Innovation Project: APM

I have been doing some research about how to measure the player's performance in RTS games.

So the main concept I am going to focus is APM: Actions per minute. This information can be seen in Wikipedia APM.

This concept originates from the game Starcraft, as a way to measure player skill. Actions per minute is the number of actions (such as selecting units or issuing an order) completed within a minute of gameplay in real strategy games.

A beginner can have around 50 APM in games like Starcraft while professional players have more than 300 APM.

A player's APM value is determined by the number of actions performed in a given minute. Some actions, such as repeated selection, are easier to carry out than others, and players may repeatedly perform (or "spam") these actions and are consequently redundant in terms of their usefulness.

Although, "spamming" may be used as a way to warm up and maintain speed for later phases of the game, or it may be used simply to increase a player's recorded APM in order to improve the perception of their gameplay skills. Because of this, more sophisticated measures of APM may attempt to filter out redundant actions by means such as ignoring re-selection of a group of units which was already selected and ignoring the very beginning of the game (when the typical relative lack of action facilitates spamming), in order to only measure a player's "efficient/effective" APM value. However, there is currently no standardization of what constitutes an "effective action" and APM is therefore typically recorded without any filtering.

In Starcraft II, the measure EPM (effective actions per minute) was created following the previous ideas. Instead of counting clicks or key strokes, it counts game commands. This way you can get a more accurate number.

Literature Review

For the innovation project, we were asked to write a literature review about the topic we wanted to.

The title for my literature review is: "Use of adaptive behaviour-based artificial intelligence techniques for computer controlled players in RTS or FPS games".

You can see the document online here: Literature Review

After getting some feedback about it, I will add some more information about how the player performance has to be measured, the possible reactions that NPCs should have, and the possibilities to apply and test this technique in real games or simulations.

Luminous Engine

In June 2012, during the E3, Square Enix showed a technical demo about what would be their next generation engine for next years.

The video, titled Agni's Philosophy, was working in real time (it was not recorded before).

 

They stated that the size of the assets could be a problem, even for Blu-ray discs. However, they also stated that hardly anything is compressed in that demo.

They have already published some videos showing what Luminous Engine, as it is called, is going to be able to do.
 
We can see three characters in detail and two videos about hair simulation.

 

 

 

It looks like a big progress regarding graphics engines, so we will have to see what the main competitors do.

Orbis specifications leaked

And now it is the turn for Orbis, name given to the new Sony console. VGLeaks has published what is supposed to be the new specifications for the Play Station 4 (or whatever is called).

It would use the AMD Fusion system, with 8 cores, 4GB RAM, graphic card compatible with Direct3D 11...

It would use Blu-Ray, as Play Station 3, hard drive of 500GB, and units for encoding and decoding audio and video.

There has been no confirmation by Sony about these rumours.

Durango specifications leaked

Last week, the new Xbox console, known as Durango, specifications were published by VGLeaks.

Some of the features would include 8 cores X64, 8GB RAM DDR3, graphic card compatible with Direct3D 11, hard drive always present...

It would also include hardware accelerators for image, video, and audio codecs as well as full support for Kinect.

The specifications have not been confirmed, but the difference between the new generation and the current one seems to be very large.

Sony patent against second hand games

On December 9th, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan made a patent application for their discs.

According to the information received, the technology would allow console to attach games to themselves. The discs would come with a contactless tag, which would be written the first time the game was used in a console. This way, next time the disc was inserted in a console, the ID in the disc would be compared to the ID in the console, and the game only would run if both were the same.


This patent presents some problems. What happens if you console breaks? Or if you have more than one console? And retail stores would have a big business problem.

Anyways, Sony hasn't confirmed anything about this, so it is possible that this technology never gets used.

Wii U

Wii U has been released last November, the console that has been said to be the most innovative until now.

The console design, the operating system, the style of games or even the hardware specifications are nothing but little improvements of the original Wii.

However, the feature that has got the attention of everyone is the gamepad. People say the controller is very comfortable to use. The resistive screen is the protagonist, even if it's not as good as it could be, having a resolution of only 854 x 480 pixels.

The batteries don't last very long either, which a lot of people has considered a bad point.

The controller is just a mix between a tablet and a controller, and the hardware lacks some power for a next-generation console, but the idea is not bad and could allow developers to come up with very good ideas.

We will have to wait some time to see how the console is received by the people and the uses companies give to the controller.