todd

Revised Semester Project Proposal

The Semester Project: Self-generating Virtual Environment

I'm interested in seeing if a computer can semi-randomly build a space that fulfils these criteria:

a) The space must be entirely navigable by the player. That is, a player must be able to go to any crucial point in the environment as well as leave such points. In other words, the player cannot get "stuck".

b) The space must be coherent. In this case I mean that the space must have some sort of visual coherency. This does not necessarily mean the virtual space is uniform, but rather that a user can believe that such a space has some sort of internal system or harmony: It cannot "look" random. The space needs to be more like a spawling city than a junkheap.

c) Perhaps most difficult of all, the space, in each of its incarnations, needs to be engaging and novel. That is, each time the user grows or generates a new space, it should be considerably different from its previous manifestations. The player must sense minimal repetition, and should be surprised to some extent within each new space: The spaces cannot be superficially different from each other.

While at a core, basic level I suspect part (c) impossible, especially over a large enough span of time, I think it can be achieved in a limited sense. In any case, part (c) is the key aspect I want to research. Heck, your basic random maze generator fulfills criteria (a) and (b).

At some level, I suppose this would be maze generation, although I hope that there's more to it than simple rectilinear line drawings. Hear's a few ideas of how I plan to build such a space:

Random Square Kilometer of the Inland Empire:
Streets and blocks are basically square, there's a cluster of fast food joints every x blocks, a best buy, some residental homes or apartments, zoned accordingly, and probably a section of freeway nearby. Have a database of business and street names to choose from and *bam*, here's your little piece of Los Angeles County. To those skeptics (and cynics) who think this cannot fill rule (c), I'm curious to see how far such an entity will go. It would be a little like having your car break down, and you're forced to navigate an unfamiliar territory built with familiar building blocks.

Give Us Color:
A more abstract space...basic, primal elements like color and shape would be called into question.

Give Us Climate:
This would probably extend more toward wilderness, although I building could certainly be involved. The space will be given randomized terrain (probably a heightmap base), with lifeforms, weather, and a general climate layered on top.

The midterm, as mentioned below, will be the stereo maze game. I'm stil experimenting with the limitations of the anaglyphic shapes, but it will probably be a case where the main action is in 2D, with crucial activity occuring within a limited 3D (that is, the z-axis, or "depth" dimension) that needs the stereographic cues to successfully navigate.