1 research outputs found
Improved Shortest Path Maps with GPU Shaders
We present in this paper several improvements for computing shortest path
maps using OpenGL shaders. The approach explores GPU rasterization as a way to
propagate optimal costs on a polygonal 2D environment, producing shortest path
maps which can efficiently be queried at run-time. Our improved method relies
on Compute Shaders for improved performance, does not require any CPU
pre-computation, and handles shortest path maps both with source points and
with line segment sources. The produced path maps partition the input
environment into regions sharing a same parent point along the shortest path to
the closest source point or segment source. Our method produces paths with
global optimality, a characteristic which has been mostly neglected in animated
virtual environments. The proposed approach is particularly suitable for the
animation of multiple agents moving toward the entrances or exits of a virtual
environment, a situation which is efficiently represented with the proposed
path maps.Comment: Work being submitted for peer review, 9 pages, 8 figure