AI middleware options

#1 Look at this thread.

#2 Listing of AI Middlewares at AIGameDev

#3 Thanks for the posts but the first link requires that I purchase Torque and the second one times out. I would really like to hear about any personal experiences with these products if anyone has some to share.

#4 Brian - you're not going to get very far integrating AI middleware without a Torque license as I'm pretty sure you'll need access to the C++ source code to integrate them.

#5 PathEngine is another prominent middleware solution for pathfinding/collision handling. Nothing for indies as far as sophisticated NavMesh implementations go, though Source has a pretty impressive (IMHO) implementation by Michael Booth in their mod source code. I'm not sure how well it handles highly destructible environments, though - if current trends continue the entire polysoup for the terrain/buildings/vehicles/exploding barrels will be drastically altered in realtime.

BTW if you're interested in a multiplayer engine with modern shaders, decent scripting, flexible model format, cross-platform support, and full source then TGEA is hard to beat.

#6 PathEngine is a little out of the price range for most Indies unfortunately David and you're right the source engine does have some really nice AI and pathfinding features, if only we had them available in TGEA which is a stunning product.