structure

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structure
vs
style
Chris Hecker Maxis / EA
chrishecker.com
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disclaimer
concrete specific fancy demos big name
game provided solution
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Question
What technology has had the most profound impact
on games?
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(No Transcript)
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The Heartbreaking Beauty of the Texture Mapped
Triangle

lt
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Powerful structure
The computer can reason about the triangle at a
deep level... morphology transform rasterize
light hit test topology traverse
xyzuv whd texels connect
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Expressive style
The artist can represent subtle but rich
designs... minimal DOFs simple linear intui
tive DOFs vertices texture pixels
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This is much deeper than data-driving.

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Other Examples
skinned mesh bones
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Other Examples
wavetable synthesis
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Other Examples
Style Machines, Brand Hertzmann, 2000
mocap processing
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Other Examples
Lucas Kovar
mocap processing
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Other Examples
spore creature animation
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Other Examples
spore creature paint
Henry Goffin
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Other Examples
htmlcss
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Other Examples
typefaces
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style
structure
vs
This decomposition is everywhere hard
interactive problems are being solved.
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What is a hard interactive problem?
Not... wicked problems. (Rittel Webber,
Hocking) how to make this game fun
problems.
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What is a hard interactive problem?
Also, not easy problems... no quantitative
success metric. dont care about CPU,
RAM, even P or NP.
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What is a hard interactive problem?
Problems at the intersection of... technology,
aesthetics, interactivity.
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My Theory...
I think solutions to hard interactive
problems will always have a deep structure vs
style decomposition.
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Why?
Interactivity demands that the computer be in
the loop.
Emotion aesthetics demand that a human be in
the loop.
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Humans in the Loop
create execute
algorithms
generate illustrate judge
data
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Humans vs Computers
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Humans Computers
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Bridging the Gap?
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Question
What technology should have had the most
profound impact on games?
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AI technology is the key to deep interactivity,
consequence, and meaning.
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We have not yet found a structure vs
style decomposition for AI.
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What is structure?
What is style?
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structure
xyzuv whd texels connect
Static specification of the DOFs describing the
object.
style

Values for the DOFs describing the object.
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static structure
xyzuv whd texels connect
You can reason about it. You can write code that
reasons about it.
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malleable style

You can write code that changes it. It is data.
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Choosing style DOFs is an Art
intuitive expressive frugal blendable efficient
It took a long time for the triangle to
win. The rigid body has not yet won.
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structure vs style for AI
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structure vs style for AI
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What are the style DOFs for AI?
Does behavior mean code?
Can code be a style DOF?
Note this is still code!
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Where does the code live?

Not in the DOFs
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Code is not...
intuitive expressive frugal blendable efficient
tick_ai() is not a good DOF!
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My Prediction...
There will be a structure vs style decomposition
for AI.
Its style will not be based on code.
There will be a Photoshop of AI.
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Near Term
Look for the structure vs style DOF
decomposition for your games AI.
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Thank You.