George Lucas has said he wants future games to have much improved AI

[TomO]

As the keynote speaker at the annual computer graphics and interactive entertainment expo SIGGRAPH, Lucas (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/nid/1223/) talked about how he plans to get more involved in his company's videogames division, and expressed his wishes to see much improved Artificial Intelligence in videogames.

Full story (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/nid/1223/)

[Genital Eclipse]

Oh ok, Lucas wants better AI, let me put down my whopper and code that right on up:

101010010101010101010101010001010100

[speeder]

He needs AI for his robot girlfriend.

[Atorak]

What was his reference for his personal contribution toward advancing artificial intelligence, a video of Jar Jar Binks?

[Citizen Philip]

Perhaps he hopes to program an AI capable of reaching his obviously adept Director skillz.

[Xerxes]

He must only mean for LucasArts games... I mean the rest of the world is pretty much moving on...

[RMan]

Hmm, I suspect that unless the phrase “get more involved in” actually means “write bigger check to” then his involvement in improving AI will be about as effective as Jar Jar’s involvement in improving government.

[splatstick]

I wasn't even convinced the people in episode three were real actors, so I guess he has a long way to go.

[icronic]

How good of AI do we really want in games? I can understand getting past the whole just run towards the player shooting kind of deal, but the better AI gets, the more the player is going to get his ass handed to him on a silver platter. So what happens when we get these super AI squads working together and co-ordinating against a single person. It wouldn't make for much of a gaming experience. Unless of course the back of the box said "Amazing AI, will work together to hunt you down and destroy you... Except they can't hit the broad side of a barn!"

[Leaving Hope]

In response to you, Icronic, the answer in my opinion is that computer controlled entities need to perform and adapt as well as any human player would. That's not to say that they need to become insanely effective, but should rather think, react, learn, and perform as realistically as possible. You shouldn't be able to use the same tricks over and over again against a computer player. I really hope that someday I'm playing a game and I have no idea my opponent is a bot. Or give me a computer teammate that ~really~ works with me.

[holysin]

How good of AI do we really want in games? I can understand getting past the whole just run towards the player shooting kind of deal, but the better AI gets, the more the player is going to get his ass handed to him on a silver platter. So what happens when we get these super AI squads working together and co-ordinating against a single person. It wouldn't make for much of a gaming experience. Unless of course the back of the box said "Amazing AI, will work together to hunt you down and destroy you... Except they can't hit the broad side of a barn!"

AI isn't used only on action games.
Take a look at Black & White 2, it's currently the most advanced AI right now and it's not because it has CS:S bots.

[Sloth]

I don't get the whole better AI thing. Yeah it sounds good, but really what is the ultimate purpose? Does a smarter advesary necessarily mean a more entertaining one?

[Eezy_Bordone]

Why? Is he going to go back and remake games with the new AI in 20 years when they finally get there?

[Savok]

Dammit, Lucasarts was just starting to climb out of the shithole they've been wallowing in since the late 90s, don't fuck it up now George.

[nonchalance]

I don't get the whole better AI thing. Yeah it sounds good, but really what is the ultimate purpose? Does a smarter advesary necessarily mean a more entertaining one?

Is it more fun to play online or against bots?

[Peen]

Why was a speech about AI given at SIGGRAPH? Its a gd graphics conference.

[icronic]

The funny thing is, at least in my experience is that human players often are far worse than bots. Half the time the only indication that I'm playing with bots as opposed to people is A) the lack of shit talk, B) the lack of TKer's C) bots stand dumbly staring at walls, while real people run off by themselves into the wild unknown to get massacred.

Although now that I think of it, it would be really nice to have a Squad based game with incredibly good AI.

[bean19]

does he mean that he doesn't want AI to suck as bad as it did in SWG: Battlefront?

Man that game was a possible hit. . .

