Petri Net Script: a visual language for describing action, behaviour and plot

Current techniques for behavioural specification provide the ability to describe individual methods of action, interaction and behaviour, but do not allow scripting of a complex behavioural sequence as is required for a virtual actor within the plot of a stage-play. These existing specification techniques are also designed primarily for use by computing experts, usually as a text based language, and are therefore not easily accessible by laymen. The paper presents Petri Net Script (PNS), a new graphical language for specification of virtual actor behaviour. PNS provides a graphical interface to behavioural scripting that enables specification of actions and interactions for virtual actors that can then interact with human actors in real time. A quantitative justification as to the effectiveness of the new language is evaluated through comparison of required complexity to achieve a simple behaviour against that of a more traditional specification technique using an adaptation of T.J. McCabe's (1976) Cyclomatic Complexity.