Smithees, not just for movies.
Jan. 3rd, 2011 03:32 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagoskiI just read about a Broadway musical that just might have inspired Mel Brooke's "The Producers". Except it was produced ten years after the movie originally was. The musical was entitled Via Galactica and there's a NY Times piece about it.
Also, Michelle and I just watched Boa Vs Python. To catch a giant man-eating snake in the sewers of Philadelphia, you send in a second giant man-eating snake. And make sure you have a bunch of gun toting rednecks on a private hunting party in those same sewers. Hijinks and mayhem ensue. Much to our disappointment, no Philadelphians were injured in the making of this film because it was shot on location in Bulgaria.
In other news, I think I can implement my model of mind for Quake II monsters as three layer neural net that processes the sensory input, sight and sound, through a hidden layer that represents different instinctive drives. The output layer decides between attack, flight and going back to default behavior. I think I can create very different behaviors this way. Once set of monster might be a territorial grazer which is peaceful as long as the player doesn't try to keep it from feeding on medpacks or infringe on what it believes to be its territory. Another type might stalk the player actively but run away if the player wings it. Still another could try to race the player to the end of level. The decision to attack or flee would be determined by which neurons get activated. The idea is to create a bizarre eco system of menace which the players have to figure out. I can also create flocking behavior and get interactions between monsters. For instance, one type would fight regardless of health but would flee once a certain number of its brethren get killed. Likewise, this one would be placid individually but aggressive in groups. And, once again, this projects gives me a chance to review my math. Depending on much computational power my next laptop has, I might be able to do some sophisticated stuff as well. That is, if I understand the math behind it well enough.
Also, Michelle and I just watched Boa Vs Python. To catch a giant man-eating snake in the sewers of Philadelphia, you send in a second giant man-eating snake. And make sure you have a bunch of gun toting rednecks on a private hunting party in those same sewers. Hijinks and mayhem ensue. Much to our disappointment, no Philadelphians were injured in the making of this film because it was shot on location in Bulgaria.
In other news, I think I can implement my model of mind for Quake II monsters as three layer neural net that processes the sensory input, sight and sound, through a hidden layer that represents different instinctive drives. The output layer decides between attack, flight and going back to default behavior. I think I can create very different behaviors this way. Once set of monster might be a territorial grazer which is peaceful as long as the player doesn't try to keep it from feeding on medpacks or infringe on what it believes to be its territory. Another type might stalk the player actively but run away if the player wings it. Still another could try to race the player to the end of level. The decision to attack or flee would be determined by which neurons get activated. The idea is to create a bizarre eco system of menace which the players have to figure out. I can also create flocking behavior and get interactions between monsters. For instance, one type would fight regardless of health but would flee once a certain number of its brethren get killed. Likewise, this one would be placid individually but aggressive in groups. And, once again, this projects gives me a chance to review my math. Depending on much computational power my next laptop has, I might be able to do some sophisticated stuff as well. That is, if I understand the math behind it well enough.