Behavior Tree Creation for Enemy Artificial Intelligence Behaviors

Enemy AI Behavior Tree and Movement in Action

Part II: Artifact Details:

• Enemy Artificial Intelligence

• First-person shooter with Enemy combatants in a warehouse yard

• Tools used for creation were Unreal Engine 4, Visual Studio, Github for source control 

• Highlighted skills include Artificial Intelligence via Behavior Trees and Level Design

Part III: Reflection

Process Description: The process of creating the artifact took a little while to materialize. The course offered several ways to implement C++ programming instead of solely Blueprints. It prompted me to think of objects and behaviors I wanted in a scene.

I used the skills learned throughout the course that included the use of Microsoft Visual Studios and C++ programming to create the initial artificial intelligence behaviors. For polish I used some instructor feedback and created the behavior tree to replace the behaviors.

Learned: This was my first foray into C++ programming instead of only Blueprints. I learned methods for creating basic objects and functions. As I was improving it, I learned behavior tree functionality as I had no experience with it. This allowed me to gain the knowledge of Blackboard and Behavior Trees.

Additional polishing taught me to consider feedback even when projects are over and make the improvements.

Challenges: The challenges I faced were never having used C++ programming at the time within the Unreal Engine framework. I was fortunate that I had classes in other programming languages and the tutorials provided a fairly easy way to pick up on the new syntax. Following the tutorials allowed me to learn tips and tricks to mold my project as desired.

Feedback: I incorporated feedback from my initial posting of my artifact. This was barebones with minimal functionality. Several bugs were still in the project and I had to weed out where the issues were. I was able to solve the issues and the player now dies and respawns when health reaches zero.

Improvements: The artifact has been improved in a number of ways. The scene has been polished to remove several unnecessary functions and objects. The artificial intelligence via behavior tree provides a much easier way to manipulate enemy behavior versus making changes within Visual Studios. The major bugs have been removed and additional level design polishing will take place.