FAQ Livinoids
This page gives answers on questions about Livinoids. If you are looking for specific answers for AI or more general questions, please go to the related FAQ.
Please chose a tab to find the answers given. Pick 'General' if you wanna see overall answers about Livinoids. Select 'Game/simulation' if you prefer the answers on questions for that specific topic.
General
What are Livinoids ?
All types of Livinoids (eg viruses, bacteria, cats and dogs, snakes, spiders, primates and humans, fairies and aliens) are based 100 percent on the functions for physics, emotions, mental state, intelligence and creativity appropriate for that specie and are designed for high efficiency and minimal, lightweight usage of resources.
It is not the visual (2D or 3D) part of a game/simulation character or robot, it is literally what is happening ‘under the skin’ and should be used in conjunction with the visual character or robot. In human life, it would be ‘the magic’ happening behind the scenes defining the physiology, personality, psychology and intelligence.
There are three types :
Livinoids Physisia and Emosia are optimized and advanced virtual human-like and non-human-like life used for realistic and alive characters in advanced and realistic gaming and simulations.
Livinoid Intelligensia (Full version) requires parts of both other types and has a human-like intelligence and emotional state. If we mention "AI" or an "artificial brain" or "AGI" (artificial general intelligence), it is this type we are referring to.
Why the name Livinoids ?
The name ‘Livinoid’ has been chosen because one of the main unique features is that Livinoids are (virtually) ‘alive and living’.
This name suits very well and has the right vibes !
What do you mean by 'it is alive' ?
If you give a Livinoid too much of salt, it will have a massive heart attack leading to the death of the character ! Give it a shot of 10 mg of heroine and it will overdose ! Give it potassium cyanide and the respiratory system will fail and the Livinoid will decease. Slip the wrists or shoot/stab the liver, let the blood flow and it will bleed to death ! Give it bad food or cigarettes during a long period of time and it might die from that ! In all these cases the (virtual) heartbeat will eventually stop and the virtual character will die since no more blood (nutrients, oxygen and energy) will be flowing in the organs, brains and muscles … … that is how ‘alive’ it is !
If two Livinoids Emosia, really hating each other for diverse reasons, live (forcibly) together in a confide space, one of them should fear for his/her live. In the right circumstances, one even could commit suicide … … that is how ‘alive’ it all is !
It is the closest in ‘virtual land’ you can get to real human-like life ! The main difference is that Livinoids can save their state at any moment, something we humans can't, unfortunately, do in our life …
Keep in mind that to achieve that kind of realism, Livinoids use statistics as few as possible ...
Where can these Livinoids be used ?
Believe it or not, it is the most asked question when talking to people about Livinoids. It is not that surprising because it is a completely new product and people need time to get familiar with the concept.
Depending on the Type of the Livinoid, it can be used in different fields :
Is it even possible to make computers having 'real human' emotions ?
Technically, in psychology, emotions and feelings are two separate topics. But since most people use these terms as interchangeable and since Livinoid Emosia supports both, the term ‘emotions’ covers emotions, feelings and state of mind.
It took Geert Masureel, one of the founders of Artintelli, over 30 years of research to have a lightweight but realistic computer model using the principles behind how human emotions and feelings origin and function.
As Livinoid Emosia has no working brain (although it has a primitive one allowing primitive learning), it is not possible to have everything exactly as if it was for humans. But, to be honest, it looks and works almost exactly like in ‘human reality’, so who cares !
Livinoid Intelligensia (Full version) is closer to humans, as similar, but fully developed digital brains are added, empathy for humans included.
Therefore, the answer is dual for Livinoid Emosia : Yes, just discover how real it all looks and feels. No, since Livinoids Emosia have no ‘advanced brain’, they do not have all the concepts humans have at that level (the interaction Limbic system - Frontal cortex is far less developed) ! For gaming and simulation purposes however, it is perfect ! Remember, Livinoid Emosia is used for cats and dogs for instance, so it has some intelligence ...
I have seen some robot on TV or internet recognizing our emotions and responding to these emotions, aren't you too late to claim victory on digital emotions ?
Like we often state in the FAQ Artificial Intelligence, it sometimes looks very real and even scary, doesn't it ? However, what you have seen or heard, has nothing to do with 'having emotions'.
Give us a moment to explain. The best 'recognizers' and 'imitators' of human emotions are already very long among us and we call them psychopaths ! Numerous (scientific) books have been published on that topic and they all have in common that psychopathy is defined by a lack or very limited/different functioning of the emotional system in the brain AND by the absence of empathy !
Psychopaths had to adapt and recognize emotions and learn 'appropriate' reactions as a child to survive in a world where psychopathic behavior is not well accepted ... ... basically what they do is recognizing the emotion and responding with a trained 'appropriate' reaction ! Looks very alike what most of these robots do ...
It is, therefore, fair of us to state that the system you have seen or heard about is probably psychopathic in nature ! Some of these 'smart robots' have actually stated in public that the human race should be extincted, oeps ... ... the slapping on the wrist to correct that, won't guarantee it will have empathy for humans all of a sudden. The same is true for human psychopaths ! It is very likely these artificial systems have no 'internal knowledge', no idea of what humans actually are ! So, how could it have empathy for us or anything at all ?
Making an artificial brain doing some 'amazing' tricks is not that difficult with today's technology. Making an artificial brain that has empathy for life in general and humans in particular, that is a whole other dimension and that cannot be done without the implementation of a very well defined emotional system. (Geert Masureel)
I have seen that other initiatives exist to simulate some emotions in games, like for instance 'Love/hate' for Unity. Why is your system better ?
