março 20, 2007

Automatização e agregação de media


Um sistema que permite agregar conteúdos: vídeo, imagens e texto e produzir notícias audiovisuais recorrendo a um sistema baseado no jogo Half-life 2.

"News at Seven is an automatic system that crafts daily news shows. It finds the news you are interested in; edits it; finds relevant images, videos, and external opinions; and then presents it all using a virtual news team working in a virtual studio. News at Seven is a uniquely compelling experience that can present traditional news--augmented with supplemental images, videos, and opinions from the blogosphere—all without human intervention."

Experimental Gameplay

«
. Innovative user interfaces that use natural language processing, image recognition, gestural control, new hardware devices, and the like.

. Generative games, where the gameplay or world is dynamically generated based on choices the player makes.

. Gameplay based on the emotions of (and interactions between) non-player-characters, where the player influences the characters to achieve some goal.

. Interactive storytelling, where the plot or dialog of the game changes in a fine-grained manner (in contrast with more typical discrete "branching points").

. Subtle emergent gameplay, where game systems interact to provide evolving situations. Physics-based gameplay would be an example of this. Another example would be a game with complex interpersonal interactions, like alliances and feuds between groups.

. Novel sorts of multiplayer interactions -- online, at the same machine, with wireless devices, using image recognition, or whatever.
»

from CFP of Experimental Gameplay

Hunicke e os MySims

Robin Hunicke é a Lead Designer dos novos Sims da Wii, os MySims. Robin está a acabar o seu doutoramento em Computer Science na Northwestern University, mais especificamente na área de Artificial Intelligence e Video Games. Tem participado em inúmeras conferências e debates tais como a GDC, AAAI, DIGRA.

Como se poderá ver no teaser do jogo a cuteness dos bonecos e acima de tudo a linguagem não verbal deles são fantásticas. Vamos ver se estes elementos se mantêm no gameplay.


março 19, 2007

Novos Rumos de Investigação

Como novo objectivo de investigação interessa-me agora explorar o desenvolvimento de personagens virtuais autónomas e emocionais. Ou seja continuando a trabalhar sobre os ambientes virtuais (VE) e os seus aspectos emocionais e cinemáticos mas dedicando mais atenção aos agentes virtuais. O que por sua vez continua não só a depender dos estudos da emoção cinemática e interactiva mas recorre também à Psicologia Cognitiva e de Entertainment assim como ao Game Design e aos Film Studies tudo na linha do que se tem vindo a fazer. Ou seja os três vértices FILM + VE + GAME ao qual agora se adiciona AI.

Desse modo temos três projectos actuais bastante interessantes para analisar ou re-analisar

FAÇADE


Tem aplicação finalizada e pode ser feito o download.

Do ponto de vista da AI apresenta um nivel excelente. Graficamente é muito fraco, ainda que representado num espaço tridimensional os elementos são todos 2d. A expressão facial é também muito bem conseguida e acompanha os story beats de forma bastante credível.
Apresenta o problema genérico de ser um história fechada e desse modo Mateas não se preocupou muito em produzir técnicas replicaveis, o que em ciência soa a pouco.

IMPROV

Possui apenas alguns pequenos jogos onde se podem ver os conceitos em uso.

Técnicas autonomização dos personagens/agentes importadas da caracterização/performance de actores reais, nomeadamente técnicas de improviso. Nos exemplos do site, que são poucos, podemos ver o efeito do Status numa relação interpessoal. No site podemos ainda encontrar uma apresentação da GDC com um titulo bastante sugestivo "Entertaining AI: Using Rules from Improvisational Acting to Create Unscripted Emotional Impact" mas que deixa algo a desejar, para já não tem qualquer paper e é parco em textos explicativos.

DRAMA PRINCESS

Demo terminada e online.

