Research Article

Real-time navigating crowds: scalable simulation and rendering

  1. Julien Pettré*,
  2. Pablo de Heras Ciechomski,
  3. Jonathan Maïm,
  4. Barbara Yersin,
  5. Jean-Paul Laumond,
  6. Daniel Thalmann

Article first published online: 14 JUN 2006

DOI: 10.1002/cav.147

Issue

Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds

Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds

Special Issue: CASA 2006

Volume 17, Issue 3-4, pages 445–455, July 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Pettré, J., Ciechomski, P. d. H., Maïm, J., Yersin, B., Laumond, J.-P. and Thalmann, D. (2006), Real-time navigating crowds: scalable simulation and rendering. Comp. Anim. Virtual Worlds, 17: 445–455. doi: 10.1002/cav.147

Author Information

*Virtual Realily Lab (VRlab), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 14 JUN 2006
  2. Article first published online: 14 JUN 2006
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 11 MAY 2006
  4. Manuscript Revised: 2 MAY 2006
  5. Manuscript Received: 10 APR 2006

Funded by

  • Swiss National Research Foundation
  • Marie Curie Action. Grant Number: FPS-2004-Mobility-5

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Keywords:

  • real-time crowds;
  • crowd simulation;
  • crowd rendering;
  • navigation

Abstract

This paper introduces a framework for real-time simulation and rendering of crowds navigating in a virtual environment. The solution first consists in a specific environment preprocessing technique giving rise to navigation graphs, which are then used by the navigation and simulation tasks. Second, navigation planning interactively provides various solutions to the user queries, allowing to spread a crowd by individualizing trajectories. A scalable simulation model enables the management of large crowds, while saving computation time for rendering tasks. Pedestrian graphical models are divided into three rendering fidelities ranging from billboards to dynamic meshes, allowing close-up views of detailed digital actors with a large variety of locomotion animations. Examples illustrate our method in several environments with crowds of up to 35 000 pedestrians with real-time performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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