# Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms - PPO

This is a standalone implementation of Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms - PPO. I coded this for fun and learning. It is based on OpenAI Baselines implementation. This was tested on TensorFlow 1.7.0. The algorithm is hard coded for Breakout Atari Game.

I first went through the baselines code and the papers a couple of times, during my free time, to get an overall picture of it.

Then, I started drafting the algorithm. I referred to the paper while doing this and was taking notes. I was coding for a single Atari game; so, I could ignore a lot of generalizations OpenAI Baselines had in order to support all Atari games (tensor dimensions, actions, observations, etc.). I used a Jupyter notebook to test OpenAI Gym; things like what the observation space and action space were. It took me about 2 hours to draft the code on paper.

I used PyCharm community edition to code. I was deciding between VSCode and PyCharm, and picked PyCharm because the code completion support was better. I used Python type hints for readability and better code completion support. Code completion is important for me, since I am not familiar with machine learning libraries. I used a Jupyter notebook to test classes and functions as I was coding them.

It didn’t work the first time. There was one silly mistake in the code that took me about 6 hours to find; debugging these things is hard.

I then made a few improvements to my initial code. The model I drafted took only one frame as input; then I changed it to be four frames - every fourth frame in a span of 16 frames. I also ended up scaling game frames to match what OpenAI Baselines had done. I initially used a fully connected network; then I changed it to a convolution neural network, with same architecture as OpenAI Baselines.

I documented it the following day, and I included notes I had on paper. I used pycco to generate literate-programming-style documentation. I am a fan of literate programming. It took me another 3 to 4 hours to document. I did a lot of code cleanups too. And again it took me another 2 to 3 hours to fix a bug I introduced while cleaning up. I referred to the PPO paper and lecture notes from Berkely Deep RL Course for the math; specifically, this lecture.

I documented it for myself. Then I thought of putting it online, so I improved it a bit further, and added a lot more comments. The code is about 400 lines long, which is not bad. I hope the comments make it easier to understand someone trying to read it. I have tried to use the same notation as the PPO paper for formulas.

I experimented with some hyper parameter changes, but this published code is set to be similar to the OpenAI baselines implementation.

The implementation has four main classes.

• Game - a wrapper for gym environment
• Model - neural network model for policy and value function
• Trainer - policy and value function updater
• Math - runs the training loop; sampling and training

### Imports

import io
from collections import deque
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Dict, List, Union

import cv2
import multiprocessing
import multiprocessing.connection
import time
import gym
import tensorflow as tf
import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot

I was using a computer with two GPUs and I wanted TensorFlow to use only one of them.

import os

os.environ["CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES"] = "1"

## Orthogonal Initializer

Coding this wasn’t part of the plan. I previously used TensorFlow orthogonal initializer. But it used a lot of GPU memory and sometimes crashed with a memory allocation error during initialization. I didn’t test much to see what was happening; instead, I just copied this code from OpenAI Baselines.

class Orthogonal(object):
    def __init__(self, scale=1.):
self.scale = scale

Lasagne orthogonal initializer

    def __call__(self, shape, dtype=None, partition_info=None):
        shape = tuple(shape)
if len(shape) == 2:
flat_shape = shape
elif len(shape) == 4:  # assumes NHWC
flat_shape = (np.prod(shape[:-1]), shape[-1])
else:
raise NotImplementedError
a = np.random.normal(0.0, 1.0, flat_shape)
u, _, v = np.linalg.svd(a, full_matrices=False)
q = u if u.shape == flat_shape else v  # pick the one with the correct shape
q = q.reshape(shape)
return (self.scale * q[:shape[0], :shape[1]]).astype(np.float32)
    def get_config(self):
return {
'scale': self.scale
}

## Game environment

This is a wrapper for OpenAI gym game environment. We do a few things here:

1. Apply the same action on four frames
2. Convert observation frames to gray and scale it to (84, 84)
3. Take the maximum of last two of those four frames
4. Collect four such frames for last three actions
5. Add episode information (total reward for the entire episode) for monitoring
6. Restrict an episode to a single life (game has 5 lives, we reset after every single life)

#### Observation format

Observation is tensor of size (84, 84, 4). It is four frames (images of the game screen) stacked on last axis. i.e, each channel is a frame.

