Jumping AI for Unreal Engine

Pathfinding plays a vital role in video games, whether in terms of gameplay mechanics or player immersion. Commonly used methods only allow the simplest types of movements like walking and running. Although seldom, other types of movement, like swimming and flying, are also considered. Even rarer are mechanisms that natively contemplate jumps without the need of extra intervention of game developers. Most games overlook these movements on Non Player Characters, decreasing the realism of the experience. This dissertation discusses the limitations of Navigation Meshes when it comes to take jumps into consideration, while offering solutions to some of its problems. However, found solutions lack in automaticity, requiring high implementation times. In the interest of improving upon this problem, a new solution using grid-based any-angle pathfinding is proposed. In this approach, each cell of this navigation grid constitutes a voxel that delimits a small 3D space and is expressed in a shape of a cube. Voxels discretize the game world and are explored by a search algorithm to achieve pathfinding with jumps. In this context, performance is critical and the paths should be optimal and efficient. Results show that the voxel based solution can be successfully applied in game development and that it has relevant characteristics that could justify choosing this method over the navigation meshes alternatives for jumping

Multi-agent pathfinding for unmanned aerial vehicles

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have become more and more prevalent in recent years. In particular, governmental organizations and companies around the world are starting to research how UAVs can be used to perform tasks such as package deliver, disaster investigation and surveillance of key assets such as pipelines, railroads and bridges. NASA is currently in the early stages of developing an air traffic control system specifically designed to manage UAV operations in low-altitude airspace. Companies such as Amazon and Rakuten are testing large-scale drone deliver services in the USA and Japan. To perform these tasks, safe and conflict-free routes for concurrently operating UAVs must be found. This can be done using multi-agent pathfinding (mapf) algorithms, although the correct choice of algorithms is not clear. This is because many state of the art mapf algorithms have only been tested in 2D space in maps with many obstacles, while UAVs operate in 3D space in open maps with few obstacles. In addition, when an unexpected event occurs in the airspace and UAVs are forced to deviate from their original routes while inflight, new conflict-free routes must be found. Planning for these unexpected events is commonly known as contingency planning. With manned aircraft, contingency plans can be created in advance or on a case-by-case basis while inflight. The scale at which UAVs operate, combined with the fact that unexpected events may occur anywhere at any time make both advanced planning and planning on a case-by-case basis impossible. Thus, a new approach is needed. Online multi-agent pathfinding (online mapf) looks to be a promising solution. Online mapf utilizes traditional mapf algorithms to perform path planning in real-time. That is, new routes for UAVs are found while inflight. The primary contribution of this thesis is to present one possible approach to UAV contingency planning using online multi-agent pathfinding algorithms, which can be used as a baseline for future research and development. It also provides an in-depth overview and analysis of offline mapf algorithms with the goal of determining which ones are likely to perform best when applied to UAVs. Finally, to further this same goal, a few different mapf algorithms are experimentally tested and analyzed

A comparative study of navigation meshes

International audienceA navigation mesh is a representation of a 2D or 3D virtual environment that enables path planning and crowd simulation for walking characters. Various state-of-the-art navigation meshes exist, but there is no standardized way of evaluating or comparing them. Each implementation is in a different state of maturity, has been tested on different hardware, uses different example environments, and may have been designed with a different application in mind. In this paper, we conduct the first comparative study of navigation meshes. First, we give general definitions of 2D and 3D environments and navigation meshes. Second, we propose theoretical properties by which navigation meshes can be classified. Third, we introduce metrics by which the quality of a navigation mesh implementation can be measured objectively. Finally, we use these metrics to compare various state-of-the-art navigation meshes in a range of 2D and 3D environments. We expect that this work will set a new standard for the evaluation of navigation meshes, that it will help developers choose an appropriate navigation mesh for their application, and that it will steer future research on navigation meshes in interesting directions

On the Combination of Game-Theoretic Learning and Multi Model Adaptive Filters

This paper casts coordination of a team of robots within the framework of game theoretic learning algorithms. In particular a novel variant of fictitious play is proposed, by considering multi-model adaptive filters as a method to estimate other players’ strategies. The proposed algorithm can be used as a coordination mechanism between players when they should take decisions under uncertainty. Each player chooses an action after taking into account the actions of the other players and also the uncertainty. Uncertainty can occur either in terms of noisy observations or various types of other players. In addition, in contrast to other game-theoretic and heuristic algorithms for distributed optimisation, it is not necessary to find the optimal parameters a priori. Various parameter values can be used initially as inputs to different models. Therefore, the resulting decisions will be aggregate results of all the parameter values. Simulations are used to test the performance of the proposed methodology against other game-theoretic learning algorithms.</p

