Real-time crowd movement on large scale terrains

Crowds are described as complex adaptive systems in artificial intelligence. The generation of crowd in real-time simulations is beyond the manual design capability. In this paper, we present an integrated animation framework for simulating the adaptive movement behaviors of crowds on large terrains. A simulation system that is developed based on the framework can be used as a powerful animation and design tool to produce realistic crowd movements procedurally. The framework integrates efficient terrain rendering techniques and path planning algorithms to enable the simulation system to handle large terrain data sets and search optimal paths for crowds to progress on complex terrains. A local alignment algorithm is developed, which utilizes a set of conventional behavioral rules to produce robust real-time coordinated motions of crowds with respect to environmental situations.