Many games, in particular RTS games, are populated by synthetic humanoid actors that act as auton... more Many games, in particular RTS games, are populated by synthetic humanoid actors that act as autonomous agents. The navigation of these agents is yet a challenge if the problem involves finding a precise route in a virtual world (path-planning), and moving realistically according to its own personality, intentions and mood (motion planning). In this paper we present several complementary approaches recently developed by our group to produce quality paths, and to guide and interact with the navigation of autonomous agents. Our approach is based on a BVP Path Planner that generates potential fields through a differential equation whose gradient descent represents navigation routes. Resulting paths can deal with moving obstacles, are smooth, and free from local minima. In order to evaluate the algorithms, we implemented our path planner in a RTS game engine.
Efficient path-planning methods are being explored along the years to allow the movement of robot... more Efficient path-planning methods are being explored along the years to allow the movement of robots or virtual agents in planar environments. However, there is a lot of space to improve the quality of paths restricted to 3D surfaces, with holes and bends for instance. This work presents a new technique for path-planning on 3D surfaces called 3DS-BVP. This path planner is based on Boundary Value Problem (BVP), which generates potential fields whose gradient descent represents navigation routes from any point on the surface to a goal position. Resulting paths are smooth and free from local minima. The 3DS-BVP works on complex surfaces of arbitrary genus or curvature, represented by a triangle mesh, without the need of 2D parametrizations. Our results demonstrate that our technique can generate paths in arbitrary surfaces with similar quality as those generated by BVP-based methods in planar environments. Our approach can be applied in the development of new tools to automate the navigation on 3D surfaces, like the camera control in the exploratory visualization of 3D models.
Many games, in particular RTS games, are populated by synthetic humanoid actors that act as auton... more Many games, in particular RTS games, are populated by synthetic humanoid actors that act as autonomous agents. The navigation of these agents is yet a challenge if the problem involves finding a precise route in a virtual world (path-planning), and moving realistically according to its own personality, intentions and mood (motion planning). In this paper we present several complementary approaches recently developed by our group to produce quality paths, and to guide and interact with the navigation of autonomous agents. Our approach is based on a BVP Path Planner that generates potential fields through a differential equation whose gradient descent represents navigation routes. Resulting paths can deal with moving obstacles, are smooth, and free from local minima. In order to evaluate the algorithms, we implemented our path planner in a RTS game engine.
Efficient path-planning methods are being explored along the years to allow the movement of robot... more Efficient path-planning methods are being explored along the years to allow the movement of robots or virtual agents in planar environments. However, there is a lot of space to improve the quality of paths restricted to 3D surfaces, with holes and bends for instance. This work presents a new technique for path-planning on 3D surfaces called 3DS-BVP. This path planner is based on Boundary Value Problem (BVP), which generates potential fields whose gradient descent represents navigation routes from any point on the surface to a goal position. Resulting paths are smooth and free from local minima. The 3DS-BVP works on complex surfaces of arbitrary genus or curvature, represented by a triangle mesh, without the need of 2D parametrizations. Our results demonstrate that our technique can generate paths in arbitrary surfaces with similar quality as those generated by BVP-based methods in planar environments. Our approach can be applied in the development of new tools to automate the navigation on 3D surfaces, like the camera control in the exploratory visualization of 3D models.
Uploads
Papers by Leonardo Fischer