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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Procedural Generation of Natural Environments with Restrictions
    (The Eurographics Association, 2017) Gasch, Cristina; Chover, Miguel; Remolar, Inmaculada; Fco. Javier Melero and Nuria Pelechano
    Natural environments are a very important part of virtual worlds, both for video games and for simulators, but their manual creation can be a very expensive job. The procedural creation of these, allows to generate them easily and quickly, although there is no way to control the final result quickly and accurately. The purpose of this work is to present a new method of creation, that allows the procedural generation of a natural environment for applications such as rail shooter. The vegetation of the natural environment will be placed automatically along the area of the route. The method presented, is based on establishing on the ground a grid of points which are assigned a random function of probability of appearance of each species based on Perlin noise. In addition, the method draws from the heightmap the values necessary to distribute the natural elements. These values are combined along the distance of the route and next to a noise distribution, thus obtaining placement patterns that have a greater probability of occurrence in favorable points of the map and near the route. The results show that the method allows the procedural generation of these environments for any heightmap, also focusing the realism and the placement of the natural elements in the user visualization zone.
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    Screen Space Obscurances
    (The Eurographics Association, 2009) Sunyer, Nicolau; Gumbau, Jesús; Chover, Miguel; Sbert, Mateu; Carlos Andujar and Javier Lluch
    La simulación de la iluminación indirecta en una escena suele ser muy costosa por lo que normalmente ésta se usa de forma precalculada para escenas estáticas. En este artículo proponemos un algoritmo que aproxima el cálculo de la iluminación indirecta enteramente en GPU y permite escenas dinámicas pues se recalcula para cada fotograma. La solución propuesta se basa en la técnica de Obscurances y permite simular el efecto de sangrado de color (color-bleeding). Al estar el muestreo basado en espacio de imagen no se usan ni reproyecciones ni transformaciones, simplificando los calculos. Nuestra solución está formada por la fusión de tres mapas diferentes de Obscurances, de baja, media y alta frecuencia, que permiten simular los distintos niveles de interacción de la iluminación indirecta, resaltando los detalles sin sacrificar la interacción con los oclusores a distancia media y lejana. El sistema no requiere del uso de filtrado del mapa de Obscurances pues se ha optimizado el muestreo de la escena y se obtienen imágenes con muy poco ruido usando pocas muestras por píxel.
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    Procedural Modeling of Terrain from GPS Routes
    (The Eurographics Association, 2016) Gasch, Cristina; Chover, Miguel; Remolar, Inmaculada; Rebollo, Cristina; Alejandro Garcia-Alonso and Belen Masia
    Procedural modeling techniques provide an easy way for realistic terrain synthesis. There are many methods for this purpose, but few of them provide the necessary constraints to control the final result. The current controlling methods are slow and inaccurate. The goal of this paper is to present a new procedural method to synthesis realistic terrain that fulfills the constraint of a set of consecutive coordinates from GPS routes. In the new method, random terrain generation is based on Perlin noise algorithm. Instead of getting a random value for all points of each octave, the method presents the novelty of solving the needed values of each point to fulfill the coordinates of the GPS route when Perlin algorithm is applied. Points that are not included in the constraint, keep the randomness provided by the original Perlin method. The results show that the method allows, at low computational cost, to integrate different complexity paths with high accuracy while conserving the natural aspect of the procedural generation.
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    Simulación de Lluvia sobre Escenas Dinámicas
    (The Eurographics Association, 2009) Sunyer, Nicolau; Puig-Centelles, Anna; Ripolles, Oscar; Chover, Miguel; Sbert, Mateu; Carlos Andujar and Javier Lluch
    La lluvia es un fenómeno complejo y su simulación suele ser muy costosa. En este artículo se propone un sistema de simulación de lluvia mediante sistemas de partículas que funciona únicamente en la tarjeta gráfica (GPU). La flexibilidad de CUDA permite incluir, además de la simulación de la precipitación, un sistema de detección y manejo de las colisiones de las partículas contra el escenario que permite simular al mismo tiempo las salpicaduras. En el apartado de resultados mostramos cómo el uso de CUDA permite mejorar el rendimiento que se obtenía utilizando métodos anteriores.
