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Casting Digital Extras

Casting Digital Extras. Dr. Paul A. Kruszewski President, GRIP. Overview. Where we are coming from Where we are at Where we are going. Who is GRIP?. A game AI software company in Montreal The guys who created AI.implant 2002 Best AI tool (Game Developer Magazine Frontline Award)

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Casting Digital Extras

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  1. Casting Digital Extras Dr. Paul A. Kruszewski President, GRIP

  2. Overview • Where we are coming from • Where we are at • Where we are going

  3. Who is GRIP? • A game AI software company in Montreal • The guys who created AI.implant • 2002 Best AI tool (Game Developer Magazine Frontline Award) • 2006 Best middleware (Game Developer Magazine Frontline Award) • GRIP credits include • Army of TWO: the 40th day™, Deus Ex 3, Tron:evolution • GRIP customers include • Autodesk, BioWare, Disney, EA, Eidos & Intel

  4. What Does GRIP do? • Develop next-gen game AI products for AAA games • Digital Extra System • Crowd simulator • “real-time Massive for games” • Character Control System • High level NPC AI • “MS Dev for game brains”

  5. What is an Extra? • Like a movie extra • Anyone you are not supposed to deeply interact with • The more the interactivity, the less its an extra • “Clutter” • Background characters • Aesthetic • Large numbers • Computationally cheap • Controlled en masse

  6. Shipped Examples • Army of TWO: the 40th day • Tron:evolution

  7. Core Elements • Core behaviour • Mill around and interact with the ambient world • Be aware of other people including player • Panic when a bad thing happens • Required tech • Flows • Obstacle avoidance • Action stations • Spawners • Brains

  8. Flows • Goal • Have lots of people move around a world seemingly with purpose • Problems • Computationally slow; Little control; Sidewalk problem • Method • Flow network tells extras where to go • Advantages • Computationally simple and cheap; Expressive: extras go where they are told • Rocket Science • Dynamic lane forming; Dynamic splines

  9. Obstacle Avoidance • Goal • Have extras avoid running into each other in a natural looking way • Problems • Twitching; Getting stuck (piling up) • Method • Case sensitive steering behaviours; Social rules / self organizing lanes; Tie into the animation system • Advantages • Very robust; Looks good • Rocket Science • Knowing when to stop and circumvent

  10. Action Stations • Goal • Add variety and realism to the movement behaviours by adding animations to show interactivity with environment • Problems • Scalability • Interpretability • Method • Smart objects that suck extras off flows and play animations that look like complex behaviours • Advantages • Looks good. Most AI behaviours are actually animations; Scales with animators not programmers • Rocket Science • Context switching / interrupting; pathological players; queuing

  11. Spawners • Goal • Maximize the user’s perception of the extras • Problems • Pre-roll; Spacing • Method • Spawn on point / zone / flow; Despawn into pools • Advantages • Precise control of user experience • Rocket Science • A million little details

  12. Brain Authoring • Goal • Create behaviours of increasing complexity • Problems • State machines: state explosion; Script / coding: too unconstrained / requires highly specializes skills; Planners: incomprehensible • Method • Behaviour trees; Graphic editor / debugger • Advantages • Coder / designer literally on the same page; Encourages scalability, modularity and re-use • Rocket Science • Control flow / exception & interrupt handling / blackboard

  13. Future Directions • Greater Fidelity • Transitions to NPCs • Props • Greater Breadth • Ambient vehicles • Different engines

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