What Is VBS Control?
VBS Control is a behavior tree-based AI system and visual AI editor made by Bohemia Interactive Simulations for VBS3. It replaced VBS3’s legacy finite-state machine AI with modular, reusable behaviors for military units and civilians, plus tools for building new ones.
Next-Generation AI for VBS3
VBS Control is a behavior tree-based AI system for VBS3. It replaced VBS3’s legacy finite-state machine AI, and came with developer tools, a visual AI editor and a package of ready-made behaviors.
Why Behavior Trees?
A finite-state machine describes an AI character as a set of states (patrolling, taking cover, attacking) with rules for switching between them. That works for simple characters, but as behaviors grow, the web of transitions becomes hard to build, debug and extend.
A behavior tree instead breaks behavior into small, reusable tasks arranged in a hierarchy. Designers can assemble complex behaviors from simple building blocks, see the logic visually, and reuse pieces across many characters. That made it practical to give VBS3 far richer AI for both military units and civilians.
Ready-Made Behaviors
- Infantry squad maneuvers
- Military convoys
- Civilian “pattern of life” behavior, which fills a scene with believable everyday activity
- “AI on rails,” an interface for giving very specific orders in the VBS3 mission editor
Origins
VBS Control grew out of AI work for VBS Tactics, a separate product in development at Bohemia Interactive Simulations. When work on Tactics was put on hold in 2015, development of VBS Control continued, and its cross-functional team became part of the VBS3 Feature Development Group.
What Came Next
VBS Control outlived VBS3. In VBS4, Bohemia Interactive Simulations used it as the foundation for a complete remake of the simulation’s military AI behaviors, which began in 2022.
My Role
I was Lead Producer and Scaled Agile Product Owner for the teams in the VBS3 Feature Development Group, including the VBS Control team. I “managed the managers” of those teams: providing oversight and high-level roadmap input, checking alignment with business goals, and acting as the single point of accountability when things went wrong.
Later, in 2022, I was product manager for the VBS4 military AI remake built on VBS Control, translating operational needs into a prioritized backlog and working directly with a dedicated Scrum team.