Last year I took a graduate class on evolutionary neural networks. For the final project, a friend and I created a controller for this Infinite Mario competition. I started off knowing that it would not be as "good" at beating the levels as the previous year's winner, which used A* to calculate the absolute best path through each level. However, I decided that I wanted to create a controller that could perform well, but still act like it was a real person controlling it.
We used the NEAT algorithm to evolve a neural network that acted as the controller, and built sensors which detected certain on screen objects, as well as the character's current state, to act as the input to the network. (We also used Luigi, instead of Mario, as he is far superior).
In the end, we were able to evolve controllers that did very well, but didn't look too natural, because they usually favored jumping a lot, even when not needed. We were, however, also able to evolve some controllers that performed more natural, and interesting actions, such as intentionally killing enemies, hitting blocks, and going back for powerups. While these types of controllers may not have done as well in completing levels, they were more like what we were going for. Here is a link to the video showing our more interesting results:
Note that all the different colored lines represent the sensors we implemented. This is all that Luigi is actually "seeing". His sensors include rangefinders for obstacles, enemies, blocks, powerups, and special sensors for pits.
I love the whole "hormonal/glandular problem" argument. If there were such a "problem" that caused people to produce fat without that person actually overeating, then the world's energy problem would be solved. We just get all the people who have these magic glands and have them produce fat cells from thin air. There are already engines that run off of grease/fat, so it shouldn't be too hard to switch to human fat as our main fuel source.
Stepmania is definitely a great choice for a game to play via laptop/hdtv. Great fun and good exercise too, and it's even more fun with 2 people playing at once.
The game itself is free, you can download tons of songs for it for free (most of them legally too as far as I know).
The only significant costs involved are the dance pads, and then only if you end up playing enough to get good at the game. You can pick up fairly cheap pads for $20 or less, but it's pretty much impossible to do the harder stuff using those cheap dance pads as is.
I actually have my $20 dance pad stapled to some plywood and covered with some hard plastic to stabilize and protect the pad, but that was only after becoming completely addicted to the game, playing every day for 2 months straight.
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Last year I took a graduate class on evolutionary neural networks. For the final project, a friend and I created a controller for this Infinite Mario competition. I started off knowing that it would not be as "good" at beating the levels as the previous year's winner, which used A* to calculate the absolute best path through each level. However, I decided that I wanted to create a controller that could perform well, but still act like it was a real person controlling it.
We used the NEAT algorithm to evolve a neural network that acted as the controller, and built sensors which detected certain on screen objects, as well as the character's current state, to act as the input to the network. (We also used Luigi, instead of Mario, as he is far superior).
In the end, we were able to evolve controllers that did very well, but didn't look too natural, because they usually favored jumping a lot, even when not needed. We were, however, also able to evolve some controllers that performed more natural, and interesting actions, such as intentionally killing enemies, hitting blocks, and going back for powerups. While these types of controllers may not have done as well in completing levels, they were more like what we were going for. Here is a link to the video showing our more interesting results:
Evolved Luigi Controller - Infinite Mario AI
Note that all the different colored lines represent the sensors we implemented. This is all that Luigi is actually "seeing". His sensors include rangefinders for obstacles, enemies, blocks, powerups, and special sensors for pits.
Okay, what the hell. Gimme my achievement!
I love the whole "hormonal/glandular problem" argument. If there were such a "problem" that caused people to produce fat without that person actually overeating, then the world's energy problem would be solved. We just get all the people who have these magic glands and have them produce fat cells from thin air. There are already engines that run off of grease/fat, so it shouldn't be too hard to switch to human fat as our main fuel source.
Stepmania is definitely a great choice for a game to play via laptop/hdtv. Great fun and good exercise too, and it's even more fun with 2 people playing at once.
The game itself is free, you can download tons of songs for it for free (most of them legally too as far as I know).
The only significant costs involved are the dance pads, and then only if you end up playing enough to get good at the game. You can pick up fairly cheap pads for $20 or less, but it's pretty much impossible to do the harder stuff using those cheap dance pads as is.
I actually have my $20 dance pad stapled to some plywood and covered with some hard plastic to stabilize and protect the pad, but that was only after becoming completely addicted to the game, playing every day for 2 months straight.