Eight years in development, 2016's DOOM was a long awaited return for the franchise. I take a look at the AI toolchain adopted in the game, where it comes from and the secrets that reinforce the game's 'Push Forward Combat' philosophy. DOOM is one of my favourite games of the last ten years, much less 2016. So working on this piece has been a real pleasure. Thanks once again to my sources who came forward to discuss their experiences working on DOOM over the years.
Fantastic explanation. One question though: do you have AA disabled? Or is just some weird super-sampling issue? All the shots of DOOM (4) look too sharp and rough around the edges.
The ticket thing is hilarious. "I kindly submit this form to hell authority for permission to take a shot at the Doom Slayer in the next two seconds, filed in triplicate and signed by the senior demon responsible for this area".
My favorite thing I learned in this vid is the difficulty of doom isn’t governed by buff enemies, nerf player. No they give the enemies more resources to use against you which is how it should be.
I actually prefer things to be the other way. I think players shouldn't be short-changed in terms of what the AI has to offer just because they aren't playing on the highest difficulty.
@@GallowayJesse Well, if you're playing on lower difficulty, you're asking for a moderate challenge. So it's kind of logical to have AI not fighting at their full potential. In a way, it encourage players to replay the game at a higher difficulty to play the game in a more intense way. Buffing ennemis HP and lowering player HP is just artificial difficulty. You're just playing the game the same way as in lower difficulty, but it will take more time to finish it. It will tolerate less mistake from the player, but is still the same as lower difficulty.
My favorite factor of the AI animation in Doom 2016 is focus tracking; Looking at the player all the time. I hate games where the AI opponents lumber about almost at random, going through simplistic attack animations while they stare off into space, as if they aren't even truly in pursuit of the player. And when the player dies, they just keep swinging their weapons clumsily towards the corpse, not even acknowledging that it's dead. BLECH! No immersion.
Yeah, and the enemies effectively glory killing you when you die to a melee (and even some differing death animations from projectiles) is a nice touch.
Having the AI look into player direction is pretty easy from my Unreal Engine 4 Experience (2 months...). Just call SetFocalPoint on the AI controller and pass it the players location.
That's pretty cool. Didn't know it could be that simple. But then don't you also have to get animations for posture, so the pawns will orient themselves towards you, instead of just rotating in place, Minecraft style?
@@LJboochaa i think the yt channel noclip has a three piece documentary on doom 2016 and one part is dedicated to the Music with interviewing mick gordon the composer
The to me sounds like some of the best most in-depth ai you have featured thus far. I love that their ai is designed not to be noticeably cleaver but instead to act in ways that allow the player to have more fun.
12:12 "...weighted distribution of shot accuracy. Whereby ememies deliberately miss when you are moving top speed", while video shows the fireball missing a stationary player 8 our of 9 times.
A good point, though this is highly likely a customised scenario for the GDC presentation. It's easier and more obvious to display this deliberate miss percentage when the player is moving slowly, so they likely designed this example with that in mind. Perhaps on the lowest difficulty this might actually be an accurate representation (though I never play at that difficulty), but I can assure you on nightmare / ultra-nightmare that the Imps are very accurate, and even linear movements at full speed aren't often enough to dodge their fireballs.
Indeed you're correct. It's a demo put together for the GDC presentation to show how a moving character (who is moving *very* slowly in that example) will result in the imp missing its shots.
Right? I found that token bit in particular to be pretty clever. :D You can wade through hordes of demons, without being too overwhelmed. They could also probably just adjust the number of tokens available to make the game / encounter harder without straight up doing something as artificial as pumping up demon stats.
That's exactly what they do actually. There's way more available tokens for demons to utilize in harder difficulties. That's not to say they don't buff their health and damage, though, but it's not just that, and that's why it feels way better than what most games do.
@@bojackhorseman4176 In essence, it makes it feel like they are getting smarter and more aggressive on top of being tougher, instead of just pumping toughness and damage up to unreasonable levels
Oh the health is explained in the lore itself. One of the first entry about the doomslayers armor says something along lines of "having the ability to absorb argent plasma" meaning he heals and sustains himself by killing demons. He literally keeps himself alive through sheer rage and hatred. Pretty metal
He was given power by a seraphim to absorb 'power' from the demons. Thats vague enough to possibly mean hes somehow forming dead demon energy into ammo somehow
Whoa, thought it would be a long drawn-out video when I saw it was 20 minutes but it went by in a flash. Really interesting and good pacing of the talkingpoints, really good edits showing off the maps and functions of the AI. Thank you for the video :)
It's fascinating how the AI is programmed to give players a fair chance in the fight, and coordinating together to not randomly overwhelm them. This was a really interesting insight, thank you!
I love the unapologetic gameyness of Doom 2016. It actually reminds me more of character action games than modern FPS games. It has all the same hallmarks: levels designed around the ebb and flow of combat arenas, fast paced action built around maintaining the flow of action, and smartly designed AI that knows when to be passive and when to push back giving the player the illusion of overcoming overwhelming unfair advantages
What I love about this channel is you make these videos for AI enthusiasts and programmers and not your average gamer who has no idea what an FSM or an editor is. Superb work!
