Simulating crowds and populating virtual worlds

This presentation introduces the principles of microscopic crowd simulation. Microscopic approaches consist in calculating large-scale displacement for a dense and numerous set of entities, resulting from the combination of local interactions between individuals. We present recent advances in the field, in particular approaches based on artificial vision, which attempt to reproduce the perception/action loop that guides human locomotion in dynamic environments. Finally, we look at how our simulators can be used to populate large-scale interactive virtual worlds. We show how crowd simulators can be adapted to animate crowds beyond the limits imposed by the complexity of simulation algorithms and available computing resources.