Lod ai

[Turbo10]

Okay take star wars battlefront 2, aim is to fight in massive battles, you're a nobody fighting in 'wars' yada yada yet its 32vs32. Some games might even have 64vs64 or maybe more but isn't there any way to have literally hundreds of bots fighting wars with you. Yes i know online you can get a lot of people but you arn't going to get 1000vs1000 online are you?

Anyways ive been thinking, yes AI takes up resources etc, but what if you had AI in a level-of detail sense. LOD has the more detailed textures close less detailed textures far away, but what if that could work with AI?

If a squad or a group of bots whatever they may be, soldiers or whatever could act as a group performing a basic action such as simply fighting the enemy when you look at them from far away, but get up close and you can see the details, the brawls, the carnage etc. If each 'group' worked as a single unit of AI then surely the resources required wouldn't be huge?

If there are 100 soldiers in each group and from a distance they act as 1 bot, then you could have 10 groups making 1000 using the same resources as 10 singular bots.

Now i know it sounds crazy and i know bugger all about programming and whatnot, but im wondering if it is possible or has even been done yet.

Does anyone know what I mean or have an opinion?

 

[Aastii]

You would still have to track the actions and consequences of each singular sprite. You can say to a squad "go shoot this thing", but you would also have to tell each unit "take cover here, shoot at this, use a grenade, move to other cover, change target" etc.

It would make macro movement much less taxing, but micro movement and actions would still be processing at least 10 things, on top of the locations and, potentially, actions of others.

What you are saying is actually already done to a point for the reasons you say - to allow larger games to run whilst using fewer resources. If you have ever played a game with "larger" maps and better AI, such as ArmA or Operation Flashpoint, you will have seen that from a distance they will simply stay watching or stay patrolling. As you move in closer if you aren't in cover they will react to you being there. It still works unit by unit, but most actions only takes effect when they "have sight" on you, and can assess you as a potential threat.

you also have to remember that tracking the location and condition of all of these units still takes a lot. Though you wouldn't have to process the actions of units farther away, simply the location and potentially any extra conditions, such as health, stamina etc, for 1000 sprites, this is a lot of data if they are all constantly moving

 

[Turbo10]

You would still have to track the actions and consequences of each singular sprite. You can say to a squad "go shoot this thing", but you would also have to tell each unit "take cover here, shoot at this, use a grenade, move to other cover, change target" etc.

It would make macro movement much less taxing, but micro movement and actions would still be processing at least 10 things, on top of the locations and, potentially, actions of others.

What you are saying is actually already done to a point for the reasons you say - to allow larger games to run whilst using fewer resources. If you have ever played a game with "larger" maps and better AI, such as ArmA or Operation Flashpoint, you will have seen that from a distance they will simply stay watching or stay patrolling. As you move in closer if you aren't in cover they will react to you being there. It still works unit by unit, but most actions only takes effect when they "have sight" on you, and can assess you as a potential threat.

you also have to remember that tracking the location and condition of all of these units still takes a lot. Though you wouldn't have to process the actions of units farther away, simply the location and potentially any extra conditions, such as health, stamina etc, for 1000 sprites, this is a lot of data if they are all constantly moving

true but if you could actually group the units and they have overall health bar,stamina etc then wouldn't it save on data?