Hardware Constraints

Hardware constraints must be considered with all implementations of the above techniques. Every AI technique is just more code for the CPU to process. The more calculations that are being made in a game, the higher the toll on the CPU and GPU. Therefore, franchises such as Age of Empires implemented population caps. Some of the reason these caps exist is from a gameplay side, but hardware consideration comes into it. Another way to think about it is that you wouldn’t consider trying to play an intensive PC game such as Civilization VI on a mobile device. (Makuch, 2016) outlined the technical specifications which were released by the developers, 2K [fig. 8]. These are the minimum and recommended requirements for the game. Civilization VI is a game that requires good processing power due to all the calculations made by the AI.

Games should be as optimised as they possibly can to run on a variety of systems, from low range to high range. 60 frames per second (Frames Per Second) is the common framerate to run at for most games nowadays, with some games on consoles previously have been capped at 30FPS. It’s not fun playing a game where it feels more like you are scrolling through a presentation on PowerPoint, constantly dropping frames. This incurs feeling of frustration but more importantly, it breaks immersion. It’s hard to lose yourself in a game for a long period of time when you can feel every frame, or rather every frame-drop. (Linneman, 2014) explains the concept of locking a frame-rate: “a locked frame-rate produces steady input and consistent visual feedback, allowing a stable experience across the board”. Locking the frame rate is a good optimisation strategy, it conserves memory at the cost of visual enhancement. Typical refresh rates of monitors are only designed to run at 60FPS (60Hz). This means that for some games, locking the framerate is an ideal strategy. It helps to reduce the number of frame-drops, especially if the AI in said game is making lots of calculations in small spaces of time. Frame drops don’t just affect the game visually either, it can lead the game to be unresponsive in terms of user input. (Linneman, 2014).