{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/166","repository_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/166/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/166/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/166/events","html_url":"https://github.com/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/166","id":154873303,"number":166,"title":"ALE stochasticity needs better visibility","user":{"login":"mgbellemare","id":2350286,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2350286?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare","html_url":"https://github.com/mgbellemare","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/labels/enhancement","name":"enhancement","color":"84b6eb"}],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":2,"created_at":"2016-05-14T20:09:32Z","updated_at":"2016-05-15T14:07:28Z","closed_at":null,"body":"Version 0.5 introduced the ALE stochasticity, but many users still assume full determinism of the ALE. We should find a way to avoid confusion (and wasted science-hours)."},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/comments/219287879","html_url":"https://github.com/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/166#issuecomment-219287879","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/mgbellemare/Arcade-Learning-Environment/issues/166","id":219287879,"user":{"login":"mgbellemare","id":2350286,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2350286?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare","html_url":"https://github.com/mgbellemare","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/mgbellemare/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2016-05-15T14:07:28Z","updated_at":"2016-05-15T14:07:28Z","body":"The reason why we added stochasticity (and made it the default) is that determinism in Atari has some really unpleasant consequences from a score-maximizing perspective. These have been mentioned here:\r\n\r\nhttp://www.mgbellemare.info/static/publications/bellemare15arcade.pdf\r\n\r\nAt the AAAI-15 workshop we agreed on this particular form of stochasticity as the most robust and least invasive for dealing with these issues.\r\n\r\nI didn't think to mention this yesterday, but cloneSystemState/restoreSystemState should still work with stochasticity -- the random seed is being saved. I'll reopen the issue."}}