Athena AI: A Utility AI framework.

[misty thistle]

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/athena-ai-a-utility-ai-framework

Athena AI is a utility AI framework for emergent and advanced AI behavior made entirely in C++, that you can plug into UE5.

With the system, you give your NPCs tasks and update their considerations (data/knowledge they have) so they can choose the best task to do at any given time.

You can than push them towards some tasks over others by modifying their consideration curves, which is how you can make an enemy more aggressive, cowardly or prefer healing allies over attacking.

It has all the usual Utility AI components (scoring curves, tasks, etc) plus my own takes on it: data-driven agent presets, data services, direct integration with Unreal's Behavior Trees, etc.

The system comes with various demo levels with different use cases and a full user manual for easy setup and use.
You can also test it with the playable demo!

Here's the latest video on the system, an RTS demo: https://youtu.be/iuw3IgX0YzY

I appreciate any feedback you may have! 🙂

[south hare]

Looking forward to hearing and seeing more

[misty thistle]

Thank you! Will release it on the marketplace soon.

[plain ocean]

It looks very exciting for sure

[misty thistle]

Thank you!

[fair vine]

you should add stuff like ai flanking

[misty thistle]

Good idea! The system itself is a framework though, the actions or tasks can be anything you want (made in BP). The system chooses the best one based on your character's knowledge/considerations.

[misty thistle]

Hi, I've tested the system with 100 agents and here's the result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2ViU88O2oU

[fair vine]

@misty thistle hi, this looks mega interesting. I wanna get it but I gotta ask, would it be possible for ai to see the player from a long range? I kinda wanna make a realistic fps with long range combat

[misty thistle]

Yes, that depends on your settings for Unreal's AI Perception.
What kind of range are you thinking of?

[fair vine]

Not like patch of snow range

But maybe far enough where you'd have some trouble seeing

[misty thistle]

I think for that kind of range and if this is a Player vs NPCs thing, it would be better to implement a custom solution, like having the player detecting NPCs instead and alerting them, so you don't have lots of NPCs with huge AI Perception ranges.

[misty thistle]

Small teaser of what I'm working on! It's a Life Sim kind of thing where NPCs will eat/drink, have fun or sleep based on their needs. They chose what to do automatically using the system.

[fair vine]

I have a wacky idea, what about the ability for them to build settlements? basically when they have no set home they can work to build one themselves

[south hare]

Bit of a request for an extreme stress test. Can you remake Nuts.wad with this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNZem0jAAc0

[misty thistle]

It could be used for that. Choosing what to build and where would be the tricky part though. Deciding to build is pretty straight forward since it's just another need they have

[misty thistle]

I wish I could haha Just placing 100.000 units in the editor would make my PC explode without even thinking about moving them. It would need heavy optimizations and changes to the engine base classes for pathfinding and probably rendering too for something like that to work

[south hare]

Fair enough

[misty thistle]

New video out! Showcasing Athena AI in a kind of colony sim with Hunger,Thirst, Sleep, etc.
https://youtu.be/Y7LWIMGv_9I

[misty thistle]

Quick post just to let you know that Athena AI will be released next Tuesday, March 12th! 🚀

[south hare]

Looking forward to picking this up.

[misty thistle]

Thank you! Can't wait to see what you'll do with it! 🙂

[south hare]

Do you have an exact cost of the plugin?

[misty thistle]

It's going to be 79.99 $ but depending on your country, you might need to add the VAT

[south hare]

I am in the United States 🙂

So no VAT

[misty thistle]

Then 79.99 it is!

[misty thistle]

Athena AI was just relased! 🚀
You can check it out here: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/athena-ai-a-utility-ai-framework

Let me know if you have any questions or comments! 😄

[fair vine]

@misty thistle Would it be possible to add AI flanking? Like the ability for ai to predict where you will go and find a shortcut to cut you off?

I imagine with what I've read so far it wouldn't be impossible

[misty thistle]

Yes, it can be added with the system but it's not something that I'm planning on adding to the demo project at the moment. I will definitely add it on a project I'm working on but it's still a while till I reach that point

[fair vine]

That's fair

I'm gonna buy it soon

[misty thistle]

Glad to hear that! And just to expand on your question, tasks are Blueprints so you can do anything you want with them, run EQS or an entire Behavior Tree if you want, so you can do flanking or anything else. Let me know if you have more questions!

[fair vine]

I can do a vr test for you if you want

I know it'll probably work but I bet customers would want to see what else it works on

[misty thistle]

That sounds great! I'll send you a msg just to not clutter this too much, thank you!

[misty thistle]

Update 1.0.1 is now live 🚀 adding support for UE5.2 and 5.1.

