Development blog for a speed running research project.https://projectzoran.com/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-03-background-academic-research/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-03-background-academic-research/Surveying academic papers on game-playing AI, from NEAT and DeepMind Lab to Mario AI competitions.Sun, 03 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-03-background-market-research/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-03-background-market-research/A look at key players in the AI industry — DeepMind, OpenAI, Nvidia, and others — and how their work relates to TASBot generation.Sun, 03 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-10-neural-networks-playing-platformers/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-10-neural-networks-playing-platformers/Modifying MarI/O to play Castlevania, and preparing to apply NEAT machine learning to Celeste.Sun, 10 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-18-madelineai-100/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-18-madelineai-100/Starting development on MadelineAI, a Celeste mod for NEAT-based machine learning — tackling save states, fitness metrics, and the Everest modding framework.Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-24-game-pads-and-entities/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-02-24-game-pads-and-entities/Simulating game pad input and reading entity data from Celeste's Monocle engine for machine learning.Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-02-hyperleap-to-celestebot/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-02-hyperleap-to-celestebot/Discovering an existing NEAT implementation for Celeste, and testing both NEAT and Q-Learning approaches to bot training.Sat, 02 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-17-expanding-our-vision/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-17-expanding-our-vision/Optimizing CelesteBot's vision system from 10x10 to 30x30 tiles through collision caching, and fixing entity detection bugs.Sun, 17 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-22-speeeed-and-serialization/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-22-speeeed-and-serialization/Adding 10x game speed for faster training, and implementing save/load for NEAT population data using DataContractSerializer.Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-31-death-timers-and-entity-caching-v2/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-03-31-death-timers-and-entity-caching-v2/Fixing unreliable death resets, revamping entity caching for dynamic level content, and correcting checkpoint loading.Sun, 31 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-04-07-presentation-prep/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-04-07-presentation-prep/Optimizing fast mode, expanding entity recognition, and preparing a poster for the UMich Design Expo.Sun, 07 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-04-12-winding-down/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-04-12-winding-down/Finalizing the research poster and running CelesteBot for thousands of generations on Celeste 1A.Fri, 12 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-04-19-the-expo/https://projectzoran.com/blog/2019-04-19-the-expo/Presenting CelesteBot at the UMich Design Expo — reflections on the project and thanks to the community.Fri, 19 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMT