Test Your Game Ideas with The UAISK!
by Twisted Jenius · 01/30/2010 (3:44 am) · 7 comments
The Universal AI Starter Kit is an excellent tool for not only developing a finished game, but for rapid prototyping and testing game ideas as well. Because of its uncomplicated nature and the fact that it requires no source code changes, you can easily drop the kit into a project that you are working on and the AI can be up and running within minutes. This makes it great for creating quick prototypes and getting a general idea of how your game will function and play, thus allowing you to have a better understanding of what will need to be done to complete it. And it is good for creating game demos as well. I've also heard of one or two people using The UAISK to mod games made with Torque.
Not only is the kit easy to install, but it is also easy to uninstall; in case you want to replace it with your own AI system later. The UAISK can also serve as an excellent foundation for a more customized AI system and can be easily expanded on. Even if you want a more specific set of AI features for your game, The Universal AI Starter Kit is an excellent place to start and can make things much easier than having to program all of your game's AI from scratch. Many of the most basic and important AI features are already done for you. Plus, by working with the script, you are likely to learn a few things about how AI works and this will help you to get started programming your own AI much quicker than if you were to begin with nothing to work from.
However, depending on your specific needs, The Universal AI Starter Kit does not necessarily need to be heavily customized at all and generally works right "out of the box". The kit has many built-in features including:
One other thing that I'd like to point out is that it's just fun! Suddenly having enemy bots actively coming after you in your game world, can be a very enjoyable experience. And that is what AI is all about. Having enemies and other characters in your game to interact with, fight against and ultimately create a more animated game world. Whether you are prototyping, testing or just messing around with stock Torque, nothing brings your game to life quite like AI! Many people have already begun enjoying the reasonably priced The Universal AI Starter Kit, pick your copy up today!
Not only is the kit easy to install, but it is also easy to uninstall; in case you want to replace it with your own AI system later. The UAISK can also serve as an excellent foundation for a more customized AI system and can be easily expanded on. Even if you want a more specific set of AI features for your game, The Universal AI Starter Kit is an excellent place to start and can make things much easier than having to program all of your game's AI from scratch. Many of the most basic and important AI features are already done for you. Plus, by working with the script, you are likely to learn a few things about how AI works and this will help you to get started programming your own AI much quicker than if you were to begin with nothing to work from.
However, depending on your specific needs, The Universal AI Starter Kit does not necessarily need to be heavily customized at all and generally works right "out of the box". The kit has many built-in features including:
- Eight selectable behavior modes which allow you to control how the bots behave and move.
- A team system which allows you to have any number of teams and number of bots on each team that you desire, with selectable friendly fire and free for all options.
- A system which allows the bots to change weapons based on your specific settings.
- A GUI based marker editor which makes for an easy, in-game setup and allows you to conveniently place bots anywhere in your game world.
- Comes with an advanced dynamic obstacle avoidance system. The UAISK has also been successfully used in unison with precompiled A* navigation systems.
One other thing that I'd like to point out is that it's just fun! Suddenly having enemy bots actively coming after you in your game world, can be a very enjoyable experience. And that is what AI is all about. Having enemies and other characters in your game to interact with, fight against and ultimately create a more animated game world. Whether you are prototyping, testing or just messing around with stock Torque, nothing brings your game to life quite like AI! Many people have already begun enjoying the reasonably priced The Universal AI Starter Kit, pick your copy up today!
About the author
Developer of The Universal AI Starter Kit and Twisty's Asylum Escapades.
#2
01/30/2010 (9:52 pm)
For more info about the UAISK's navigation system, check out TJ's previous blog.
#3
As Daniel mentioned, my last blog talked about the navigation system in a good bit of detail. The dynamic obstacle avoidance system would likely meet your needs, but results may vary depending on the complexity of your buildings and a few other factors.
As for having hundreds of bots: One of the biggest factors is actually your art rather than the AI. Character models and animations can sometimes be a bigger performance hog than the AI itself. Also the number of bots you can get in a mission can vary greatly depending on the hardware you're targeting.
Having said the above, The Universal AI Starter Kit wasn't developed with hundreds of RTS or MMO bots in mind; so you'd have to do a little work yourself. If you have optimized, low ploy count art, are targeting "good" hardware, removed any features from the kit that you don't need, and maybe moved a couple of functions into the source code (which, if you're an experienced programmer, some of the math related function should be fairly easy to move to C++); with that, you should be able to get quite a number of bots in your mission.
I have conducted numerous tests to try to "max out" the number of bots in a mission. But I'm extremely reluctant to give any hard numbers because the results have varied wildly depending on hardware, the art I used in the test, the version of Torque I was using, the version of The UAISK (with later versions generally giving better performance), the settings I had for the AI, how much activity the bots were engaged in, and a number of other factors.
Also, of course, the AI wasn't made for a RTS; so there aren't any behaviors for placing buildings or using skill trees.
