Genetic Algorithms

This week’s Thursday Theory article looks at academic research in Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies (a.k.a. NEAT) developed at the University of Texas. In particular, you’ll learn how it’s applied at runtime in a video game to allow the actors to learn neat behaviors over time by evolution. (You can curse at the pun if […]

euphoria, a physics-based animation system capable of synthesizing motion dynamically, has been getting a lot of attention recently. The gaming press in particular seems to have sunk to the level of screeching groupies. So, in the interest of providing you with balanced coverage, here’s a more technical (and possibly a little cynical) review […]

AI research ties into games and simulations in many ways, but one of the most fascinating is the evolution of artificial life. Here’s a compilation of the best videos and white papers about applying genetic algorithms to generating the morphology and behavior of virtual embodied creatures in 3D worlds.
A big thanks goes to […]

In the build up to GDC 2008, there are quite a few smart links relating to industry news. This roundup is brought to you by Mark Wisecarver and Alex Champandard. If you have any news or tips for next week, be sure to email them in to: editors at AiGameDev.com.
Remember there’s a mini-blog […]

A new book recently came out explaining how to apply biologically inspired AI to games. It covers the classics in computational intelligence such as genetic algorithms, neural networks, artificial immune systems and particle swarm optimizations — not forgetting underrated techniques like reinforcement learning, independent component analysis, and radial basis functions.
I found out about […]

Evolutionary algorithms (EA) fall into the category of general optimization strategies, which can be used to find approximate solutions to problems given a measure of fitness. Modern game developers certainly uses specific optimization techniques heavily, but evolutionary algorithms still haven’t found a regular place in the development process.