This looks like fun. Unfortunately it's in Java 
Thoughts/comments? Any Allegro games we could adapt the competition for?
This looks like fun. Unfortunately it's in Java Thoughts/comments? Any Allegro games we could adapt the competition for?
Looks like fun. Although I can barely keep my head above the water with C++ and have no interest in learning Java at this moment in time, add that to having never programmed any sort of AI at all... well, I wont be entering. 
Will certainly keep an eye on it to see the responses though.
]]>Any Allegro games we could adapt the competition for?
I've got one.
]]>Does that infinite mario game applet work for you? I only see the intro screen but it doesn't respond to clicks or key presses.
]]>Yeah, the applet works fine for me
Doesn't work for me. By the way, I was listening to music with auricular and the midi music almost killed my ears.
]]>With IE, it seems when the applet has focus, the ALT key is being held down for you, and hitting A brings up the Favorites menu. It's like hiting ALT+B in Firefox (English US version at least) and getting the bookmark menu.
Chrome doesn't appear the act the same way (I have Java disabled in Firefox, too many problems in the past with the two playing nice, though I believe that in Firefox 1.x days)
]]>The applet should flash "click to play" if it doesn't have focus, and in game the a key is the B button, s is the A button, and the arrow keys move.
]]>I click on the applet and it still flashes "Click to play". That's how I found out about the strange alt key thing.
]]>Well, since nobody can play it except me...
The game randomly generates an overworld map, featuring Mario-3-esque stages, mushroom houses, fortresses, and castles. Each stage is randomly generated and persists for the duration of your game. The stage can be either with a cave tileset or an overworld tileset (maybe more, I haven't made it very far into any game). The only enemies I have seen are red/green Koopas, Goombas and piranhas. There are pipes in the levels, but I have yet to find a secret area. A significant portion of the breakable blocks are actually hidden pickups. You can collect coins, mushrooms, and Fire Flowers. I have not seen any 1-up mushrooms, so you pretty much only get 3 lives and then your game ends
It's simplistic, and I don't know how similar the AI competition's version is to this, but it's a fun game either way
s/ /¶/
So...do the competitors write code that makes Mario solve the levels on his own? Is that what this is?
]]>Yes, that's exactly right. Your program doesn't select where to go on the overworld map, you only control the behavior on the actual levels.
]]>An early competitor
That video impressed me 
, what kind of AI is that?, I have never seen something like that, it looks like is testing with a projectile motion movement? or just a bezier curve? can someone explain how this technique works?
Looks like a spinoff of raycasting where the AI projects the paths Mario can take.
If a path intersects an object, it looks for a different path.
If there are no paths, it uses the fire flower.
Edit:
The Youtube video description has this to offer:
You can see the path it plans to go as a red line, which updates when it detects new obstacles at the right screen border. It uses only information visible on screen.
]]>
It looks like it's processing and making more adjustments to the controls at more then just 24fps which I think was against some rule... Or am I missunderstanding that?
]]>Looks like a spinoff of raycasting where the AI projects the paths Mario can take.
That is an interesting way of visualizing the problem, but the similarities don't go much farther than what you just said. Also, I don't believe that AI ever uses a fire flower to destroy enemies, it only uses the flower when it changes from walking to running. If there are no paths available, it would turn around. The AI does have a mechanical precision when it comes to predicting the enemies, though. It'd be more interesting if they were randomized
It looks like it's processing and making more adjustments to the controls at more then just 24fps which I think was against some rule... Or am I missunderstanding that?
What makes you think it's doing that? It's not possible for it to, since the code is only called at 24 FPS.
]]>It looks like it's processing and making more adjustments to the controls at more then just 24fps which I think was against some rule... Or am I missunderstanding that?
I don't know if it happens, or if it is possible, or if it is against some rules - but the way I see it is this: if the AI uses only what is on the screen as its input, and its output is restricted to whatever user controls are allowed by the game, then it doesn't really matter how many cycles per second it does or how quickly it makes adjustments to the controls. If the AI wants to change its mind about which buttons will be pressed during the next frame, who cares? It can't get any advantage by doing that anyway because the game will only register new inputs at a certain rate.
]]>Holy crap the video was sweet