Download - CSCE 552 Spring 2010
CSCE 552 Spring 2010
Animation
By Jijun Tang
Announcements
Homework #3 due Mar 19th
Group based A model to be used in your own game
Second demo Very Early April A demo is needed
Animation Overview
Fundamental Concepts Animation Storage Playing Animations Blending Animations Motion Extraction Mesh Deformation Inverse Kinematics Attachments & Collision Detection Conclusions
Different types of animation
Particle effects (fire, smoke, etc) Procedural / Physics “Hard” object animation (door, robot) “Soft” object animation (tree swaying in
the wind, flag flapping the wind) Character animation
Example
Quaternions
Quaternions are an interesting mathematical concept with a deep relationship with the foundations of algebra and number theory
Invented by W.R.Hamilton in 1843 In practice, they are most useful to use as a
means of representing orientations A quaternion has 4 components
3210 qqqqq
Keyframes
Motion is usually smooth Only store every nth frame (key frames) Interpolate between keyframes
Linear Interpolate Inbetweening or “tweening”
Different anims require different rates Sleeping = low, running = high Choose rate carefully
Linear Interpolation
The Bézier Curve
(1-t)3F1+3t(1-t)2T1+3t2(1-t)T2+t3F2
t=0.25
F1
T1
T2
F2
t=1.0
t=0.0
Animation Blending
The animation blending system allows a model to play more than one animation sequence at a time, while seamlessly blending the sequences
Used to create sophisticated, life-like behavior Walking and smiling Running and shooting
Blending Animations
The Lerp Quaternion Blending Methods Multi-way Blending Bone Masks The Masked Lerp Hierarchical Blending
The Lerp
Foundation of all blending “Lerp”=Linear interpolation Blends A, B together by a scalar weight
lerp (A, B, i) = iA + (1-i)B i is blend weight and usually goes from 0 to 1
Translation, scale, shear lerp are obvious Componentwise lerp
Rotations are trickier – normalized quaternions is usually the best method.
Quaternion Blending
Normalizing lerp (nlerp) Lerp each component Normalize (can often be approximated) Follows shortest path Not constant velocity Multi-way-lerp is easy to do Very simple and fast
Many others: Spherical lerp (slerp) Log-quaternion lerp (exp map)
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Spherical lerp (slerp)
Usual textbook method Follows shortest path Constant velocity Multi-way-lerp is not obvious Moderate cost
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Log-quaternion lerp (exp map)
Rather obscure method Does not follow shortest path Constant velocity Multi-way-lerp is easy to do Expensive
Which is the Best
No perfect solution! Each missing one of the features All look identical for small interpolations
This is the 99% case Blending very different animations looks
bad whichever method you use Multi-way lerping is important So use cheapest - nlerp
Multi-way Blending
Can use nested lerps lerp (lerp (A, B, i), C, j) But n-1 weights - counterintuitive Order-dependent
Weighted sum associates nicely (iA + jB + kC + …) / (i + j + k + … ) But no i value can result in 100% A
More complex methods Less predictable and intuitive Can be expensive
Bone Masks
Some animations only affect some bones Wave animation only affects arm Walk affects legs strongly, arms weakly
Arms swing unless waving or holding something Bone mask stores weight for each bone
Multiplied by animation’s overall weight Each bone has a different effective weight Each bone must be blended separately
Bone weights are usually static Overall weight changes as character changes
animations
The Masked Lerp
Two-way lerp using weights from a mask Each bone can be lerped differently
Mask value of 1 means bone is 100% A Mask value of 0 means bone is 100% B Solves weighted-sum problem
(no weight can give 100% A) No simple multi-way equivalent
Just a single bone mask, but two animations
Hierarchical Blending
Combines all styles of blending A tree or directed graph of nodes Each leaf is an animation Each node is a style of blend
Blends results of child nodes Construct programmatically at load time
Evaluate with identical code each frame Avoids object-specific blending code Nodes with weights of zero not evaluated
Triangles
Fundamental primitive of pipelines Everything else constructed from them (except lines and point sprites)
Three points define a plane Triangle plane is mapped with data
Textures Colors
“Rasterized” to find pixels to draw
Mesh
Vertices
A vertex is a point in space Plus other attribute data
Colors Surface normal Texture coordinates Whatever data shader programs need
Triangles use three vertices Vertices shared between adjacent triangles
Textures
Array of texels Same as pixel, but for a texture Nominally R,G,B,A but can mean anything
1D, 2D, 3D and “cube map” arrays 2D is by far the most common Basically just a 2D image bitmap Often square and power-of-2 in size
Cube map - six 2D arrays makes hollow cube Approximates a hollow sphere of texels For environmental
Cube Map
Texture Example
High-Level Organization
Gameplay and Rendering Render Objects Render Instances Meshes Skeletons Volume Partitioning
Gameplay and Rendering
Rendering speed varies according to scene Some scenes more complex than others Typically 15-60 frames per second
Gameplay is constant speed Camera view should not change game In multiplayer, each person has a different view,
but there is only one shared game 1 update per second (RTS) to thousands (FPS)
Keep the two as separate as possible!