Totally loved the video. I've been putting quite a few hours in DOOM single player, but never expected the systems behind it to be so deep and interesting. Thanks for the amazing video ^-^
Of Course the Zombie type did. They are Zombies. They act like it. But later you get enemies who circle you and use the Terrain very cleverly. And they changed behavior on where you shot them. That is far more than other shooters did and still do.
I finished the game a couple of months ago and that's not how they worked. Melee types (both human and mutant) just ran at you waving their clubs, and shooter guys (both gangs and Authority) stuck behind cover and shot, occasionally throwing a grenade. Big gunner guys and shield guys just stayed out in the open. You could throw a grenade at them, causing them to scatter and find another cover spot but that was it. I think you're confusing the way they animate and interact with the environment with actual intelligence. RAGE had this blend of physics and animation that had enemies reacting to where you shot them and blending that with their current animation, which is still something not many games can brag about. But as for behaviours? The most they would do is shoot from the ground if they got downed.
SengirShowsU apparently I did. Anyway, my biggest problem with RAGE wasn't the AI, which still put up an OK fight, it was just that the game was boring for me.
DOOM is one of the few games in the last couple of years where I didn't stop to question 'how did they achieve X/Y/Z?'. I was too busy having fun. That's a rare moment for me these days.
i play low sens, 0.8 in game and 1600 dpi. this is a controller. you can tell by how much start-stop motion the cursor has and how it moves mostly in straight lines as opposed to smooth curves.
L T sorry, I was unclear, yeah he's clearly using a controller. I meant it's not that bad to play with, as long as you increase the sensitivity a bit, and clearly it's default in the video.
It's kinda sweet. There's this veritable symphony of discussions amongst demons (whose job is to kill you) and with the engine, all tailored around you the player so that you're having the best time they can give you. It's fascinating to see that there's so many other processes at work rather than just controls and graphics. What a great channel!
my favourite moment with DOOM ai was when i got the berserk powerup the imps started to run and we fell into a dark hole. After this i just started chasing down this group of imps in the dark killing each one. it honestly felt like i was the monster in a survival horror game, it was awesome
Great video ! I loved Doom 2016 ! Tough, I was surprised that in your pillars you mentionned "Power" because to me the "Power" given to the player is a combination of 2 others pillars : Speed and Distinctiveness. I'd say that the fourth pillar is the Level Design itself. The arenas of Doom 2016 are structured to give the player a fluid mobility and flexibility to kill the demons. And not to forget the secrets in each level. So maybe I'm wrong and I didn't fully understand what you meant when you said "Power" but I really think that the Level Design is a part of that combat pillars. Anyway, nice vid and I love your work !
Fluid mobility and flexibility. Those fit the pillar of speed & arguably power. Levels are designed for speed & easy access to your next kill to feel powerful. Level design itself is waaaay too vague to be used as a pillar. If someone asked you what Doom is about in a couple words, what would replying "level design" tell them opposed to "power" and or "speed"? Level design in Doom is very good sure but only because the level makes you feel like a parkouring demon slaying badass. I guess what I'm trying to say is level design can be drastically different depending on the game but speed and power are tangible themes that can be applied to just about anything.
Yeah, really. I was thinking that "Individuality" and "Distinctiveness" shouldn't have been separate, but rather the same pillar, as they both serve the exact same function, just for one being towards the enemies, and the other being towards the arsenal.
I think what he meant by power is that weapons feel not only distinct, but also strong. Things like being able to kill even the strongest of enemies in 1 or 2 Gauss Cannon rounds as opposed to just making all the enemies be bullet sponges.
Awesome video. I feel like I've really witnessed all these components you discussed working together in the game without knowing it, but know that you've shined the light on the matter it's really fun to think about and watch while ripping & tearing. Cheers to the ID team!
The AI is excellent in this game. I had a Hell Knight charge at me and I retreated onto a lower level. Instead of making a beeline for me, it changed up and tried to flank me from the side. Great game. Great video.
Some facts. - All games post Doom 3 are based on that code. - Doom 3 used a scripting language for AI (similar to CPP) it was interpreting events from the game code. But you needed to write it in notepad. - Sometime either Quake Wars or Rage. They kept the script for prototyping but eventually all the scrip written stuff would be compiled in its own dll called superscript. Id still sticks to the classic route if it aint broken dont fix it and it works perfectly. Acrually as far as at least Doom 3 there is code for AI that dates back to Hovertank 3D.
This is the most insightful video I've seen in a long time. Using a master token system to allow enemies to attack is genius. Again, something I could see being controlled to vary the difficulty level... the higher the difficulty, the more available tokens, the more enemies can attack the player at any one time. Brilliant, brilliant idea.
12:17 really thank you for the little yellow subs, sometimes I hear people saying something but my brain just doesnt get it. dumbing it down in little text is INCREDIBLY helpful. thanks for the awsome video. u earned a new sub dude
What was the most interesting for me in this video is that difficulty levels apparently affect way more than just health and damage of enemies, which I didn't expect. That's cool.
A couple of things stated here I did not observe during my own playtime in the game (cacodemons always tried to get into melee range with me and infighting seemed to trigger only in a few pre-programmed locations), but this is still a very informative video. Thank you.