[misty thistle]

Athena AI was just updated to version 1.0.2! 🚀

There are some important changes in this update:

• Added Task Score Modifier, which lets you modify scores at runtime, on top of curves.
• Added Auto Resume Task Scoring on Task Termination and on Pawn Unpossessed options.
• Added Task Momentum, which reduces Task score based on the times it was executed in a row.
• Redone Task overrides based on Preset configuration as a first step towards Runtime Switchable Presets.
• Fixed bug where OnTaskTick was still running after a Pawn was unpossessed.
• QoL changes such as adding units to some properties instead of plain data and 2 new options in the Preset.
• Small improvements on score calculations.

And last but not least, the biggest change:
Task Names are now Gameplay Tags, which makes it easier to ID Tasks and also gives more options for future developments as well as integrations with other systems!

[misty thistle]

Athena AI was just updated to version 1.0.3, adding support for UE5.4! 😃

[south hare]

yay

[misty thistle]

Athena AI has been updated to version 1.1! 🚀

There are many changes in this update but most importantly Runtime Switchable Presets have been added, meaning you can completely change the behavior of an agent at any time now.

There have also been improvements in task handling, more utility functions and a couple fixes based on feedback from users of Athena AI.

All changes are reflected in the changelog found in the manual.

[misty thistle]

Athena AI just received a quick hotfix (v1.1.1) with some fixes and some new changes.
Some of them are:

• Presets are now Blueprintable, so you can use them as variables in your graphs. It makes much more sense now since they are switchable.
• Presets are now updated much more dynamically. Gone are the days where you need to re-add the Task if you changed Considerations, now they are updated as soon as you change them.

Detailed changes can be found in the manual.

[misty thistle]

Athena AI was just updated to v1.1.2! Including some important fixes and features:

• Added Start/Stop AI logic nodes for the Athena AI Component.
• Fixed Services not being correctly updated since the non-normalized value was passed.
• Fixed Agent Controller not being set correctly when the Actor is spawned by the player instead of placed in the world.
• Fixed rare exception while iterating on all Considerations when doing a Preset change.
• Fixed bug where AI logic is stopped after the first Preset change but in some cases, it’s not activated again.
• Fixed Task timers getting cleared, including the timer to unlock the Task when locked, which meant the Task could get locked forever.

The demo project was also updated with some fixes.
More details in the manual.

[misty thistle]

Forgot to post the update here 😅

Athena AI was updated to v1.1.3!
This is a small update aimed to expand a bit more the system, especially for C++ developers.

• Improved customizability by changing many members to protected and/or virtual in the Athena AI Component, Data Manager and Service classes.
• Fixed Services not initializing on system start.

The Demo project was also updated to fix an issue Windows 11 users had when opening it.
More details and the full changelog in the manual.

Let me know if you have any questions! 😃

[misty thistle]

Hey, quick update!

Thanks to the amazing community we got using Athena AI, we are now starting to have tutorial videos where you will find both introductions to Utility AI, Athena AI and other concepts as well as deep dives into the different features and subsystems of Athena AI (coming soon!).

You can check them out in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlwScn3uoQJP4k8TntTQXcR0e90DBw39K

Special thanks to the community for making this possible! 🤗

[misty thistle]

Athena AI has been updated to version 1.1.4! 😄

It includes the following changes:

• Fixed Services not stopping custom events and timers automatically when stopped.
• Fixed Data Manager still updating and possibly triggering Services after the system has been disabled.
• Fixed Resume Scoring on Task Terminated still working even when the system is disabled.

Let me know if you have any questions!

[misty thistle]

Athena AI has been updated to version 1.1.5!

This one comes with the following changes:

• Added the Athena AI Advanced Debug Widget.
• Added the option to calculate scores on an interval.
• Optimized Debug Widget updates.
• Expanded Consideration structure to include the raw value (actual value).
• Modified Consideration structure to avoid unwanted writing.
• Optimized Consideration updates.
• Fixed Services not stopping Tick function when Pawn is destroyed.

As always, the full changelog can be found in the manual!
Let me know if you have any questions 😃

[misty thistle]

I've been working on a new demo level to showcase Athena AI, which will be released soon! 🎁

It's an RTS level where you will be able to fight against an AI commander 100% made using Athena. All that while building units and capturing strategic points to increase your resource income.

Here's a few WIP screenshots for now, hope you like it!

[misty thistle]

New teaser trailer for the RTS demo level just released!
You can check it out here: https://youtu.be/iuw3IgX0YzY

Hope you like it and any feedback is appreciated 😃

[misty thistle]

🚀 Athena AI has been updated to v2! 🚀

This is one of the biggest updates to date, including some very important and requested features:

• Support for Visual Logger.
• Support for Gameplay Debugger.
• More functions for Unreal Insights.