Render Objects
Description of renderable object type Mesh data (triangles, vertices) Material data (shaders, textures, etc) Skeleton (+rig) for animation Shared by multiple instances
Render Instances
A single entity in a world References a render object
Decides what the object looks like Position and orientation Lighting state Animation state
Meshes
Triangles Vertices Single material “Atomic unit of rendering”
Not quite atomic, depending on hardware Single object may have multiple meshes
Each with different shaders, textures, etc Level-Of-Distance (LOD)
LOD
Objects have different mesh for different distance from the player
The mesh should be simpler if object is faraway
Many games have LOD, for example, Microsoft Train Simulator
Volume Partitioning
Cannot draw entire world every frame Lots of objects – far too slow
Need to decide quickly what is visible Partition world into areas Decide which areas are visible Draw things in each visible area Many ways of partitioning the world
Volume Partitioning - Portals
Nodes joined by portals Usually a polygon, but can be any shape
See if any portal of node is visible If so, draw geometry in node See if portals to other nodes are visible
Check only against visible portal shape Common to use screen bounding boxes
Recurse to other nodes
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Viewfrustum
Node
Portal
Test first two portals
? ?
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Node
Portal
Both visible
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Node
Portal
Mark node visible, test all portals going from node
??
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Node
Portal
One portal visible, one invisible
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Node
Portal
Mark node as visible, other node not visited at all.Check all portals in visible node
? ?
?
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Node
Portal
One visible, two invisible
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Node
Portal
Mark node as visible, check new node’s portals
?
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Visible
Invisible
Not tested
Eye
Node
Portal
One portal invisible.No more visible nodes or portals to check.Render scene.
Real Example
Volume Partitioning – Portals
Portals are simple and fast Low memory footprint Automatic generation is difficult, and
generally need to be placed by hand Hard to find which node a point is in, and
must constantly track movement of objects through portals
Best at indoor scenes, outside generates too many portals to be efficient
Volume Partitioning – BSP
Binary space partition tree Tree of nodes Each node has plane that splits it in
two child nodes, one on each side of plane
Some leaves marked as “solid” Others filled with renderable geometry
BSP
Volume Partitioning – BSP
Finding which node a point is in is fast Start at top node Test which side of the plane the point is on Move to that child node Stop when leaf node hit
Visibility determination is similar to portals Portals implied from BSP planes
Automated BSP generation is common Generates far more nodes than portals
Higher memory requirements
Volume Partitioning: Quadtree
Quadtree (2D) and octree (3D) Quadtrees described here Extension to 3D octree is obvious
Each node is square Usually power-of-two in size
Has four child nodes or leaves Each is a quarter of size of parent
Quadtree
Octree
Volume Partitioning: Quadtree
Fast to find which node a point is in Mostly used for simple frustum culling Not very good at indoor visibility
Quadtree edges usually not aligned with real geometry
Very low memory requirements Good at dynamic moving objects
Insertion and removal is very fast
Volume Partitioning - PVS
Potentially visible set Based on any existing node system For each node, stores list of which nodes
are potentially visible Use list for node that camera is currently in
Ignore any nodes not on that list – not visible Static lists
Precalculated at level authoring time Ignores current frustum Cannot deal with moving occluders
PVS
RoomA
RoomB
Room C
RoomD
RoomE
Viewpoint
PVS = B, A, D
Volume Partitioning - PVS
Very fast No recursion, no calculations
Still need frustum culling Difficult to calculate
Intersection of volumes and portals Lots of tests – very slow
Most useful when combined with other partitioning schemes
Volume Partitioning
Different methods for different things Quadtree/octree for outdoor views
Does frustum culling well Hard to cull much more for outdoor views
Portals or BSP for indoor scenes BSP or quadtree for collision detection
Portals not suitable
Rendering Primitives
Strips, Lists, Fans Indexed Primitives The Vertex Cache Quads and Point Sprites
Strips, Lists, Fans
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Triangle list
Triangle fan
Triangle strip
Line list Line strip
Vertex Sharing
List has no sharing Vertex count = triangle count * 3
Strips and fans share adjacent vertices Vertex count = triangle count + 2 Lower memory Topology restrictions Have to break into multiple rendering
calls
Vertex Counts
Using lists duplicates vertices a lot! Total of 6x number of rendering vertices Most meshes: tri count = 2x vert count
Strips or fans still duplicate vertices Each strip/fan needs its own set of vertices More than doubles vertex count
Typically 2.5x with good strips
Hard to find optimal strips and fans Have to submit each as separate rendering call
Strips vs. Lists
32 triangles, 25 vertices 4 strips, 40 vertices
25 to 40 vertices is 60% extra data!
Indexed Primitives
Vertices stored in separate array No duplication of vertices Called a “vertex buffer” or “vertex array” 3 numbers (int/float/double) per vertex
Triangles hold indices, not vertices Index is just an integer
Typically 16 bits (65,536) Duplicating indices is cheap Indexes into vertex array
Vertex Index Array
The Vertex Cache
Vertices processed by vertex shader Results used by multiple triangles Avoid re-running shader for each triangle Storing results in video memory is slow So store results in small cache
Requires indexed primitives Cache typically 16-32 vertices in size, resulted in
around 95% efficiency
Cache Performance
Size and type of cache usually unknown LRU (least recently used) or FIFO (first in first
out) replacement policy Also odd variants of FIFO policy Variable cache size according to vertex type
Reorder triangles to be cache-friendly Not the same as finding optimal strips! Render nearby triangles together “Fairly good” is easy to achieve Ideal ordering still a subject for research