This is the first time I have heard anyone talk about the animations in Rage....So far ahead of its time. The blending of animations makes combat so much more immersive...glancing shotgun blow to an enemy charging you..doesn't put him down but he reacts while still running. Very interesting to hear an in depth explanation of the workings, thanks! Subd
Well done. I loved this game, and have been waiting for you to come around to it ever since release! I really enjoyed learning about the wizardry behind the scenes - thank you.
You know, while neither Tower of Guns, nor the recently-released Mothergunship, have glory kills like Doom 2016, both of those games have a gameplay system that feels similar to Doom 2016's Push Forward Combat system, where enemies drop lots of pickups upon death, but those pickups disappear over time, forcing players to often embrace a style of combat where they must rush close to their enemies in order to pick up all the goodies before they disappear..
The pacman comparison is interesting, as i remember doing a game design course a few years ago, whereby we used a sprite, of a lost soul to create a pacman style game.
Found this video on August 31st 2024. Amazing that now Google just made an AI that can generate real time Doom 1 in interactive video. Crazy. Imagine playing this version of Doom with full music and sound
I literally just uninstalled doom after completing my Ultra Violent playthrough..... [hits install] (side note: great intro, Tommy!!! Very well edited! I may have watched the first 90 seconds several times over)
As someone who's attempting an Ultra Nightmare playthough this was an extremely insightful episode and how the hoards of hell work underneath the hood.
Great video and very informative. However I think you forgot to mention that Doom 2016s AI actively tracks the player and “predicts “ where the player will go next and attack in predicted location instead of attacking the player. For example hell knights will sometimes do a leaping ground slam towards where the player is going thus predicting the players trajectory and direction they are going. Same goes with imp fireballs. They attack in the predicted location so that if the player continues going in that direction at the same speed they will 100% land the hit.
Imps have a pretty two-way standard when it comes to combat. Some will try to get range on you, some will run up and try to slash you. Cacodemons will always try to get closer so they can use their teeth, which does significantly more damage.
I love the ai in rage. On the higher difficulty they will does more and even throw your boomerang back if they catch it. Jump off walls to avoid your gunfire and boomerangs etc.
I found that in the footage used, the player doesnt do a whole lot of pushing forward. It looks like hes constantly keeping distance to shoot and only come close with glory kills. When I play Doom, I constantly run towards, jump over or on top of demons(for glory kills). While circle strafing to dodge. And stand still as little as possible. So I can maintain the pushing forward method as I feel is supposed to. But then again its up to everyone how they want to play.
Designing a game around specific core elements is interesting. I've never designed a full game beginning to end, but I've thought of plenty of situations that I thought would be challenging and entertaining, and usually from a few sample sequences shown to me, I can think of more that fit the theme. I'd think games should be designed around generating those situations, instead of coding an AI that you hope gets close enough to that. Then again, I've never released a blockbuster game. Overall, I didn't enjoy Doom 2016 as much as I was hoping - I didn't play Doom 1 and 2 as a run and gun - I was cautious with my fighting instead of rushing forward like a football player. But I attribute my difficulties with Doom 2016 to playing with a PS4 controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. I just can't feel the environment with a PS4 controller the way I can with a mouse an keyboard. The controller makes me feel like I'm steering a bike instead of moving with my feet. If I ever get a good enough PC box to play, I'll probably get a PC copy of the game and try it that way.
I remember a video called Call of Dooty parodying what Doom would look like if it adopted all the most annoying treats of contemporary military shooters. I wonder if id Software saw that and reflected upon what they were working on at the time...
That was really fascinating and interesting. I'm always amazed at the amount of technology and effort that goes into making games like this. Really amazing. Thanks.
Hey man might be a shot in the dark but love you understanding and passion for the AI in games like Doom and how epic they are. Myself and a few other nooby but passionate developers are working on a passion project that we would like to incorperate AI wildlife and monsters within the game like Doom. If you fancy just hearing me out on it and fancy working on somthing like this please feel free to hmu.
Excellent video. Really interesting seeing the interactions of the different systems such as the Animweb and comparing that to the final result. Keep up the good work :)
Wow this is an awesome video and I’ll be checking the rest of the Chanel out! I’m studying CS right now an I like how in depth you got about the AI decision process. The token system I thought was especially interesting!
I never realised that Doom's AI had some much going on with it. I guess it's like most things in entertainment, you don't really notice it if it's working well, you just know that the overall experience was really enjoyable.
This video is literally two GDC talks summarised plus a bevvy of information that I researched by interviewing developers who worked on the game. If you watch the GDC talks there is no reference to how the AI actually works in DOOM. Were it not for the interviews with the developers, I wouldn't have bothered making this video, given the GDC talks - whilst very interesting - didn't tell me what I wanted to know.
@@AIandGames You know what, fair enough. You clearly put the work in and it shows in the polish of your content. I recently watched the gdc talk for the millionth time and I suppose hearing the same concepts explained in a very similar way rubbed me the wrong way initially. That said, your videos are far more digestible and better stated than the sources you use.
