Background Video game worlds becoming larger and more

Background • Video game worlds becoming larger and more immersive. • Placing objects is time consuming and tedious work. • Concept. Net lacking in object placement knowledge.

Graphics Card Evolution

Rationale • • Save development time and money. Random placement is unacceptable. Dynamic and “Endless” Worlds Expand the capabilities of Common Sense Reasoning.

Project Goals • Automatically place objects in a 3 D world. • Develop a set of common sense predicates that accurately describes object placement.

The Project – A Level Editor • Takes a NL description of a room as input. • Outputs a list of objects that common sense determines should be in the room.

The Project – A Level Editor • Takes a list of objects as input. • Arranges the objects in the room according to common sense.

How It Works: Common Sense Predicates • Develop a set of predicates that can describe object placement. • E. g. On top of, Around, Beside, etc… • How people describe object locations: – “the chairs around the table” – “the vase on top of the table”

How it Works: Common Sense Predicates On Top of Below Center of Corner of Edge of Around Inside Beside In front of Behind Against

How it Works: Common Sense Predicates • How do we give the computer a notion of “on top of”? • Computers can handle (x, y, z) coordinates

How it Works: Common Sense Predicates • Mapping of predicate, like “on top of”, to a function that translates the notion of “on top of” to (x, y, z) coordinates. • Need a common sense understanding of object geometry. • E. g. top, front, side, inside

How it Works: Object Hierarchies • How to place “my big special table”? • Common sense doesn’t know about “my big special table” • Common sense does know that “my big special table” is a table. • Common sense knows how to place a table.

How it Works: Multiple Predicates • Vase goes on top of a table. • Vase goes in the center of a table. • Place the vase on top of and in the center of a table.

How it Works: Fuzzy Predicates • • What does “edge of” mean? How close to the edge? It depends on the object E. g. plates around edge of a table vs. frosting around edge of a cake • Requires more common sense about object properties, like don’t want plates to fall off.

In Action • Trying to place a table, two chairs, a vase, and a plate.

In Action • • Table in center of room Chairs around table Plate edge of table in front of a chair Vase in center of, on top of table

Result

For Comparison