Cave Generator
Working on my Cave Generator.
Task List
- Trace Wall Outlines
- Smooth Lines
- Generate 3D Geometry
Concrete Examples
So I have some paper examples composed. They serve to demonstrate, but I feel are rather lacking. I don't think the true nature and power of the system will be exposed until I plug it into a living system or game.
Examples
- Agent Knowledge Example
- Query & Response Example
- Traditional Dialogue Tree Example
- Reference Scenario
Questions? Thoughts?
Generating Data
XML Data formatted with CSS
Over 13,000 characters and this blasted XML is still not complete enough to provide a decent concrete example.
Thank you CSS for making it legible to the human eye.
I may look at doing some examples tomorrow night.
Concrete Example
Formatting data into a meaningful representation is a whole area of study.
XML is a wonderful way to format data. Using a bit of CSS to transform XML into prettiness is a wonderful way of formatting it.
Well still loads todo but progress is here
XML Data (WIP)
Reference Scenario
Paper Progress
So I was so tired of seeing a computer the last few days I switch to paper notes for a while. Still need to scan / transcribe them to digital format. Here are some highlights
Key Points
Goal: To explore and define a method for game agents to comprehend game objects and events with the ability to query and respond.
Method: By implementing a reference scenario in XNA.
The exact schema I choose for the implementation is trivial, but the graph Query & Response format is key.
Systems
These systems are listed in order of implementation. For my dissertation I shall only be doing the first three. I do plan to eventually do all of them.
Knowledge Storage: Representing knowledge in graph format.
Query & Response Format: Query an agent and formulate a response
Agent to Agent Discovery: Two agents converse and update their knowledge graph based on response. An agent also needs to resolve data conflicts.
Chinese Whispers: An agent mishears or corrupts data on receiving knowledge.
Lies:An agent intelligently mutates data on output when certain conditions exists.
Input & Output Translation: Data is transformed from graph format to friendlier format. Possible IF parser, GUI system or NL system.
Array vs Group Confusion
Array vs Group Confusion
Arrays are listed as { }
Groups are “- - -” boxes
So some graph confusion between arrays and groups. It’s very clear on the graph but the query starts looking strange. Really tired and not making progress.
So going home, grabbing some food and hopefully I can clean up the mess in my head.
Splash Damage
Splash Damage
Okay some actions can affect multiple targets, my old model ignored this and hence broke in a few places. I’ve now fixed this. This resolves a few graph query issues I was having.
Containers
Aaah yes arbitrary containers are extremely useful in a graph systems. They give information based on context. I was using them in all my drawings and notes, but not in code. This has now been fixed and cleans things up.
Multiple Children
I started with a query as a single path in the graph. Then I got lost a bit and thought, of course multiple children are needed. So the query changed from a path to a sub-graph.
The confusion arose because the response is multiple nodes.
This is messy and muddies the model. After trying to handle the sub-graph query I decided it adds nothing, as multiple paths can be submitted consecutively.
So now the query is path, response is a node list.
Query Graph
Okay so loads of code written, which has really found holes and helped smooth out the model.
Query Graph
Okay so the most basic Query format is a Graphed Query.
Pop-able Context
Any item which is pop-able can throw away it’s parents without loss of information. You may want to keep the context if you want to use a “previous topic” action. If the depth is becoming unmanageable however you can slice off the top at Pop-able joints.
Items which are not popable require their context to make sense.
Current Context
The current context is the Query which was passed in, we can then pass out the response nodes.
If you have a general query then an outline will be provided on the context item.
If you have a specific query, for instance the above query could be expressed as.
Object(Knife) -> Event(Stabbing #2) -> Actor( NULL )
Agent Data
What data does each agent hold, well coding really shone light on the dark places and showed up the cracks.
Atom
The Atom element indicates time-sensitive data. It can be attached to anything, to contain a time sensitive element. AtomCollection was a break through, it smooths out the accessing of Time Sensitive data.
Atoms cannot be a child of Event Node.
Talk Base
Person, Place, and Event all inherit from Talk Base.
Talk Base has a list of status which allow generic attachment of time-sensitive data.
Data Groups
At first I was look at expanding the data model but then I thought of data groups. So the Graph provides context.
Verb
I’m still not happy with the verb declarations, the model needs some revision.
I’m thinking of having a dictionary of possible game verbs.
Query Response Format working
Sadly no pretty pictures, but loads of progress. That’s the sad truth of programming, loads of boring text before anything cool happens.
So what are you seeing
- Query Response Format working
- People, Locations, Objects populating with random generator
- No Events Yet
- Generic Time Atom System in place for storing time sensitive data
Next steps are to intelligent filter choices based on context.
Also I want to add an output to a file so conversation is visible.