Amazing! Nothing is trash - and everything that a project hinges on are the fundamental core concepts that the game must keep in context. (Push-Foward Combat, etc) Even a bad game design, if a new team can fully extract the best parts of that old game design and concept, can create something fantastic (Glory kill mechanic in "DOOM 4", into DOOM 2016). The DOOM 4 concept could be created into something great as well, but the fundamental core gameplay mechanics and game design would need to be reorganized. But it could never be "DOOM", it would have to be something else entirely.
TO ANYONE WHO READS THIS: if you want to truly feel the idea of combat chess in action nightmare mode will make you realize how important it is to pick your target wisey and where to possition yourself in battle and where to go next it's why i love playing ULTIMATE nightmare mode so much it requries to think about all this and more like the animations of your opponents as if a hell demon is charging a big plaster shot or mini spraying pelets at you this changes how you need to move just to avoid taking as little damage as possible from that one dude
Nice to see respect for Rage 1 which is actually a very good game. It never really recovered from the not-working drivers fiasco on PC at launch, which is a shame.
First video I've seen of you'res... Love your breakdowns and technical discussions about the game.... I'll be subscribing and watching more... Keep it up.
Eight years in development, 2016's DOOM was a long awaited return for the franchise. I take a look at the AI toolchain adopted in the game, where it comes from and the secrets that reinforce the game's 'Push Forward Combat' philosophy.
DOOM is one of my favourite games of the last ten years, much less 2016. So working on this piece has been a real pleasure. Thanks once again to my sources who came forward to discuss their experiences working on DOOM over the years.
Great video. Even have watched the GDC presentations, you added in some information I wasn't aware of.
I loved the video.
I wonder if it's possible to modify this token system to allow for more demons to attack you at a given time.
Stop using the word "Fun". Quantize Fun please! You are suppose to be analytical not objective.
Fantastic explanation. One question though: do you have AA disabled? Or is just some weird super-sampling issue? All the shots of DOOM (4) look too sharp and rough around the edges.
Even the dev team hated what they were working on; “Call of Doomy,” amazing how they realized it and made something incredible.
The trick is convincing the people in charge.
The ticket thing is hilarious. "I kindly submit this form to hell authority for permission to take a shot at the Doom Slayer in the next two seconds, filed in triplicate and signed by the senior demon responsible for this area".
And then a Hell Knight just comes in and streals the token.
"Gimme that ya lil S&*T!"
@Alex let's face it, would it be a 'hell' if there wasn't?
@@Warhamer116 Bureaucracy is one of the greatest breeding grounds for evil there is.
@@2yoyoyo1Unplugged I bet the bureaucracy in hell is still easier to deal with than the DMV.
My favorite thing I learned in this vid is the difficulty of doom isn’t governed by buff enemies, nerf player. No they give the enemies more resources to use against you which is how it should be.
They also buff enemies and nerf the player
Still, its good to know that we can start seeing buffed ai these days (civ5 diety im talking about you)
Resident Evil 7's Madhouse difficulty does both and really well. It's the same area, but different encounters, and you're weaker.
@@distantsea harder enemy
Less encounters
I actually prefer things to be the other way. I think players shouldn't be short-changed in terms of what the AI has to offer just because they aren't playing on the highest difficulty.
@@GallowayJesse Well, if you're playing on lower difficulty, you're asking for a moderate challenge. So it's kind of logical to have AI not fighting at their full potential. In a way, it encourage players to replay the game at a higher difficulty to play the game in a more intense way.
Buffing ennemis HP and lowering player HP is just artificial difficulty. You're just playing the game the same way as in lower difficulty, but it will take more time to finish it. It will tolerate less mistake from the player, but is still the same as lower difficulty.
I had no idea that the demons used attack tokens. It sounds like a fantastic mechanic and worked well in the game.
My favorite factor of the AI animation in Doom 2016 is focus tracking; Looking at the player all the time. I hate games where the AI opponents lumber about almost at random, going through simplistic attack animations while they stare off into space, as if they aren't even truly in pursuit of the player. And when the player dies, they just keep swinging their weapons clumsily towards the corpse, not even acknowledging that it's dead. BLECH! No immersion.
Yeah, and the enemies effectively glory killing you when you die to a melee (and even some differing death animations from projectiles) is a nice touch.
Video just outlines how much work goes into making this game fun/amazing that most people won't appreciate.
Having the AI look into player direction is pretty easy from my Unreal Engine 4 Experience (2 months...). Just call SetFocalPoint on the AI controller and pass it the players location.
That's pretty cool. Didn't know it could be that simple. But then don't you also have to get animations for posture, so the pawns will orient themselves towards you, instead of just rotating in place, Minecraft style?
I always thought that enemies attack player corpses because they just hate us that much. :P
I think it’s the music in Doom that makes me want to keep going forward... makes me feel like a bad ass with the music blaring in the background
AHeroAlmost combat design+ music, perfect recipe
After finishing the game I actually didnt like it that much, but music was the one great thing about it lol
I think the music design in Doom is he best I have heard in any game.
