AI Improvement

[chortles 263]

Looks like that will be fixed in arma 3. Judgint by some of the vids, the ai actually look like they could be quite scary with there turn speeds in CQB.

There's one video where RiE's character gets one-shot by an OPFOR AI at very close range, but then again I believe that they were basically facing each other at a shallow angle, RiE missed with his first shot and then couldn't walk the subsequent eight or nine rounds on target in time before the OPFOR noticed and quickly put a bullet into his character.

[chrisb 196]

One question. With this mod cocktail, are the ai less keen to leave cover. One of the problems with vanilla is that they are uber willing to leave cover. They might stay there for maybe 2-3 seconds and then they're bounding off to the next piece of cover which is 20 metres away.

Yes, but also as seen in the ‘sound then search’ vid they don’t come down the street. The waypoint I gave was just walk down the street through the town/village, once I fired they scattered and then didn’t use the street at all, instead preferring to use the buildings, back alleys, yards etc. They do this all the time with this set up, when they scatter they tend to look for another direction to get to their next waypoint, however first trying to discover who is shooting at them and where from, then carrying out a 'eliminate the threat' process prior to carrying on to the next waypoint. They are really inquisitive, which is great, as it makes fighting them harder.

Concerning ai fighting from buildings, the impression I got from the vids is that the ai randomly take up position in nearby buildings, but that's about it. it didn't seem like they had a very good idea of how to actually use them. Ie. it seems like ai happen to go to the roof giving them a good view other the enemy rather than the ai deciding "hey that roof would be a good place to see the enemy from" and then going there. I don't know, as I haven't used the mods like you, but that was the impression I got.

They will randomly take up position, but the fact they more or less always choose doorways, windows, balconies, rooftops etc, tends to make me think that a pbo is having an effect of sensible positioning. High ground or positions is a factor in both GL4 & SLX so the higher positions I guess is these pbo’s at work. General sensible positions could be Zeus plus TPWC, not sure. They tend to take up positions me or you would want to take up, somewhere where we can see whats going on, you don’t see anything if your looking at a wall..:)

_____

True ‘Artificial Intelligence’, well as near as you can get in Arma 2 anyway..;)

Believe me, fighting against them is hard, they do not do any of the expected things in arma 2 ai, they think better, move and position better, and fight better via better coordination. These are very simple examples I have shown, air support or ground support arriving are far more impressive. Plus general movement, from waypoint to waypoint is better, they will look into buildings or go through buildings, check outhouses, sheds etc and generally be much more aware of the surroundings, using this mix of pob’s.:)

[Opticalsnare 12]

It seems to me that AI reaction time is often a question of 'mental focus' and perceived player position rather than reflexes. ArmA 2 AI can shoot instantly, but is hamstrung by the aforementioned issues and a bizarre glitch that limits their arm traverse speed at times.

Recently i increased the turnspeed in the animations config from 8 to 64 a massive increase and adjusted the FSM to limit the useage of going prone the results are really impressive. They move through a urban environment so much faster and can return fire much more effective.

I didnt really think much of it till i saw about 8 guys running along a wall and then do 90 degree turn thru a broken section in the wall almost without stopping they simply just booted it thru under fire and it looked mental. When i disabled my config, they coundnt perform the same task they all bottle necked at wall because the first one coundnt turn quick enough and by the time he did the whole squad had to stop which caused problems.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Opticalsnare

[NeMeSiS 11]

Recently i increased the turnspeed in the animations config from 8 to 64 a massive increase and adjusted the FSM to limit the useage of going prone the results are really impressive. They move through a urban environment so much faster and can return fire much more effective.

I didnt really think much of it till i saw about 8 guys running along a wall and then do 90 degree turn thru a broken section in the wall almost without stopping they simply just booted it thru under fire and it looked mental. When i disabled my config, they coundnt perform the same task they all bottle necked at wall because the first one coundnt turn quick enough and by the time he did the whole squad had to stop which caused problems.

Care to release this?

[zimms 22]

I know a lot of people are complaining that BIS makes "no changes" to AI and is only tweaking the configurations.

