Brian Schwab
1 Great Book in Game AI
This is a good book that talks about game AI. The author describe most of the game AI topics in this book. If you interest in game AI. I highly suggest you to have this book on your bookself.
2 Best game book I've read yet
I have worked in the game industry for over 10 years, and have also taught classes in game design and programming. This is the first book that I would recommend as intro/intermediate textbook for game AI. It covers all the popular game types (shooters, fighters, sports, and more) and covers all the popular AI methods (state machines, scripting, messaging, many others).
The book uses a very clean, not-too formal, not-too conversational writing style, which is easy to get into and yet remains professional sounding. The included code is clean, usable, and is very representative of real working game code. There's also tons of code snippets from actual released games to show the reader how the concepts have been done out in the wild.
The book also goes into the actual process of creating an AI system for a game project. Only by knowing the type of game you're going to make, the platform, the audience, and a slurry of other factors can you intelligently design a system that will provide your project with everything it needs to succeed.
All in all, a great piece of work from an industry vet.
Also, another review states that "the book fails because it's OpenGL based," which is hilarious in its ignorance and outright falsehood. The reviewer states that "all major gaming houses use DirectX" which is strange, cosidering that the vast majority of all video games are actually not PC based (which is the platform that mostly uses DirectX; Sony and Nintendo obviously are not using Microsoft's libraries, even the XBox uses a very specialized version of DirectX). Plus the fact that the author actually WORKS at Sony, and you can see that the reviewer doesn't really have any clue. The book is about Game AI, and the small bit of OpenGL code in the book is just allowing a quick, cross platform "renderer" for the AI demos. This is not a book on game graphics, and never says that it is.
3 Based on OpenGL....
I'm going to differ with the more positive reviewers for one reason only. Yes, the book provides excellant information, but the most valuable part of titles like this is the included example software. Which should enable you to develop some skills based on what the book teaches you.
In this case, the title is based on OpenGL. If you want to work for Blizzard, or Sony, or NCsoft, or any of the major gaming houses (with 1 or 2 notable exceptions, but they are SMALL houses) you have to be very skilled with DirectX.
Hence, the book fails in the practical area.
4 Just What I Was Looking For
Up to now, I have discovered books that contained AI code samples but out of context for what I needed. The code was specific and merely a part of collections of examples. I finally found this book. It explains all the game genres in terms of AI capability and requirements albeit rather technical in some places that I appreciated as reference. I have not completed the book yet but the contents are allowing me to create my own AI Engine that includes all the types in the book. Just to gain experience and knowledge and add to my portfolio. I strongly recommend this book for both it's content and the CD contents. --Joe
5 Very comprehensive.
I really dug this book. It was interesting from many different angles. The breakdown of the various game types into what kinds of AI was most useful was cool, I'd never seen that in an AI book before. In addition to all the working code, the book also had quite a few "samples" of code from real games, so that you could see some of the techniques in use. I really liked the section at the end of each coding chapter where the book talks about "Extensions" meaning ways to take each AI method a step or two further. I also liked the chapter on how to break down a game into a bunch of AI pieces, separating the AI into workable chunks.
Some of the figures were a little janky, but they did get the idea across. Definately doesn't detract from the book, it just seemed like some of the figures were much better then others.
I've been using the little test app included with the book (it's a small openGL version of asteroids) to play with some ideas of my own. Everything's worked very nice so far.
All in all, very good book. Lots of usable code and plenty of real game AI information.
