Tactical AI Kit: Launch!
by Bryce · 02/22/2011 (4:35 pm) · 52 comments
The Tactical AI Kit: RELEASE!
Well, the day has finally arrived. I've completed the first version of the long-awaited Tactical AI Kit, and I shall now release it to the community in all its glory.
Buy the Tactical AI Kit by clicking these blue words!
Or, try it out and play a free demo!
Shame that I have to resort to anonymous HTML hosting, but for now I just need something to support some PayPal buttons. I'll work on getting a real website up sometime soon, hopefully you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
I'd like to thank all of you who emailed me back in November to join the keep-me-updated list. I'm also SO glad that GarageGames is back. For now, I plan on selling independently until GG is completely back up on it's feet. At that time, I may consider selling in the store if it makes more sense and is more convenient.
What's the Tactical AI Kit all about?
Anyone who has played any sort of shooter-themed game has experienced bad AI. AI doing stupid things, AI that simply stands in place and lands perfect headshots on you. Cheating AI, magically knowing exactly where you are when they shouldn't. Bad AI can turn a potentially fun game into an annoying experience.
Inspired by my hatred of terrible games everywhere, the Tactical AI Kit was built to create a dynamic AI system for shooter-type games. Instead of resorting to lazy cheating, the default behaviors revolve around being intellectually equal to the player. When they are spawned, their job is to survive.
Tactical AI Players are capable of reacting to a number of different stimuli: finding bodies, hearing shots, noticing nearby bullet impacts, annoyances (car alarms, various distractions), suspicious movement, explosions, and of course, seeing enemies. Cheating does not happen. Shooting at an AI Player will not instantly give away your exact position, like with many AI implementations in other games. Instead, they'll deal with finding the attacker later, and either get to cover or get out of there! The key is self-preservation. They don't want to die!
No standing around in the open and shooting mindlessly. TAI Players will actively seek cover, peeking out and hiding to attack safely. The reaction behaviors are dynamic and randomized, making their positions and decisions unpredictable. Being fully dynamic, the player can either go through a level guns blazing, or sneak around and avoid alerting their enemies. Fine tuned and tested, they can perform in many different situations; they'll perform just as well in the tight corridors of a building as they will in a massive outdoors level. The unpredictability will drastically increase the replay value of your game.
Being built on a relatively slow computer, performance and smooth framerates were constantly kept in mind. By effectively using respawning and a zoned AI Manager, you can even create missions with over one hundred managed TAI Players.
The Tactical AI Kit is 100% multiplayer compatible, and you can customize it by adding or changing "brain" types and new behavior states.
Bottom line: the Tactical AI Kit is a feature-packed, smart, and realistic AI solution, providing a fair challenge that will get your players wanting more, and most importantly, having fun!
Hang on breaux. Is the Tactical AI Kit right for me?
As a side note, I'd like to apologize in advance for sounding profoundly like a car salesman. (@Steve Acaster: I was very much considering placing a picture of Toni below. The person responsible for that thought has been sacked.)
Thinking about buying the Tactical AI Kit? Here, answer these questions out loud and overenthusiastically:
1) Are you making a game?
2) Do you use Torque 3D 1.1 Beta 2 or 3?
3) Do you have access to the engine source code?
4) Do you hate stupid AI?
5) Do you hate cheating AI?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, then you should probably grab yourself a copy. I've spent the last four years working on this project while simultaneously using it with my game, so trust me--it's tested and she works very well.
Still don't believe me? Click on the link farther up this page to download a demonstration game with TAIK integrated. It's TGE 1.5.2, but it uses the exact same AI code, so you'll be able to see how it feels in several different missions of different types.
Ports of the Tactical AI Kit for TGE and TGEA will be out the door soon, and updates will constantly be in the works for all versions. My email address is in my profile, if you've got any questions or concerns, either leave a comment or email me privately!
Big News: TGE version released!
Bigger News: TGEA version released as well!
Thanks to everyone for helping me make this possible after all these years! Y'all rock.
