Architectures

Designing (game) AI is about assembling many weak components together. The components provide functionality for each other and communicate together to collectively solve the problem. This set of nested components is known as an architecture.

These architectures are reactive when they are driven by sensory input, and decide on output actions deterministically. Such architectures are very common for systems that need to react in a timely fashion, whether to external requests or stimuli from the environment (for instance, robots and washing machines).

Components

A component can be understood as a black box with a mystery AI technique inside. Alternatively, the component may be built as a subsystem of smaller components. Components interact with others via their interfaces, using inputs and outputs.

Internally, as mentioned previously, there is no theoretically difference between a deliberative component and a reactive component. This correspondence applies for the interfaces, too! Any deliberative planning component can be considered as reactive. All the necessary information is provided via the interfaces in the same fashion; only the underlying technology changes.

This is a tremendous advantage during the design phase, because the underlying implementation can be disregarded. Then, if a reactive technique is not suitable, a deliberative component can be inserted transparently.

Another consequence of the black box paradigm is that you can use other components during implementation. These components are nested inside others. This is the epitome of modularity in AI.

Organization

Naturally, there are many ways to combine components together. This is the purpose of architectures, because they define the relationship between components. Figure 3.4 shows three example architectures with different internal organizations:

• Monolithic architectures include only one component.

• Flat architectures have many components in parallel.

• Hierarchical models have components nested within others.

As an example of a hierarchical architecture for games, the brain may be built as a collection of behaviors (for instance, hunt, evade, patrol), which are components within the brain. Each behavior in turn may depend on components for moving and shooting. This is a three-level hierarchy.

In general, selecting the organization of an architecture is about problem complexity. Simple problems will manage with monolithic architecture, more sophisticated problems may need flat architectures, whereas hierarchical architectures can handle almost any problem by breaking it down. (Chapter 21, "Knowledge of the Problem," and Chapter 28, "Understanding the Solution," discuss these points further.)

Decomposition

Instead of thinking of an architecture as a combination of components (bottom-up), it can be understood in a top-down fashion: "How can this problem be split up?" This concept of decomposition is central to AI development in general.

There are many types of decompositions. The idea is to split the problem according to certain criteria—whichever proves the most appropriate for solving it! This applies equally well to software design as to the creation of game AI:

• Structural decomposition splits the solution according to the function of each component. For example, there may be a component responsible for movement, and another for handling the weapon. These are different functions.

• Behavioral decomposition is based on the distinctive activities of the system. These can be understood as different modes such as hunting, fleeing, collecting ammo, or celebrating. Different components would handle these behaviors.

• Goal decomposition uses the overall purpose of the system to determine how to split it into components. In game AI, goals depend on the behavior (for instance, finding a weapon). Although goals do not provide clear policies for decomposing the problem, they are always a criteria in the decisions [Koopman95].

Naturally, the decomposition can happen on multiple levels using many different criteria. For example, the initial problem may be decomposed as behaviors, then each behavior may be expanded as different functionality, using different criteria known as a hybrid decomposition, as opposed to using one criteria throughout the architecture (or pure decomposition).

Behavioral decompositions are very appropriate for computer games. The functional decomposition is also used in this book, as we develop common abilities that can be reused by the nonplayer character (NPC) AI.

Arbitration

Given a set of subcomponents, how are they connected together? Specifically, how are all the outputs interpreted to form the output of the component itself? There are four different ways of doing this:

• Independent sum essentially connects each component to different outputs so no clashes can occur.

• Combination allows the outputs of different components to be blended together to obtain the final result.

• Suppression means that certain components get priority over others, so weaker ones are ignored.

• Sequential arbitration sees the output of different components alternating over time.

There really is no right or wrong method of arbitration. Each of these methods is equally applicable to computer games.

Examples

There are many different combinations of architectures. Figure 3.5 shows two common examples to illustrate the issue.

Subsumption

The subsumption architecture is a behavior-based decomposition, using a flat organization with suppression on the outputs [Brooks86].

The system can be seen as a set of horizontal layers. The higher the layer, the greater the priority. Layers can thereby subsume the ones beneath by overriding their output. This architecture is explained further, and applied to deathmatch behaviors in Chapter 45, "Implementing Tactical Intelligence."

Voting System

Voting systems generally use a functional decomposition, with a flat organization using combination to merge the outputs together. Chapter 25 uses a voting system for weapon selection.

The system can be interpreted as a set of distributed components that are all connected to a smaller component responsible for counting votes. The output with the most votes becomes the output for the global output.