Frames    00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
Actions   a1 a1 a1 a1 a2 a2 a2 a2 a3 a3 a3 a3 a4 a4 a4 a4
Max       -- -- MM MM -- -- MM MM -- -- MM MM -- -- MM MM
Stacked   -- -- Stack -- -- Stack -- -- Stack -- -- Stack

class Game(object):

### Initialize

    def __init__(self, seed: int):

create environment

        self.env = gym.make('BreakoutNoFrameskip-v4')
self.env.seed(seed)

buffer to take the maximum of last 2 frames for each action

        self.obs_2_max = np.zeros((2, 84, 84, 1), np.uint8)

tensor for a stack of 4 frames

        self.obs_4 = np.zeros((84, 84, 4))

keep track of the episode rewards

        self.rewards = []

and number of lives left

        self.lives = 0

### Step

Executes action for 4 time steps and returns a tuple of (observation, reward, done, episode_info).

• observation: stacked 4 frames (this frame and frames for last 3 actions) as described above
• reward: total reward while the action was executed
• done: whether the episode finished (a life lost)
• episode_info: episode information if completed
    def step(self, action):
        reward = 0.
done = None

run for 4 steps

        for i in range(4):

execute the action in the OpenAI Gym environment

            obs, r, done, info = self.env.step(action)

add last two frames to buffer

            if i >= 2:
self.obs_2_max[i % 2] = self._process_obs(obs)

reward += r

get number of lives left

            lives = self.env.unwrapped.ale.lives()

reset if a life is lost

            if lives < self.lives:
done = True
self.lives = lives

stop if episode finished

            if done:
break

maintain rewards for each step

        self.rewards.append(reward)

if done:

if finished, set episode information if episode is over, and reset

            episode_info = {"reward": sum(self.rewards),
"length": len(self.rewards)}
self.reset()
else:
episode_info = None

get the max of last two frames

            obs = self.obs_2_max.max(axis=0)

push it to the stack of 4 frames

            self.obs_4 = np.roll(self.obs_4, shift=-1, axis=-1)
self.obs_4[..., -1:] = obs

return self.obs_4, reward, done, episode_info

### Reset environment

Clean up episode info and 4 frame stack

    def reset(self):

reset OpenAI Gym environment

        obs = self.env.reset()

reset caches

        obs = self._process_obs(obs)
self.obs_4[..., 0:] = obs
self.obs_4[..., 1:] = obs
self.obs_4[..., 2:] = obs
self.obs_4[..., 3:] = obs
self.rewards = []

self.lives = self.env.unwrapped.ale.lives()

return self.obs_4

#### Process game frames

Convert game frames to gray and rescale to 84x84

    @staticmethod
def _process_obs(obs):
        obs = cv2.cvtColor(obs, cv2.COLOR_RGB2GRAY)
obs = cv2.resize(obs, (84, 84), interpolation=cv2.INTER_AREA)
return obs[:, :, None]  # Shape (84, 84, 1)

## Worker Process

Each worker process runs this method

def worker_process(remote: multiprocessing.connection.Connection, seed: int):

create game

    game = Game(seed)

wait for instructions from the connection and execute them

    while True:
cmd, data = remote.recv()
if cmd == "step":
remote.send(game.step(data))
elif cmd == "reset":
remote.send(game.reset())
elif cmd == "close":
remote.close()
break
else:
raise NotImplementedError

## Worker

Creates a new worker and runs it in a separate process.

class Worker(object):
    child: multiprocessing.connection.Connection
process: multiprocessing.Process
    def __init__(self, seed):
self.child, parent = multiprocessing.Pipe()
self.process = multiprocessing.Process(target=worker_process, args=(parent, seed))
self.process.start()

## Neural Network model for policy and value function

I initially implemented a simpler network with 2 fully connected layers, but later decided to implement a convolution architecture similar to the OpenAI baselines implementation.

