Proposal Presentation Speach

Intro

 

Hi, my name is David Higgins and I’m going to be investigating if it is possible for a combination of A.I. and A-Life techniques to not only be used to create an enduring eco-system, but also to calculate the boundaries that allow this system to remain in a state of equilibrium.

 

Issues

 

In a game situation, we could want an eco-system that we know is stable. On the other hand, we may want a system that, for whatever game related reason, is not stable.

 

I’m going to apply selected techniques to see if a believable Eco-system, populated by animals, can be created and then find out what the limits are that will keep the system in stability, otherwise it will die.

To give a Basic Example: Keeping it simple, we could say that if you have between ‘X’ and ‘Y’ amounts of ‘Variable’ it will die out in a week. Therefore if that’s what the game requires, we can just put these numbers in.

 

The techniques used are going to have to be able to allow the game agents to successfully navigate through the environment and fulfil their needs. Therefore I will need to find out if the techniques of: Fuzzy State Machines, Flocking, Path Finding and Chasing and Evading can create a realistic eco-system, and what the most effective way to apply the techniques would be.

 

Boundaries for the system will also have to be found, and these could range from something simple, such as the amount of available food, to the more complex, such as how far the agents can see, how strong they are etc.

 

Since there will be a great deal of variables in the system, some of these variables having a bigger impact than others, I’m going to see if the boundaries can be applied to a “God” AI that will be able to alter a select few of these variables so as to help keep the system in check (if that’s what the game requires).

 

Why it’s Important

 

As advanced high resolution graphics become common place, game developers are increasingly relying on gameAI to distinguish their game from the rest. With advances in processing power and dedicated hardware, there are more resources available that can be used for AI.

 

The illusion of realism that game developers work so hard to create can be easily smashed by poor or rigid A.I.

If, for example, the player, in an RPG game, can somehow introduce a disease that would ravage the environment, we could just tell the developers the limits to allow the system to die out over a period of time, making it much more realistic.

 

How to solve

 

To answer the research question, an extensive literature review (which currently on-going) into AI and A-Life will be needed. Since there are a lot of elements involved in a real life eco-system, a brief investigation into this will also be done so that all the elements of a real life system can be stripped down to only the most important one’s that will allow the construction a basic virtual eco-system.

The system would start off small and its boundaries found. More and more elements would then be added to the system and slowly but surely building it up producing larger and larger systems.

 

Why it’s Interesting

 

Most games don’t employ a truly persistent environment, that is, that the changes and influences made by the player are only temporary. The approach would allow me to create both a truly persistent or non persistent environment.

This approach could also allow the application to be used as a package, this package could then be built into a game as an eco-system.

 

Significance

 

The significance of answering the RQ would be that it would show that it is possible to greatly enhance the impressiveness of a game by creating a believable, life-like eco-system that you have great control over.