Louise Lawrence Supervisor: Dr Wolfgang Mayer Using Genetic Algorithms to Procedurally Create Diverse and Interesting Explorable Buildings for Virtual Worlds Louise Lawrence Supervisor: Dr Wolfgang Mayer

Why? Lack of diversity in buildings for virtual worlds Time, cost, variety

Comparison Computer Generated Player Created

Procedural Generation Rules (L-systems, grammars) Simple rules -> blandness Complexity -> unintuitive Not optimised for explorable buildings used in sandbox games

Research Question Can we use genetic algorithms to make diverse, explorable buildings? Genetic Algorithm

How? Genetic Algorithms

Genetic Algorithms Adaptive gameplay Multiple objectives/optimal solutions Diversity Used in engineering and architecture Step One: Generate population Step Two: Mix and match parts of individuals Step Three: Evaluate resulting individuals Step Four: Remove the poorest performing individuals Step Five: Go back to Step Two

Tasks Generate Buildings Parametric shape grammar -> ensures explorable buildings Ensuring Diversity Multiple population Incorporating User Feedback Selecting preferred individuals

Evaluation Proposed user study Users to test if there is diversity in the generated buildings If more time: Implement other means of generating buildings and comparing the system

Summary Current systems inadequate for generating diversity in buildings, especially with the rise of open worlds and sandbox games Genetic algorithms as a potential promising approach to generating interesting and diverse buildings