An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with AI Game Development
CSC 481
Contents |
IntroductionAdvanced graphics hardware and novel rendering algorithms have revolutionized the look and feel of interactive computer games. With the ever-increasing computational power of desk- and laptop computers, not to mention game consoles, we are about to witness another revolution in games: the very smart NPC (non-player character). The increase in computing power of today’s machines allows game designers to implement sophisticated AI techniques for their synthetic creatures that are beginning to blur the difference in the experience between a multi-player game and a single player game populated with smart synthetic creatures.In this course we will examine AI techniques which are beginning to be routinely deployed in games including the A* path finding algorithm, rule based reasoning, neural networks, and genetic algorithms. We will also be concerned with knowledge representation and problem formalization. To make the theory accessible (and fun!) we will be using a mod of the Quake II game engine that allows us to replace the brains of the Q2 monsters with AI routines of our own choosing and design. We will design synthetic creatures that will have special roaming abilities, that will be able learn to pick up loot, and make tactical decisions based on learned behavior. The goal is that you take two things away from this course:
Required Texts
Course InfoAnnouncements:Final project research papers are due on Thursday 5/13 @ 2pm in my officeTeams completing programming projects need to sign up for a 30min demo slotThe following demo slots are available (please sign up by emailing me):
[4/2/10] Assignment #7 is NOT due this coming monday 4/5, the new deadline will be announced in class [3/30/10] Posted programming assignment #7 [3/29/10] More on the presentations:
[3/16/10] You can find information with respect to the final project proposal here. *** final project proposals are due on Thursday April 1st in class.*** [3/16/10] Presentation Schedule: Team Chapter Date -------------------------------------- Nidal/Chris 2.1 April 8 Mike/Richard 2.10 April 8 Xuchen/Hui 2.12 April 13 Ian/Brad 3.8 April 13 Ronald/Joel 3.9 April 15 Jason/Jason 4.1 April 15 Jonathan/James 4.5 April 20 Harry/Tyler 4.7 April 20 Belvie/Richard 5.1 April 22 Jonathan/Wyatt 5.7 April 22 JustinQ/Sean 6.3 April 27 JustinM/Will 7.6 April 27 Charles/Kyle 7.4 April 29 Ronald B. 3.6 April 29Please see the presentation guidelines below. [3/11/10] Presentation announcements:
[3/11/10] Official Tournament Rules:
[3/9/10] Readings for "Machine Learning: Decision Trees":
[3/5/10] Readings for "Searching & Planning":
tofu -128 -448 64 tofu -256 0 64 tofu 0 0 64 tofu 384 448 64 tofu 384 -448 64 tofu 64 -448 64 tofu 256 0 64 tofu -448 448 64[3/2/10] It was pointed out to me that in the assignment I am asking you to develop a program that works in a room with obstactles. Since in class today I asked you to develop a program that only works in the empty room, I will stick to that, but extra credit is available for the teams who get their program to run in the "obstacle room" which is available in your installation. [3/1/10] Here is prolog code that uses a finite state machine in its controller. [3/1/10] Please bring your laptops to class on Tuesday. The second half of the class will be allotted for teamwork on assignment #4. [2/26/10] Here is a list of suggested readings on the topics we are currently discussing:
[2/23/10] Some suggestions with respect to Prolog programming:
[2/23/10] Posted a nice tutorial on finite state machine, see below in the link section. [2/23/10] Assignment #3 is due Thursday 2/25 @10pm...is mispoke in class today. [2/22/10] Posted assignment #3 [2/15/10] Quiz is on Thursday 2/18. [2/13/10] Alternative readings (see book descriptions below): AIMA chaps 2,5,10,12; AIG chaps 1, 2.4, 3.1, 3.3, 5.1, 5.6, 5.9 [2/8/10] updated the office hours of the TA. [2/8/10] Posted assignment #2. [2/4/10] Here is a challenge room that you will be using for programming assignment #2. Unzip the file into the C:\ folder keeping the directory structure intact. You should then see the Challenge Room short cut. I posted it so you can play with it if you would like to get a head start on assignment #2. I will post assignment #2 formally next Tuesday. [2/4/10] The QII engine was developed on cpu architectures with clock speeds of max 800MHz, consequently on todays architectures with a clock speed in excess of 2GHz it is easy to overwhelm the engine with quagent commands, especially when the main loop in your quagent controller does not do much computation. One way to to slow down your quagent brain is to put a 'sleep' statement into your main loop: Thread.currentThread().sleep(1000); // sleep for a secondThe argument to the sleep statement is given in milliseconds. PLEASE DO NOT MODIFY THE API TO SLOW DOWN THE QUAGENT BRAIN, THIS MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO VALIDATE YOUR PROGRAMS. [2/1/10] NOTE: It has come to my attention that the University book store has not stocked Alex's book. I am not quite sure what the reason is that the book has not been stocked and I have not been informed when the book will arrive. Therefore, I advise students to purchase the book through alternative channels (e.g. amazon.com). [1/26/10] Posted TA info [1/26/10] Posted programming assignment #1 [1/25/10] Note that the gaming engine has only been tested with Windows XP, however, I suspect that it will run in Vista and 7 as well. [1/25/10] You should go to the online grade book and sign up for an account, your access code is engrade-csc481spring2010-nnnn where nnnn is your student ID number. [1/25/10] Welcome! Homework/Programming Assignments:
What, When & WhereCSC481, Spring 2010When: T Th 12:30-1:45pm Where: Tyler 106 Instructor:Lutz HamelTyler Hall, Room 251 Office Hours: Monday 11-noon, Tuesday 2-3pm email: hamel@cs.uri.edu TA:Pankaj AhireOffice Hours: Thursday -- 9:30am - 11:30am, Room 136 email: pahire@cs.uri.edu Links
|
