DirectIA


Official DirectIA website here.

These films are encoded as DivX. The free codec can be obtained here.

DirectIA is our behavioral framework for agent based technologies. Agents are modeled from a biologically inspired viewpoint, and exhibit motivations, stimulus and even perceptions of certain objects that differ from one agent to the next. It is a non deterministic system based on a bottom-up approach, whereby activation energy is distributed across a network of possible choices. Decisions and actions therefore compete with one and other, and the best suited result for a current situation emerges.



Reactions to emotions




This clip demonstrates a DirectIA-controlled agent playing Quake. Our IXI tool enables us to visualize any aspect of an agent's state as the game progresses. The agent in question is the one being chased by the first person.

Here we'll be viewing the dynamics of the agent's fear. The stimulus indicator of "fear" can be seen in the top left window. As the first person player approaches the agent and enters his sight, his fear clearly jumps thereby activating a motivation called "avoid fear". The reactions (scripts executing on the bottom left) instruct the agent to flee out of harm's way. Notice his fear diminishes gradually as he escapes to safety.

Download movie (3.9 MB)




Capture the flag




All agents in this scene are controlled by DirectIA. They are playing "Capture the Flag".

Players must capture the flag of the opposing team and bring it into their territory. Each team must therefore strategically defend their own flag, and capture the opponent's flag to win the game. These emergent behaviors can be seen in the clip, particularly as they team up against the opposing team.

Download movie (2.2 MB)




Runtime script modifications




Agents in DirectIA are written by involving both the C++ framework and a rich scripting language system. The scripts are used to write all behavioral aspects of the agent, while the C++ counterpart implements all function calls used by the script. This way, agents can be easily edited and modified without any recompilation of code.

This is a clip demonstrating runtime editing of scripts in our IXI tool. This powerful capability allows agent developers to modify an agent's script while the application is still running. The resulting changes in behavior can be seen immediately.

Download movie (1 MB)