Besides those, there are also numerous changes to the system itself, I won't list them all but these are some that you would notice right away:

• Added IsEnabled and IsPendingPresetChange functions to the Athena AI Comp.
• Added CalculateScoresOnTaskTerminated option to the Athena AI Comp.
• Added OnTaskStarted and OnTaskEnded delegates/events to the Athena AI Comp.
• Fixed Replace Resistance not being applied to Tasks during score calculations.
• Lots more changes, improvements and fixes! All in the changelog.

The full changelog can be found in the manual.
Any questions, let me know! 😄

[misty thistle]

🚀 The new RTS demo has been released! 🚀

This new demo showcases more advanced usage of Athena AI by including not only individual units but a Commander that controls all of them! 🤖

You will be able to create units and fight against the enemy, capture towers to increase your resource income and finally disable the enemy Commander by literally pushing your units into its base!

You can access the playable demo from the store link and take a look!
This also means a new demo project is available to all Athena AI verified users, which can be downloaded to check out how all is done.

[south hare]

Oh neat

[misty thistle]

Thanks!

[misty thistle]

🚀 Athena AI version 2.1 has been released! 🚀
It is a smaller updated containing the following improvements:

• Added Task Locked info to Gameplay Debugger.
• Added Task Locked info to Visual Logger.
• Changed MaxMomentum ClampMin to 0 instead of 1.
• Improved Preset GenerateConsiderationCurves function to update the asset and show up as modified, promting to save.
• Fixed initial task (FallbackTask) started on system enabled could be aborted before fully initializing.

The full changelog can be found in the manual.

I also added a new picture on the store with some of the reviews so you can check them out ⭐ Couldn't fit all of them there but hopefully it's useful for you guys!

As always, any questions, let me know! 😃

[misty thistle]

🚀 Athena AI version 2.1 is now available for Unreal Engine 5.5! 🚀

There have been no additional changes, just this small compatibility update.

I have seen a small issue that you may encounter though. It may prompt you to update even if you are using UE5.4 or below but there's no actual update, it's the same version. Just keep that in mind if you see it.

The full changelog for version 2.1 can be found in the manual.

Any questions, do let me know! 😄

[misty thistle]

Happy New Year everyone, I got some news for you below! 🥂 🎉

🚀 Athena AI has been updated to version 2.2! 🚀

This new version includes the following changes:

• Improved Preset switching by updating Services with common Considerations on Preset changes.
• Fixed log message on Preset change referencing old Preset instead of new one.
• Fixed some includes using backwards slash, causing issues on MAC.

The full changelog can be found in the manual.

As always, let me know if you have any questions 😃

[misty thistle]

Hello everyone!

🚀 Athena AI has been updated to version 2.3 🚀

This update includes the following changes:

• Redone Task and Service creation so now all values from the Preset, including non-Athena AI properties, are applied on new instances.
• Exposed bServiceRunning property to Blueprint for Services.
• StopBT() function from AthenaAITask_BTBase is now protected and overridable for improved customizability of Behavior Tree Tasks..
• Added missing Shrink() to Considerations map.
• Fixed rare crash when emptying Tasks and Services on Preset change, Controller destruction or game end.
• Fixed crash when using the Player Debug Tool without a widget assigned.

These changes were mostly based on feedback from Athena AI users!
The full changelog can be found in the manual.

Feel free to post any questions! 😃

[misty thistle]

Hello everyone!

🚀 Athena AI has been updated to version 2.4 🚀

This update includes:

• Updated Athena to Unreal Engine 5.6.
• Added full replication to the Athena AI Debug Component and Widget.
• Adapted the Player Debug Toll for multiplayer scenarios.
• Added additional checks for the Visual Logger.
• Replaced UE_VLOG macro with AddArrow when grabbing a debug snapshot to avoid multithreading access issues.
• Changed EnumToString template function to EnumToUnscopedString to avoid conflicts with other plugins using the same name.
• Fixed bug where the Debug Widgets returning to agents on unselect would not automatically return.

Also, based on feedback from Athena users, I added 2 new sections to the manual, these are 11. Multiplayer and Athena and GAS.
The full changelog can be found in the manual.

As always, let me know if you have any questions! 😄

[noble marsh]

@misty thistle awesome work - keep it up

[misty thistle]

Thank you! 😃

[misty thistle]

Hi everyone!

Quick update to let you know Athena AI has been updated for Unreal Engine 5.7!

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback! 😄