Advanced A.I. and next gen.

Well let's talk about A.I. 

What's the game with the most advanced A.I today... and what future holds for it. I mean how much you think next gen will benefit A.I and basicaly what can we expect from A.I in the next few years?

FEAR came out in 2005 - so hardware is not a good bar to judge potential AI by.

Depends what type of AI you mean. You mean Co-OP AI or Enemy AI ? I feel enemy AI is properly done because they can't make it too smart or else the game would be imposible and have to add in the AI doing mistakes sometimes people call it cheating when the AI is too smart because let's be fair.. i knows more information on the game than you do. 

Now.. Co - OP AI is horribly terrible... there is just nothing else i can say.. when i have the chance to in a game i put it manually so i can just move it myself when i can ( like RE0 )

Best AI i've seen to me has been League of Legend, but that is probably because i've seen it evolve.. from before where they was passive now the AI ganks and tower dives safely. It's kinda cool seeing them do that.

FEAR came out in 2005 - so hardware is not a good bar to judge potential AI by.

R3FURBISHED

Yeah like we will see better A.I, peasants can barley think for themselves as it is.

Complex AI can be achieved, but that would also mean the game has to be fair

I'm asking cause lately I've been interested in AGI, Strong AI and True AI... I've been watching all the progress we've made so far (not just games).
My ultimate question is "IS TRUE AI even achievable or theoretically possible in the future?''. One could argue that true AI simply means a creation of new species. Digital or Synthetic life form. Anyway that's something beyond this forum :P
So for now I'd like to know if there's any significant progress of AI in video games? Maybe any prototype or research project still in development that we don't know of yet and will have huge impact in gaming and not only. Because I tend to think that video games is an industry that actually promotes the AI development and technology as a whole!

Complex AI can be achieved, but that would also mean the game has to be fair

megaspiderweb09

Increased system horsepower is always supposed to bring better AI, larger environments and bigger player counts but as this gen demonstrated it's usually abandoned for smaller, more linear games with shinier graphics, because that's what sells.

The Last Of Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8ZYkj0glnqs#t=296s

Increased system horsepower is always supposed to bring better AI

metroidfood

Hmmm.... not so much.

You have not seen any major breakthroughs in AI (outside of the science research field) because we have not been limited by hardware for quite some time. The problem has not been a lack of processing power - its just that we simply dont know enough about our own intelligence to translate that into software. AI concepts, algorithms, and design patterns have no evolved much at all because of our relatively limited understanding.

Pathfinding is still a major issue in games. Developers are doing much a much better job of hiding it or facilitating it for the AI, but its still based on the same principles from the 1960's with some added tweaks.

The idea that next gen hardware will bring about better AI is, well, a silly idea. Its possible that next gen systems may coincide with new breakthroughs in AI research that can be applied to games. But it wouldn't be because of the console's hardware. Time and independant research will be the key to better AI.

Hmmm.... not so much.

You have not seen any major breakthroughs in AI (outside of the science research field) because we have not been limited by hardware for quite some time. The problem has not been a lack of processing power - its just that we simply dont know enough about our own intelligence to translate that into software. AI concepts, algorithms, and design patterns have no evolved much at all because of our relatively limited understanding.

Pathfinding is still a major issue in games. Developers are doing much a much better job of hiding it or facilitating it for the AI, but its still based on the same principles from the 1960's with some added tweaks.

The idea that next gen hardware will bring about better AI is, well, a silly idea. Its possible that next gen systems may coincide with new breakthroughs in AI research that can be applied to games. But it wouldn't be because of the console's hardware. Time and independant research will be the key to better AI.

XaosII

The state of video game AI is no where near that of scientific AI development. I'm guessing that video games running multiple NPC AIs at the same time are going to be much more limited by hardware than dedicated computers running a single AI.

Though really, that statement was supposed to echo the claims of devs/fanboys at the beginning of every new console cycle. Hardware improvements should increase the scope of what AI can do in games, but very few games actually work towards achieving that potential. Most games have AI that is far less capable of what it could be because they'd rather devote the extra processing power to rendering graphics. Especially now that mainstream games have gotten more linear and scripted, AI hasn't really gotten smarter so much as it's just been programmed to cheat better.

I would have to say the Civilization series over the years has a very complex AI compared to most games. I watched a video on youtube with the designer of the AI (for Civ 4 at the time) and he went to great lengths talking about some examples of how making a good AI is very challenging in Civ.

Most games in the current and past gens, however, seem like their AI is a few strings of if-then strings in their programming or completely scripted for an event. The stagnation of the AI in the industry is part of its stagnation and I'm glad the powers that be are addressing it. 

Advanced next gen AI means fish swimming away from you, according to Infinity Ward

AI is not going to get better. /threadShadowDeathX

I dunno, I think we might see an increased focus on AI given that the graphics "wow factor" seems to be getting diminishing returns with each new gen.

[QUOTE="ShadowDeathX"]AI is not going to get better. /threadmetroidfood

I dunno, I think we might see an increased focus on AI given that the graphics "wow factor" seems to be getting diminishing returns with each new gen.

I've been hearing this story about AI advancing for years and the truth is it's not happening. If some developer does invest in some clever AI engine then it will be exclusive to their games unless a console manufacturer buys them and makes their middleware available to developers exclusively on their platform.

The Last Of Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8ZYkj0glnqs#t=296s

happyduds77

Nope Breaking Bad is

There have been virtually no significant advances in enemy AI in recent years, be it in shooters, strategy games, or others. There have been slight advances in friendly AI that have stopped companions from being such a hindrance, but AI has progressed on the whole quite slowly. Hardware doesn't seem likely to speed that up.

[QUOTE="metroidfood"]

[QUOTE="ShadowDeathX"]AI is not going to get better. /threadShadowDeathX

I dunno, I think we might see an increased focus on AI given that the graphics "wow factor" seems to be getting diminishing returns with each new gen.

AI is the hardest thing to improve on in anything. You are trying to program something to react differently to hundreds of different variables. Too complex, too expensive, it won't be improved on in a drastic way.ShadowDeathX

Maybe not, but like I said people are getting less and less excited over shiny graphics. AI has the potential to be the next piece of show-off tech. Sure we'll probably never see a truly advanced AI, but one that's incredibly adaptive and good at responding to the player's actions would certainly be a crowd pleaser.