Game AI Pro 2

Chapter 28

Modeling Perception and Awareness in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist

Martin Walsh

28.1 Introduction

With many games incorporating stealth elements and generally trying to increase fidelity, having solid perception and awareness models for nonplayer characters (NPCs) is becoming increasingly important. This chapter discusses four types of perception and awareness that were modeled in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist: visual, auditory, environmental, and social/contextual. Before jumping in, we’ll present the four characteristics that we believe these models need to display to be successful: fairness, consistency, good feedback, and intelligence.

28.1.1 Fairness

In a game with stealth, getting detected can be the difference ...