Integrating Multiagent Systems into Virtual Worlds

Abstract

Incorporating autonomy and intelligence into virtual worlds to build an engaging virtual environment for applications such as serious games is becoming more desirable. There are challenges in integrating these systems including concerns with synchronization, communication, monitoring, efficiency, and control. This paper presents an approach to integrating a virtual world engine with a multiagent system platform through the creation of an interface between them. We show the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach through developing agents controlled non-player controlled characters (NPCs) in Open Wonderland and purposeful communication channels among agents using Jason AgentSpeak.Keywor ds: Virtual Worlds  Multiagent Systems  Integration  Serious Games 1 Intr oduction Virtual Worlds (VW) are 3D graphical environments that provide multimedia, engaging, and immersive user experience. They can provide more dimensions than physical environments, more social nuanced ways for people. Multiagent systems (MAS) encompass distributed problem-solving applications; such as network management has a focus on inter-agent communication, coordination, and negotiation. Recently, researchers in VW community have adopted MAS as they are well suited to application domains where virtual entities, called agents, are self-directed and can actively pursue their goals within an environment that they can interact with, including interactions with other agents that are also in pursuit of their own goals. Agents are ideally suited for modeling real people -they are active and social, similar to the way people are. Also, agents can be used for modelling nonplayer character (NPCs), keeping track of individual interests, motivations, and goals in game worlds. However, there is not a platform that can help programmers to develop and test agent behaviors in virtual worlds that need autonomy and intelligence and interaction with other agents and the environments.

A game engine to make games as multi-agent systems

“…Further works present a MAS to model architecture for Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) games [17,18], where the real-time interactivity of multiple game agents prevails. Other authors show a system that tries to integrate virtual worlds with a multi-agent platform through an interface [8]. Also, the MASs have been used to expose a virtual environment where agents communicate autonomously with the player as a 3D chat [19,20,21], and subsequently it was extended for the implementation of a virtual fair [22,23,24].…”

“…The study of these game engines and their characteristics suggest that there is a close relationship between the concepts of game and MAS. This is appreciated in the game elements of the agents' definition [6], their relations [7] and its communication protocols and cooperation mechanisms [8]. In fact, there are several related topics, paradigms or applications where the MAS are used for the control of automatic processes and dynamic systems [9], or mechanisms of cooperation and consensus [10].…”

Prototyping a game engine architecture as a multi-agent system

“…In [Pon13], the authors propose an agent-based system to control the game parameters according to the game objectives. Besides, [Fin08] shows a system where the agents learn autonomously to play games without human intervention, [Gra13] proposes a system to integrate virtual worlds with a multi-agent interface and [Jep10] proposes an agent creation framework for serious games.…”

Game Development Based on Multi-agent Systems

“…Multi-agent System Features agents prevails. Other authors show a system that tries to integrate virtual worlds with a multi-agent platform through an interface [GSF13]. Also, the MASs have been used to expose a virtual environment where agents communicate autonomously with the player as a 3D chat [GQCC06, GQC + 07a, GQCC10], and subsequently it was extended for the implementation of a virtual fair [RGR + 15, RCRG06, RRPCC12].…”

“…The study of these game engines and their characteristics suggest that there is a close relationship between the concepts of game and MAS. This is appreciated in the game elements of the agents' definition [SCT03], their relations [Bis08] and its communication protocols and cooperation mechanisms [GSF13]. In fact, there are several related topics, paradigms or applications where the MAS are used for the control of automatic processes and dynamic systems [OS06], or mechanisms of cooperation and consensus [OSFM07].…”