would have liked to see someone presenting research saying "We're doing *this* to move AI forward." Or even compare some really well done AI to poorly done AI (both created in the same time frame).
The only thing that really got to me was the voice of the narrator. Didn't feel like it fit the overall feeling of the video. Other than those minor gripes, I enjoyed it! Keep it up guys, I'll be looking forward to more
Other than that, it would have been nice to compare something like MGS2's last boss fight, where it would read your controller's input and react to that, and the AI that goes into fighting game, for example.