Research into the methods and techniques used in simulating crowds has
developed extensively within the last few years, particularly in the
areas of video games and film. Despite recent impressive results when
simulating and rendering thousands of individuals, many challenges still
exist in this area.
The comparison of simulation with reality, the realistic appearance of
virtual humans and their behavior, group structure and their motion, and
collision avoidance are just some examples of these challenges. For most
of the applications of crowds, it is now a requirement to have real-time
simulations - which is an additional challenge, particularly when crowds
are very large.
Crowd Simulation analyses these challenges in depth and suggests many
possible solutions. Daniel Thalmann and Soraia Musse share their
experiences and expertise in the application of:
- Population modeling
- Virtual human animation
- Behavioral models for crowds
- The connection between virtual and real crowds
- Path planning and navigation
- Visual attention models
- Geometric and populated semantic environments
- Crowd rendering
The second edition presents techniques and methods developed since the
authors first covered the simulation of crowds in 2007. Crowd
Simulation includes in-depth discussions on the techniques of path
planning, including a new hybrid approach between navigation graphs and
potential-based methods. The importance of gaze attention - individuals
appearing conscious of their environment and of others - is introduced,
and a free-of-collision method for crowds is also discussed.
