![]() ![]() However, for games and interactive use, accuracy is really not the primary concern (although it's certainly nice to have) – rather, here the important goals are believability (the programmer can cheat as much as he wants if the player still feels immersed) and speed of execution (only a certain time per frame will be allocated to the physics engine). Actually, precise simulation methods for physics and dynamics have been known for quite some time from engineering. Different approaches have been proposed in the literature and much effort has been put into the construction of algorithms that are accurate and reliable. 1 Introduction The use of physically-based modeling to produce nice-looking animation has been considered for some time and many of the existing techniques are fairly sophisticated. The article also deals with subtleties like penetration test optimization and friction handling. There, among other things, the physics system was responsible for the movement of cloth, plants, rigid bodies, and for making dead human bodies fall in unique ways depending on where they were hit, fully interacting with the environment (resulting in the press oxymoron "lifelike death animations"). The algorithms were developed for IO Interactive's game Hitman: Codename 47. It allows for simulation of both cloth soft and rigid bodies and even articulated or constrained bodies using both forward and inverse kinematics. It is simple, fast, and quite stable, and in its basic version the method does not require knowledge of advanced mathematical subjects (although it is based on a solid mathematical foundation). This paper explains the basic elements of an approach to physically-based modeling which is well suited for interactive use. This implementation also provided a unique opportunity to compare human and evolved control of evolved virtual creatures, both qualitatively and quantitatively, with interesting implications for improvements and future work. ![]() To demonstrate this new form of gameplay and content generation, a proof-of-concept game-tentatively titled Darwin's Avatars-was implemented using evolved creature content, and user tested. An endless series of creatures can be evolved for a task, then have their brains removed to become the game's next human-control challenge. Importantly, the novelty of this challenge is inexhaustible, since the evolution of virtual creatures provides a way to procedurally generate content for such a game. Just as we enjoy the challenge and reward of mastering helicopter flight or learning to play a musical instrument, learning to control such a creature through manual activation of its actuators presents an engaging and rewarding puzzle. Starting with a creature evolved to perform a simple task such as locomotion and removing its brain, the remaining body can be employed in a compelling interactive control problem. The co-evolution of morphology and control for virtual creatures enables the creation of a novel form of gameplay and procedural content generation. Although the limited feedback does not yet produce performance competitive with QWOP champions, it is the first autonomous software evolution of successful QWOP gaits. The results confirm that steady-state GAs are preferred when the task is sensitive to small input variations. Using only the end score as the basis for fitness, the cellular algorithm is consistently able to evolve a successful scooting strategy similar to one most humans employ. We then compare the performance of SGA, Genitor, and a Cellular Genetic Algorithm on this task. Two variable-length encoding schemes, that codify sequences of QWOP control commands that loop to form gaits, are tested. Since QWOP has no API, ours detects graphical screen elements and uses them to build a fitness function. While previous researchers have evolved gaits using simulations similar to QWOP, we describe a software interface that connects directly to QWOP itself, incorporating a genetic algorithm to evolve actual QWOP gaits. The game is notoriously difficult owing to its ragdoll physics engine, and the simultaneous movements that must be carefully coordinated to achieve forward progress. QWOP is a popular Flash game in which a human player controls a sprinter in a simulated 100-meter dash. ![]()
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