Flora Generation and Evolution Algorithm for Virtual Environments

A crucial aspect to game development is the ability to establish the player emersion in a simulated and virtual world, presenting engaging content and maximizing the gaming experience. The demand for new and hand-customized content keeps increasing, in playable maps that are ever expanding in size, without compromising quality or differentiation. The usage of Procedural Content Generation (PCG) allows computers to generate game content and produce distinguishable and unique instances amongst the ones generated allowing to better replicate reality and deliver intricate systems without the costs and time consumption of human intervention. As a key element for the appeal of many games, natural life exhibits both complex and distinguishable behaviors, from species to species as well as from individual to individual. Biodiversity is maintained by processes operating over broader spatial and temporal scales, and as such, simulating plant diversity is a process better suited to operate under PCG algorithms. In this study, we describe a procedural flora evolution algorithm that can replicate a flora species life cycle for a practical 3D game setting (Universe 51), using scientific knowledge to better reproduce such intricate behaviors. We based some part our approach on complex intelligence algorithms, as well as in some original processes targeted at our project specificities. The evolution algorithm starts with the end results of a flora generation algorithm that can create millions of different flora species based on selected biological parameters. This data is then interpreted by the evolutionary algorithm, that uses these values to determine each species survival chances in the surrounding environment. Our results were able to replicate and autonomously manage plant species life cycle, under a dynamic environment with potentially varying conditions.