But I think most of the things I've said in this reply go for all AI systems that have been publicly released for Torque.
01/31/2010 (1:37 am)
@AdamAs Daniel mentioned, my last blog talked about the navigation system in a good bit of detail. The dynamic obstacle avoidance system would likely meet your needs, but results may vary depending on the complexity of your buildings and a few other factors.
As for having hundreds of bots: One of the biggest factors is actually your art rather than the AI. Character models and animations can sometimes be a bigger performance hog than the AI itself. Also the number of bots you can get in a mission can vary greatly depending on the hardware you're targeting.
Having said the above, The Universal AI Starter Kit wasn't developed with hundreds of RTS or MMO bots in mind; so you'd have to do a little work yourself. If you have optimized, low ploy count art, are targeting "good" hardware, removed any features from the kit that you don't need, and maybe moved a couple of functions into the source code (which, if you're an experienced programmer, some of the math related function should be fairly easy to move to C++); with that, you should be able to get quite a number of bots in your mission.
I have conducted numerous tests to try to "max out" the number of bots in a mission. But I'm extremely reluctant to give any hard numbers because the results have varied wildly depending on hardware, the art I used in the test, the version of Torque I was using, the version of The UAISK (with later versions generally giving better performance), the settings I had for the AI, how much activity the bots were engaged in, and a number of other factors.
Also, of course, the AI wasn't made for a RTS; so there aren't any behaviors for placing buildings or using skill trees.
But I think most of the things I've said in this reply go for all AI systems that have been publicly released for Torque.
#4
02/02/2010 (1:33 am)
So this AI kit is mean more for small scale FPS ? What if i wanted it to control an MMO world with about 100-200 bots ? Not all the bots will be on screen at once, at most 10-20. In this case how would performance be like ? Any idea ? Could you provide the most conservative (read lowest) number of MAX bots you achieved in your testing, what the setup was, and what was the performance like (and how you measured performance) ?
#5
How many bots you can have in a game has a lot more to do with the hardware you’re running your game off of and the art work etc. In a way it doesn't matter what my tests showed because it's all going to depend on what you’re using. Since MMOs usually run their AI server side, it's really just going to depending on what type of server you're running it off of. Assuming your hardware is good enough, you could include many times the number of bots that you are asking about.
The Universal AI Starter Kit's AI is actually very streamlined and performs very well for AI. The problem is that there are so many other variables that can drag performance down, such as intricate character models, hardware limitations and everything else in my previous reply (and more). Also "acceptable" performance can vary from game to game, 25-30 frames per second may be fine for an RPG but unacceptable for a first person shooter.
I want to warn you that this applies to all AI systems. If anyone tells you that you can get "XXX" number of bots in your game without any problems, they are not factoring in all of the other variables. No reputable AI system would be able to answer those questions, and I would be extremely suspicious of any system that did.
But I will say that performance was kept in mind during all stages of development of The Universal AI Starter Kit and continues to be a top priority. Just remember that all software has its limits and it's up to the game developer to balance all of these issues.
02/02/2010 (7:33 am)
@CaiHow many bots you can have in a game has a lot more to do with the hardware you’re running your game off of and the art work etc. In a way it doesn't matter what my tests showed because it's all going to depend on what you’re using. Since MMOs usually run their AI server side, it's really just going to depending on what type of server you're running it off of. Assuming your hardware is good enough, you could include many times the number of bots that you are asking about.
The Universal AI Starter Kit's AI is actually very streamlined and performs very well for AI. The problem is that there are so many other variables that can drag performance down, such as intricate character models, hardware limitations and everything else in my previous reply (and more). Also "acceptable" performance can vary from game to game, 25-30 frames per second may be fine for an RPG but unacceptable for a first person shooter.
I want to warn you that this applies to all AI systems. If anyone tells you that you can get "XXX" number of bots in your game without any problems, they are not factoring in all of the other variables. No reputable AI system would be able to answer those questions, and I would be extremely suspicious of any system that did.
But I will say that performance was kept in mind during all stages of development of The Universal AI Starter Kit and continues to be a top priority. Just remember that all software has its limits and it's up to the game developer to balance all of these issues.
#6
If its not too difficult of a port, I'll consider purchasing it.
02/07/2010 (2:32 am)
Has anyone used this with the TGE 1.5.2 RTS Kit ? I'm about at the point of trying to add some basic AI and this looks interesting.If its not too difficult of a port, I'll consider purchasing it.
#7
02/07/2010 (6:25 am)
I'm not aware of anyone who is using The Universal AI Starter Kit with the RTS kit. That doesn't mean no one is; it just means no one has mentioned it anywhere that I've seen. The UAISK is very light weight and modular so it can be used with a wide variety of products with relatively little trouble. 
Torque Owner Adam Beer
Ignition Games Inc.
Edit: Also the other thing I am concerned about is volume of AI. Have you tested with a large number of AI in one scene? The all dont have to necessarily be doing anything, just wondering about having hundreds of them.