Hey everyone, I am writing the AI for a FPS and I was wondering what was the best way to make the AI look like it's not just going to run at the player. Also I was wondering if it's possible to place a node mesh on the level and if I should write a plugin for maya to do it. I have spoken to some people and they told me that best first is a good way to go about it, especially since I have a lot of enemies on the screen being rendered. So far I have heard about flocking, fuzzy logic, and a view frustum which I can calculate by placing a circle around the bot and doing a dot product which I will check to find the front of the bot. Anyway I hope I hear from anyone cause I'll take any advice that anyone has. Thank you for reading my post.

Quote: Original post by Richter
Hey everyone, I am writing the AI for a FPS and I was wondering what was the best way to make the AI look like it's not just going to run at the player.

The best way would be, think about what you want the AI to do. Try to describe its various possible behaviors. Then, you can begin to think about how to best implement them.

Quote: Original post by Richter
Also I was wondering if it's possible to place a node mesh on the level and if I should write a plugin for maya to do it. I have spoken to some people and they told me that best first is a good way to go about it, especially since I have a lot of enemies on the screen being rendered. So far I have heard about flocking, fuzzy logic, and a view frustum which I can calculate by placing a circle around the bot and doing a dot product which I will check to find the front of the bot. Anyway I hope I hear from anyone cause I'll take any advice that anyone has. Thank you for reading my post.

Was that just one question? It is certainly possible to set-up a pathing nodes network in advance. Most game engines do that to accelerate pathfinding. How to do it really depend on how you create your levels.

Im not sure I understand the rest of the question, I'll leave that for others. Good luck with your project!

I realize I probably was going on about everything I heard and not asking the questions I had in a proper manner. I wanted to know what pathfinding algorithm would work best in a FPS that has tons of enemies on screen and no upper levels and stairways. I was told to try and use Best First for it.

I also wanted to know how to go about placing a node mesh on a level in maya. A friend of mine said I could make a plugin for maya to do it, but I thought I would ask anyway since I'm willing to listen to anyone elses ideas.

Other than that, I was also talking about how to implement a view frustum to check if the AI is in the line of fire of the player, which an instructor recommmended to me. I thank you greatly for your advice and hope to hear from you should this post clear up anything that I didn't ask properly. I guess it's good to get some rest before posting. Thank you for your time.

With the exception of writing a plugin for maya my book "Programming Game AI by Example" will show you how to do all those things.

I certainly recommend the book 'Programming Game AI by Example'. It is the most accessible text I have read on AI for games for someone who is just starting out with the subject (like me). I'm currently reading thorugh the soccer simulation chapter :) I have also implemented most of the steering behaviours in a 3D environment which is a lot of fun.

AI is fast becoming my favourite aspect of game development but also the bit I find most challenging. That book has given me a solid foundation though!