B. H. F. Macedo, Gabriel F. P. Araujo, G. S. Silva, Matheus C. Crestani, Yuri B. Galli, G. N. Ramos
{"title":"Evolving Finite-State Machines Controllers for the Simulated Car Racing Championship","authors":"B. H. F. Macedo, Gabriel F. P. Araujo, G. S. Silva, Matheus C. Crestani, Yuri B. Galli, G. N. Ramos","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.19","url":null,"abstract":"Autonomous vehicles have many practical applications, but the development of software controllers for such use has several difficulties. This work presents a finite state-machine model with evolved parameters as a suitable solution for a self-driving car, an approach that enables a clear division of behaviors in states, providing an easy way to test different configurations and simplifying the search for better controllers by allowing changes only in selected states. A 5-state and a 3-state drivers were evolved through genetic algorithm, and a learning module developed to improve their behaviors. These were compared to each other and to AUTOPIA, the current state of the art controller for the Simulated Car Racing Championship, using The Open Racing Car Simulator. Results showed that the proposed model has potential for racing, besting one of AUTOPIA's qualifying marks, and provide insights on developing and configuring the model.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134475635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Patricia A. de Oliveira, E. Lotto, A. G. Corrêa, Luis G. G. Taboada, L. Costa, R. Lopes
{"title":"Virtual Stage: An Immersive Musical Game for People with Visual Impairment","authors":"Patricia A. de Oliveira, E. Lotto, A. G. Corrêa, Luis G. G. Taboada, L. Costa, R. Lopes","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.26","url":null,"abstract":"Musical games help in motor and cognitive development and provide pleasure because of their playfulness and challenge. However, visually impaired people are unable to interact with conventional music games, because audiovisual aspects are inaccessible to this public. The objective of this study was to investigate if three-dimensional sounds could guide blind users during interaction with a tablet music game. As a proof of concept, a musical game for Android was developed with binaural audio techniques. Three fully blind users evaluated the game. The results show that the developed game was able to immerse the users in a virtual environment.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121748090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Indoor Navigation System for Live-Action Virtual Reality Games","authors":"A. Silva, Luís Valente, E. Clua, B. Feijó","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.29","url":null,"abstract":"Recent popularization of HMD devices (such as the Oculus Rift, Samsung VR, and the HTC Vive) has shed light into mitigating traditional restrictions of high end devices, bringing attention again to virtual reality and novel possibilities for games and entertainment applications. The advancement of virtual reality technologies and context-awareness give rise to new game genres such as \"live-action virtual reality games\", which we proposed in previous works. Live-action virtual reality games create a kind of \"augmented virtuality\" - a mixed-reality where the virtual world is augmented with real-world information. In these games, players wear HMD devices and see a virtual world that is constructed using the physical world architecture as the basic geometry and context information. Physical objects that reside in the physical world are also mapped to virtual elements. Live-action virtual reality games keep the virtual and real-worlds superimposed, requiring players to physically move in the environment and to use different interaction paradigms (such as tangible & embodied interaction) to complete game activities. This setup enables the players to touch physical architectural elements (such as walls) and other objects, \"feeling\" the mixed-reality environment. We propose an architecture that implements a low cost system for live-action virtual reality games that addresses indoor navigation and tracking of physical elements, providing good results due to its accuracy. The system is based on infrared markers, enabling it to operate in the spectral infrared region to work with low optical noise and better precision when compared to solutions based on fiducial markers. Furthermore, this paper describes our system and presents two case studies based on our architecture.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"125 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123725114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Zamith, Luís Valente, B. Feijó, M. Joselli, E. Clua
{"title":"Exploring Parallel Game Architectures with Tardiness Policy","authors":"M. Zamith, Luís Valente, B. Feijó, M. Joselli, E. Clua","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.20","url":null,"abstract":"Computer games are real-time applications that create interactive virtual environments, usually as discrete time-stepped simulations. These simulations may have predefined time step sizes or may use variable time step sizes. These approaches are common in games, but not flexible. In the first approach, when the game runs on a machine with abundant resources, the game does not use the extra capacity to improve simulation quality (task results or presentation). The second approach usually runs the simulation as fast as possible, using the time elapsed between consecutive time steps to scale all computations, so as the simulation runs in real-time. However, this approach wastes processor time and energy and in multi-core hardware scenarios (e.g., GPUs and clusters), the problem of wasting computing resources becomes more severe. In this paper, we propose a parallel and adaptive architecture that employs tardiness policy in multi-core hardware to handle the aforementioned issues. The architecture uses tardiness policy to monitor and change task behavior according to the current conditions of he host hardware. On more powerful computers, the architecture is able to improve task quality if there is spare time available. On less powerful computers, the architecture restricts task functionality so that tasks are able to complete on time. We provide two examples to demonstrate how the architecture works.