The policy network and value function share the first 4 layers.

class Model(object):

#### Initialize

    def __init__(self, *, reuse: bool, batch_size: int):

observations input (B, 84, 84, 4)

        self.obs = tf.placeholder(shape=(batch_size, 84, 84, 4), name="obs", dtype=np.uint8)
obs_float = tf.to_float(self.obs, name="obs_float")

with tf.variable_scope("model", reuse=reuse):

output of the convolution network (B, 512)

            self.h = Model._cnn(obs_float)

logits for policy network $\pi_\theta$, from which the action is sampled (B, 4)

            self.pi_logits = Model._create_policy_network(self.h, 4)

value function $V(s_t)$

            self.value = Model._create_value_network(self.h)

all trainable variables

            self.params = tf.trainable_variables()

sampled action $a_t$

        self.action = Model._sample(self.pi_logits)

$-\log(\pi(a_t|s_t)$

        self.neg_log_pi = self.neg_log_prob(self.action, "neg_log_pi_old")

$S\bigl[\pi_\theta \bigr] (s_t)$

        self.policy_entropy = Model._get_policy_entropy(self.pi_logits)

#### Policy Entropy

$S\bigl[\pi_\theta\bigr] (s) = \sum_a \pi_\theta(a|s) \log \pi_\theta(a|s)$

    @staticmethod
def _get_policy_entropy(logits: tf.Tensor):

we subtract the logit of the best action to make the floating point calculation stable (not give infinity and nan). We can do this because $\frac{e^{x_i - c}}{\sum_j e^{x_j - c}} = \frac{e^{x_i}}{\sum_j e^{x_j}}$ for any constant $c$.

        a = logits - tf.reduce_max(logits, axis=-1, keepdims=True)
exp_a = tf.exp(a)
z = tf.reduce_sum(exp_a, axis=-1, keepdims=True)
p = exp_a / z

$S = -\sum_i p \log(p) = \sum_i p \bigl(-\log(p) \bigr) = \sum_i p \bigl(\log(z) - logits \bigr)$

        return tf.reduce_sum(p * (tf.log(z) - a), axis=-1)

#### Negative log of probability of the action

$-\log\pi(a_t|s_t) = \sum_a p(a)$

This is equal to cross entropy with a probability distribution across actions, with a probability of 1 at action. $-\sum_{a’} p(a’) \log \pi(a’|s_t) = -\log \pi(a_t|s_t)$ since $p(a_t) = 1$.

    def neg_log_prob(self, action: tf.Tensor, name: str) -> tf.Tensor:
        one_hot_actions = tf.one_hot(action, 4)
return tf.nn.softmax_cross_entropy_with_logits_v2(
logits=self.pi_logits,
labels=one_hot_actions,
dim=-1,
name=name)

#### Sample from $\pi_\theta$

Sample using Gumbel-Max Trick.

    @staticmethod
def _sample(logits: tf.Tensor):
        uniform = tf.random_uniform(tf.shape(logits))
return tf.argmax(logits - tf.log(-tf.log(uniform)),
axis=-1,
name="action")

#### Convolutional Neural Network

    @staticmethod
def _cnn(unscaled_images: tf.Tensor):

scale image values to [0, 1] from [0, 255]

        scaled_images = tf.cast(unscaled_images, tf.float32) / 255.

three convolution layers

        h1 = tf.layers.conv2d(scaled_images,
name="conv1",
filters=32,
kernel_size=8,
kernel_initializer=Orthogonal(scale=np.sqrt(2)),
strides=4,
activation=tf.nn.relu)

h2 = tf.layers.conv2d(h1,
name="conv2",
filters=64,
kernel_size=4,
kernel_initializer=Orthogonal(scale=np.sqrt(2)),
strides=2,
activation=tf.nn.relu)

h3 = tf.layers.conv2d(h2,
name="conv3",
filters=64,
kernel_size=3,
kernel_initializer=Orthogonal(scale=np.sqrt(2)),
strides=1,
activation=tf.nn.relu)

reshape to a 2-D tensor

        nh = np.prod([v.value for v in h3.get_shape()[1:]])
flat = tf.reshape(h3, [-1, nh])

fully connected layer

        h = tf.layers.dense(flat, 512,
activation=tf.nn.relu,
kernel_initializer=Orthogonal(scale=np.sqrt(2)),
name="hidden")

return h

    @staticmethod
def _create_policy_network(h: tf.Tensor, n: int) -> tf.Tensor:
        return tf.layers.dense(h, n,
activation=None,
kernel_initializer=Orthogonal(scale=0.01),
name="logits")