--Bryce
#22
02/23/2011 (4:00 pm)
Played the demo, very impressive Bryce. Actually quite fun to play. 
#23
I really liked the 'grab enemy' feature!
Can cover markers/waypoints be included in prefabs?
02/23/2011 (4:10 pm)
Now I've actually played a bit, I'm really impressed. Like the others have said, adding ways for the player to gauge the AI's mental state would be great.I really liked the 'grab enemy' feature!
Can cover markers/waypoints be included in prefabs?
#24
The level of detail in the movement and actions of the AI are exactly why I waited until you released this for my AI solution, Thanks again Bryce and I'm glad everything worked out!
02/23/2011 (4:36 pm)
Congrats Bryce!The level of detail in the movement and actions of the AI are exactly why I waited until you released this for my AI solution, Thanks again Bryce and I'm glad everything worked out!
#25
The above link for demo download gives me an error message because of too much traffic. ;-) It says "This account's public links are generating too much traffic and have been temporarily disabled! ". If you want an alternative, I think I can share the space of my webserver.
02/23/2011 (5:35 pm)
Congratulations!The above link for demo download gives me an error message because of too much traffic. ;-) It says "This account's public links are generating too much traffic and have been temporarily disabled! ". If you want an alternative, I think I can share the space of my webserver.
#26
@Daniel: Prefabs don't work with cover markers, I'll look into getting those two features working hand-in-hand. Cover marker setup is rather simple to do manually, it involves moving the player to each cover and pressing ";".
02/23/2011 (5:39 pm)
@game4Rest: Yeah, I've been working on getting that fixed for about an hour now. I think I've found an alternative, I'll report back once it's all up and running again.@Daniel: Prefabs don't work with cover markers, I'll look into getting those two features working hand-in-hand. Cover marker setup is rather simple to do manually, it involves moving the player to each cover and pressing ";".
#27
i have some questions.
do you have plan publish garagegames store?
and if i purchase TAIK for T3D 1.1 Beta3, i can download TAIK for T3D 1.1 Beta2?
02/23/2011 (6:14 pm)
congratulations bryce!i have some questions.
do you have plan publish garagegames store?
and if i purchase TAIK for T3D 1.1 Beta3, i can download TAIK for T3D 1.1 Beta2?
#28
@Mquaker: I may publish to the GarageGames store in a while, but I'd like to sell independently for now to see how things go.
I only separated the Beta 2 and 3 payment buttons for simplicity. If you'd like TAIK for a different version when you already own one, email me and I'll send you the versions you want.
02/23/2011 (6:54 pm)
Download fixed for now.@Mquaker: I may publish to the GarageGames store in a while, but I'd like to sell independently for now to see how things go.
I only separated the Beta 2 and 3 payment buttons for simplicity. If you'd like TAIK for a different version when you already own one, email me and I'll send you the versions you want.
#29
I would like to look at the demo before buying. Thanks.
02/23/2011 (9:43 pm)
Bryce, the demo download appears to be zero bytes in size.I would like to look at the demo before buying. Thanks.
#31
02/24/2011 (10:16 am)
Bryce, awesome I love Ai, especially Ai that doesn't cheat! I just bought a copy to support your work. I think I will enjoy pitting this against the UAISK and GuideBot!
#32
02/24/2011 (1:30 pm)
Bryce, if you want to get off the public download site (which is spidered by google) email me at thevisad (at) gmail (dot) com and we can setup a similar store to mine. http://www.hngamers.com/store/index.php It has paypal connections, download after purchase and more. 
#33
02/24/2011 (2:25 pm)
Yea bryce, great work! I have a question I purchased GMK and guidebot, and I was wondering if this would work with both of those packs.
#34
02/24/2011 (2:39 pm)
@Kory: I am pretty sure that this would work with Guide Bot. The Tactical AI Kit works pretty much independently, so there shouldn't be any unresolvable conflicts between any other AI solutions you're using.
