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Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

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Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#21

Post by omn1 »

dap wrote: post #17
omn1 wrote: post #15

Sounds like a nice proof of concept, but I would have tried to identify the in-game variables as in [0] and identify the state of the game from there. Maybe it would take a bit longer, but in the end one could track if a player is sliding or was using an item and so on. Grabbing video frames and doing some kind of template matching on the still images sounds a bit... inconvenient. [0]: http://orbitaldecay.com/N64/Les…

Author here. That's an approach we considered as well, but we didn't want to have to use an emulator to play the game. Still, you could potentially get much richer information with that approach, and I'd love to see a demo based on it! [Edited for detail]

I know what you mean. Nevertheless, there are USB controllers which feel like the real thing. Mupen64plus behaves just like the original console so this might be a start. Here are some memory locations I found: https://sites.google.com/site/jamesskingdom/Home/video-game-...

Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#22

Post by laxatives »

daraul wrote: post #10
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #8

If you liked this, you might also like a general technique for automating NES games , with Mario Bros demo [1]. There is a video, research paper, and source code too. [1] http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom7/mario/

I just about lost my shit during a break here, when at the end of the video the AI actually ragequits during a game of Tetris.

Not only is it logical to rage quit a game after losing, but optimal as well.

Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#23

Post by dap »

omn1 wrote: post #21
dap wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. That's an approach we considered as well, but we didn't want to have to use an emulator to play the game. Still, you could potentially get much richer information with that approach, and I'd love to see a demo based on it! [Edited for detail]

I know what you mean. Nevertheless, there are USB controllers which feel like the real thing. Mupen64plus behaves just like the original console so this might be a start. Here are some memory locations I found: https://sites.google.com/site/jamesskingdom/Home/video-game-...

Oh, hi! I came across your site while I was working on this. I enjoyed the video of dropping a fake question block in Time Trial :)

Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#24

Post by jamesaguilar »

jcurbo wrote: post #14
beambot wrote: post #12

Liquipedia needs this for StarCraft2 VODs.

You don't even need the VODs, because a replay encodes all the information about the game already in machine readable form. I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere is already doing large scale analysis of available SC2 replays.

We have that in League of Legends already, but the analytics that have been done so far are fairly rudimentary (who counters who, who has the highest win rate, etc.)

Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#25

Post by vutekst »

jcurbo wrote: post #14
beambot wrote: post #12

Liquipedia needs this for StarCraft2 VODs.

You don't even need the VODs, because a replay encodes all the information about the game already in machine readable form. I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere is already doing large scale analysis of available SC2 replays.

Prepare to be un-surprised:

http://www.ggtracker.com/

http://sc2replaystats.com/

http://www.sc2replays.eu/

https://sites.google.com/site/sc2gears/

Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#26

Post by icebraining »

omn1 wrote: post #21
dap wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. That's an approach we considered as well, but we didn't want to have to use an emulator to play the game. Still, you could potentially get much richer information with that approach, and I'd love to see a demo based on it! [Edited for detail]

I know what you mean. Nevertheless, there are USB controllers which feel like the real thing. Mupen64plus behaves just like the original console so this might be a start. Here are some memory locations I found: https://sites.google.com/site/jamesskingdom/Home/video-game-...

If you have an Arduino, you just need to connect three pieces of wire to use a proper N64 controller on a computer: http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-an-Arduino-with-an-N64-c...

I've played Conker's Bad Fur Day using one of these and an S-Video cable plugged to the TV, and it really feels like the real thing :)

Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#27

Post by stinky613 »

omn1 wrote: post #15

Sounds like a nice proof of concept, but I would have tried to identify the in-game variables as in [0] and identify the state of the game from there. Maybe it would take a bit longer, but in the end one could track if a player is sliding or was using an item and so on. Grabbing video frames and doing some kind of template matching on the still images sounds a bit... inconvenient. [0]: http://orbitaldecay.com/N64/Les…

I too was surprised that the author didn't go that route--especially considering there are hundreds of gameshark codes available to give you interesting RAM locations to monitor. There's a weight modifier code for each player which could make for some interesting analysis, also.

Re: Kartlytics: Applying Big Data Analytics to Mario Kart

#29

Post by stdbrouw »

As I was looking for a non-insane alternative to Hadoop/EMR, I figured I'd check out Manta, the product they're (sort of) trying to push in the blogpost. Can't say if it scales / is fast / is cheap... but it's very developer-friendly. Couple of lines of JSON pipeline config and you're map/reducing.
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