First of all, we neither say nor claim that it is better ! That depends on what your desires and expectations are !
You should pick the system you think suits best the needs for your game. If that is ours, we are honored and thankful and we do consider it as a compliment for all the hard effort we have put into it ! If you choose other software, you will have your (good) reasons for that and it is not up to us to judge that !
That said, we have some very good arguments for you to select our software :
- Like in real life, Livinoids are not just about isolated simulated emotions, but our engine encompasses everything : physics, emotions, interactions, environment, health, etc and these have an impact on one-another ! It gives the game the highest form of reality possible today ! It literally makes the game alive ...
- Physics, health and emotions are not stable in human life, they evolve in a certain (correlated, predictable and complex) way. Livinoids do support this by default and in a very realistic way. This feature is what makes Livinoids so real, even if the LOD (Level Of Detail) is set low for some Livinoids. You do not have to write any code to have that kind of realism in your game. It is actually the core of Livinoids and most likely what makes them so different (not better per definition) from all other systems.
- It can be as lightweight or as realistic as you want ! You pick the minimal level of detail (LOD) per Livinoid and you choose how much info you send to the engine.
- Livinoid Engine, no matter what version, has advanced load balancing incorporated by default. In games, this can make the difference !
- We do not use statistics (or at least not much) to have a realistic outcome, but a 'solid engine' based on cause and consequence is the driving force behind all !
- Create a Livinoid, with complete and realistic past (medical, psychological and experience wise), with only a few parameters and a mouse click ! You even get advice how your character should look to fit the personality !
The main reason why you would not choose for Livinoids, at this moment, is that the software will not be available before 2024. If you need a solution sooner, other software should be selected.
To be completely honest, although Livinoid Engine must not be your (final) choice, it should always be on your shortlist !
What price-tag can we expect the software to have and why not make it for free ?
Why not for free ?
The majority of freeware software (open source or not) ends up with financial problems. It al starts good and donations are given to cover the initial phase, but afterwards it dries up.
The only exceptions are solutions with a backbone of commercial/governmental sponsors like for instance Ubuntu, LibreOffice, Blender, Apache, Java, ...
That is one of the reasons why it won't be available for free.
The price-tag.
Although the price is not yet defined, we will be very reasonable and as stated elsewhere, special (cheaper) versions for certain groups will be created. Small businesses (with minor income) and non-profit organizations are the likely candidates for these versions.
Game/Simulation
Are 2D or 3D models and movements included with Livinoids ?
No. You need to provide these yourself. If you do not know how to do this, great tools are available for this purpose without an in-depth knowledge of 3D tools like Blender, Maya or 3D Studio.
A good starting point is www.reallusion.com where you can find tools for the easy creation of 2D and 3D characters, usable in games. Clothes, gadgets and motions for the characters can also be bought there. A special version for the creation of game characters has recently been added (Character Creator 3).
Please read the question What are Livinoids ? to have a better view on what Livinoids are.
Who in the gaming and simulation business should use Livinoids ?
Pretty much everybody using characters in his or her game !
Read Livinoid Physisia - Usage and Livinoid Emosia - Usage to get more detail on their usage in games and simulations.
As Livinoids run in their own ‘space’, apart from the game or simulation, and mainly interact with the game or simulation it is just a matter of creating the right interface.
What platforms and game engines will be supported ?
All game engines supporting websockets, can interact with the Livinoid Engine.
Livinoid Studio only works on Windows 10 or later, we hope to convert this to the major desktop OS in the furure, but that is not our priority.
Livinoid Engine and the debugger run on pretty much anything out there (even mobile), but will only be supported officially on Windows, MacOs and Linux.
Livinoid Engine uses advanced internal algorithms for load balancing. It frees up memory if possible and drops events if needed. However, this system has limitations, the more events are cancelled by the engine, the less realistic the outcome is.
Will the game/sim be slowed down when I use Livinoids via websockets ?
Livinoids always live in their own world where lots of things happen simultaneously. They only need ‘external information’ if something happens literally ‘in the game’ and that is not 20 times per second per character !
The same goes for the information one receives from the Livinoids. Once or twice per second is more than enough and at max, in a very realistic game or simulation, maybe three times should suffice !
Again, keep in mind, that behind the scenes in the Livinoid Engine a lot is happening. As it always runs separately from your game or simulation, not that much of interaction is required to produce realistic results in the game or simulation !
The emphasis here is on the reliability of the sending and receiving of the information ! Because of this, websockets was the obvious choice.
How should I adapt or create my technical concept of the game or sim with Livinoids Engine in mind ?
This is a little more technical, but let’s keep it as simple as possible !
Please read the question on the supported OSes and Game engines to get a better understanding.
It mainly depends on the type of game or simulation you are creating.
As a game or simulation designer, do i still need to make my game logic and behavior trees ?
Partially ! The things that happen in the Livinoid Engine are happening 'in the brain', so for instance you receive the 'command' 'Attack : Right Hand : With Sword : Confident=75%' (this is a pseudo command for illustration purpose, not the exact command) and you will model your behavior tree in function of that.
The same applies to game logic. You need to move your character or NPCs around after being instructed.
Basically, Livinoid Engine gives you commands for the character and states to display and you, via the game, give Livinoid Engine states of the (game) world and actions or observations (what is in view for instance).