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128199804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Simulating Human Behavior in Fighting Games Using Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Neural Networks","authors":"Matheus R. F. Mendonça, H. Bernardino, R. F. Neto","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.25","url":null,"abstract":"The study of intelligent agent training is of great interest to the gaming industry due to its wide application in various game genres and its capabilities of simulating a human-like behavior. In this work two machine learning techniques, namely, a reinforcement learning approach and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN), are used in a fighting game in order to allow the agent/fighter to emulate a human player. We propose a special reward function for the reinforcement learning approach that is capable of integrating specific human-like behaviors to the agent. The ANN is trained with several recorded battles of a human player. The proposed methods are compared to other two reinforcement learning methods presented in the literature. Furthermore, we present a detailed discussion of the empirical evaluations performed, regarding the training process and the main characteristics of each method used. The results obtained in the experiments indicated that the proposed methods have a good performance against human players and are also more enjoyable to play against when compared to the other existing methods.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133289238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sensor Data Fusion for Full Arm Tracking Using Myo Armband and Leap Motion","authors":"Eider C. P. Silva, E. Clua, A. Montenegro","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.24","url":null,"abstract":"The Myo Armband (Myo) is a sensor which can be attached to the forearm, and allows to send to devices equipped with Bluetooth muscular patterns of arm movements triggered by some gestures made by the hand. Also, it produces rotation data based on a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer embedded on it. The Leap Motion (LM) is a sensor-based cameras and infrared lights, which allows accurately to track the hands motion, including fingers. Therefore, this work describes the use of sensor data fusion techniques to combine the data from both sensors in order to create a 3D virtual simulation in real-time of an arm motion, including the forearm, hand and fingers. The purpose of this combination is also improve the performance, aiming to overcome the main sensors' limitations when they are used individually, as occurs with Myo, which is limited to produce only forearm motion data and the LM, which has a limited field of view and range tracking. The experiment results shows that the studied algorithm is able to combines the data from both sensors achieving a considerable gain in the precision and tracking of the arm.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130201921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mirna Paula Silva, Victor do Nascimento Silva, L. Chaimowicz
{"title":"Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment through an Adaptive AI","authors":"Mirna Paula Silva, Victor do Nascimento Silva, L. Chaimowicz","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.16","url":null,"abstract":"Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) consists in an alternative to the static game balancing performed in game design. DDA is done during execution, tracking the player's performance and adjusting the game to present proper challenges to the player. This approach seems appropriate to increase the player entertainment, since it provides balanced challenges, avoiding boredom or frustration during the gameplay. This paper presents a mechanism to perform the dynamic difficulty adjustment during a game match. The idea is to dynamically change the game AI, adapting it to the player skills. We implemented three different AIs to match player behaviors: beginner, regular and experienced in the game Defense of the Ancient (DotA), a modification (MOD) of the game Warcraft III. We performed a series of experiments and, after comparing all results, the presented mechanism was able to keep up with the player's abilities on 85% of all experiments. The remaining 15% failed to suit the player's need because the adjustment did not occur on the right moment.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128268545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluation of Game-Based Learning Approaches through Digital Serious Games in Computer Science Higher Education: A Systematic Mapping","authors":"A. Krassmann, L. Paschoal, A. Falcade, R. Medina","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.18","url":null,"abstract":"This paper conducts a Systematic Mapping in order to outline a current overview of digital serious games applications' evaluations for game-based learning purposes on computer science higher education. The search was performed on informatics' area electronic databases, resulting in 2,174 publications initially found. After sorting through the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, remained 59. In the final phase, after thorough reading the extracted publications, has come up to 10 papers. The results reveal different practical approaches of digital serious games' applications evaluations that assess its different aspects' influence on students.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"144 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114687178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the Development of Intelligent Agents for MOBA Games","authors":"Victor do Nascimento Silva, L. Chaimowicz","doi":"10.1109/SBGames.2015.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/SBGames.2015.33","url":null,"abstract":"Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) is one of the most played game genres nowadays. With the increasing growth of this genre, it becomes necessary to develop effective intelligent agents to play alongside or against human players. In this paper we address the problem of agent development for MOBA games. We implement a two-layered architecture agent that handles both navigation and game mechanics. This architecture relies on the use of Influence Maps, a widely used approach for tactical analysis. Several experiments were performed using League of Legends as a testbed, and show promising results in this highly dynamic real-time context.","PeriodicalId":102706,"journal":{"name":"2015 14th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames)","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122939559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}