Arena: A General Evaluation Platform and Building Toolkit for Multi-Agent Intelligence

Learning agents that are not only capable of taking tests, but also innovating is becoming a hot topic in AI. One of the most promising paths towards this vision is multi-agent learning, where agents act as the environment for each other, and improving each agent means proposing new problems for others. However, existing evaluation platforms are either not compatible with multi-agent settings, or limited to a specific game. That is, there is not yet a general evaluation platform for research on multi-agent intelligence. To this end, we introduce Arena, a general evaluation platform for multi-agent intelligence with 35 games of diverse logics and representations. Furthermore, multi-agent intelligence is still at the stage where many problems remain unexplored. Therefore, we provide a building toolkit for researchers to easily invent and build novel multi-agent problems from the provided game set based on a GUI-configurable social tree and five basic multi-agent reward schemes. Finally, we provide Python implementations of five state-of-the-art deep multi-agent reinforcement learning baselines. Along with the baseline implementations, we release a set of 100 best agents/teams that we can train with different training schemes for each game, as the base for evaluating agents with population performance. As such, the research community can perform comparisons under a stable and uniform standard. All the implementations and accompanied tutorials have been open-sourced for the community at https://sites.google.com/view/arena-unity/

Exploring the potential usefulness of binary space partitions in architectural representations

There have been recent advances developed within the computer gaming industry that have made real-time first-person perspective spatial experiences feasible on the personal computer. Principally through the use of binary space partition tree structures, developers of threedimensional gaming environments are able to convey to computer users a convincing sense of movement through space. The technology behind these advances may be termed as a particularization of Virtual Reality. This paper will outline research intended to determine the possible usefulness of binary space partitions in the fields of architectural education and practice. The feasibility of this technology was studied by directly observing original experimentation in practical application, which was conducted primarily in the Imaging Laboratory at the New Jersey School of Architecture. In addition, this paper references existing theories and experiencebased expositions on the application of computer technology to architectural design and representation, with particular regard to the use of generalized virtual reality

Realizing the physics of motile cilia synchronization with driven colloids

Cilia and flagella in biological systems often show large scale cooperative behaviors such as the synchronization of their beats in "metachronal waves". These are beautiful examples of emergent dynamics in biology, and are essential for life, allowing diverse processes from the motility of eukaryotic microorganisms, to nutrient transport and clearance of pathogens from mammalian airways. How these collective states arise is not fully understood, but it is clear that individual cilia interact mechanically,and that a strong and long ranged component of the coupling is mediated by the viscous fluid. We review here the work by ourselves and others aimed at understanding the behavior of hydrodynamically coupled systems, and particularly a set of results that have been obtained both experimentally and theoretically by studying actively driven colloidal systems. In these controlled scenarios, it is possible to selectively test aspects of the living motile cilia, such as the geometrical arrangement, the effects of the driving profile and the distance to no-slip boundaries. We outline and give examples of how it is possible to link model systems to observations on living systems, which can be made on microorganisms, on cell cultures or on tissue sections. This area of research has clear clinical application in the long term, as severe pathologies are associated with compromised cilia function in humans.Comment: 31 pages, to appear in Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physic

The Effects of Displayed Violence and Game Speed in First-Person Shooters on Physiological Arousal and Aggressive Behavior

