Improving the realism of agent movement for high density crowd simulation

Abstract

Simulating realistic, large, dense crowds of autonomous agents is still a challenge for the computer graphics community. Typical approaches either look like particle simulations (where agents ‘vibrate’ back and forth) or are conservative in the range of human motion possible (agents aren’t allowed to ‘push’ each other). Our HiDAC system (for High Density Autonomous Crowds) focuses on the problem of simulating the local motion and global wayfinding behaviors of crowds moving in a natural manner within dynamically changing virtual environments. HiDAC applies a combination of psychological and geometrical rules layered on top of and extending a social forces model. HiDAC exhibits a wide variety of emergent behaviors from agent line formation to pushing behavior and its consequences, based on the current situation, personalities of the individuals and perceived density of the crowd.