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Particles, Herds
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Particles
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Simplified motion and rendering, but aiming at an illusion of complexity
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Applications: sparks, spray [Gischt], smoke, flames, water, ...
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Often using the physics of points (no rotation, no particle-particle collisions)
combined with a graphical representation by billboards/sprites with alpha
blending
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Demo: point sprites with DirectX (Device.RenderState.PointSpriteEnable)
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3D software often allows to render particles in more complex ways. Demo
with Cinema 4D:
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The metaball functionality turns particles into a fluid.
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Particles may be converted to light sources, for instance to produce lense
flares.
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Complex simulations with particles:
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Fireworks using
"Thinking Particles" in Cinema 4D; note the wiring of the logic in Xpresso
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Nvidia's Vulcan
demo: animated textures for flames and smoke; sparks
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Herds
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Autonomous "intelligent" behaviour of simple (and not-so-simple) actors:
herds, flocks of birds, school of fish, even human crowds
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Demos: work done at VRLAB
Lausanne, Crowd Simulation Framework CSF,
Mostly Harmless Bugtro
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In the extreme: "massive
animation" such as the automated armies in "Lord of the Rings"
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Also useful for non-player charaters in games
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Classic rules for "boids":
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Cohesion: Move toward your neighbors.
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Separation: Don't get too close to your neighbors.
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Alignment: Move to the same direction as your neighbors do.
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Boid demos from last year's course