Abstract
The virtual terrain for a video game generally needs to exhibit a collection of gameplay elements, such as some areas suitable for hiding and others for large scale battles. A key problem in automating terrain design is the lack of a quantitative definition of terrain gameplay elements. In this paper, we address the problem by proposing a representation for gameplay elements based on a combination of space-based isovist measures from the field of architecture and graph-connectivity metrics. We then propose a genetic algorithm-based approach that evolves a set of modifications to an existing terrain so as to exhibit the gameplay element characteristics. The potential for this approach in the design of computer game environments is examined by generating terrain containing instances of the “hidden area” game element type. Results from four preliminary tests are described to show the potential of this research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Hullett, K., Whitehead, J.: Design patterns in FPS levels. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, pp. 78–85 (2010)
Benedikt, M.L.: To take hold of space: Isovist fields. Environ. Plann. B Plann. Des. 6(1), 47–65 (1979)
van Bilsen, A., Poleman, R.: 3D visibility analysis in virtual worlds: the case of supervisor. In: Proceedings of the Construction Applications of Virtual Reallity, pp. 5, 6, 267–278 (2009)
Perlin, K., Hoffert, E.: Hypertexture. SIGGRAPH Comput. Graph. 23(3), 253–262 (1989)
Lau, W.-C., Erramilli, A., Wang, J.L., Willinger, W.: Self-similar traffic generation: the random midpoint displacement algorithm and its properties. In: 1995 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 1995), pp. 466–472 (1995)
Fournier, A., Fussell, D., Carpenter, L.: Computer rendering of stochastic models. Commun. ACM 25(6), 371–384 (1982)
World Machine: World Machine (2015). http://www.world-machine.com/
Planetside: Planetside Software (2015). http://planetside.co.uk/
Belhadj, F., Audibert, P.: Modelling landscapes with ridges and rivers: bottom up approach. In: GRAPHITE 2005: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, pp. 447–450 (2005)
Doran, J., Parberry, I.: Controlled procedural terrain generation using software agents. IEEE Trans. Comput. Intell. AI Games 2(2), 111–119 (2010)
Hnaidi, H., Guérin, E., Akkouche, S., Peytavie, A., Galin, E.: Feature based terrain generation using diffusion equation. Comput. Graph. Forum 29(7), 2179–2186 (2010)
Peytavie, A., Galin, E., Merillou, S. Grosjean, J.: Arches: a framework for modelling complex terrain. In: Proceedings of the Eurographics 2009 (2009)
Smelik, R., Galka, K., de Kraker, K.L., Kuijper, F., Bidarra, R.: Semantic constraints for procedural generation of virtual worlds. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Procedural Content Generation in Games. ACM (2011)
Raffe, W., Zambetta, F., Li, X.: Evolving patch-based terrains for use in video games. In: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 363–370 (2011)
Ong, T., Saunders, R., Keyser, J., Leggett, J.: Terrain generation using genetic algorithms. In: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, pp. 1463–1470 (2005)
Li, Q., Wang, G., Zhou, F., Tang, X., Yang, K.: Example-based realistic terrain generation. In: Pan, Z., Cheok, D.A.D., Haller, M., Lau, R., Saito, H., Liang, R. (eds.) ICAT 2006. LNCS, vol. 4282, pp. 811–818. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Togelius, J., Preuss, M., Yannakakis, G.N.: Towards multiobjective procedural map generation. In: Proceedings of the 2010 Workshop on Procedural Content Generation in Games, pp. 1–8 (2010)
Liapis, A., Yannakakis, G.N., Togelius, J.: Towards a generic method of evaluating game levels. In: Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (2013)
Olsen, J.: Realtime procedural terrain generation. Technical report, University of Southern Denmark (2004)
Frade, M., de Vega, F.F., Cotta, C.: Evolution of artificial terrains for video games based on accessibility. In: Di Chio, C., Cagnoni, S., Cotta, C., Ebner, M., Ekárt, A., Esparcia-Alcazar, A.I., Goh, C.-K., Merelo, J.J., Neri, F., Preuß, M., Togelius, J., Yannakakis, G.N. (eds.) EvoApplicatons 2010, Part I. LNCS, vol. 6024, pp. 90–99. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Hart, P.E., Nilsson, L.J., Raphael, B.: A formal basis for the heuristic determination of minimum cost paths. IEEE Trans. Syst. Sci. Cybern. 4(2), 100–107 (1968)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Pech, A., Lam, CP., Hingston, P., Masek, M. (2016). Using Isovists to Evolve Terrains with Gameplay Elements. In: Squillero, G., Burelli, P. (eds) Applications of Evolutionary Computation. EvoApplications 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9597. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31204-0_41
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31204-0_41
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31203-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31204-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)