A Real-time Strategy Agent Framework and Strategy Classifier for Computer Generated Forces

This research effort is concerned with the advancement of computer generated forces AI for Department of Defense (DoD) military training and education. The vision of this work is agents capable of perceiving and intelligently responding to opponent strategies in real-time. Our research goal is to lay the foundations for such an agent. Six research objectives are defined: 1) Formulate a strategy definition schema effective in defining a range of RTS strategies. 2) Create eight strategy definitions via the schema. 3) Design a real-time agent framework that plays the game according to the given strategy definition. 4) Generate an RTS data set. 5) Create an accurate and fast executing strategy classifier. 6) Find the best counterstrategies for each strategy definition. The agent framework is used to play the eight strategies against each other and generate a data set of game observations. To classify the data, we first perform feature reduction using principal component analysis or linear discriminant analysis. Two classifier techniques are employed, k-means clustering with k-nearest neighbor and support vector machine. The resulting classifier is 94.1% accurate with an average classification execution speed of 7.14 us. Our research effort has successfully laid the foundations for a dynamic strategy agent

Symbolic Reasoning for Hearthstone

Trading-Card-Games are an interesting problem domain for Game AI, as they feature some challenges, such as highly variable game mechanics, that are not encountered in this intensity in many other genres. We present an expert system forming a player-level AI for the digital Trading-Card-Game Hearthstone. The bot uses a symbolic approach with a semantic structure, acting as an ontology, to represent both static descriptions of the game mechanics and dynamic game-state memories. Methods are introduced to reduce the amount of expert knowledge, such as popular moves or strategies, represented in the ontology, as the bot should derive such decisions in a symbolic way from its knowledge base. We narrow down the problem domain, selecting the relevant aspects for a play-to-win bot approach and comparing an ontology-driven approach to other approaches such as machine learning and case-based reasoning. Upon this basis, we describe how the semantic structure is linked with the game-state and how different aspects, such as memories, are encoded. An example will illustrate how the bot, at runtime, uses rules and queries on the semantic structure combined with a simple utility system to do reasoning and strategic planning. Finally, an evaluation is presented that was conducted by fielding the bot against the stock “Expert” AI that Hearthstone is shipped with, as well as Human opponents of various skill levels in order to assess how well the bot plays. Evaluating how believable the bot reasons is assessed through a Pseudo-Turing test

On the definition of non-player character behaviour for real-time simulated virtual environments.

Computer games with complex virtual worlds, which are populated by artificial characters and creatures, are the most visible application of artificial intelligence techniques. In recent years game development has been fuelled by dramatic advances in computer graphics hardware which have led to a rise in the quality of real-time computer graphics and increased realism in computer games. As a result of these developments video games are gaining acceptance and cultural significance as a form of art and popular culture. An important factor for the attainment of realism in games is the artificially intelligent behaviour displayed by the virtual entities that populate the games' virtual worlds. It is our firm belief that to further improve the behaviour of virtual entities, game AI development will have to mirror the advances achieved in game graphics. A major contributing factor for these advancements has been the advent of programmable shaders for real-time graphics, which in turn has been significantly simplified by the introduction of higher level programming languages for the creation of shaders. This has demonstrated that a good system can be vastly improved by the addition of a programming language. This thesis presents a similar (syntactic) approach to the definition of the behaviour of virtual entities in computer games. We introduce the term behaviour definition language (BDL), describing a programming language for the definition of game entity behaviour. We specify the requirements for this type of programming language, which are applied to the development and implementation of several behaviour definition languages, culminating in the design of a new game-genre independent behaviour definition (scripting) language. This extension programming language includes several game AI techniques within a single unified system, allowing the use of different methods of behaviour definition. A subset of the language (itself a BDL) was implemented as a proof of concept of this design, providing a framework for the syntactic definition of the behaviour of virtual entities in computer games

Adaptive Agent Architectures in Modern Virtual Games

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Technology Trees and Tools: Constructing Development Graphs for Digital Games

In the recent years, digital games have solidified their role as important parts of life for a considerable portion of the population. Game development has become an extremely important industrial branch with a great deal of competition between developers and publishers. There is only a limited amount of resources to put in the development of a game, but the modern customers expect high quality.Taking these constraints into account, this dissertation focuses on developing implementations of a structure that is used widely in different games: technology trees (TTs). This term covers here also so-called skill trees, talent trees, perk trees, and other such structures used to limit and guide in-game development and define development possibilities. The aim is to propose methods and usage of tools helping to achieve high TT quality, simultaneously facilitating the actual development process and reducing human workload.The main contributions of this dissertation consist of ideas, models, methods, and software tool prototypes constructed during the research work. The significance of the thesis is amplified by the fact that there are only very few previous academic studies focusing on TTs.The thesis proposes a generic approach to implement TTs. The design and implementation work are facilitated by tool support and automated code generation. The central prototype tool, Tech Tree Tool (TTT) is introduced, first in its core form and then as improved by TT measuring (and limited automatic adjusting) capabilities. The challenge of modifying TTs during runtime is addressed, also taking advantage of related improvements on TTT. Because TTs are often operated by artificially intelligent entities, discussion on a generic artificial intelligence approach and related tools is included. Moreover, contemporary real-life TTs are analyzed and generic TTs characterized

Virtual Battlespace Behavior Generation Through Class Imitation

Military organizations need realistic training scenarios to ensure mission readiness. Developing the skills required to differentiate combatants from non-combatants is very important for ensuring the international law of armed conflict is upheld. In Simulated Training Environments, one of the open challenges is to correctly simulate the appearance and behavior of combatant and non-combatant agents in a realistic manner. This thesis outlines the construction of a data driven agent that is capable of imitating the behaviors of the Virtual BattleSpace 2 behavior classes while our agent is configured to advance to a geographically specific goal. The approach and the resulting agent promotes and motivates the idea that Opponent and Non-Combatant behaviors inside of simulated environments can be improved through the use of behavioral imitation

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented