Feeling crowded yet?: Crowd simulations for VR

With advances in virtual reality technology and its multiple applications, the need for believable, immersive virtual environments is increasing. Even though current computer graphics methods allow us to develop highly realistic virtual worlds, the main element failing to enhance presence is autonomous groups of human inhabitants. A great number of crowd simulation techniques have emerged in the last decade, but critical details in the crowd's movements and appearance do not meet the standards necessary to convince VR participants that they are present in a real crowd. In this paper, we review recent advances in the creation of immersive virtual crowds and discuss areas that require further work to turn these simulations into more fully immersive and believable experiences.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

LCrowdV: Generating Labeled Videos for Simulation-based Crowd Behavior Learning

We present a novel procedural framework to generate an arbitrary number of labeled crowd videos (LCrowdV). The resulting crowd video datasets are used to design accurate algorithms or training models for crowded scene understanding. Our overall approach is composed of two components: a procedural simulation framework for generating crowd movements and behaviors, and a procedural rendering framework to generate different videos or images. Each video or image is automatically labeled based on the environment, number of pedestrians, density, behavior, flow, lighting conditions, viewpoint, noise, etc. Furthermore, we can increase the realism by combining synthetically-generated behaviors with real-world background videos. We demonstrate the benefits of LCrowdV over prior lableled crowd datasets by improving the accuracy of pedestrian detection and crowd behavior classification algorithms. LCrowdV would be released on the WWW

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Procedural modeling of cities with semantic information for crowd simulation

En aquesta tesi de màster es presenta un sistema per a la generació procedural de ciutats poblades. Avui en dia poblar entorns virtuals grans tendeix a ser una tasca que requereix molt d’esforç i temps, i típicament la feina d’artistes o programadors experts. Amb aquest sistema es vol proporcionar una eina que permeti als usuaris generar entorns poblats d’una manera més fàcil i ràpida, mitjançat l’ús de tècniques procedurals. Les contribucions principals inclouen: la generació d’una ciutat virtual augmentada semànticament utilitzant modelat procedural basat en gramàtiques de regles, la generació dels seus habitants virtuals utilitzant dades estadístiques reals, i la generació d’agendes per a cada individu utilitzant també un mètode procedural basat en regles, el qual combina la informació semàntica de la ciutat amb les característiques i necessitats dels agents autònoms. Aquestes agendes individuals són usades per a conduir la simulació dels habitants, i poden incloure regles com a tasques d’alt nivell, l’avaluació de les quals es realitza al moment de començar-les. Això permet simular accions que depenguin del context, i interaccions amb altres agents.En esta tesis de máster se presenta un sistema para la generación procedural de ciudades pobladas. Hoy en día poblar entornos virtuales grandes tiende a ser una tarea que requiere de mucho tiempo y esfuerzo, y típicamente el trabajo de artistas o programadores expertos. Con este sistema se pretende proporcionar una herramienta que permita a los usuarios generar entornos poblados de un modo más fácil y rápido, mediante el uso de técnicas procedurales. Las contribuciones principales incluyen: la generación de una ciudad virtual aumentada semánticamente utilizando modelado procedural basado en gramáticas de reglas, la generación de sus habitantes virtuales utilizando datos estadísticos reales, y la generación de agendas para cada individuo utilizando también un método procedural basado en reglas, el cual combina la información semántica de la ciudad con las características y necesidades de los agentes autónomos. Estas agendas individuales son usadas para conducir la simulación de los habitantes, y pueden incluir reglas como tareas de alto nivel, la evaluación de las cuales se realiza cuando empiezan. Esto permite simular acciones que dependan del contexto, e interacciones con otros agentes.In this master thesis a framework for procedural generation of populated cities is presented. Nowadays, the population of large virtual environments tends to be a time-consuming task, usually requiring the work of expert artists or programmers. With this system we aim at providing a tool that can allow users to generate populated environments in an easier and faster way, by relying on the usage of procedural techniques. Our main contributions include: a generation of semantically augmented virtual cities using procedural modelling based on rule grammars, a generation of a virtual population using real-world data, and a generation of agendas for each individual inhabitant by using a procedural rule-based approach, which combines the city semantics with the autonomous agents characteristics and needs. The individual agendas are then used to drive a crowd simulation in the environment, and may include high-level rule tasks whose evaluation is delayed until they get triggered. This feature allows us to simulate context-dependant actions and interactions with other agents

Comparing and Evaluating Real Time Character Engines for Virtual Environments

As animated characters increasingly become vital parts of virtual environments, then the engines that drive these characters increasingly become vital parts of virtual environment software. This paper gives an overview of the state of the art in character engines, and proposes a taxonomy of the features that are commonly found in them. This taxonomy can be used as a tool for comparison and evaluation of different engines. In order to demonstrate this we use it to compare three engines. The first is Cal3D, the most commonly used open source engine. We also introduce two engines created by the authors, Piavca and HALCA. The paper ends with a brief discussion of some other popular engines

Authoring virtual crowds: a survey

Recent advancements in crowd simulation unravel a wide range of functionalities for virtual agents, delivering highly-realistic,natural virtual crowds. Such systems are of particular importance to a variety of applications in fields such as: entertainment(e.g., movies, computer games); architectural and urban planning; and simulations for sports and training. However, providingtheir capabilities to untrained users necessitates the development of authoring frameworks. Authoring virtual crowds is acomplex and multi-level task, varying from assuming control and assisting users to realise their creative intents, to deliveringintuitive and easy to use interfaces, facilitating such control. In this paper, we present a categorisation of the authorable crowdsimulation components, ranging from high-level behaviours and path-planning to local movements, as well as animation andvisualisation. We provide a review of the most relevant methods in each area, emphasising the amount and nature of influencethat the users have over the final result. Moreover, we discuss the currently available authoring tools (e.g., graphical userinterfaces, drag-and-drop), identifying the trends of early and recent work. Finally, we suggest promising directions for futureresearch that mainly stem from the rise of learning-based methods, and the need for a unified authoring framework.This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement No 860768 (CLIPE project). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 739578 and the Government of the Republic of Cyprus through the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital PolicyPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Synthesising character animation for real time crowd simulation systems in Unreal Engine

In this master thesis, we have developed a framework to automate the process of generating animation synthesis graphs. This thesis includes a tool to ease the animation configurations, a method to add behaviours to the characters, and a method to generate automatically the graphs

Production of 3D animated short films in Unity 5 : can game engines replace the traditional methods?

In 3D animation cinema, the elements of a scene are created by artists using computer software. To generate the final result, there must be a conversion (rendering) of the threedimensional models to two-dimensional images (frames) that will later be joined together and edited into a video format. 3D animation films have traditionally been rendered using pre-rendering engines, a time consuming and expensive process that usually requires the use of multiple computers rendering at the same time (render farms), renders which may need to be repeated if the results are not ideal. Videogames, on the other hand, are reactive applications where the player may have different possible courses of action that will generate distinct results. In those cases, it is necessary that the engine waits for the player’s input before it calculates the following frames. To allow for fast calculations in real time, 3D game developers use game engines that incorporate real time rendering methods which can generate images much faster than the prerendering engines mentioned above. To be able to generate a large number of frames per second, there must be an optimization of the entire scene, in order to reduce the number of necessary calculations. That optimization is created by using techniques, practices and tools that are not commonly used by animation cinema professionals. Due to that optimization necessity, videogames always had a lower graphic quality than that of animated films, where each frame is rendered separately and takes as long as necessary to obtain the required result. Physically Based Rendering (PBR) technology is one of the methods incorporated by some rendering engines for the generation of physically accurate results, using calculations that follow the laws of physics as it happens in the real world and creating more realistic images which require less effort, not only from the artist but also from the equipment. The incorporation of PBR in game engines allowed for high graphic quality generated results in real time, gradually closing the visual quality gap between videogames and animated cinema. Recently, game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine started to be used – mostly by the companies that created the engine, as a proof of concept – for rendering 3D animated films. This could lead to changes in the animation cinema production methods by the studios that, until now, have used traditional pre-rendering methods.No cinema de animação 3D, os elementos de uma cena são criados por artistas através da utilização de programas de computador. Para gerar o resultado final, é necessário fazer-se uma conversão (render) dos modelos tri-dimensionais para imagens bi-dimensionais (frames), que posteriormente serão unidas e editadas para um formato de vídeo. Tradicionalmente, o rendering de filmes de animação 3D é feita através de motores de pre-rendering, um processo demorado e dispendioso que geralmente requer a utilização de múltiplos computadores a trabalhar em simultâneo (render farms), e que poderá ter que ser repetido caso os resultados obtidos não sejam ideais. Os videojogos, por outro lado, são aplicações reactivas, onde o jogador pode ter várias sequências de acções, que poderão gerar resultados distintos. Nesses casos, é necessário o motor de jogo esperar pela acção do jogador antes de calcular as imagens seguintes. Para possibilitar cálculos rápidos em tempo-real, os criadores de jogos 3D usam motores de jogo que incorporam métodos de renderização em tempo-real que conseguem gerar imagens muito mais rápido do que os motores de pre-rendering mencionados acima. Para conseguir gerar um grande número de imagens por segundo, é necessário existir uma optimização de toda a cena, para reduzir o número de cálculos necessários. Essa optimização é criada através da utilização de técnicas, práticas e ferramentas que, geralmente, não são utiliadas por profissionais da área de cinema de animação. Devido a essa necessidade de optimização, os videojogos sempre tiveram uma qualidade gráfica inferior à dos filmes de animação, onde o render de cada imagem é gerado separadamente e pode levar tanto tempo quanto for necessário para obter o resultado desejado. A tecnologia de Rendering Baseado em Física (Physically Based Rendering – PBR) é um dos métodos incorporados por alguns motores de rendering para a geração de resultados físicamente correctos, usando cálculos que seguem as leis da física, tal como acontece no mundo real e criando imagens mais realistas necessitando de menos esforço, não só da parte do artista mas também do equipamento. A incorporação de PBR em motores de jogo possibilitou resultados gerados em tempo-real com grande qualidade gráfica, o que gradualmente vai aproximando a qualidade visual dos videojogos à do cinema de animação. Recentemente, motores de jogo como o Unity e o Unreal Engine começaram a ser utilizados – maioritariamente pelas companhias que criaram o motor de jogo, como prova de conceito – para renderização de filmes de animação 3D. Este passo poderá levar a mudanças nos métodos de produção do cinema de animação em estúdios que, até agora, utilizaram métodos de pré-renderização tradicionais

Gameplay, Interactive Drama, and Training: Authoring Edutainment Stories for Online Players (AESOP)

This paper describes initial efforts at providing some of the technological advances of the videogame genres in a coherent, accessible format to teams of educators. By providing these capabilities inside an interactive drama generator, we believe that the full potential of educational games may eventually be realized. Sections 1 and 2 postulate three goals for reaching that objective: a toolset for interactive drama authoring, ways to insulate authors from game engines, and reusable digital casts to facilitate composability. Sections 3 and 4 present progress on those tools and an in-depth case study that made use of the resulting toolset to create a large interactive drama. We close with lessons learned to date and a look at the remaining challenges: the unpleasant reality that state-of-the-art tools are not yet able to boost the productivity of edutainment authors