    @staticmethod
def _create_value_network(h: tf.Tensor) -> tf.Tensor:
        value = tf.layers.dense(h, 1,
activation=None,
kernel_initializer=Orthogonal(),
name="value")
return value[:, 0]

#### Sample actions for given observations

    def step(self, session: tf.Session, obs: np.ndarray) -> (tf.Tensor, tf.Tensor, tf.Tensor):
        return session.run([self.action, self.value, self.neg_log_pi],
feed_dict={self.obs: obs})

#### Get value function for a given observation

    def get_value(self, session: tf.Session, obs: np.ndarray) -> tf.Tensor:
        return session.run(self.value,
feed_dict={self.obs: obs})

## Trainer

We want to maximize policy reward where $r$ is the reward, $\pi$ is the policy, $\tau$ is a trajectory sampled from policy, and $\gamma$ is the discount factor between $[0, 1]$.

So,

Define discounted-future state distribution,

Then,

Importance sampling $a$ from $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$,

Then we assume $d^\pi_\theta(s)$ and $d^\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}(s)$ are similar. The error we introduce to $J(\pi_\theta) - J(\pi_{\theta_{OLD}})$ by this assumtion is bound by the KL divergence between $\pi_\theta$ and $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$. Constrained Policy Optimization shows the proof of this. I haven’t read it.

class Trainer(object):

### Initialization

    def __init__(self, model: Model):

model for training, $\pi_\theta$ and $V_\theta$. This model shares parameters with the sampling model so, updating variables affect both.

        self.model = model

sampled observations are fed into the model to get $\pi_\theta(a_t|s_t)$; we are treating observations as state

        self.sampled_obs = self.model.obs

$a_t$ actions sampled from $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$

        self.sampled_action = tf.placeholder(dtype=tf.int32, shape=[None], name="sampled_action")

$R_t$ returns sampled from $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$

        self.sampled_return = tf.placeholder(dtype=tf.float32, shape=[None], name="sampled_return")

$\bar{A_t} = \frac{\hat{A_t} - \mu(\hat{A_t})}{\sigma(\hat{A_t})}$, where $\hat{A_t}$ is advantages sampled from $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$. Refer to sampling function in Main class below for the calculation of $\hat{A}_t$.

        self.sampled_normalized_advantage = tf.placeholder(dtype=tf.float32, shape=[None],
name="sampled_normalized_advantage")

$-\log \pi_{\theta_{OLD}} (a_t|s_t)$ log probabilities

        self.sampled_neg_log_pi = tf.placeholder(dtype=tf.float32, shape=[None], name="sampled_neg_log_pi")

$\hat{V_t}$ value estimates

        self.sampled_value = tf.placeholder(dtype=tf.float32, shape=[None], name="sampled_value")

learning rate

        self.learning_rate = tf.placeholder(dtype=tf.float32, shape=[], name="learning_rate")

$\epsilon$ for clipping

        self.clip_range = tf.placeholder(dtype=tf.float32, shape=[], name="clip_range")

#### Policy

$-\log \pi_\theta (a_t|s_t)$

        neg_log_pi = self.model.neg_log_prob(self.sampled_action, "neg_log_pi")

ratio $r_t(\theta) = \frac{\pi_\theta (a_t|s_t)}{\pi_{\theta_{OLD}} (a_t|s_t)}$; this is different from rewards $r_t$.

        ratio = tf.exp(self.sampled_neg_log_pi - neg_log_pi, name="ratio")

The ratio is clipped to be close to 1. We take the minimum so that the gradient will only pull $\pi_\theta$ towards $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$ if the ratio is not between $1 - \epsilon$ and $1 + \epsilon$. This keeps the KL divergence between $\pi_\theta$ and $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$ constrained. Large deviation can cause performance collapse; where the policy performance drops and doesn’t recover because we are sampling from a bad policy.

