What this book covers
Chapter 1, Getting Started with AI Game Development, gently introduces you to the realm of AI game development, starting with an understanding of the basics of AI behavior.
Chapter 2, Introducing the Unreal Engine AI System, introduces you to the main AI elements included in the Unreal Engine Gameplay Framework, such as behavior trees, the Navigation System, and the Perception System.
Chapter 3, Presenting the Unreal Engine Navigation System, introduces you to the powerful navigation capabilities within Unreal Engine, including key concepts such as navigation mesh generation and pathfinding algorithms.
Chapter 4, Setting Up a Navigation Mesh, covers essential practical techniques for implementing a navigation mesh using Unreal Engine, by starting with a concrete project.
Chapter 5, Improving Agent Navigation, introduces you to integration algorithms that will optimize the movement and interaction of AI agents within complex environments.
Chapter 6, Optimizing the Navigation System, presents some strategies and techniques to maximize the performance and efficiency of the Navigation System within Unreal Engine.
Chapter 7, Introducing Behavior Trees, introduces you to the powerful and versatile behavior tree system within the Unreal Engine framework.
Chapter 8, Setting Up a Behavior Tree, guides you through the essential steps of creating and configuring a behavior tree to drive an AI agent within Unreal Engine.
Chapter 9, Extending Behavior Trees, provides an in-depth exploration of advanced techniques for extending the capabilities of behavior trees to create more sophisticated AI behaviors and interactions.
Chapter 10, Improving Agents with the Perception System, shows how to leverage the power of the Unreal Engine Perception System to enhance the responsiveness of AI agents within virtual environments.
Chapter 11, Understanding the Environment Query System, provides a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the Environment Query System within the Unreal Engine framework.
Chapter 12, Using Hierarchical State Machines with State Trees, introduces you to the StateTree system for implementing hierarchical state machines within Unreal Engine.
Chapter 13, Implementing Data-Oriented Calculations with Mass, introduces the MassEntity framework, through which you will be able to implement efficient and scalable data-oriented calculations.
Chapter 14, Implementing Interactable Elements with Smart Objects, introduces smart objects and shows how to integrate them in an Unreal Engine environment.
Appendix - Understanding C++ in Unreal Engine, delves into the fundamental concepts and principles of using the C++ programming language within the Unreal Engine framework.
