SSBSE 2011: Search Based Software Engineering pp 112-126 | Cite as
Identifying Desirable Game Character Behaviours through the Application of Evolutionary Algorithms to Model-Driven Engineering Metamodels
Abstract
This paper describes a novel approach to the derivation of model-driven engineering (MDE) models using metaheuristic search, and illustrates it using a specific engineering problem: that of deriving computer game characters with desirable properties. The character behaviour is defined using a human-readable domain-specific language (DSL) that is interpreted using MDE techniques. We apply the search to the underlying MDE metamodels, rather than the DSL directly, and as a result our approach is applicable to a wide range of MDE models. An implementation developed using the Eclipse Modeling Framework, the most widely-used toolset for MDE, is evaluated. The results demonstrate not only the derivation of characters with the desired properties, but also the identification of unexpected features of the behavioural description language and the game itself.
Keywords
Genetic Algorithm Model Transformation Mapping Process Game Play Random SearchPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
- 1.Brabazon, A., O’Neill, M.: Evolving technical trading rules for spot foreign-exchange markets using grammatical evolution. Computational Management Science 1, 311–327 (2004)CrossRefMATHGoogle Scholar
- 2.Czarnecki, K., Helsen, S.: Feature-based survey of model transformation approaches. IBM Systems Journal 45(3), 621–645 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 3.Efftinge, S., Voelter, M.: oAW xText: A framework for textual DSLs. In: Proc. Workshop on Modelling, Eclipse Con. (2006)Google Scholar
- 4.Goldsby, H.J., Cheng, B.H.C.: Avida-MDE: a digital evolution approach to generating models of adaptive software behavior. In: Proc. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conf., GECCO 2008, pp. 1751–1758 (2008)Google Scholar
- 5.Heidenreich, F., Johannes, J., Karol, S., Seifert, M., Wende, C.: Derivation and Refinement of Textual Syntax for Models. In: Paige, R.F., Hartman, A., Rensink, A. (eds.) ECMDA-FA 2009. LNCS, vol. 5562, pp. 114–129. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 6.Hugosson, J., Hemberg, E., Brabazon, A., O’Neill, M.: Genotype representations in grammatical evolution. Applied Soft. Computing 10, 36–43 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 7.Kessentini, M., Sahraoui, H., Boukadoum, M.: Model Transformation as an Optimization Problem. In: Busch, C., Ober, I., Bruel, J.-M., Uhl, A., Völter, M. (eds.) MODELS 2008. LNCS, vol. 5301, pp. 159–173. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 8.Kleppe, A.: A language description is more than a metamodel. In: Fourth Int’l Workshop on Software Language Eng. (October 2007)Google Scholar
- 9.Kolovos, D.S., Rose, L.M., Paige, R.F.: The Epsilon book (2010) (unpublished)Google Scholar
- 10.Kolovos, D.S., Paige, R.F., Polack, F.A.C.: The Epsilon Object Language (EOL). In: Rensink, A., Warmer, J. (eds.) ECMDA-FA 2006. LNCS, vol. 4066, pp. 128–142. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 11.Li, R., Chaudron, M.R.V., Ladan, R.C.: Towards automated software architectures design using model transformations and evolutionary algorithms. In: Proc. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conf (GECCO 2010), pp. 1333–1340 (2010)Google Scholar
- 12.O’Neill, M., Brabazon, A.: Grammatical differential evolution. In: Proc. 2006 Int’l Conf. Artificial Intelligence (ICAI 2006), pp. 231–236 (2006)Google Scholar
- 13.O’Neill, M., Brabazon, A.: Grammatical swarm: The generation of programs by social programming. Natural Computing 5, 443–462 (2006)MathSciNetCrossRefMATHGoogle Scholar
- 14.O’Neill, M., Ryan, C.: Grammatical evolution. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 5(4), 349–358 (2001)MathSciNetCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 15.Ryan, C., Collins, J.J., Neill, M.O.: Grammatical Evolution: Evolving Programs for an Arbitrary Language. In: Banzhaf, W., Poli, R., Schoenauer, M., Fogarty, T.C. (eds.) EuroGP 1998. LNCS, vol. 1391, pp. 83–96. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 16.Selic, B.: The pragmatics of model-driven development. IEEE Software 20(5), 19–25 (2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 17.Shao, J., McDermott, J., O’Neill, M., Brabazon, A.: Jive: A Generative, Interactive, Virtual, Evolutionary Music System. In: Di Chio, C., Brabazon, A., Di Caro, G.A., Ebner, M., Farooq, M., Fink, A., Grahl, J., Greenfield, G., Machado, P., O’Neill, M., Tarantino, E., Urquhart, N. (eds.) EvoApplications 2010. LNCS, vol. 6025, pp. 341–350. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 18.Steinberg, D., Budinsky, F., Paternostro, M., Merks, E.: EMF Eclipse Modeling Framework. The Eclipse Series, 2nd edn., Addison-Wesley, Reading (2009)Google Scholar