5 ms·

Link to the data is in a Github repo at the bottom: https://github.com/Activision/caldera https://github.com/Activision/caldera Reading the article, they don't

Link to the data is in a Github repo at the bottom: https://github.com/Activision/caldera https://github.com/Activision/caldera Reading the article, they don't seem to know what people should do with it. It feels like a recruiting tool more than anything, especially given the non-commercial license.

SkyPuncher 2y ago
As an avid CoD player, I literally have no idea why this would be useful. Map data isn’t really interesting. The player data seems far too low of resolution to be meaningful.
- a_e_k 2y ago
  These sorts of data sets can be useful for graphics research, particular as a data set to test ray tracing algorithms on. See for example, the Moana Island data set. [1] I definitely foresee papers on BVH construction using this scene. For graphics research in academia, there's a dearth of real-world data sets like this, so the ones that do get released are gold. And for graphics research in industry, one may have access to good internal data sets for development and testing, but getting permission to publish anything with them tends to be a giant hassle. It's often easier to just use publicly available data sets. Plus, that makes it easier to compare results across papers. [1] https://www.disneyanimation.com/resources/moana-island-scene/ https://www.disneyanimation.com/resources/moana-island-scene...
  - modeless 2y ago
    The Moana island has complete material data though. This release seems to be only geometry. No materials or textures at all.
    - a_e_k 2y ago
      Yep. That's still fine for building BVHs and shooting some rays around.
  - SkyPuncher 2y ago
    Thank you for explaining that. Very helpful.
- minimaxir 2y ago
  Since they provide player movement data, you can train a transformer to predict which player will win the BR given movement patterns. Or maybe create "player embeddings" to see if player behaviors can be clustered. That could be a fun project...but definitely not useful. Extracting and converting the player data from the .usd files would not be fun, though.
  - highcountess 2y ago
    Given all the other variables that introduce a bunch of noise to the player movement data, I doubt you could ever determine any useful predictive pattern. If anything though, I could see how player behavior of match winners could be used to both identify varying level of cheaters and players that use various methods for providing an advantage (i.e., keyboard mouse, joystick extensions, etc) and automatically sequester or even handicap their accounts. It appears to me that so much effort is placed on trying to identify and hamper cheaters in real time, when that both seems extremely resource intensive and unnecessary, considering you have all the digital evidence proof of cheating you need after the fact, you just have to understand what you are looking at.
    - buran77 2y ago
      > so much effort is placed on trying to identify and hamper cheaters in real time, when that both seems extremely resource intensive and unnecessary, considering you have all the digital evidence proof of cheating you need after the fact, you just have to understand what you are looking at It's not resource intensive at all compared to the alternative of ahaving humans doing post match reviews. It's all "AI" and automated reviews because it's cheaper. Half of the "anti-cheat" tactic is anyway using your computer resources to run some anti cheat tool. These games are optimized for revenue so every action is dictated by that. Including catching/banning cheaters. If it costs too much to do it properly, or (and this is actually plausible) cheaters are a significant enough portion of the already small chunk of players who create recurring revenue, then there's no incentive to take real action. This data is probably useful for actual academic rather than practical purposes today. They're building the knowledge they might want to use in a few years.
    - 2y ago
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  It sounds like this is simply not for you, then, and that's fine.
0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
Is there anything particularly novel about this vs the game map of a different FPS?
- bee_rider 2y ago
  Not that it makes it novel, but this appears to be a “battle royale” map based on the picture shown in the post. So it is fairly large, for whatever that’s worth. The assumption with this type of game is that player will play the same big map over an over for the season (or something like that, changing the map is very rare, might not happen at all over the lifespan of the game), and but they can pick which part of the map they start in and explore from there. So it is, I guess, more similar to having data from all of the maps, for classic first person shooters.
  - minimaxir 2y ago
    Specifically, during each play session, the map has a "storm" which converges on a random location over time: staying in the storm is lethal, so you are forced to eventually go to that location and points-of-interest along the way, which adds play variance.
- elabajaba 2y ago
  Other fps game maps don't have licenses that let you use them to stress test your renderer or game engine. Existing freely available scenes are all too small and poorly made to be proper stress tests with modern hardware (eg. Old sponza is way too light, Intel sponza they just spammed the subdivision modifier to make it stupidly high poly, Bistro is small and really weirdly made, etc).
ackbar03 2y ago
Make killer robots on the island of caldera
AHTERIX5000 2y ago
It's useful to have AAA tier sample game level assets available for engine development or for apps like Blender.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
aa_is_op 2y ago
Not really, they released it primarily for artist training and tutorials. Getting hold of XXL gaming maps of this high-quality from a super popular game is definitely something that most game design training courses will use 100%.
bArray 2y ago
From an information theory perspective, it should be possible to define strategically important locations in terms of Empowerment [1]. As a map designer there are likely some rough rules you want to abide by, such as roughly equal highly empowered locations throughout the map to reduce location bias. I remember an old game where they defined map rules in FPS CTF maps that there should be more than one path to each flag (usually three) and flag areas should be partially visible from one base to another. There were lots of rules like these, some more flexible than others. [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1863 https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1863

