The Emergence Engine: A Behavior Based Agent Development Environment for Artists

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Many artists are intrigued by the creative possibilities presented to them by virtual worlds populated with autonomous agents. Artists wishing to explore these possibilities face many obstacles including the need to learn artificial intelligence programming techniques. The Emergence Engine allows artists with no programming experience to create complex virtual worlds. Using behavior based action selection, the Emergence Engine allows artists to populate their worlds with autonomous situated agents. Artists can then direct the agents’ behaviors using Emergence’s high level scripting language. Artists have used the Emergence Engine successfully since 1998 to create numerous art installations exhibited both in the US and abroad.