At any given time, there are about 1 million different people playing Bli ard’s StarCraft II online. Millions of units and buildings are destroyed in heated battles around the globe in thousands of games. The point we are trying to make is that SC2 might one day — if the stars align — be more popular than the hordes of kiddies who still play Counter-Strike 1.6.
The cool thing about SC2 is that users are allowed to develop different mods and hacks for the game, creating some awesome content for users across the globe to enjoy. It is remarkable to see some of the creativity of people that are working on the game. Which leads to probably one of the most interesting we have seen: an automated AI SC2 player that is created to beat human opponents on its own. Using some old-school, screen-scraping ingenuity, the AI uses graphical APIs to interact with the game rather than the APIs provided by Bli ard for SC2. In essence, this bot takes rapid pictures of the game and reacts to what it sees. It can keep track of how many resources it has gathered so that it knows if it has enough to build a unit or building, then makes a decision based on that information.
Created by Stanford graduate student Matt Fisher, the SC2 AI uses the D3D9 API Interceptor project (which Fisher helped with) and a lot of his experience with graphics coding, his AI player is capable of making 500 decisions per minute, which equates to around 2,000 actions per minute (APM) in combat. The best human players, by comparison, are only capable of around 300 APM, though their actions are a whole lot more intelligent than Fisher’s AI bot.
To date Matt has tested the AI against all of the “non-insane” computer opponents available in the game, securing victory against each one. The goal is to get the AI ready to defeat human players on Battle.net, and see where the AI lands as far as rankings go. Very similar to chess programs, Fisher is seeking to create the “grand master” AI for SC2. It would certainly be exciting to see his creation go up against some of the best in the professional gaming circuit.
Read more at Matt Fisher’s site or watch the video of the AI below
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