Using the normalized advantage $\bar{A_t} = \frac{\hat{A_t} - \mu(\hat{A_t})}{\sigma(\hat{A_t})}$ introduces a bias to the policy gradient estimator, but it reduces variance a lot.

        clipped_ratio = tf.clip_by_value(ratio, 1.0 - self.clip_range, 1.0 + self.clip_range, name="clipped_ratio")
name="policy_reward")

#### Entropy Bonus

$\mathcal{L}^{EB}(\theta) = \mathbb{E}\Bigl[ S\bigl[\pi_\theta\bigr] (s_t) \Bigr]$

        self.entropy_bonus = tf.reduce_mean(self.model.policy_entropy, name="entropy_bonus")

#### Value

$V^{\pi_\theta}(s_t)$

        value = self.model.value

Clipping makes sure the value function $V_\theta$ doesn’t deviate significantly from $V_{\theta_{OLD}}$.

        clipped_value = tf.add(self.sampled_value,
tf.clip_by_value(value - self.sampled_value, -self.clip_range, self.clip_range),
name="clipped_value")
self.vf_loss = tf.multiply(0.5,
tf.reduce_mean(tf.maximum(tf.square(value - self.sampled_return),
tf.square(clipped_value - self.sampled_return))),
name="vf_loss")

$\mathcal{L}^{CLIP+VF+EB} (\theta) = \mathcal{L}^{CLIP} (\theta) - c_1 \mathcal{L}^{VF} (\theta) + c_2 \mathcal{L}^{EB}(\theta)$

we want to maximize $\mathcal{L}^{CLIP+VF+EB}(\theta)$ so we take the negative of it as the loss

        self.loss = -(self.policy_reward - 0.5 * self.vf_loss + 0.01 * self.entropy_bonus)

        params = self.model.params
grads, _ = tf.clip_by_global_norm(tf.gradients(self.loss, params), 0.5)

        adam = tf.train.AdamOptimizer(learning_rate=self.learning_rate, epsilon=1e-5)
self.train_op = adam.apply_gradients(grads_and_vars, name="apply_gradients")

for monitoring

        self.approx_kl_divergence = .5 * tf.reduce_mean(tf.square(neg_log_pi - self.sampled_neg_log_pi))
self.clip_fraction = tf.reduce_mean(tf.to_float(tf.greater(tf.abs(ratio - 1.0), self.clip_range)))

labels training progress indicators for monitoring

        self.train_info_labels = ['policy_reward',
'value_loss',
'entropy_bonus',
'approx_kl_divergence',
'clip_fraction']

### Train model with samples

    def train(self, session: tf.Session, samples: Dict[str, np.ndarray], learning_rate: float, clip_range: float):
        feed_dict = {self.sampled_obs: samples['obs'],
self.sampled_action: samples['actions'],
self.sampled_value: samples['values'],
self.sampled_neg_log_pi: samples['neg_log_pis'],
self.learning_rate: learning_rate,
self.clip_range: clip_range}

evals = [self.policy_reward,
self.vf_loss,
self.entropy_bonus,
self.approx_kl_divergence,
self.clip_fraction,
self.train_op]

return all results except train_op

        return session.run(evals, feed_dict=feed_dict)[:-1]

    @staticmethod
def _normalize(adv: np.ndarray):
        return (adv - adv.mean()) / (adv.std() + 1e-8)

## Main class

This class runs the training loop. It initializes TensorFlow, handles logging and monitoring, and runs workers as multiple processes.

class Main(object):

### Initialize

    def __init__(self):

#### Configurations

$\gamma$ and $\lambda$ for advantage calculation

        self.gamma = 0.99
self.lamda = 0.95

        self.updates = 10000

number of epochs to train the model with sampled data

        self.epochs = 4

number of worker processes

        self.n_workers = 8

number of steps to run on each process for a single update

        self.worker_steps = 128

number of mini batches

        self.n_mini_batch = 4

total number of samples for a single update

        self.batch_size = self.n_workers * self.worker_steps

size of a mini batch

        self.mini_batch_size = self.batch_size // self.n_mini_batch
assert (self.batch_size % self.n_mini_batch == 0)

#### Initialize

initialize TensorFlow session

        Main._init_tf_session()

create workers

        self.workers = [Worker(47 + i) for i in range(self.n_workers)]

initialize tensors for observations

        self.obs = np.zeros((self.n_workers, 84, 84, 4), dtype=np.uint8)
for worker in self.workers:
worker.child.send(("reset", None))
for i, worker in enumerate(self.workers):
self.obs[i] = worker.child.recv()

model for sampling

        self.sample_model = Model(reuse=False, batch_size=self.n_workers)

trainer

        self.trainer = Trainer(Model(reuse=True, batch_size=self.mini_batch_size))

