It's crucial for a stealth-based game to maintain a sense of realism, especially with AI interactions. AI perception models have grown past a vision cone and hearing radius, which means they need to be programmed to react the same way a human would to a wide range of stimuli in a variety of simulations.
In this 2014 GDC session, Ubisoft Toronto's Martin Walsh discusses the AI stealth models used on Splinter Cell: Blacklist and the reason for incorporating them, as well as highlighting issues that came up during development.
Walsh describes Ubisoft's overall strategy for giving consistent feedback to the player while maintaining realism, citing the importance of realistic perception and behavior from AI but also acknowledging that players need clear feedback to understand the model and the state of the AI.
AI programmers may appreciate that they can now watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.