Retro_ML.SuperMarioWorld

Super Mario World Plugin

Plugin by Tourmi & Voltage98

Training AIs to beat Super Mario World levels automatically.

Special Thanks

• SMWCentral : Most of the memory addresses came from this super useful memory map.
• HammerBrother : The level layout in memory would have been really hard to figure out without their documents.

Configuration

Plugin Configuration

• Use Vision Grid
  • Whether or not to use the Vision Grid. If turned off, the AI will instead Raycast for its vision.
  • Recommended to leave this off for faster training.
• View distance horizontal VDH
  • The horizontal distance that the AI can see for, in tiles, not including the tile the AI is on. This means that if we set both the horizontal and vertical distances to 4, a 9x9 grid of inputs will be used.
• View distance vertical VDV
  • The vertical distance that the AI can see for, in tiles, not including the tile the AI is on. This means that if we set both the horizontal and vertical distances to 4, a 9x9 grid of inputs will be used.
• View Ray Distance
  • The total distance to cast rays, in tiles.
• Vision ray count
  • The amount of vision rays to cast.
  • Recommended value : 16
• Internal Clock Tick Length (Frames)
  • The time (in frames) that it takes for the internal clock to move to its next state.
• Internal Clock Length
  • The total amount of nodes the internal clock has.
  • The total time it takes for the clock to do a full cycle is equal to 2^Clock Length * Tick Length frames.

Objectives

• Died
  • The amount of points to attribute to an AI that died.
  • It is recommended to set this value to a negative value to discourage AIs from killing themselves.
• Distance travelled
  • Points to attribute for each tile the AI traverses. This is based on the maximum distance, so going back and forth will not give more points.
  • The AI must be grounded for points to be attributed, so jumping down a pit will not give extra points.
  • East, West, Up, Down multipliers
    • Specific multipliers for distance traveled in the respective directions. These are multiplied with the objective's multiplier.
• Stopped moving
  • Stops the current level if the AI has stopped progressing through the level. This is based on the maximum distance reached so far, not the current position.
  • It is recommended to leave this enabled, but you may disable it if you want AIs to stay on the level for up to the maximum duration.
  • A negative amount of points is recommended to discourage the AI from idling, moving back and forth, and looping forever.
• Time taken
  • Gives points when the AI takes way too long to complete a level. Recommended to set to a negative value and leave enabled in case AIs decide to take way too much time on a level.
• Speed
  • Gives points based on the speed of the AI.
  • The formula is (Maximum Tiles distance / Seconds taken) * Multiplier * Direction Multiplier
  • Horizontal and vertical multipliers
    • Additional multipliers for the direction of the AI.
• Won level
  • The amount of points to attribute if the AI wins a level. Ideally, this should be a high value to encourage actually finishing levels.
  • Goal and Key multipliers
    • Set one of these to 0 or a negative value if you want to prioritize finishing a level with a key, or through the regular level ending.
• Coins
  • The amount of points to give the AI per coin collected.
• Yoshi Coins
  • The amount of points to give the AI per Yoshi Coin collected
• 1-ups
  • The amount of points to give the AI per 1-up collected from any source.
• High Score
  • The amount of points to give the AI for its in-game high-score.
  • The formula is (In-game High Score / 1000) * Multiplier
  • So a high-score of 55200 with a multiplier of 2 will give a total amount of points of 110.4 to the AI.
• Power Up
  • Points given whenever the AI collects a power up it didn't have yet.
  • Mushroom, Cape, Flower multipliers
    • Additional multiplier for the type of power-up collected. If the global multiplier is 4, and the cape multiplier is 2, then the AI is awarded 8 points for collecting a Cape.
• Taken Damage
  • Points applied whenever an AI takes damage, not counting dying.

Neural Configuration

• Input nodes
  • Tiles : The tiles the AI can stand on. (VDH * 2 + 1) * (VDV * 2 + 1) total nodes.
  • Dangers : The dangerous tiles around the AI. Includes dangerous tiles as well as dangerous sprites. (VDH * 2 + 1) * (VDV * 2 + 1) total nodes.
  • Goodies : The "good" tiles around the AI. Includes coins, powerups, blocks that contain items. (VDH * 2 + 1) * (VDV * 2 + 1) total nodes.
  • Water : The water tiles around the AI. (VDH * 2 + 1) * (VDV * 2 + 1) total nodes.
  • On ground : Whether or not the AI is touching the ground.
  • In water : Whether or not the AI is in water
  • Raising : Whether or not the AI is raising, both out of a jump as well as while swimming.
  • Sinking : Whether or not the AI is falling, both out of a jump as well as while swimming.
  • Can jump out of water : Whether or not the AI will get out of the water by jumping.
  • Carrying : Whether or not the AI is carrying something.
  • Can Climb : ?Not guaranteed to always be right. Whether or not the AI can climb at the moment.
  • Max Speed : Whether or not the AI has reached maximum speed.
  • Message box : Whether or not there currently is a message box open.
  • Internal clock : Timed bias value. Alternates between on and off every couple frames.
  • Bias : Bias value. Always on.
• Output Nodes
  • The output nodes represent each button on an SNES controller.
  • A : Spin jump.
  • B : Jump
  • X : Run
  • Y : Run
  • Left and Right : Move left and right.
  • Up : Allows jumping out of water, as well as actions like throwing a shell up, or climbing.
  • Down : Allows crouching (Mario's hitbox doesn't change if he crouches when small, despite there being an animation for it.)
  • Left Shoulder and Right Shoulder : Moves the camera if the button is held while not pressing the D-Pad
  • Start and Select : Useless