Many studies have been conducted to examine the effects of displayed violence in digital games on outcomes like aggressive behavior and physiological arousal. However, they often lack a proper manipulation of the relevant factors and control of confounding variables. In this study, the displayed violence and game speed of a recent first-person shooter game were varied systematically using the technique of modding, so that effects could be explained properly by the respective manipulations. Aggressive behavior was measured with the standardized version of the Competitive Reaction Time Task or CRTT (Ferguson et al., 2008}. Physiological arousal was operationalized with four measurements: galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (HR), body movement, force on mouse and keyboard. A total of N = 87 participants played in one of four game conditions (low- vs. high-violence, normal- vs. high speed) while physiological measurements were taken with finger clips, force sensors on input devices (mouse and keyboard), and a Nintendo Wii balance board on the chair they sat on. After play, their aggressive behavior was measured with the CRTT. The results of the study do not support the hypothesis that playing digital games increases aggressive behavior. There were no significant differences in GSR and HR, but with a higher game speed, participants showed less overall body movement, most likely to meet the game’s higher demands on cognitive and motor capacities. Also, higher game speed and displayed violence caused an increase in applied force on mouse and keyboard. Previous experience with digital games did not moderate any of these findings. Moreover, it provides further evidence that the CRTT should only be used in a standardized way as a measurement for aggression, if at all. Using all 7 different published (though not validated) ways to calculate levels of aggression from the raw data, “evidence” was found that playing a violent digital game increases, decreases, or does not change aggression at all. Thus, the present study does extend previous research. Firstly, it shows the methodological advantages of modding in digital game research to accomplish the principles of psychological (laboratory) experiments by manipulating relevant variables and controlling all others. It also demonstrates the test-theoretical problems of the highly diverse use of the CRTT. It provides evidence that for a meaningful interpretation of effects of displayed violence in digital games, there are other game characteristics that should be controlled for since they might have an effect on relevant outcome variables. Further research needs to identify more of those game features, and it should also improve the understanding of the different measures for physiological arousal and their interrelatedness

Short-term earthquake hazard assessment for the San Andreas Fault in southern California

The southernmost 200 km of the San Andreas fault in California, from Cajon Pass southeast to Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea (Figure 1), has not produced a major earthquake within the historic record. Both geodetic evidence of continuing strain accumulation (Savage et al, 1986) and the occurrence of recent prehistoric large earthquakes (Sieh, 1986; Sieh and Williams, 1990), however, lead us to conclude that this fault segment will eventually produce great earthquakes that pose one of the greatest hazards to southern California. An estimated 1.0-1.5 million people now live adjacent to the San Andreas fault within the projected zone of severe shaking for such an earthquake. A magnitude 7.5 to 8.0 earthquake on this segment would also cause widespread damage to San Bernardino, Imperial, Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles counties, which together have over 12 million inhabitants. For these reasons, the Southern San Andreas Fault Working Group was formed in 1989 to recommend how the scientific community might best respond to anomalous geophysical activity along the fault, increase our understanding of regional seismotectonics, and offer timely scientific advice to state and local governments

Game Engine Solutions

The rapid development of hardware and system platforms provides a favorable foundation for game development. A game engine overview is introduced first. Then, key features and available solutions of game engines are discussed. Typical products of game engines are shown and evaluated. Finally, we summarize our findings

January 20, 1994

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

Description and composition of bio-inspired design patterns: a complete overview

In the last decade, bio-inspired self-organising mechanisms have been applied to different domains, achieving results beyond traditional approaches. However, researchers usually use these mechanisms in an ad-hoc manner. In this way, their interpretation, definition, boundary (i.e. when one mechanism stops, and when another starts), and implementation typically vary in the existing literature, thus preventing these mechanisms from being applied clearly and systematically to solve recurrent problems. To ease engineering of artificial bio-inspired systems, this paper describes a catalogue of bio-inspired mechanisms in terms of modular and reusable design patterns organised into different layers. This catalogue uniformly frames and classifies a variety of different patterns. Additionally, this paper places the design patterns inside existing self-organising methodologies and hints for selecting and using a design patter

You are likely to be eaten by a grue: How computer games are consuming modern culture

Computer games represent an area of untapped, unappreciated potential in the human-computer relationship. Having long been considered low culture and unworthy of scholarly attention, the focus on games is intensifying as the field of ludology emerges. The first game was created forty years ago, and since then games have branched out from their traditionally young male user base and gained popularity with both adults and females. Violence in and addiction to games remain controversial topics, but the threat posed by games fades a bit in comparison to the fascinating insights they give us into literature, art, and cinema. Their cultural impact is also evidenced by the wave of nostalgia that is bringing back video games from the 1970\u27s and 80\u27s. Online gaming is changing the way people experience interactive entertainment in their homes, and massive multi-player online worlds are edging closer to becoming simulations of offline society. The significance of computer games can no longer be denied, and their future is bright as technology and game theory continue to create astounding and entertaining virtual worlds