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A platform-independent occlusion culling library for dynamic environments, dPVS, can benefit such applications as CAD and modeling tools, time-varying simulations, and computer games. Visibility optimization is currently the most effective technique for improving rendering performance in complex 3D environments. The primary reason for this is that during each frame the pixel processing subsystem needs to determine the visibility of each pixel individually. Currently, rendering performance in larger scenes is input sensitive, and most of the processing time is wasted on rendering geometry not visible in the final image. Here we concentrate on real-time visualization using mainstream graphics hardware that has a z-buffer as a de facto standard for hidden surface removal. In an ideal system only the complexity of the geometry actually visible on the screen would significantly impact rendering time - 3D application performance should be output sensitive. Read more...

This paper presents an imitation learning system capable of learning tasks in a complex dynamic real-time environment. In this paper, we argue that social learning should be thought of as a special case of general skill learning, and that the biases it presents to the skill learning problem radically simplify learning for species with sufficient innate predisposition to harness this power. We decompose skill learning into four subproblems, then show how a modification of Roy's CELL system can address all these problems simultaneously. Our system is demonstrated working in the domain of a real-time virtual-reality game, Unreal Tournament. Read more...

Entertainment software developers face significant challenges in designing games with broad appeal. One of the challenges concerns creating nonplayer (computer-corn rolled) characters that can adapt their behavior in light of the current and prospective situation, possibly emulating human behaviors. This adaptation should be inherently novel, unrepeatable, yet within the bounds of realism. Evolutionary algorithms provide a suitable method for generating such behaviors. This paper provides background on the entertainment software industry, and details a prior and current effort to create a platform for evolving nonplayer characters with genetic and behavioral traits within a World War I combat flight simulator. Read more...