Kupo Warkson pretty sure some guy made a video about the doom soundtrack that is fucking great
@@LJboochaa i think the yt channel noclip has a three piece documentary on doom 2016 and one part is dedicated to the Music with interviewing mick gordon the composer
The to me sounds like some of the best most in-depth ai you have featured thus far. I love that their ai is designed not to be noticeably cleaver but instead to act in ways that allow the player to have more fun.
Can we take a second to appreciate the masterpiece that is dooms soundtrack?
Oh yeah yeah
@ItmustbeF8 you forgot titans realm
@@clintonbyers930 and rip & tear
Mick Gordon the 🐐
Aand its even better with Doom Eternal!
12:12 "...weighted distribution of shot accuracy. Whereby ememies deliberately miss when you are moving top speed", while video shows the fireball missing a stationary player 8 our of 9 times.
A good point, though this is highly likely a customised scenario for the GDC presentation. It's easier and more obvious to display this deliberate miss percentage when the player is moving slowly, so they likely designed this example with that in mind. Perhaps on the lowest difficulty this might actually be an accurate representation (though I never play at that difficulty), but I can assure you on nightmare / ultra-nightmare that the Imps are very accurate, and even linear movements at full speed aren't often enough to dodge their fireballs.
Indeed you're correct. It's a demo put together for the GDC presentation to show how a moving character (who is moving *very* slowly in that example) will result in the imp missing its shots.
@@dml09 I know how you feel, if anything on those difficulties they will plan where your gonna move and yeet a fireball *in front* of you.
The idea of the tokens is really good!
Right? I found that token bit in particular to be pretty clever. :D You can wade through hordes of demons, without being too overwhelmed. They could also probably just adjust the number of tokens available to make the game / encounter harder without straight up doing something as artificial as pumping up demon stats.
That's exactly what they do actually.
There's way more available tokens for demons to utilize in harder difficulties. That's not to say they don't buff their health and damage, though, but it's not just that, and that's why it feels way better than what most games do.
@@bojackhorseman4176 In essence, it makes it feel like they are getting smarter and more aggressive on top of being tougher, instead of just pumping toughness and damage up to unreasonable levels
That was unexpectedly AWESOME. I wasn't expecting to understand let alone enjoy this break down of the ai. Thank you so very much!
What the fuck are u holding
A very tiny pumpkin.
+Chester Yazwinski
LMAO!
Who is hyped for Doom Eternal?. also dont question why ammo and health drops from demons, games are not meant to make sense.
Games don't have to make sense if its in service to good game design, rather than needleless realism
Oh the health is explained in the lore itself. One of the first entry about the doomslayers armor says something along lines of "having the ability to absorb argent plasma" meaning he heals and sustains himself by killing demons. He literally keeps himself alive through sheer rage and hatred. Pretty metal
By attaching ammo and health to demon death, it serves the Push-Forward! principle. Wanna live? Gotta kill!
Theg ame mechaic is obvious, iam talking about how it applies to lore.
He was given power by a seraphim to absorb 'power' from the demons. Thats vague enough to possibly mean hes somehow forming dead demon energy into ammo somehow
Whoa, thought it would be a long drawn-out video when I saw it was 20 minutes but it went by in a flash. Really interesting and good pacing of the talkingpoints, really good edits showing off the maps and functions of the AI. Thank you for the video :)
It's fascinating how the AI is programmed to give players a fair chance in the fight, and coordinating together to not randomly overwhelm them. This was a really interesting insight, thank you!
I love the unapologetic gameyness of Doom 2016. It actually reminds me more of character action games than modern FPS games. It has all the same hallmarks: levels designed around the ebb and flow of combat arenas, fast paced action built around maintaining the flow of action, and smartly designed AI that knows when to be passive and when to push back giving the player the illusion of overcoming overwhelming unfair advantages
"Demons check the environment to not clip through walls and will miss more when you move."
Cyber Mancubus: "What is missing?"
Baron: "What are walls?"
What I love about this channel is you make these videos for AI enthusiasts and programmers and not your average gamer who has no idea what an FSM or an editor is. Superb work!
Totally loved the video. I've been putting quite a few hours in DOOM single player, but never expected the systems behind it to be so deep and interesting.
Thanks for the amazing video ^-^
Interesting. It looks like the original Doom 4 would be a terrible game, filled with cliches. Instead of good ol' rip and tear.
The call of doomy would have turned out to be a forgettable brown filter cod clone.
Oh my god i can't wait to repeatedly chainsaw through Arch Viles.
restlessfrager imagine chainsawing the arcnotron
Summoner's are so much I like them, I feel like they are the new Arch Vile's.
and I can't wait to crucible sword their asses.
I have a feeling the Arch-Vile is going to be a boss fight.
@@thelivingglitch307 the least they don't burn your ass down all the time
Never understood the hate Rage got. The AI was so much better than anything else we got in other shooters.
Not really? It was either guys who shot from cover or melee mutants that b line towards you.
Of Course the Zombie type did. They are Zombies. They act like it. But later you get enemies who circle you and use the Terrain very cleverly. And they changed behavior on where you shot them. That is far more than other shooters did and still do.