We create two models because the batch sizes are different, but they both share the same parameters.

create TensorFlow session

        self.session: tf.Session = tf.get_default_session()

initialize TensorFlow variables

        init_op = tf.global_variables_initializer()
self.session.run(init_op)

### Sample data with current policy

    def sample(self) -> (Dict[str, np.ndarray], List):
        rewards = np.zeros((self.n_workers, self.worker_steps), dtype=np.float32)
actions = np.zeros((self.n_workers, self.worker_steps), dtype=np.int32)
dones = np.zeros((self.n_workers, self.worker_steps), dtype=np.bool)
obs = np.zeros((self.n_workers, self.worker_steps, 84, 84, 4), dtype=np.uint8)
neg_log_pis = np.zeros((self.n_workers, self.worker_steps), dtype=np.float32)
values = np.zeros((self.n_workers, self.worker_steps), dtype=np.float32)
episode_infos = []

sample worker_steps from each worker

        for t in range(self.worker_steps):

self.obs keeps track of the last observation from each worker, which is the input for the model to sample the next action

            obs[:, t] = self.obs

sample actions from $\pi_{\theta_{OLD}}$ for each worker; this returns arrays of size n_workers

            actions[:, t], values[:, t], neg_log_pis[:, t] = self.sample_model.step(self.session, self.obs)

run sampled actions on each worker

            for w, worker in enumerate(self.workers):
worker.child.send(("step", actions[w, t]))

for w, worker in enumerate(self.workers):

get results after executing the actions

                self.obs[w], rewards[w, t], dones[w, t], info = worker.child.recv()

collect episode info, which is available if an episode finished; this includes total reward and length of the episode - look at Game to see how it works. We also add a game frame to it for monitoring.

                if info:
info['obs'] = obs[w, t, :, :, 3]
episode_infos.append(info)

        advantages = self._calc_advantages(dones, rewards, values)
samples = {
'obs': obs,
'actions': actions,
'values': values,
'neg_log_pis': neg_log_pis,
}

samples are currently in [workers, time] table, we should flatten it

        samples_flat = {}
for k, v in samples.items():
samples_flat[k] = v.reshape(v.shape[0] * v.shape[1], *v.shape[2:])

return samples_flat, episode_infos

$\hat{A_t^{(1)}}$ is high bias, low variance whilst $\hat{A_t^{(\infty)}}$ is unbiased, high variance.

We take a weighted average of $\hat{A_t^{(k)}}$ to balance bias and variance. This is called Generalized Advantage Estimation. We set $w_k = \lambda^{k-1}$, this gives clean calculation for $\hat{A_t}$

    def _calc_advantages(self, dones: np.ndarray, rewards: np.ndarray, values: np.ndarray) -> np.ndarray:

        advantages = np.zeros((self.n_workers, self.worker_steps), dtype=np.float32)
last_advantage = 0

$V(s_{t+1})$

        last_value = self.sample_model.get_value(self.session, self.obs)

for t in reversed(range(self.worker_steps)):

mask if episode completed after step $t$

            mask = 1.0 - dones[:, t]
last_advantage = last_advantage * mask

$\delta_t$

            delta = rewards[:, t] + self.gamma * last_value - values[:, t]

$\hat{A_t} = \delta_t + \gamma \lambda \hat{A_{t+1}}$

            last_advantage = delta + self.gamma * self.lamda * last_advantage

note that we are collecting in reverse order. My initial code was appending to a list and I forgot to reverse it later. It took me around 4 to 5 hours to find the bug. The performance of the model was improving slightly during initial runs, probably because the samples are similar.

            advantages[:, t] = last_advantage

last_value = values[:, t]

return advantages

### Train the model based on samples

    def train(self, samples: Dict[str, np.ndarray], learning_rate: float, clip_range: float):

[0, 1, …,B]

        indexes = np.arange(self.batch_size)

collect training information like losses for monitoring

        train_info = []

It learns faster with a higher number of epochs, but becomes a little unstable; that is, the average episode reward does not monotonically increase over time. May be reducing the clipping range might solve it.