In this video you can see one of the latest ArmA 2 Beta Patches at work.

If that's the kind of "no change" we are talking about here, I must say I love it so far.

[maddogx 13]

Very nice. I read about the implementation of headless clients before but didn't fully realize what it meant. Seems like it could be a major improvement in terms of AI performance. :D

[Tonci87 163]

zimms do you have some more information regarding that "headless client" stuff?

[maddogx 13]

zimms do you have some more information regarding that "headless client" stuff?

Generally speaking, a "headless client" would be a game client that doesn't render anything. CCP did the something similar in EVE Online for testing purposes ("virtual players").

In theory, since AI in Arma can be local to any client, headless clients could allow for all AI calculations to be offloaded to any number of separate processes.

[zimms 22]

Unfortunately I'm not with ShackTac and I don't have any further information for this. But having the option to delegate some/all AI calculations would be awesome to have for A3 Vanilla.

[SavageCDN 231]

Very interesting....

[Scoggs 1]

Not sure if I posted this cause I keep meaning to. But it would be cool if you could put Ai on GPU much like Physx. Have say 10 Ai per CUDA core. So that would be 15,000 ai on the 680.

[Smurf 12]

Generally speaking, a "headless client" would be a game client that doesn't render anything. CCP did the something similar in EVE Online for testing purposes ("virtual players").

In theory, since AI in Arma can be local to any client, headless clients could allow for all AI calculations to be offloaded to any number of separate processes.

So what we have in that ShackTac video is:

The server: All human clients are "hanging" on it, this one just handles the communication between all machines.

The headless client: Another machine (what kind of specs?) that handles all (or just the servers ones?) and only AIs; Just a regular client on the eyes of the server?

The players: Regular stuff.

What this "thing" can anchieve with AI mods? :butbut:

[maddogx 13]

The headless client: Another machine (what kind of specs?)

I think he said the headless client was running on the same machine as the server, not a separate one.

Edited October 31, 2012 by MadDogX

[Smurf 12]

hmm... So what's the magic there, better handling of cores? Or the dedicated cores make so much difference?

[Harzach 2518]

Kind of disappointing that ST would dangle this in front of us with no information on how to implement it.

*waits patiently*

[maturin 12]

They may not be dangling: https://dev-heaven.net/issues/62500

It appears that the issue is not ready for primetime, because the current implementation allows the AI to unfairly aimbot players through a desync glitch.

[maddogx 13]

hmm... So what's the magic there, better handling of cores? Or the dedicated cores make so much difference?

No, I don't think so. This method - i.e. using headless clients - is really just a "multi-processing" approach to scalability, as opposed to multi-threading. No magic involved, but it does have some obvious advantages, such as the possibility to farm out AI calculations to one or more dedicated machines.

However, it also means that each headless client process must load its own instance of the world, meaning increased overall RAM usage - but I don't see that as a big drawback.

Edited November 1, 2012 by MadDogX

[Harzach 2518]

They may not be dangling: https://dev-heaven.net/issues/62500

It appears that the issue is not ready for primetime, because the current implementation allows the AI to unfairly aimbot players through a desync glitch.

Good info, thanks. That ticket wasn't appearing in any searches yesterday. Still, it doesn't explain how to implement the HC, flawed as it may still be.

[SavageCDN 231]

oops wrong thread :)

[sektor 2]

Probably already discussed, but i would like to see AI hide (and run away if they don't have AT) from any armored vehicle a group member spots.

[maturin 12]

They do that nowadays... unless any member of the group has a launcher (whether or not it has ammo). Then they lie down and wait for death.

[-Coulum- 35]

They do that nowadays... unless any member of the group has a launcher (whether or not it has ammo). Then they lie down and wait for death.

They do? How so?

[instagoat 133]

I just remembered. AI needs also to be affected by the weight system, and conserve their strength (or not) depending on experience. That´d be rad, though I think it´s unlikely it´ll be implemented.

[maturin 12]

They do? How so?

At least with ASR

[Tonci87 163]

Yeah they do run to the hills with ASR, it´s pretty hillarious if you are in the Tank >:)