I finished the game a couple of months ago and that's not how they worked. Melee types (both human and mutant) just ran at you waving their clubs, and shooter guys (both gangs and Authority) stuck behind cover and shot, occasionally throwing a grenade. Big gunner guys and shield guys just stayed out in the open. You could throw a grenade at them, causing them to scatter and find another cover spot but that was it. I think you're confusing the way they animate and interact with the environment with actual intelligence. RAGE had this blend of physics and animation that had enemies reacting to where you shot them and blending that with their current animation, which is still something not many games can brag about. But as for behaviours? The most they would do is shoot from the ground if they got downed.
Then you played a different game than me. It was not F.E.A.R. Level AI but close.
SengirShowsU apparently I did. Anyway, my biggest problem with RAGE wasn't the AI, which still put up an OK fight, it was just that the game was boring for me.
Awesome video, you even talked about the awesome Imp behaviour
Great video. There are so many interesting things going on here. Started Doom twice and never got around to finishing it. I need to try again!
DOOM is one of the few games in the last couple of years where I didn't stop to question 'how did they achieve X/Y/Z?'. I was too busy having fun. That's a rare moment for me these days.
Rip and tear until it is finished
Damn, D00M on a controller looks like Doom Slayer is wearing a straight jacket.
Stadium ARTs he's just got the sensitivity on low mate, controllers aren't that bad for doom
i play low sens, 0.8 in game and 1600 dpi. this is a controller. you can tell by how much start-stop motion the cursor has and how it moves mostly in straight lines as opposed to smooth curves.
Stadium ARTs depends who is playing with the controller
L T sorry, I was unclear, yeah he's clearly using a controller. I meant it's not that bad to play with, as long as you increase the sensitivity a bit, and clearly it's default in the video.
TopDog Stargazer nah the input method definitely matters
The DOOM GDC talks were really nice, so I was waiting for this
It's kinda sweet.
There's this veritable symphony of discussions amongst demons (whose job is to kill you) and with the engine, all tailored around you the player so that you're having the best time they can give you.
It's fascinating to see that there's so many other processes at work rather than just controls and graphics.
What a great channel!
my favourite moment with DOOM ai was when i got the berserk powerup the imps started to run and we fell into a dark hole. After this i just started chasing down this group of imps in the dark killing each one. it honestly felt like i was the monster in a survival horror game, it was awesome
It's amazing how many different systems are all working under the hood to make this game so fun.
Excellent presentation of analysis in conjunction with developer feedback, always find these videos both amusing and enlightening.
Great video ! I loved Doom 2016 !
Tough, I was surprised that in your pillars you mentionned "Power" because to me the "Power" given to the player is a combination of 2 others pillars : Speed and Distinctiveness. I'd say that the fourth pillar is the Level Design itself. The arenas of Doom 2016 are structured to give the player a fluid mobility and flexibility to kill the demons. And not to forget the secrets in each level.
So maybe I'm wrong and I didn't fully understand what you meant when you said "Power" but I really think that the Level Design is a part of that combat pillars.
Anyway, nice vid and I love your work !
Fluid mobility and flexibility. Those fit the pillar of speed & arguably power. Levels are designed for speed & easy access to your next kill to feel powerful. Level design itself is waaaay too vague to be used as a pillar. If someone asked you what Doom is about in a couple words, what would replying "level design" tell them opposed to "power" and or "speed"? Level design in Doom is very good sure but only because the level makes you feel like a parkouring demon slaying badass.
I guess what I'm trying to say is level design can be drastically different depending on the game but speed and power are tangible themes that can be applied to just about anything.
Yeah, really. I was thinking that "Individuality" and "Distinctiveness" shouldn't have been separate, but rather the same pillar, as they both serve the exact same function, just for one being towards the enemies, and the other being towards the arsenal.
I think what he meant by power is that weapons feel not only distinct, but also strong. Things like being able to kill even the strongest of enemies in 1 or 2 Gauss Cannon rounds as opposed to just making all the enemies be bullet sponges.
Awesome video. I feel like I've really witnessed all these components you discussed working together in the game without knowing it, but know that you've shined the light on the matter it's really fun to think about and watch while ripping & tearing. Cheers to the ID team!
The AI is excellent in this game.
I had a Hell Knight charge at me and I retreated onto a lower level.
Instead of making a beeline for me,
it changed up and tried to flank me from the side.
Great game. Great video.
Some facts.
- All games post Doom 3 are based on that code.
- Doom 3 used a scripting language for AI (similar to CPP) it was interpreting events from the game code. But you needed to write it in notepad.
- Sometime either Quake Wars or Rage. They kept the script for prototyping but eventually all the scrip written stuff would be compiled in its own dll called superscript.
Id still sticks to the classic route if it aint broken dont fix it and it works perfectly.
Acrually as far as at least Doom 3 there is code for AI that dates back to Hovertank 3D.
I had no idea about the token system, that's actually quite genious.
This is the most insightful video I've seen in a long time. Using a master token system to allow enemies to attack is genius. Again, something I could see being controlled to vary the difficulty level... the higher the difficulty, the more available tokens, the more enemies can attack the player at any one time. Brilliant, brilliant idea.
HFSM is exactly how decorate works in zdoom too. cool to know.
DooM 2016 - Feel like an unstoppable force
DooM Eternal - Earn your status as an unstoppable force
14:09 Nice editing.
