We are currently working on a couple of full demos for the Utility AI; an RTS demo and a Sims-like demo.

I just wanted to share a little mid-time research.

The following images are the same AI implemented using a Finite-State Machine / Behavior Tree methodology and the Utility AI methodology. Basically, the AI is a perpetual AI for people oscillating between sleeping and working … almost like life

The difference in complexity for solving the same tasks is quite significant. We actually implemented the FSM first. However when we were about to extend the number of desires from two (2) to four (4) the pain of updating conditions for the state machine / tree was simply unbearable. So the full features AI will be Utility AI only

During the development we also experienced the pain of debugging an FSM. We had forgot to set the score on a Qualifier. Consequently, the default action kept getting triggered, leading to a failure of the people picking up work tasks as they were supposed to do. We thought we had checked all scores on all Qualifiers, but due to the size of the tree we had missed one. This would not have happened in a Utility AI.

Finite-State Machine / Behavior Tree :

Apex Utility AI – FMS implementation

Utility AI:

Apex Utility AI – Utility AI implementation

Enjoy.

The demos are available soon.

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It looks like ****, but we wanted to share an early video with you, to get feedback.

Please check out the video:

Basically, what we do is that instead of going the old fashioned way of mesh->rig->animation, we animate the whole body via AI.

Should we make this into an Unity procedural animations tool asset?

Procedural animation basically means that you don’t need animations and IK (Inverse Kinematics) anymore. Instead, the characters animate themselves via real-time modifiable scripts.

It also gives you a lot of other advantages:

a/ You can precisely control all limbs
b/ No foot sliding
c/ No need for animation controllers
d/ No need for expensive animations
e/ Hands can grab with exact precision
f/ You can send characters across dynamically changing environments, such as moving ground, ships etc
g/ You can dynamically adjust character behavior, such as modifying / varying the run cycle of a characters while running so they don’t look static
h/ You can seemingly run multiple behaviors, such as aiming while running
i/ You can use physics on characters while they move, to simulate e.g. impact
j/ You can blow off limbs run time, or modify the character in any other way
k/ You can modify characters run-time, e.g. growing a new leg or arm or wings
l/ You can have characters with different movement patterns, such as limping, bumping walk, just by modifying parameters
m/ You can animate non-bipedals – e.g. insects etc with little effort

We could imagine this would allow indie game developers a completely new tool for animation in their games – potentially going beyond the options that the AAA’s have.

Hence, let us know if you want this, and please help us drum up support.

And if you have feature requests, let us now as well.

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Something really special is happening when 900+ game jammers are jamming, crafting games and having fun!

Talk Description:

We are happy to welcome, Apex Game Tools to NGJ 16! They will show off cool AI tech at the jam and have a sweet offer for all jammers. Read all about them here.

Artificial intelligence in games is making a triumphant return. New genres are being launched and gameplay improvements are occurring as thanks to AI technology. This goes from AAA titles to smaller indie ones.

Computer games have not always kept up with developments, utilizing scripting and behavior trees, for AI in games, somewhat outdated methods. While the graphics have been outstanding, AI has drawn criticism from reviewers and gamers alike.

For the sake of deep immersion and complex game worlds, the game industry is coming around and realizing the importance of AI. This is due to technology but also necessity. There is a renewed demand for AI that can imitate complex thought as well complex algorithms and interactions of nature.  Developers have found that massive worlds require intelligent design of anything from planets, cities, and creatures.

In their talk at Nordic Game Jam, Apex Game Tools will showcase some of the bleeding-edge AI technologies as well as show some of the emerging tools that bridge the chasm between the – increasingly failing – design-based technologies dominating the industry, and the new machine learning paradigm that still escapes most game products. In this context, they will of course provide advice on how indie game developers can take advantage of the available technologies to overcome some of the barriers that are particular to indie game development.

All participants are given a Apex Utility AI license.

Talk slides: The future of AI in Indie Games

The post Nordic Game Jam – The future of AI in Indie Games appeared first on Apex Game Tools.

As a company we have a lot of activities around Game AI

• Teaching at universities.
• Conference talks.
• On-location workshops.
• Collaborating with leading industry researcher.
• Collaborating with big and small Game Studios.
• Contracting work in regards to game AI implementation.

We get very good feedback on our workshops, classes, talks etc. and quite often we get asked if we ever considered doing online classes/session!

This is a really great idea we like to try out, there is nothing like talking to follow developers that are passionate about the same topics as we are!

We like to figure out if you have an interest in us creating free online classes about Game AI! also game AI is a broad topic so we like to know what topic is most relevant to you.