[Babbster]

As long as George doesn't get involved in writing any of his company's games, he can lead cheers about AI all he wants. If he feels the need to plot any games, I hope he'll return to his 80s wisdom and hire Lawrence Kasdan to take care of the scripting. :)

[Paltry]

ai can only go so far in games

do we really wanna be killing self aware opponents that are afraid to die

hah, thatd be pretty fucked up

imagine ghost in the shell except with grunts and elites

wut wut wut

[grunter]

Some of you guys need to read up on some of the good technologies and enhancements to existing ones that have come from Lucas's companies over the years.

If he gets it in his head to push this, then chances are we'll see some great advances to game AI.

If it's used in good games is another matter.

[jeffool]

I'm with holysin on this one. "What's the big deal about smarter AI?" Different games. And no, not 'better' games necessarily. Different games. Shadow of the Colossus is only going to have what, six monsters in the entire game? If those monsters show as limited AI and tactical range as a boss from Metal Gear, I'm going to be pissed.

And smarter AI isn't always enemies. It can be smarter games, too. A game that sees where you've been and can better predict on a given number of variables what you'll do next. It's a game that can better truly surprise you.

It may have nothing to do with shooting. It may not be a 'better game', but it could be different. Why's different so bad?

Besides, you'd rather Lucas put money into making games look better or something? Got any better ideas?

[Lasakon]

Wow, I haven't seen this much cliche Lucas bashing since, well since the last Lucasarts thread.

[Atorak]

*slings some more mud*

Take that George!

[PotatoNinja]

How good of AI do we really want in games? I can understand getting past the whole just run towards the player shooting kind of deal, but the better AI gets, the more the player is going to get his ass handed to him on a silver platter. So what happens when we get these super AI squads working together and co-ordinating against a single person. It wouldn't make for much of a gaming experience. Unless of course the back of the box said "Amazing AI, will work together to hunt you down and destroy you... Except they can't hit the broad side of a barn!"

Better AI doesn't necessarily mean the AI has to be more difficult, better means that it is less artificial. Better AI should include enemies that use complex tactics and strategies, but could also easily include realistic enemy strategies (instead of the current "I know where you are at all times even if you're sneaking" bunch) and more realistic responses to a player's actions (running in horrid fear as you unload your rapid-fire-rocket-launcher).

I'd love to see AI improvements in RTS games particularly, as the omniscient AI makes suprise tactics and ambushes essentially worthless. This could easily translate to other games, imagine how cool it would be in a FPS if enemies didn't instantly know where you are the moment you made a noise but instead could be fooled by feints, decoy attacks, and good camoflauge.

[Liquidize105]

If you want to get pwned by AI you can already do that in UT2k4. It's just harder, that's all.

Like a few have said, more advanced AI means more intelligent strategies, maybe even cooperation between enemy units, sharing supplies, using authetic tactics.

If I want to mow down waves of enemy I'd enlist myself in the Union army, or play serious sam, or any RTS.

[Pnikosis]

Revenge of the Sith insulted my human intelligence, and now he talks about a better artificial one??

[Draknodred]

about the AI debate... For FPS games, you would also have smarter allies that, because of the smarter AI, be able to communicate with you and work with you to create an ambush or rush or whatever, so I think it would even out... For RTS games, I agree, but RTS are too hard for me anyway, I can't handle the micromanaging =)...

For me I would love to see AI improvements in games like Splinter Cell and MGS and all that stuff (I haven't played MGS 3 but I have played all the other ones and all the SC)... In splinter cell it is far to easy to just go around shooting everyone and be fine, and when they hear noises they are far to predictable... make noise, hide, shoot, sneak break neck, blah blah blah blah... That's why the SC series got so boring for me, there were a few missions where you couldn't get found or couldn't kill and those were interesting but for the other ones the AI was to stupid for me...

I would imagine to make AI more interesting would be to give each individual character a different personality, that would make for a far more interesting game, no matter what genre it is... That way you would have to throw 'patterns' out the window, if each one was an individual then they would act differently depending on how scared they get, past experiences, how they grew up, etc... I mean I know that's far to in depth but if they had something like that then games would be far more interesting...