Great video though,I genuinely learned a lot,thank you!
12:17 really thank you for the little yellow subs, sometimes I hear people saying something but my brain just doesnt get it. dumbing it down in little text is INCREDIBLY helpful. thanks for the awsome video.
u earned a new sub dude
What was the most interesting for me in this video is that difficulty levels apparently affect way more than just health and damage of enemies, which I didn't expect. That's cool.
Absolutely criminal this only has 93k views. What a great video and explanation of what makes DOOM's AI so great.
A couple of things stated here I did not observe during my own playtime in the game (cacodemons always tried to get into melee range with me and infighting seemed to trigger only in a few pre-programmed locations), but this is still a very informative video.
Thank you.
I had no idea such complicated systems run in the background. thx for the video
This is the first time I have heard anyone talk about the animations in Rage....So far ahead of its time. The blending of animations makes combat so much more immersive...glancing shotgun blow to an enemy charging you..doesn't put him down but he reacts while still running. Very interesting to hear an in depth explanation of the workings, thanks! Subd
I love the technical analysis. Lots of youtubers are afraid to get too tech-y, but this is amazing. Keep up the good work!
Fascinating. This is one of my favorite games and it''s no wonder the gameplay runs so smoothly and intuitively!
Well done. I loved this game, and have been waiting for you to come around to it ever since release! I really enjoyed learning about the wizardry behind the scenes - thank you.
Can't wait for "hell on earth"... they should show something at Qcon
They already confirmed they will be showing DOOM Eternal in Qcon
There's gameplay reveal on 10th of August.
You asked, and Id delivered.
@@bigbaddymike3101
Yeah right off the bat they show a grappling hook and that's all I need to see to know it'll be good.
livid sphincter Only id could concoct a shotgun grappling hook designed to pierce through demons like butter and use them as an anchor point.
You know, while neither Tower of Guns, nor the recently-released Mothergunship, have glory kills like Doom 2016, both of those games have a gameplay system that feels similar to Doom 2016's Push Forward Combat system, where enemies drop lots of pickups upon death, but those pickups disappear over time, forcing players to often embrace a style of combat where they must rush close to their enemies in order to pick up all the goodies before they disappear..
Brilliant video! I had no idea the amount of work that went into the AI in DOOM. Thank you for this!
That intro by itself was enough for me to give a like. I'm only a minute in and I love the editing and voiceover.
DÜÜM
The pacman comparison is interesting, as i remember doing a game design course a few years ago, whereby we used a sprite, of a lost soul to create a pacman style game.
Found this video on August 31st 2024.
Amazing that now Google just made an AI that can generate real time Doom 1 in interactive video. Crazy. Imagine playing this version of Doom with full music and sound
As a starting programmer and game dev I am impressed and fascinated with dooms ai and it makes me wonder what else we can do with those old tools
WOW!!! , it's really amazing. I am the programmer of the mechanics of the enemies and your video has helped me a lot. Congratulations.
Lmao damn buddy you contradicted yourself in a single sentence
I literally just uninstalled doom after completing my Ultra Violent playthrough..... [hits install]
(side note: great intro, Tommy!!! Very well edited! I may have watched the first 90 seconds several times over)
As someone who's attempting an Ultra Nightmare playthough this was an extremely insightful episode and how the hoards of hell work underneath the hood.
Good, concise breakdown of the game's AI . I'll be checking more of your vids soon. Cheers Tommy !
This is genius. I'm so happy i decided to look into these kinds of things
You guys nailed the starting to this video, 10/10
The editing of the intro was incredible!
Fantastic video and some great insights behind the game. Thank you for taking the time to explain this in an easily digestible fashion.
Great video and very informative. However I think you forgot to mention that Doom 2016s AI actively tracks the player and “predicts “ where the player will go next and attack in predicted location instead of attacking the player. For example hell knights will sometimes do a leaping ground slam towards where the player is going thus predicting the players trajectory and direction they are going. Same goes with imp fireballs. They attack in the predicted location so that if the player continues going in that direction at the same speed they will 100% land the hit.
Great video. The best AI goes unnoticed, and this helped me appreciate the effort that went into making this game work so well.
Imps have a pretty two-way standard when it comes to combat. Some will try to get range on you, some will run up and try to slash you. Cacodemons will always try to get closer so they can use their teeth, which does significantly more damage.
I love the ai in rage. On the higher difficulty they will does more and even throw your boomerang back if they catch it. Jump off walls to avoid your gunfire and boomerangs etc.
I found that in the footage used, the player doesnt do a whole lot of pushing forward. It looks like hes constantly keeping distance to shoot and only come close with glory kills. When I play Doom, I constantly run towards, jump over or on top of demons(for glory kills). While circle strafing to dodge. And stand still as little as possible. So I can maintain the pushing forward method as I feel is supposed to. But then again its up to everyone how they want to play.