        for _ in range(self.epochs):

shuffle for each epoch

            np.random.shuffle(indexes)

for each mini batch

            for start in range(0, self.batch_size, self.mini_batch_size):

get mini batch

                end = start + self.mini_batch_size
mini_batch_indexes = indexes[start: end]
mini_batch = {}
for k, v in samples.items():
mini_batch[k] = v[mini_batch_indexes]

train

                res = self.trainer.train(session=self.session,
learning_rate=learning_rate,
clip_range=clip_range,
samples=mini_batch)

append to training information

                train_info.append(res)

return average of training information

        return np.mean(train_info, axis=0)

### Run training loop

    def run_training_loop(self):

summary writer for TensorBoard

        writer = self._create_summary_writer()

last 100 episode information

        episode_info = deque(maxlen=100)

highest episode reward

        best_reward = 0

time_start = time.time()
progress = update / self.updates

decreasing learning_rate and clip_range $\epsilon$

            learning_rate = 2.5e-4 * (1 - progress)
clip_range = 0.1 * (1 - progress)

sample with current policy

            samples, sample_episode_info = self.sample()

train the model

            train_info = self.train(samples, learning_rate, clip_range)

time_end = time.time()

frame rate

            fps = int(self.batch_size / (time_end - time_start))

collect episode info

            episode_info.extend(sample_episode_info)

is there a frame of an episode better than current best

            best_obs_frame = None
for info in sample_episode_info:
if info['reward'] > best_reward:
best_reward = info['reward']
best_obs_frame = info['obs']

mean of last 100 episodes

            reward_mean, length_mean = Main._get_mean_episode_info(episode_info)

write summary info to the writer, and log to the screen

            self._write_summary(writer, best_obs_frame, update, fps,
reward_mean, length_mean, train_info,
clip_range, learning_rate)

#### Initialize TensorFlow session

    @staticmethod
def _init_tf_session():

let TensorFlow decide where to run operations; I think it chooses the GPU for everything if you have one

        config = tf.ConfigProto(allow_soft_placement=True,
log_device_placement=True)

grow GPU memory as needed

        config.gpu_options.allow_growth = True

tf.Session(config=config).__enter__()

set random seeds, but it doesn’t seem to produce identical results.

One explanation is that there would be floating point errors that get accumulated. But that is not possible, because, as far as I know, floating point calculations are deterministic even if they could be unpredictable (in small scale). However, there may be certain hardware optimizations that cause them to be random.

        np.random.seed(7)
tf.set_random_seed(7)

#### Get average episode reward and episode length

    @staticmethod
def _get_mean_episode_info(episode_info):
        if len(episode_info) > 0:
return (np.mean([info["reward"] for info in episode_info]),
np.mean([info["length"] for info in episode_info]))
else:
return np.nan, np.nan

#### Create summary writer

I used TensorBoard for monitoring. I made copies of programs when I was making changes, and logged them to different directories so that I can later see how each version worked.

    def _create_summary_writer(self) -> tf.summary.FileWriter:
        log_dir = "log/" + Path(__file__).stem
if tf.gfile.Exists(log_dir):
tf.gfile.DeleteRecursively(log_dir)

return tf.summary.FileWriter(log_dir, self.session.graph)

#### Write summary

    def _write_summary(self, writer: tf.summary.Summary,
best_obs_frame: Union[np.ndarray, None],
update: int,
fps: int,
reward_mean: int,
length_mean: int,
train_info: np.ndarray,
clip_range: float,
learning_rate: float):
        print("{:4} {:3} {:.2f} {:.3f}".format(update, fps, reward_mean, length_mean))

summary = tf.Summary()

        if best_obs_frame is not None:
sample_observation = best_obs_frame
observation_png = io.BytesIO()
pyplot.imsave(observation_png, sample_observation, format='png', cmap='gray')

observation_png = tf.Summary.Image(encoded_image_string=observation_png.getvalue(),
height=84,
width=84)
summary.value.add(tag="observation", image=observation_png)

        summary.value.add(tag="fps", simple_value=fps)
for label, value in zip(self.trainer.train_info_labels, train_info):
summary.value.add(tag="learning_rate", simple_value=learning_rate)

write to file

        writer.add_summary(summary, global_step=update)

### Destroy

Stop the workers

    def destroy(self):
        for worker in self.workers:
worker.child.send(("close", None))

## Run it

if __name__ == "__main__":
m = Main()
m.run_training_loop()
m.destroy()

`