But I think the hardest part of making the smarter AI and making it realistic is making it able to make realistic mistakes, if not for missing a spot in a defense in a RTS, or being accurate, but not too accurate in FPS... because right now you can program all the strategies and aiming into the computer, but to have it make mistakes that were realistic and then try and fix them would be the ultimate I think... Mistake is human nature.

Wow that was a little longer then I thought but thats my two cents about AI, I hope he can upgrade it, or if not him someone else, soon! =)

[mixuk]

Better AI means (in my mind) realistic behaviour which fits the situation (ie dont run against a wall etc). For instance it's pretty damn hard to make friendly NPC's to behave realistically towards player actions.

Imagine the Max Payne 2 police station level, where the player jumps up and down on his workmates desk and tries to steal his chair, how do you react to something like that? Not to mention enemies who would actually flee or use the surroundings effectively when escaping or taking cover. Shooting the player and moving at a predefined path on a level is one of the simplest things an AI can do.

Proper AI behaviour is something that is ages away from other game technology at the moment. So I have to say Lucas is right, but we're already aware of the problem.

[CapnAJ]

I would love to see greatly improved AI in games, it would certainly make RPG's more fun and it's a good idea for people to occasionally mention that AI needs to be improved. EA, for example, recently mentioned how important graphics are and how they build a game around that...

[Pnikosis]

If I see that a NPC can make real life tasks (eat, work, socialize), and learning on his actions and his environment I could call it a good AI.
In RPGs or Graphical Adventures, when an NPC reacts the same way no matter how many times we interact with him is annoying. The real challenge I think is to make NPCs take real decisions, unscripted decisions based on what they are evaluating on their environment... in real time.
"Greetings <insert your name here> welcome to the town, make yourself comfortable" repeated forever is not an AI solution. I think if the NPCs could choose the actions or dialogs based on (i.e.) how easy they can get angry or how optimistic they could be, plus physical factors as the thirst or the hunger mixed with the environment (the presence of others characters, the weather, etc) could improve a lot a game by improving it's AI (and not making a game more difficult, only makes it more immersive)
Sorry for my english, I had a hard time writing these few lines :p

[Heretic Machine]

You know what, I'm going to ignore the topic at hand, mostly because I think it's a pipe dream at this point. We can talk about it again in a decade or two. I just want to say one thing.

I liked the new trilogy of Star Wars, and A New Hope sucked ass.

[Deadend]

Ok, use for better AI...

Dungeon Master. An AI that can alter the gameplay to better suit a player, and lowering the need for all actions to be scripted out, as a next-gen AI could have characters react to the player in a better manner. A next gen AI could use piences to build an intersting looking world, and populate with people, villages and monsters using a form of logic, even quests for this world.

Basically, the next AI should be able to be hooked into a database of resources (dialog, animations, textures, models, whatever) and a game engine, and using its resources improve gameplay for a player to have the most fun. The AI would not be creating an adventure, but it would still act like the DM in a prebuilt scenario, so the AI can make the small things mesh properly for the player within the big story. This would apply to ALL genres of games.

An AI could create Sims-like characters on each level load, who all carry out their mission based on their paramaters and may all potentialy react diffrently if the AI has enough words and animations . These results can also be based on plaer action as well.

I really like the idea of a AI as a virtual GM/DM, they don't create the campagin, but they run the campaign and tweak it to the player.

[Vandenh]

This is like saying Miss Universe wants world peace.

[RandomViolence]

You know what, I'm going to ignore the topic at hand, mostly because I think it's a pipe dream at this point. We can talk about it again in a decade or two. I just want to say one thing.

I liked the new trilogy of Star Wars, and A New Hope sucked ass.

Oh, Perigon. Why must you bait us so?

[Sinistar]

this is hands down one of the funniest threads in a long time - great rants all around.