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Monday April 4th we are facilitating a game AI masterclass and everybody is invited.
The Artificial Intelligence Masterclass teaches you hands-on how to implement state-of-the-art AI in games build on the Unity game engine, using the Apex Utility AI framework.
The masterclass learns you how to design complex, next-generation AIs for computer games. Targeting concepts such as planning, tactical movement, action prioritization, target selection and more.

Free Apex Utility AI trial licenses will be available to all participants.

Who should participate?

Indie and professional game developers interested in AI and making great games.

Register at Eventbrite

Instructors:

Dr. Jakob H. Rasmussen, Apex Game Tools.
Rami A. Bock, Apex Game Tools.

Program:

17:00-17:30: Presentation of the Utility AI

17:30-18:00: Installation and integration of the Apex Utility AI in Unity projects.

18:00-18:30: Break;

18:30-20:00: Hands-on AI implementations

20:00-20:30: Break

20:30-21:30: Hands-on AI implementations (continued)

21:30-22:00: Discussion

Time:

Day 1: Monday April 4, 2016, 17.00-22.00.

Venue:

Guest Canteen
Aalborg University
A. C. Meyers Vænge 15
2450 Copenhagen

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• Vector Field based steering.
• Advanced unit avoidance.
• Formations.
• Separation, arrival, containment and more.

Apex Steer is the ideal solution for games where you have to control movement of several units, like Squads Tactical, RTS, Tactical shooters, Tower Defence and many other game genres.

Get Apex Steer Now

Apex Steer is an add-on product for Apex Path. Apex Steer adds advanced functionality such as unit Formations, Swarming, Crowd Simulation, Dynamic avoidance, Destructible geometry and just like Apex Path, Apex Steer supports procedural content generation. Apex Steer is built on a technique known as steering behaviours combined with vector fields, the same technology is used in AAA-games such as Starcraft 2 and Supreme Commander, which are known to have some of the best local avoidance ever developed for games.

The post Apex Steer v1.0 Released appeared first on Apex Game Tools.

New Features:

• A new Upgrade Scene menu item is available, which will upgrade scenes made with older versions of Apex Path to this version, adding and replacing components.
• Unit interaction is now done through a IUnitFacade, please watch the tutorial videos for details.
• Added a UnitsSelectedMessage, which will be posted when units are selected.
• The height navigation options are now set per scene or per unit instead of per grid, through the new Navigation Settings component available on the Game World.
• Height sampling and navigation now provides 4 options. Generating and using a height map or no height at all are still present.
  New are ray cast and sphere cast. Both new options do not generate a height map and hence take no memory for this, instead they do real time height sampling.
• Grouping of units via selection or otherwise has changed completely, see the tutorial videos for details.
• All Apex Components are now consolidated by the Component Master, to reduce component clutter.
• Unity 5.0 support

Improvements:

• The ZeroHeightMap now returns negative infinity instead of pos.y when sampling a position, since a zero height map represents no height.
• Moved various path finder settings to its own component which is shared among those that use it.
• Grids now have an option to select the method used to detect terrain and obstacles, this is mainly due to a Unity bug where the default CheckCapsule will fail in certain scenarios.
• All registered units in a scene can be retrieved via the GameStateManager (through GameServices)
• Various extension to existing data structures and a couple of new ones.
• Numerous tweaks to existing components.

Breaking Changes:

• Steering has changed completely, watch the tutorial videos for details.
• The INeedPath interface now only requires a single method to be implemented. All unit related data is passed to the request by way of the ‘requesterProperties’.
• The CallbackPathRequest constructor no longer requires unit data such as radius and attributes, these are contained in the new required ‘requesterProperties’ property.
• The path finder options of a path request are now consolidated in the pathFinderOptions property
• Removed the speed index property from the HumanoidSpeedComponent since it is not an optimal way to control animations as it does not reflect the actual speed of a unit.
• Off Grid Navigation is no longer an option since it works poorly with groups and is just generally not useful.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed yet another bug with WP8 and WinRT

Known Issues:

• There a are a few issues with height navigation, mainly to do with box collider units and aligning with elevation.
  Units also do not stick perfectly to the ground on slopes.

The post Apex Path v2.0 Released with Unity 5.0 support appeared first on Apex Game Tools.

Enables hundreds of dynamic obstacles of arbitrary sizes and shapes with minimal performance impact. Animate cars, asteroids, traps or any other type of dynamically moving object in your scene. Have agents planning their path around obstacles taking into account velocity and dynamically recalculating blocked paths. Apex Advanced Dynamic Obstacles is a must-have for highly dynamic worlds.

Key features:
– Hundreds of dynamic obstacles of arbitrary sizes
– Non-axis aligned obstacles
– All types of convex meshes
– Velocity prediction
– Minimal performance impact

Get Apex Advanced Dynamic Obstacles

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Apex Path v1.2.5 Released

Bug Fixes:

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