Books : AI for Game Developers
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In association with Amazon.com
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by: David M. Bourg, Glenn Seemann
List Price: $39.95Amazon.com's Price: $26.37 You Save: $13.58 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.81526
EAN: 9780596005559
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 0596005555
Label: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 390
Publication Date: July 23, 2004
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Sales Rank: 474982
Studio: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Advances in 3D visualization and physics-based simulation technology make it possible for game developers to create compelling, visually immersive gaming environments that were only dreamed of years ago. But today's game players have grown in sophistication along with the games they play. It's no longer enough to wow your players with dazzling graphics; the next step in creating even more immersive games is improved artificial intelligence, or AI. Fortunately, advanced AI game techniques are within the grasp of every game developer--not just those who dedicate their careers to AI. If you're new to game programming or if you're an experienced game programmer who needs to get up to speed quickly on AI techniques, you'll find AI for Game Developers to be the perfect starting point for understanding and applying AI techniques to your games. Written for the novice AI programmer, AI for Game Developers introduces you to techniques such as finite state machines, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and many others, in straightforward, easy-to-understand language, supported with code samples throughout the entire book (written in C/C++). From basic techniques such as chasing and evading, pattern movement, and flocking to genetic algorithms, the book presents a mix of deterministic (traditional) and non-deterministic (newer) AI techniques aimed squarely at beginners AI developers. Other topics covered in the book include: - Potential function based movements: a technique that handles chasing, evading swarming, and collision avoidance simultaneously
- Basic pathfinding and waypoints, including an entire chapter devoted to the A* pathfinding algorithm
- AI scripting
- Rule-based AI: learn about variants other than fuzzy logic and finite state machines
- Basic probability
- Bayesian techniques
Unlike other books on the subject, AI for Game Developers doesn't attempt to cover every aspect of game AI, but to provide you with usable, advanced techniques you can apply to your games right now. If you've wanted to use AI to extend the play-life of your games, make them more challenging, and most importantly, make them more fun, then this book is for you.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Not bad, not superb.
I'll be honest, I bought this book at a garage sale (read "at a discount"), and it was totally worth it. It's full of awesome examples of how to apply some pretty heavy concepts. However, the code examples frequently won't compile, and are replete with errors.
Rating:  - Just a few caveats
I bought this book because of the chapter O'Riley had on its site (Flocking) and the general experience I have had with O"Riley in the past. While there is plenty to learn from this text, its not for the faint of heart or new programer. There is a lot that needs to be done to get set up for this.
My first issue is that some of the code seems just a little too complex for a beginner. While I respect the features hes trying to put in, it can clutter up the main point of what is happening, ... Read More
Rating: - Good for implementing AI in games, not so good for theory
This book gives people that are new to AI in game programming a quick start in that area. If you are interested in looking at the broad fields of AI with direct application to game programming, this will show you a bit of everything. The text is clear and doesn't require any higher understanding of mathematics than some basic trigonometry. I think that the problem most people have with this book is that none of the chapters covers its subject in depth. Thus, people looking to learn AI from this book ... Read More
Rating:  - Intelligent agents should steer clear from this book
Terrible and useless even for a book on AI for budding game developers. The theory and explanations in this book are sometimes decent but more often than not quite lacking. (es: in one of the first chapter the author uses Bresenham algorithm without taking the time to explain it). The use of tile based examples introduce unnecessary overhead, and the continuos attempts to introduce physics related code and references to the author's other book on game physics are just plain annoying. The range of subjects ... Read More
Rating: - Conceptually OK, terrible code & implementation
AI for Game Developers is a book aimed at beginner game programmers that want to apply AI techniques in their games. The range of topics covered is vast, chasing, flocking, pathfinding, state machines, bayesian networks, neutal networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic and more.
The authors spend time to explain these AI concepts from the ground up, with numerous code samples and accompanied by full programs including GUIs & simulations, downloadable form the book's website.
So ... Read More
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