A GROWTH-BASED APPROACH TO THE AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF NAVIGATION MESHES

Providing an understanding of space in game and simulation environments is one of the major challenges associated with moving artificially intelligent characters through these environments. The usage of some form of navigation mesh has become the standard method to provide a representation of the walkable space in game environments to characters moving around in that environment. There is currently no standardized best method of producing a navigation mesh. In fact, producing an optimal navigation mesh has been shown to be an NP-Hard problem. Current approaches are a patchwork of divergent methods all of which have issues either in the time to create the navigation meshes (e.g., the best looking navigation meshes have traditionally been produced by hand which is time consuming), generate substandard quality navigation meshes (e.g., many of the automatic mesh production algorithms result in highly triangulated meshes that pose problems for character navigation), or yield meshes that contain gaps of areas that should be included in the mesh and are not (e.g., existing growth-based methods are unable to adapt to non-axis-aligned geometry and as such tend to provide a poor representation of the walkable space in complex environments). We introduce the Planar Adaptive Space Filling Volumes (PASFV) algorithm, Volumetric Adaptive Space Filling Volumes (VASFV) algorithm, and the Iterative Wavefront Edge Expansion Cell Decomposition (Wavefront) algorithm. These algorithms provide growth-based spatial decompositions for navigation mesh generation in either 2D (PASFV) or 3D (VASFV). These algorithms generate quick (on demand) decompositions (Wavefront), use quad/cube base spatial structures to provide more regular regions in the navigation mesh instead of triangles, and offer full coverage decompositions to avoid gaps in the navigation mesh by adapting to non-axis-aligned geometry. We have shown experimentally that the decompositions offered by PASFV and VASFV are superior both in character navigation ability, number of regions, and coverage in comparison to the existing and commonly used techniques of Space Filling Volumes, Hertel-Melhorn decomposition, Delaunay Triangulation, and Automatic Path Node Generation. Finally, we show that our Wavefront algorithm retains the superior performance of the PASFV and VASFV algorithms while providing faster decompositions that contain fewer degenerate and near degenerate regions. Unlike traditional navigation mesh generation techniques, the PASFV and VASFV algorithms have a real time extension (Dynamic Adaptive Space Filling Volumes, DASFV) which allows the navigation mesh to adapt to changes in the geometry of the environment at runtime. In addition, it is possible to use a navigation mesh for applications above and beyond character path planning and navigation. These multiple uses help to increase the return on the investment in creating a navigation mesh for a game or simulation environment. In particular, we will show how to use a navigation mesh for the acceleration of collision detection

An Investigation of the Digital Sublime in Video Game Production

This research project examines how video games can be programmed to generate the sense of the digital sublime. The digital sublime is a term proposed by this research to describe experiences where the combination of code and art produces games that appear boundless and autonomous. The definition of this term is arrived at by building on various texts and literature such as the work of Kant, Deleuze and Wark and on video games such as Proteus, Minecraft and Love. The research is based on the investigative practice of my work as an artist-programmer and demonstrates how games can be produced to encourage digitally sublime scenarios. In the three games developed for this thesis I employ computer code as an artistic medium, to generate games that explore permutational complexity and present experiences that walk the margins between confusion and control. The structure of this thesis begins with a reading of the Kantian sublime, which I introduce as the foundation for my definition of the digital sublime. I then combine this reading with elements of contemporary philosophy and computational theory to establish a definition applicable to the medium of digital games. This definition is used to guide my art practice in the development of three games that examine different aspects of the digital sublime such as autonomy, abstraction, complexity and permutation. The production of these games is at the core of my research methodology and their development and analysis is used to produce contributions in the following areas. 1. New models for artist-led game design. This includes methods that re-contextualise existing aesthetic forms such as futurism, synaesthesia and romantic landscape through game design and coding. It also presents techniques that merge visuals and mechanics into a format developed for artistic and philosophical enquiry. 2. The development of new procedural and generative techniques in the programming of video games. This includes the implementation of a realtime marching cubes algorithm that generates fractal noise filtered terrain. It also includes a versatile three-dimensional space packing architectural construction algorithm. 3. A new reading of the digital sublime. This reading draws from the Kantian sublime and the writings of Deleuze, Wark and De Landa in order to present an understanding of the digital sublime specific to the domain of art practice within video games. These contributions are evidenced in the writing of this thesis and in the construction of the associated portfolio of games

Architectonics of Game Spaces

What consequences does the design of the virtual yield for architecture and to what extent can the nature of architecture be used productively to turn game-worlds into sustainable places - over here, in »reality«? This pioneering collection gives an overview of contemporary developments in designing video games and of the relationships such practices have established with the design of architecture. Due to their often simulatory nature, games reveal constructions of reality while positively impacting spatial ability and allowing for alternative avenues to complex topics and processes of negotiation. Granting insight into the merging of the design of real and virtual environments, this volume offers an invaluable platform for further debate

Architectonics of Game Spaces: The Spatial Logic of the Virtual and Its Meaning for the Real

What consequences does the design of the virtual yield for architecture and to what extent can the nature of architecture be used productively to turn game-worlds into sustainable places - over here, in "reality"? This pioneering collection gives an overview of contemporary developments in designing video games and of the relationships such practices have established with the design of architecture. Due to their often simulatory nature, games reveal constructions of reality while positively impacting spatial ability and allowing for alternative avenues to complex topics and processes of negotiation. Granting insight into the merging of the design of real and virtual environments, this volume offers an invaluable platform for further debate