Combining local and global optimisation for virtual camera control

Controlling a virtual camera in 3D computer games is a complex task. The camera is required to react to dynamically changing environments and produce high quality visual results and smooth animations. This paper proposes an approach that combines local and global search to solve the virtual camera control problem. The automatic camera control problem is described and it is decomposed into sub-problems; then a hierarchical architecture that solves each sub-problem using the most appropriate optimisation technique is proposed. The approach is compared to pure local search solutions to showcase the advantages of the proposed architecture in terms of visual performance and robustness.