neat-donk/README.md

# Donkey Kong Country 2 NEAT

An AI based on SethBling's MarI/O to play Donkey Kong Country 2 with lsnes.

See [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q69_wmEkp-k) for an example run.

## Requirements

* lsnes with **Lua 5.2** (do not try to build with 5.3, it does not work!)
* A Donkey Kong Country 2 1.1 US ROM (matching hash b79c2bb86f6fc76e1fc61c62fc16d51c664c381e58bc2933be643bbc4d8b610c)

## Instructions

1. Start lsnes
2. Go to `Configure -> Settings -> Advanced` and change `LUA -> Maximum memory use` to `1024MB`
3. Load the DKC2 ROM: `File -> Load -> ROM...`
4. Load the `neat-donk.lua` script: `Tools -> Run Lua script...`
5. You may also want to turn off sound since it may get annoying. `Configure -> Sounds enabled`
6. Look at config.lua for some settings you can change. Not all have been tested, but you should be able to change the number on the `_M.Filename =` line to get a different state file from the `_M.State` list.

If you want a better idea of what's going on with the tile and sprite calculations you may want to load `donkutil.lua`. It will mark the tiles with their offsets on the screen, give a crosshair with tile measurements (every 32 pixels), and list information about the sprites (you can use the 1 and 2 keys above the letter keys to page through them). Sprites labeled in green are considered "good", red is "bad", normal color is neutral. Solid red means that it's the active sprite in the info viewer.

<img src="https://github.com/empathicqubit/neat-donk/blob/master/doc/donkutil.png?raw=true" />

## Keys
1: Stop/start

4: Play the best run

6: Save the pool file

8: Load the pool file

9: Restart

## Notes
* Only tested on Pirate Panic
* The pool files are gzipped json

## Credits

* [Donkey Hacks](http://donkeyhacks.zouri.jp/html/En-Us/dkc2/index.html)
* [SethBling's Mar I/O](https://github.com/mam91/neat-genetic-mario)
* [Basic tilemap info from p4plus2/DKC2-disassembly](https://github.com/p4plus2/DKC2-disassembly)
* [dkjson](http://dkolf.de/src/dkjson-lua.fsl/home)
* [LibDeflate](https://github.com/SafeteeWoW/LibDeflate)

## TODO

* Incur penalty for non-hazardous enemy collisions to encourage neutralizing Klobber
* Make enemies neutral when held? (Klobber, Click-Clack, etc.)