O conceito acerta na mouche do que procuramos - Research & development of a reusable autonomous character for realtime 3D focused on dramatical impact rather than simulation of natural behaviour. A demo parece ser um inicio bastante interessante apesar de Michael parecer estar um pouco desapontado com os resultados: "When all the decisions are being made about what to do, the Drama Princess actors currently quickly run out of inspiration. The problem is that they can end up in a position where nothing interests them anymore and they cannot get out of it because their filters are very strict about what they like to do and with whom. And since they’re not doing anything, their feelings about the objects don’t change (appart from the very slow decline due to absense)". Ou seja o problema da emergência e pervasividade. Como manter o flow of life, acima de tudo interessante numa lógica ligada à psicologia do entertainment.


projectos anteriores de relativo interesse

OZ, CMU
Virtual Theater, Stanford

...a seguir tools para produção playgrounds virtuais onde possamos desenvolver estas técnicas.

Genetic modified Pets

"Genpets are not toys or robots. They are living, breathing genetic animals...Genpets are color-coded to match one of several different genetically programmed personality profiles, so there's sure to be a Genpet perfect for you!
" See the entire story here

março 18, 2007

ScriptEase for Neverwinter Nights

"Making a module for a game like BioWare's Neverwinter Nights is a new way of telling a story, and has its own set of challenges. Instead of readers, you have players who want to feel as though they actively participate in the story. One way to do this is to present your players with a world that they interact with, instead of one they just pass through. ScriptEase is a tool designed to complement Bioware's Aurora Toolset. With Aurora, you construct the world the players will adventure in, and with ScriptEase you bring it to life."

"ScriptEase is being developed by researchers from two research groups in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta, the Games group and the Software Systems group. The goal of the ScriptEase project is to support module builders (storytellers) and game designers in automatically generating scripts for computer role-playing stories, without programming."

Dennis Muren and the Art of Visual Effects

Dennis Muren interviewed by CG Society

"people think the aesthetic and art comes from the director... they think the art is brought to them when they get the storyboards... All of that is the beginning, not the end. Usually, the sets are not lit for the effect because the effect isn’t there. We have to relight it. To do that, you need to have a broader background than a technician. In every technical task, an aesthetic component can make it better"


Dennis Muren’s Oscars
1981 - Star Wars: Episode V
1982 - Technical Achievement Award
1983 - E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1984 - Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
1985 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1988 - Innerspace
1990 - The Abyss
1992 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1994 - Jurassic Park

Oscar Nominations:
1982 - Dragon Slayer
1986 - Young Sherlock Holmes
1989 - Willow
1998 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park
2000 - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
2002 - Artificial Intelligence: AI
2006 - War of the Worlds

XNA Challenges & Contests

The Warm up
Microsoft Academic Days on Game Development in Computer Science Education - Aboard the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship. "The Challenge was simple but completing it was anything but - make an original game, from scratch in 4 days. Each XNA Game Studio Express Challenge team worked from Monday March 5 to Thursday March 8 to bring their game to life."

“DungeonQuest” by Benjamin Nitschke and Christoph Rienaecker from Germany

“Simian Escape” by Jonathon Stevens and Patrick Glanville from the United States

“Damage Control” by Josh Butterworth from the United Kingdom

“AbduX,” by Andre Furtado from Brazil

You can download the 4 games here.

The real thing
The Dream-Build-Play Challenge
Design and build an original game for Windows XP SP2 or Xbox 360™† using XNA
Game Studio Express.

Criteria
Innovation (40%) – Push your creative and technical limits.
Fun Factor (40%) – Hook our judges with exciting, entertaining action.
Production Quality (20%) – Make your game world as polished as possible.

Prize of $10,000 USD
FINAL ENTRY DEADLINE: JULY 2, 2007

O Futuro está aqui

A convergência chegou aos meios de produção. Equipas da indústria de videojogos partilham espaços com equipas do cinema. São reutilizados modelos, texturas, animações tudo em nome de uma maior convergência da forma. Uma busca pelo aperfeiçoamento da convergencia do media que proporcione a transmedialidade de
Jenkins (2006).


"There’s a new phenomenon emerging in the high-stakes world of big-budget filmmaking... video game artists, taking photographs, recording the proportions and textures of sets, and working closely with production designers and the visual effects team to make sure their game upholds the same production values as the film. They’ve become an almost permanent fixture on the moviemaking scene. The reason is because in this era of cross-platform marketing and convergent technology, major film properties live twice—in the movie theater and in the interactive realm... they should succeed in fusing the emotion of films with the intense absorption of interactive entertainment (Game Films, 2007)