Evolving Aesthetic Maps for a Real Time Strategy Game

Artículo publicado en congreso SEED'2013 (I Spanish Symposium on Entertainment Computing), Septiembre 2013, Madrid.This paper presents a procedural content generator method that have been able to generate aesthetic maps for a real-time strategy game. The maps has been characterized based on several of their properties in order to de ne a similarity function between scenarios. This function has guided a multi-objective evolution strategy during the process of generating and evolving scenarios that are similar to other aesthetic maps while being di erent to a set of non-aesthetic scenarios. The solutions have been checked using a support-vector machine classi er and a self-organizing map obtaining successful results (generated maps have been classi ed as aesthetic maps)

A Self-Adaptive Evolutionary Approach to the Evolution of Aesthetic Maps for a RTS Game

Procedural content generation (PCG) is a research eld on the rise,with numerous papers devoted to this topic. This paper presents a PCG method based on a self-adaptive evolution strategy for the automatic generation of maps for the real-time strategy (RTS) game PlanetWars. These maps are generated in order to ful ll the aesthetic preferences of the user, as implied by her assessment of a collection of maps used as training set. A topological approach is used for the characterization of the maps and their subsequent evaluation: the sphere-of-in uence graph (SIG) of each map is built, several graph-theoretic measures are computed on it, and a feature selection method is utilized to determine adequate subsets of measures to capture the class of the map. A multiobjective evolutionary algorithm is subsequently employed to evolve maps, using these feature sets in order to measure distance to good (aesthetic) and bad (non-aesthetic) maps in the training set. The so-obtained results are visually analyzed and compared to the target maps using a Kohonen network.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Eryna: una herramienta de apoyo a la revolución de los videojuegos

La industria del videojuego desde su inicio se ha caracterizado por un dinamismo constante, cada d a son más los desarrolladores que se suman a la competencia y por otro lado, los usuarios se vuelven más expertos y exigentes. A la par de esto se ha fortalecido también la alianza entre la industria y las comunidades científicas de investigación que se sienten atraídas por este fascinante mundo. En este artículo se pretende hacer un resumen de los temas más abordados por los investigadores en los últimos años, que sin duda marcan los retos y las tendencias del futuro de los videojuegos; y basándonos en este estudio presentamos una herramienta que integrará varias de estas tendencias y facilitará el desarrollo de juegos avanzados.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Fly ash based geopolymeric foams using silica fume as pore generation agent. Physical, mechanical and acoustic properties

Authors would like acknowledge the help received by CITIUS (General Research Services) from University of Seville, especially the XRD laboratory.The aim of this work is the development of a porous geopolymeric foam with sound absorbing properties using silica fume as the pore generation agent. The samples were manufactured using a coal combustion fly ash as source material for the geopolymerization reaction, an alkaline solution as activating solution and silica fume as pore forming agent. Three parameters were studied: silica fume proportion (0, 20 and 40 wt%), activating solution (potassium silicate and potassium hydroxide) and setting temperature (40 and 70 °C). Once the samples were prepared, the experimental study of the most important physical, mechanical and acoustic features were carried out. The increase in the proportion of silica fume in the mixture and setting temperature produced a reduction in setting time and a raise of open void porosity, reducing the compressive strength at 28 days up to a half but increasing the sound absorption. The influence of activating solution in open porosity and sound absorbing properties was not very important

Analysis of the tensile fracture properties of ultra-high-strength fiber-reinforced concrete with different types of steel fibers by X-ray tomography

This study is concerned with the analysis of the tensile properties of an ultra-high-strength fiber-reinforced concrete manufactured with short and long steel fibers. The analysis involve using different techniques - from mechanical tests to X-ray computed tomography - to relate the observed variation of the mechanical properties of the mixes with their porosity. A comprehensive study of the porosity distribution was conducted on the basis of the analysis of X-ray computed tomography images and porosimetry. The study shows the influence of the type of fiber used in the reinforcement on the pore size and distribution of the concrete matrix and consequently on its tensile properties. The tensile properties are obtained with an inverse analysis method available in the literature that yielded the first-cracking tensile strength (f t ) and the ultimate tensile strength (f tu ) and related with the inner structure of the concrete matrix. Our results prove that the tensile properties, especially the first-cracking strength, vary depending on the fibers used. These findings help mix designers make a decision about the type of fibers that should be used when a high first-cracking tensile strength is needed and make it possible to quantify the effect of the fiber.Ministerio de Economía y competitividad BIA2016-75431-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2015-66534-RAcademia de Ciencias de la República Checa 16-18702

Analysis of the Utilization of Air-Cooled Blast Furnace Slag as Industrial Waste Aggregates in Self-Compacting Concrete

