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International Journal of
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of Wolverhampton UK in collaboration with the European Simulation Society (EUROSIS) |
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Chief Editors Editorial
Board & Aims Previous issues: Copyright University of Wolverhampton and EUROSIS 2004 ISSN 1477-2043 The Editors, The University of Wolverhampton and EUROSIS do
not accept responsibility for errors arising from papers
appearing in IJIGS. Official
University of Wolverhampton disclaimer. |
Abstracts Dynamic Strategy Creation and Selection
Using Artificial Immune Systems
C. Fyfe
We consider the problem of introducing more intelligence into the
Artificial Intelligence’s responses in Real Time Strategy games. We discuss how
the paradigm of Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) gives us an effective model
to improve the AI’s responses and demonstrate with simple games how the AIS
works. We further discuss how the AIS paradigm enables us to extend current
games in ways which make the game more sophisticated for both human and AI. A novel obsolescence-based approach to
event delivery synchronization in multiplayer games
S. Ferretti and
M. Roccetti Revenues generated by video games typically surpass those provided by the cinematography industry. This large and emerging market is driving researchers and practitioners to develop innovative software techniques that allow game players to enjoy exciting and interactive game experiences, even when modern wireless handheld devices are used. In this scenario, there is a growing demand of distributed gaming architectures that are able to provide support to the development of interactive multiplayer networked game applications. To this aim, we have designed and developed an event delivery service for multiplayer networked games that drops obsolete events to guarantee an acceptable interaction degree among remote players, while maintaining the game state consistency. We report important results of an experimental study we have carried out that confirm the viability of our approach. A new
method for 3D face model generation for personalized game characters.
T. Erdu A new
method for generating and animating a 3-D model of a person’s face is
proposed. The face model is represented via a 3-D triangular mesh (geometry
mesh), and a 2-D texture image. The geometry mesh is obtained by deforming a
predefined standard 3-D triangular mesh based on the relative positions of
the person’s facial features, such as eyes, nose, ears, lips, chin, etc,
obtained from the person’s photographs. The texture image is obtained from
the same photographs which are taken from five different particular
directions, namely, front, right, left, forehead and chin, to represent the
five corresponding regions of the face. The pictures are blended along region
boundaries to achieve seamless color transition on the 3-D face model. A
separate 3-D triangular mesh (shape mesh) is used to animate the nodes of the
geometry mesh. Each triangle of the shape mesh controls the motion of a
neighborhood of nodes of the geometry mesh that are connected to it. Thus, by
moving the nodes of the shape mesh, which are small in number, the nodes of
the geometry mesh, which can be very large in number, are animated realistically.
The nodes of the shape mesh can be moved directly or indirectly. In the
indirect method, the nodes of the shape mesh are moved in accordance with the
so-called facial action values, which are even smaller in number than the
nodes of the shape mesh. Interactive Narrative Architecture based
on Filmmaking Theory
M. S. El-Nasr Theatre directors,
filmmakers, and animators have recognized and documented the importance of
visual elements, including placements of characters, lighting effects, and
camera shots, in conveying the narrative and engaging viewers. Even though,
advances in computer graphics have facilitated the development of complex and
intriguing synthetic worlds that can be visually manipulated in real-time,
current interactive entertainment systems still rely on statically designed
camera movements, lighting, and animations, which are labor intensive and
result in context insensitive and visually unfulfilling interactive
experiences. Very few research attempts have explored the utility of visually
manipulating a scene to accommodate variations in the plot and dramatic
situation imposed by interaction. Such studies focused mostly on camera
movement and positioning with little implication on lighting and character
movements. In this paper, I present an interactive narrative architecture
that in addition to dynamically selecting narrative events that suit the
situation, it dynamically reconfigures the visual design integrating aspects
of several visual elements, including camera, lighting, and character. It
uses rules, based on documented filmmaking, cinematography, and visual arts
theories, to increase engagement and accommodate the evolving dramatic
situation. A Petri Net Model for Computer Games
Analysis
Stéphane Natkin and Liliana Vega
The origin of this paper comes from the absence of methodologies for computer game analysis. We take film analysis as a basis and consider only story telling based games. Even in this case, some fundamental features cannot be described using classical audiovisual methods. In this paper, we consider the ability to describe non-deterministic structure of the game narration. We describe a semi formal approach based on a Petri Net specification. This method is illustrated on the well-known game Myst. Our approach can also be considered as a starting point for a Game Design method and an authorware tool. On-line Adaptation of Game Opponent AI
with Dynamic Scripting
P. Spronck, I. Sprinkhuizen-Kuyper and E. Postma Unsupervised
online learning in commercial computer games allows computer-controlled
opponents to adapt to the way the game is being played, thereby providing a
mechanism to deal with weaknesses in the game AI and to respond to changes in
human player tactics. For online learning to work in practice, it must be fast,
effective, robust, and efficient. This paper proposes a novel technique
called “dynamic scripting” that meets these requirements. In dynamic
scripting an adaptive rulebase is used for the generation of intelligent
opponents on the fly. The performance of dynamic scripting is evaluated in an
experiment in which the adaptive players are pitted against a collective of
manually designed tactics in a simulated computer roleplaying game and in a
module for the state-of-the-art commercial game NEVERWINTER NIGHTS. The
results indicate that dynamic scripting succeeds in endowing
computer-controlled opponents with successful adaptive performance. We
therefore conclude that dynamic scripting can be successfully applied to the
online adaptation of computer game opponent AI. iv
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