SkyPuncher 2y ago

As an avid CoD player, I literally have no idea why this would be useful. Map data isn’t really interesting. The player data seems far too low of resolution to be meaningful.

a_e_k 2y ago
These sorts of data sets can be useful for graphics research, particular as a data set to test ray tracing algorithms on. See for example, the Moana Island data set. [1] I definitely foresee papers on BVH construction using this scene. For graphics research in academia, there's a dearth of real-world data sets like this, so the ones that do get released are gold. And for graphics research in industry, one may have access to good internal data sets for development and testing, but getting permission to publish anything with them tends to be a giant hassle. It's often easier to just use publicly available data sets. Plus, that makes it easier to compare results across papers. [1] https://www.disneyanimation.com/resources/moana-island-scene/ https://www.disneyanimation.com/resources/moana-island-scene...
- modeless 2y ago
  The Moana island has complete material data though. This release seems to be only geometry. No materials or textures at all.
  - a_e_k 2y ago
    Yep. That's still fine for building BVHs and shooting some rays around.
- SkyPuncher 2y ago
  Thank you for explaining that. Very helpful.
minimaxir 2y ago
Since they provide player movement data, you can train a transformer to predict which player will win the BR given movement patterns. Or maybe create "player embeddings" to see if player behaviors can be clustered. That could be a fun project...but definitely not useful. Extracting and converting the player data from the .usd files would not be fun, though.
- highcountess 2y ago
  Given all the other variables that introduce a bunch of noise to the player movement data, I doubt you could ever determine any useful predictive pattern. If anything though, I could see how player behavior of match winners could be used to both identify varying level of cheaters and players that use various methods for providing an advantage (i.e., keyboard mouse, joystick extensions, etc) and automatically sequester or even handicap their accounts. It appears to me that so much effort is placed on trying to identify and hamper cheaters in real time, when that both seems extremely resource intensive and unnecessary, considering you have all the digital evidence proof of cheating you need after the fact, you just have to understand what you are looking at.
  - buran77 2y ago
    > so much effort is placed on trying to identify and hamper cheaters in real time, when that both seems extremely resource intensive and unnecessary, considering you have all the digital evidence proof of cheating you need after the fact, you just have to understand what you are looking at It's not resource intensive at all compared to the alternative of ahaving humans doing post match reviews. It's all "AI" and automated reviews because it's cheaper. Half of the "anti-cheat" tactic is anyway using your computer resources to run some anti cheat tool. These games are optimized for revenue so every action is dictated by that. Including catching/banning cheaters. If it costs too much to do it properly, or (and this is actually plausible) cheaters are a significant enough portion of the already small chunk of players who create recurring revenue, then there's no incentive to take real action. This data is probably useful for actual academic rather than practical purposes today. They're building the knowledge they might want to use in a few years.
  - 2y ago
Cthulhu_ 2y ago
It sounds like this is simply not for you, then, and that's fine.

0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago

Is there anything particularly novel about this vs the game map of a different FPS?

bee_rider 2y ago
Not that it makes it novel, but this appears to be a “battle royale” map based on the picture shown in the post. So it is fairly large, for whatever that’s worth. The assumption with this type of game is that player will play the same big map over an over for the season (or something like that, changing the map is very rare, might not happen at all over the lifespan of the game), and but they can pick which part of the map they start in and explore from there. So it is, I guess, more similar to having data from all of the maps, for classic first person shooters.
- minimaxir 2y ago
  Specifically, during each play session, the map has a "storm" which converges on a random location over time: staying in the storm is lethal, so you are forced to eventually go to that location and points-of-interest along the way, which adds play variance.
elabajaba 2y ago
Other fps game maps don't have licenses that let you use them to stress test your renderer or game engine. Existing freely available scenes are all too small and poorly made to be proper stress tests with modern hardware (eg. Old sponza is way too light, Intel sponza they just spammed the subdivision modifier to make it stupidly high poly, Bistro is small and really weirdly made, etc).

ackbar03 2y ago

Make killer robots on the island of caldera

AHTERIX5000 2y ago

It's useful to have AAA tier sample game level assets available for engine development or for apps like Blender.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

aa_is_op 2y ago

Not really, they released it primarily for artist training and tutorials. Getting hold of XXL gaming maps of this high-quality from a super popular game is definitely something that most game design training courses will use 100%.

bArray 2y ago

From an information theory perspective, it should be possible to define strategically important locations in terms of Empowerment [1]. As a map designer there are likely some rough rules you want to abide by, such as roughly equal highly empowered locations throughout the map to reduce location bias. I remember an old game where they defined map rules in FPS CTF maps that there should be more than one path to each flag (usually three) and flag areas should be partially visible from one base to another. There were lots of rules like these, some more flexible than others. [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1863 https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1863