In this work, the effects of replacing the aggregates of self-compacting concrete by air-cooled blast furnace slag have been analysed. Different mixes have been manufactured by substituting the fine and coarse natural aggregates by air-cooled blast furnace slag. The fracture energy and the tensile and compressive strength have been determined for each mix. The self-compacting properties of the mixes, or the absence of them, have been observed. The main goals of this research are the decrease of the price of aggregates, reduction of the industrial waste, and attenuation the rate of consumption of natural resources. The results show that the self-compactability of the concrete is gradually lost as the slag content is increased, thus, when the ratio of replacement is low, the concrete keeps the self-compacting properties. Nevertheless, the loss of self-compaction affects the mechanical properties by increasing its strength. An air-cooled blast furnace slag did not present problems of heavy metals leaching.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIA2016-75431-RUniversidad de Sevilla VI Plan Propio de Investigació

A porous geopolymer based on aluminum-waste with acoustic properties

Paval, a solid waste stream from the aluminum industry, is used as a pore generation agent in geopolymers. Paval was mixed with coal combustion fly ash, as a geopolymeric precursor, and activated with alkaline solution with the aim of obtaining porous geopolymers to be used as noise barriers. Both geopolymeric and pore generation reactions happen simultaneously. Aluminum from Paval can react with water and OH from the geopolymerization activating solution, producing hydrogen. The hydrogen gas released generates a highly porous material. The influence of the fly ash-paval proportion and the setting temperature on open porosity, compressive strength and noise-absorbing properties were evaluated. To better understand these influences, the setting time, volume expansion and mineral composition were also studied. The obtained results showed that a higher Paval content (fly ash-Paval ratio 50:50) and setting temperature (70 C) produced a lower setting time and higher volume expansion, increasing the open porosity and improving acoustic properties, but reducing the compressive strength. The material manufactured under these conditions showed similar amorphous phase content to the non-porous geopolymers made without Paval. On the other hand, the obtained materials did not raise environmental concerns in a normalised leaching test

Procedural Content Generation for Real-Time Strategy Games

Videogames are one of the most important and profitable sectors in the industry of entertainment. Nowadays, the creation of a videogame is often a large-scale endeavor and bears many similarities with, e.g., movie production. On the central tasks in the development of a videogame is content generation, namely the definition of maps, terrains, non-player characters (NPCs) and other graphical, musical and AI-related components of the game. Such generation is costly due to its complexity, the great amount of work required and the need of specialized manpower. Hence the relevance of optimizing the process and alleviating costs. In this sense, procedural content generation (PCG) comes in handy as a means of reducing costs by using algorithmic techniques to automatically generate some game contents. PCG also provides advantages in terms of player experience since the contents generated are typically not fixed but can vary in different playing sessions, and can even adapt to the player herself. For this purpose, the underlying algorithmic technique used for PCG must be also flexible and adaptable. This is the case of computational intelligence in general and evolutionary algorithms in particular. In this work we shall provide an overview of the use of evolutionary intelligence for PCG, with special emphasis on its use within the context of real-time strategy games. We shall show how these techniques can address both playability and aesthetics, as well as improving the game AI

The Incorporation of Ladle Furnace Slag in Fire Insulating Gypsum-Based Materials

Ladle slag, a byproduct of steel manufacturing, exhibits inherent reactivity and undergoes hydration when exposed to water. Nevertheless, these reaction byproducts often remain metastable, leading to microstructural alterations when incorporated into cementitious materials, thereby limiting the recycling potential of ladle slag. This study explores the fire insulating capacity and the physical, mechanical, and leaching characteristics of gypsum-based materials with substantial quantities of ladle slag in instead of gypsum. The mechanical strength of the specimens declines as the ladle slag content increases. Nevertheless, the percentage decrease in compressive strength at various temperatures (300 °C, 500 °C, and 700 °C) is less pronounced when higher amounts of ladle slag are used. Fire-resistant properties, assessed using the EN 1363-1 standards, diminish with increasing slag proportions; although the inclusion of ladle slag introduces certain endothermic processes that positively affect the fire insulating capacity, resulting in a 20% reduction when 60%wt of slag is employed. Notably, no gas emissions were observed during the fire test, indicating the absence of environmental hazards. In conclusion, ladle slag does not pose a leaching threat to the environment, making it a viable and sustainable alternative to gypsum in gypsum-based materials

Analysis of the mechanical and fracture behavior of heated ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete by X-ray computed tomography

Artículo premiado 2º Trimestre 2019 en la Escuela Técnica Sup. de Ingeniería de SevillaThis work analyzes the effects of temperature (300 °C) on mechanical and fracture behavior of an ultra-high-performance steel-fiber-reinforced concrete. The deterioration of the pore structure due to thermal damage of the fiber-reinforced concrete and its un-reinforced matrix was analyzed by X-ray computed tomography. Complementarily, a thermogravimetric analysis was performed to relate the observed phase changes, due to dehydration and decomposition, with the deterioration of pore structure. Additionally, an analysis of their mechanical and fracture properties was also done at room temperature and 300 °C. Finally, a connection between the damage within the concrete matrix and its corresponding mechanical behavior was established. From the results, it has been ascertained that the propagation of thermal damage within the matrix affects the mechanical and fracture behavior in different ways depending on the pore-size. The presence of fibers modifies the pore structure and consequently the evolution of the thermal damage in the ultra-high-performance concrete, inferring its mechanical and fracture behavior.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIA2016-75431-RCzech Academy of Sciences Project No. 16-18702