The new cards

learning architecture to develop and test human-level artificial intelligence through controlling synthetic characters within the games. The other two research projects exploit both the modeling and graphics capabilities of the game engines. In the augmented reality game ARQuake, game levels are written to match actual physical locations and players wearing see-through HMDs encounter and do battle with monsters superimposed over real scenery. CaveUT takes advantage of both the graphical and networking capabilities of the Unreal engine by using multiple players' viewpoints to construct a panoramic Cave-like display. There are probably as many potential applications for game engines as there are research problems requiring medium-fidelity 3D simulation or high-fidelity interactive graphics. Our hope is to raise awareness of the high-power/low-cost alternative game engines can offer. A researcher's choice between the Quake and Unreal engines is similar to that between Coke and Pepsi. Both are more than adequate for their intended purpose yet each has its avid fans and detractors. An examination of contributors here indicates our researchers are evenly divided with Kaminka and Jacobson lining up with the Unreal engine, Bylund and Espinoza choosing Quake III, and John Laird and colleagues working with both. For research purposes it is hard to imagine an application for which one would be suited and the other not. However, because a choice must be made there are some differences that should be considered. As the older game, the Quake III engine has developed a large collection of customized levels and modifications to play. Quake III also has a large cadre of users and user sites to use as resources for programming questions and assistance. It is not unlikely that someone in your organization may have Quake programming experience. The Quake engine has been optimized to the point where it is the fastest-running game engine and has what many believe the best overall polygonal architecture. As the newer engine, Unreal benefits from current trends in programming and technology—see the side-bar " The New Cards. " Unlike Quake, which has descended from a succession of C language implementations , the Unreal engine is strictly object-oriented. This pays big dividends through mutators and other programming constructs that allow a programmer to make robust changes in game behavior without requiring detailed knowledge of the involved code. The Java-like scripting language, Unreal Script, is easy to use and well documented as is the well-designed UnrealEd development environment. Although the Quake …