#35
02/24/2011 (2:41 pm)
Pack bought, well done again Bryce. :) 
#36
Awesome Job! You've made a lot of progress since your last video. Demo is really cool! Have you thought about releasing a weapons pack?
Bought/Installed/Having Fun
Thanks,
Dominick
02/24/2011 (9:42 pm)
BryceAwesome Job! You've made a lot of progress since your last video. Demo is really cool! Have you thought about releasing a weapons pack?
Bought/Installed/Having Fun
Thanks,
Dominick
#37
maybe many people wait torque game engine's first-person tech pack( Model/Animation/Logic Source ).
02/24/2011 (10:09 pm)
yes, i agreement Dominick's opinion, too.maybe many people wait torque game engine's first-person tech pack( Model/Animation/Logic Source ).
#38
02/25/2011 (5:17 am)
@Dominik-@Mquaker: A pack like that might be something I could work on sometime in the future, but I'll try to complete TAIK for all Torque "3D" engines (T3D+TGE+TGEA) and get steady updates rolling out first :) People have asked me about my weapon scripts and models before.
#39
Full Template's New Mission load.
this error message in console.
and exit the mainmenu this error message looping in console.
then quit client and runtime error.
03/01/2011 (6:13 pm)
i integrated TAIK into Full Template.Full Template's New Mission load.
this error message in console.
scripts/server/ai/aiplayer/aiplayer.cs (2329): Unable to find object: '-1' attempting to call function 'getCount'
and exit the mainmenu this error message looping in console.
scripts/server/ai/aiplayer/aiManager.cs (205): Unable to find object: 'PlayerArray' attempting to call function 'count'
then quit client and runtime error.
#40
As for the second error, it's nothing drastic, but you can silence it by adding the following to the top of the doThinkBasic() function in AIManager.cs:
That runtime error may be unrelated, because neither of those "unable to find object" cases should cause any instability. Email me if you run into more trouble.
03/01/2011 (6:24 pm)
That first error means that you have not set up any cover in your mission. When the mission loads, the function resetCoverPoints() is called to get the cover markers ready for play. If you don't have cover properly set up in the mission, that error will come up, because it's looking for a SimGroup called CoverMarkers that doesn't yet exist.As for the second error, it's nothing drastic, but you can silence it by adding the following to the top of the doThinkBasic() function in AIManager.cs:
if (!isObject(PlayerArray))
return;That runtime error may be unrelated, because neither of those "unable to find object" cases should cause any instability. Email me if you run into more trouble.
Torque Owner Bryce
Tactical AI Kit
@Brian: There are some engine files modified, but the majority of the AI code is done in script. Engine files changed are Console/simObject.cpp+h, gui/worldEditor/worldEditor.cpp+h, sceneGraph/sceneObject.cpp (Beta 2 only), T3D/aiPlayer.cpp+h,T3D/player.cpp+h, and T3D/projectile.cc+h. Most of the more significant modifications are in player.cpp for stance and cover animations, but there aren't many major modifications to any of the other files.
@Brian and Daniel: I don't know exactly how the UAISK is integrated, but the Tactical AI kit works mostly on its own. I'm pretty confident that both could work together without any unsolvable issues.
@BigDaz: The demo models are included as an example, but you are strongly encouraged to use your own artwork because it probably looks much, much better.
Cover will not automatically transfer with an object if you copy the object. However, if you select the object along with all the cover markers attached to it and then copy, they should all work with the new copy. Then you'd just need to drag those newly created cover markers into the "CoverMarkers" SimGroup in your mission. You could even use a quick console hack which would do that for you, e.g.
for($i=0;$i<MissionGroup.getCount();$i++) { $obj=MissionGroup.getObject($i); if($obj.isCoverMarker == true) CoverMarkers.add($obj); }I agree, voices or text would have been a good idea to clarify what they're doing. The console reveals some of what the AI is doing, but I tried to eliminate as much console spam as possible. I'll probably do something like that for the next release/update to make things more clear.