Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI [Paperback]

Dave Mark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2009

Human behavior is never an exact science, making the design and programming of artificial intelligence that seeks to replicate human behavior difficult. Usually, the answers cannot be found in sterile algorithms that are often the focus of artificial intelligence programming. However, by analyzing why people behave the way we do, we can break down the process into increasingly smaller components. We can model many of those individual components in the language of logic and mathematics and then reassemble them into larger, more involved decision-making processes. Drawing from classical game theory, "Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI" covers both the psychological foundations of human decisions and the mathematical modeling techniques that AI designers and programmers can use to replicate them. With examples from both real life and game situations, you'll explore topics such as utility, the fallacy of rational behavior, and the inconsistencies and contradictions that human behavior often exhibits. You'll examine various ways of using statistics, formulas, and algorithms to create believable simulations and to model these dynamic, realistic, and interesting behaviors in video games. Finally, you'll be introduced to a number of tools you can use in conjunction with standard AI algorithms to make it easier to utilize the mathematical models.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Behavioral Mathematics introduces a raft of important techniques from decision theory, game theory, and utility theory, and uniquely applies them to game AI. These techniques are an important part of any game AI developer's toolbox.-Paul Tozour, Game AI author

This book is an excellent introduction to using AI in games. Dave has a knack for making complex subjects accessible. The text is very clear and admirably thorough. The author has chosen - wisely - to avoid the esoteric, and focus on topics which are directly useful for making real computer games.-Richard Evans, Senior AI Architect, Electronic Arts

Game developers often use little tricks to sprinkle magic decision-making abilities throughout their AI code, without necessarily understanding the fundamentals of how it works. Dave not only documents this process on paper, but he also goes into the theoretical background behind these techniques too. For anyone wishing to know more about the maths behind common game behaviors, this is the ideal textbook on the subject.-Alex J. Champandard, Editor & Consultant, AiGameDev.com

About the Author

Dave Mark is the President and Lead Designer of Intrinsic Algorithm, LLC, an independent game development studio and AI consulting company in Omaha, NE. He has been programming since 1984 when he was in high school. Much to the dismay of his teacher, he wrote his first text adventure on the school's DEC PDP-1144. After a brief detour in the music business as a composer/arranger, keyboard player and recording engineer during the early '90s, he re-entered the technology arena in 1995. After being in the IT consulting and development world for 8 years, Dave left to start game, simulation and AI consulting company, Intrinsic Algorithm LLC with his wife, Laurie. He was a contributor to the AI Game Programming Wisdom series and is a regular columnist at AIGameDev.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Cengage Learning PTR; 1st edition (March 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584506849
• ISBN-13: 978-1584506843
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave is the President and Lead Designer of Intrinsic Algorithm, an independent game development studio and AI consulting company in Omaha, Nebraska. He has been programming since 1985 when he was in high school. (Much to his teacher's dismay, he wrote his first text adventure on the school's DEC PDP-1144 minicomputer.)

He is the author of the book "Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI" and is a contributor to the "AI Game Programming Wisdom" and "Game Programming Gems" book series from Charles River Media. Dave is also a founding member of the AI Game Programmers Guild and has spoken at numerous conferences including being a co-adviser for the AI Summits at the annual Game Developers Conference.

Dave continues to further his education by attending the University of Life. He has no plans to graduate any time soon.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good at explaining complex concepts! May 28, 2009

By D. Britton

Format:Paperback

I *love* this book. I simply do not understand the negative comments left by another reviewer. Because of my interest in politics, I want to write code that mimics human behavior, but until Dave Mark's book could not find anything that really "fit." Once upon a time, I took advanced math courses--even excelled in the later ones, but that was nearly 20 years ago, and I haven't really needed that type of math since. Mark explains all the math in easy to understand English. He also provides excel spreadsheets and C++ source that can be downloaded at [...] I don't remember when I've read a book as interesting as _Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI_, and that's saying something since, although I have an advanced degree in computer science, I've never really been a lover of math.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for any AI Developer June 7, 2009

By Kenneth Shor

Format:Paperback

Behavioral Mathematics is a book that I'm sure will continue to prove its worth for many future generations of Game AI Developers. I can make that strong assertion because Dave chose, instead of writing a large tomb about a possible AI architecture, to write a book that tackles (as the title implies) the mathematics behind Game AI.

Dave gives the reader a very strong toolkit for building Game AI, and by toolkit I don't mean a large library of code (although there is plenty of code) but fundamental knowledge, such as the concept of utility and how to apply it in a very practical way. Starting from simple example decisions he builds up to much more complicated cases, constantly tying everything back into practical applications of all the concepts he introduces.

Now, I don't mean to imply that this is some dry math book. Dave constantly sprinkles in his very unique brand of humor and ties in family stories that help cement any topic he's trying to get across. I would highly recommend this book to any professional or aspiring AI Programmer, or even just a player who wants a better understanding of whats going on under the hood in his favorite game.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel approach to game AI May 15, 2009

By Kevin Dill

Format:Paperback

Truth in advertising: I was the technical editor on this book. However I don't have any further financial interest, so I have no conflict of interest in writing a review. I'm also a professional game developer with 6 titles under my belt, as well as a lecturer on the subject at several prominent universities.

There are only a handful of books on AI for Games, and the techniques used in games are quite a bit different than those used in academic AI. Most of the existing books just look at the standard architectures and topics - behavior trees, state machines, scripting, path planning, etc.

Dave takes a novel approach, and looks at techniques for building heuristics that evaluate the game situation and rate the various options. This is a critical part of decision making, it is something which most games with even moderately complex AI need to do, but it is something that up to now wasn't covered very well (if at all) in the literature.

I heartily recommend this book for anybody who's interested in learning more about how to build decision makers - whether for use in games or elsewhere. The material that is here is not something that you'll find somewhere else.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing Your AI to Life October 28, 2009

By Mister J

Format:Paperback

"Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI" offers a unique examination of AI in a fun but technical and specific coverage of the subject from a mathematical perspective. While maintaining a conversational tone, the book manages to cover in depth several interesting topics and techniques.

Several ideas only touched on in other texts are given a comprehensive examination. When do rational agents fail to yield interesting behavior, and how do we deal with irrational opponents? How to we prioritize the tasks we want to accomplish, and how do we keep our agents from being erratic in their choices? Finally, how to we make sure our agents have enough variation to make them feel real?

Mr. Mark's book does not focus on some of the basic constructs common in game AI today such as state machines and behavior trees; instead, it focuses on the nuts and bolts of the math we can use to tie our agents together, augment them, and give them variety. These techniques make them more deliberate, less predictable, and pose more "interesting questions", as the author is so fond of mentioning: in short, these techniques bring AI agents to life and make them more fun to play with and against.

Dave has done a remarkable job of putting together a lot of complicated mathematical concepts in an easy to understand, pleasant to read package, and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in putting together interesting AI!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great information... June 1, 2009

By T. Southard

Format:Paperback

One of the best things about Dave Mark's book is that he tries to get the reader to approach AI problems from multiple angles using the algorithms that he presents, as well as how to evaluate the complex problems posed by behavioral AI. Written in a very down-to-earth and easy to comprehend manner, the book was an easy read, which can't be said for all AI books.

For my own AI work, Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI gave me a host of new ideas and mathematical tools to apply and test, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is working on game AI.