[Arcon]

regardless of his scriptwriting abilities, his poor "point and shoot" direction techniques, lucas has pushed, time and again, the technical capabilities of films.

I think in the long run itll be what he's most remembered for. ILM created the special effects industry and is still today the world leaders at CGI. What we're looking at here is lucas taking his ideas to the games industry. Lucas isnt a special effects guy, he isnt a technician. He's a dreamer and he just comes up with something and tells the guys who work for him to create it, he doesnt care how, just take this blank cheque and make it happen. how exciting a prospect is that for computer games? if things go as the threaten, we could see a lot of great technical innovation comiing from lucasarts in the next few years. Some really exciting gameplay which will have some really unique games to take advantage of it.

While we're all ready to pan Lucas straight away because of this 'Prequel Trilogy' faux par, looking at the bigger picture, this can only be a good thing

[Finster]

Are we done hating on Lucas yet? No? Well, too bad.

He is right.

The AI in current video games is CRAP. Right now, AI consists of very elaborate scripting. Scripted sequences != AI. Video games need real AI, where an NPC watches the PC and learns behavior from you. If you are bunny-hopping and getting more kills that way, then the AI should pick up on that and do the same thing. Using the same route every map? Then the AI should learn from that and send more guys that way. Or perhaps the AI will decide to use a feint and really be planning an assault on the other route and come from behind.

AI in games has been pretty much the same or worse since Descent.

[51|RandoM]

The best case that comes to mind for better AI: Battlefield 2.

You know how fun bf2 is when everybody works as a team, uses voicecomms, and nobody is being a flaming TK asshole?

...if you do, you also know how rare an event it is.

Personally, give me AI players with even half the intelligence and none of the assholedness of your typical pub player and I'd never play online again.

We're actually at a point in the cpu vs. gpu leapfrog cycle that there are usually plenty of cpu cycles laying around that could be devoted to a more complex AI implementation.

Funny how everybody hates Lucas because of the recent Star Wars movies. I got news for you, the old ones were retarded too, but we were kids back then and far more forgiving than our current jaded selves.

[mister_slim]

If physics is the future, I'd like to see A.I. that can actually use those physics.

[XxSATANxX]

I think of Lucas as a type of Walt Disney. Walt had some kookie ideas and some them did'nt pan to well. Still Walt had a dream.

As for AI. I think the break through will be when the characters in the game interact with you based on what you do,say or happens in the enviorment. Not as enemies but as allies. maybe even as friends? When the interaction approaches that level
that will be the next AI breakthrough. Like someone said here at least a decade away.

[Babbster]

Funny how everybody hates Lucas because of the recent Star Wars movies. I got news for you, the old ones were retarded too, but we were kids back then and far more forgiving than our current jaded selves.

I can see that to some degree for Return of the Jedi. I might even be able to stifle my fanboyishness to concede that Star Wars wasn't as great as I thought it was as a kid. However, The Empire Strikes Back is just plain awesome, kid or not. It even suffered the least (if at all) from the "Special Edition" changes.

[PixelSamurai]

I too think AI is an important area that needs more developing right now. Reading the previews for Oblivion is pretty interesting when they talk about how their NPCs have lives, IE they go to work, they need to eat, they go home to sleep, etc etc. More advancement like this can really raise the immersion level and replayability of RPG games and just games in general. Now that we have physics to play with, it's more fun to try new things because things react differently each time. Even more experimentation and fun can be had with great NPC AI.

[Malovech]

I second that Babbster. The originals had some weak points, Jedi in particular, but the first two were grittier and more pulp/hardcore sci-fi than almost any movie ever released. It was when Lucas' marriage started to fall apart and his obession with kiddie/cutsiness became apparent that things went down the crapper. I even think Sith was a good movie, flawed by a few poor decisions on Lucas' part.

[Xerxes]

I mean in my head you'd think a big movie studio would have a decent game studio.. But nope... It's kinda like how EA is so big but the put very few good games...