Designing a game around specific core elements is interesting. I've never designed a full game beginning to end, but I've thought of plenty of situations that I thought would be challenging and entertaining, and usually from a few sample sequences shown to me, I can think of more that fit the theme. I'd think games should be designed around generating those situations, instead of coding an AI that you hope gets close enough to that. Then again, I've never released a blockbuster game. Overall, I didn't enjoy Doom 2016 as much as I was hoping - I didn't play Doom 1 and 2 as a run and gun - I was cautious with my fighting instead of rushing forward like a football player. But I attribute my difficulties with Doom 2016 to playing with a PS4 controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. I just can't feel the environment with a PS4 controller the way I can with a mouse an keyboard. The controller makes me feel like I'm steering a bike instead of moving with my feet. If I ever get a good enough PC box to play, I'll probably get a PC copy of the game and try it that way.
I'm not into programing and stuff, but this one blew my mind. I wish someone would make a doom environment design analysis as well in this quality.
Great video man! Love these types of exploration/review examinations. Cant wait until Eternal!
I can't wait to see some kind of ''scare'' A.I on doom eternal, like demons running from the slayer when he's enraged
But demons aren't supposed to be scared of anything, because it's a demon... If they were scared of doom guy then doom guy is the demon lmfao
Wow this is perfect! And perfect timing too! Thank you so much!
I remember a video called Call of Dooty parodying what Doom would look like if it adopted all the most annoying treats of contemporary military shooters. I wonder if id Software saw that and reflected upon what they were working on at the time...
This was a good, informative video :)
I don't recall 20 minutes passing this fast before!
That was really fascinating and interesting. I'm always amazed at the amount of technology and effort that goes into making games like this. Really amazing. Thanks.
FEAR is a great example of using finite-state machines in ai.
Hey man might be a shot in the dark but love you understanding and passion for the AI in games like Doom and how epic they are. Myself and a few other nooby but passionate developers are working on a passion project that we would like to incorperate AI wildlife and monsters within the game like Doom. If you fancy just hearing me out on it and fancy working on somthing like this please feel free to hmu.
Doom 2016 was and is epic goodness.. One of the few games that manages to deliver both awesome gameplay and awesome graphics.
great video, made me appreciate this masterpiece even more than i already have
Excellent video. Really interesting seeing the interactions of the different systems such as the Animweb and comparing that to the final result. Keep up the good work :)
This makes me think of Mass Effect 1. How its weapons didn't have ammo, the player levels etc.
I absolutely love this video, oh my god
Gonna watch all of them!
HOOOOOOO BOY, gtg grab some popcorn.
Wow this is an awesome video and I’ll be checking the rest of the Chanel out! I’m studying CS right now an I like how in depth you got about the AI decision process. The token system I thought was especially interesting!
Dude while i was watching this i was amazed by every demon,they are really dinamic and really smart
I never realised that Doom's AI had some much going on with it.
I guess it's like most things in entertainment, you don't really notice it if it's working well, you just know that the overall experience was really enjoyable.
The sound the skull makes when it's being stomped, sounds like the Intervention from MW2.
This video is literally just the GDC talk condensed into 20 minutes with good production value.
This video is literally two GDC talks summarised plus a bevvy of information that I researched by interviewing developers who worked on the game. If you watch the GDC talks there is no reference to how the AI actually works in DOOM. Were it not for the interviews with the developers, I wouldn't have bothered making this video, given the GDC talks - whilst very interesting - didn't tell me what I wanted to know.
@@AIandGames You know what, fair enough. You clearly put the work in and it shows in the polish of your content. I recently watched the gdc talk for the millionth time and I suppose hearing the same concepts explained in a very similar way rubbed me the wrong way initially. That said, your videos are far more digestible and better stated than the sources you use.
Amazing! Nothing is trash - and everything that a project hinges on are the fundamental core concepts that the game must keep in context. (Push-Foward Combat, etc) Even a bad game design, if a new team can fully extract the best parts of that old game design and concept, can create something fantastic (Glory kill mechanic in "DOOM 4", into DOOM 2016). The DOOM 4 concept could be created into something great as well, but the fundamental core gameplay mechanics and game design would need to be reorganized. But it could never be "DOOM", it would have to be something else entirely.
Dooms combat pillars just make up one big pillar and it is that the player feels
-Power
-Indiviuality
-Speed
-Distinctiveness.
TO ANYONE WHO READS THIS: if you want to truly feel the idea of combat chess in action nightmare mode will make you realize how important it is to pick your target wisey and where to possition yourself in battle and where to go next it's why i love playing ULTIMATE nightmare mode so much it requries to think about all this and more like the animations of your opponents as if a hell demon is charging a big plaster shot or mini spraying pelets at you this changes how you need to move just to avoid taking as little damage as possible from that one dude
Nice to see respect for Rage 1 which is actually a very good game. It never really recovered from the not-working drivers fiasco on PC at launch, which is a shame.
I'm a programmer and a chess teacher. Loved your references to chess in DooM.
Interesting how a lot of the ideas for the original Doom 2016 made it into Eternal (ARC, consumed Earth, the resistance, etc)
I do not know crap about ai programming but i was impressed by the demons shooting and going not where i am, but where i am going.
First video I've seen of you'res... Love your breakdowns and technical discussions about the game.... I'll be subscribing and watching more... Keep it up.
That was hugely informative. Great video!!
Beautiful. Great work mate!