Artificial Intelligence for Games, second edition – recenzja

Artificial Intelligence for Games by Ian Millington and John Funge covers lots of topics but is mainly designed to help the reader to master one element of game development which is artificial intelligence (AI). The book covers a wide range of techniques for game AI including detailed explanations of AI algorithms, their purpose and usage.

As I have learnt from this book, artificial intelligence is about making computers able to perform some thinking tasks that human and animals are capable of. This includes superhuman abilities in solving many arithmetic, sorting, searching and decision making problems. This book shows how it can be achieved revealing to the reader a range of techniques.

The book is split into five parts: introduction for the AI in games, the substance of the AI (movement, pathfinding, decision making, tactical and strategic reasoning, learning), technologies and ways of implementation that enable the AI to do its job and finally designing game AI.

I think Artificial Intelligence for Games could be aimed at a wide range of readers but is most suitable for those looking for solid understanding of game AI and comprehensive reference to techniques used in top studios. The book helps to gain a deep and thorough view on modeling complex emotional states, triggers, and behaviors. To get the most from the book, you have to manage some time to read it and to understand its contents. If you need a quick AI solutions repository you should probably find another book related to a particular technology or computer language.

The book is associated with a website that contains a library of C++ source code covering the techniques found in the book. Hopefully the C++ code used in samples is relatively easy to read and includes many comments. There are also demonstration programs compiled as EXE files.

Besides many technical solutions to AI related issues I have also learnt from this book a few high-level things. For instance I have learnt that creating good AI is all about matching the right behaviors to the right algorithms and that often, a very simple technique used well can have better results then implementing complex the AI in the game.

This book is an open minder or a view broadener on many aspects related to the AI in games. It can also serve as a great source of good analysis, desing and prototyping examples of more or less complex algorithms which are about to use in specific projects. This is a very valuable title for any computer science professional dealing with Artificial Intelligence (not only for games).