Simulating competitive interactions using singly captured motions

Abstract

It is difficult to create scenes where multiple avatars are fighting / competing with each other. Manually creating the motions of avatars is time consuming due to the correlation of the movements between the avatars. Capturing the motions of multiple avatars is also difficult as it requires a huge amount of post-processing. In this paper, we propose a new method to generate a realistic scene of avatars densely interacting in a competitive environment. The motions of the avatars are considered to be captured individually, which will increase the easiness of obtaining the data. We propose a new algorithm called the temporal expansion approach which maps the continuous time action plan to a discrete space such that turn-based evaluation methods can be used. As a result, many mature algorithms in game such as the min-max search and α - β pruning can be applied. Using our method, avatars will plan their strategies taking into account the reaction of the opponent. Fighting scenes with multiple avatars are generated to demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm. The proposed method can also be applied to other kinds of continuous activities that require strategy planning such as sport games. © 2007 ACM.