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    Procedural Generation of 3D Maps with Wave Function Collapse: Optimization and Advanced Constraints
    (The Eurographics Association, 2025) López, María Beatriz Villar; Chover, Miguel; Argudo, Oscar; Iparraguirre, Olatz
    The Wave Function Collapse algorithm is a widely used Procedural Content Generation technique for creating structured scenarios using local neighborhood constraints. This work presents an extension of the algorithm to generate three-dimensional scenarios, incorporating non-local constraints and key optimizations. The proposed improvements include assigning weights to tiles, layer-based generation, specific appearance constraints for unique or ranged tiles, and an automated neighbor creation and assignment method using connectivity rules. These modifications facilitates the generation of coherent and structured 3D environments, providing greater control and adaptability to the process. Finally, some optimizations are proposed and the approach's effectiveness is evaluated analyzing the impact of constraints on the algorithm's coherence, diversity, and runtime.
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    Impact of Non-Player Characters on the Gaming Experience: Simulation Game vs. Competitive Exergame
    (The Eurographics Association, 2025) Miranda, Nadia Montaña; Chover, Miguel; Argudo, Oscar; Iparraguirre, Olatz
    Non-player characters (NPCs) play a crucial role in the gaming experience and should be designed to suit the characteristics of each game genre. This study examines the impact of AI-driven NPCs on player experience by comparing their impact in a hospital management simulation game and in a competitive exergame called Fitoon. In the simulation game, a needs-based AI system was implemented, where agents autonomously make decisions based on their internal states, such as hunger or stress. In Fitoon, machine learning techniques, including reinforcement and imitation learning, were applied to train agents capable of competing against players in obstacle races. Through user testing utilizing the In-Game version of the Game Experience Questionnaire, this study examines how the presence of these NPCs influences the players' perception of the gaming experience in both contexts. The results indicate that while NPCs in the simulation game have a greater impact on reducing feelings of tedium and boredom, in the exergame, they significantly increase the sense of challenge.
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    Interactive Bézier-Based 2D Extrusion Tool inside game engines: Streamlining Game Asset Creation
    (The Eurographics Association, 2025) Díaz-Maroto, Álvaro Chuan; Chover, Miguel; Argudo, Oscar; Iparraguirre, Olatz
    Manually modifying the shape of game elements in 3D modeling software and reimporting them into the game engine is a frequent and time-consuming task in video game development. We present a tool for Unity that enables the extrusion of 2D shapes along Bézier curves through an intuitive graphical interface. Our approach allows users to define a 2D shape, compute its vertex positions along a concatenated cubic Bézier curve, and generate a triangulated mesh while ensuring C² continuity between segments. By integrating this workflow directly into the game engine, our tool eliminates the need for constant switching between external modeling software, significantly reducing development time and streamlining level design iterations.
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    Simplificación interactiva de vegetación usando el Hardware Gráfico
    (The Eurographics Association, 2009) Gumbau, Jesús; Chover, Miguel; Remolar, Inmaculada; Carlos Andujar and Javier Lluch
    Abstract La visualización en tiempo real de vegetación es un problema actualmente en estudio debido a la enorme cantidad de primitivas que tienen que dibujarse. Todas ellas son necesarias para describir la geometría de las plantas. Sin embargo, no todas y cada una de estas primitivas contribuyen en la misma forma a la imagen final de la planta: algunas no son visibles en función de la situación de la cámara. Este trabajo, centra su estudio en este hecho con el fin de reducir la cantidad de geometría necesaria para representar un árbol y presenta una representación multirresolución variable dependiente de la vista. El presente método se basa en un sistema de simplificación basado en el punto de vista que se realiza de forma eficiente en la Unidad de Proceso Gráfico (GPU). La apariencia final de los árboles se preserva en todo momento al alterar el tamaño de las hojas restantes, evitando así dar el aspecto de poda. Nuestro enfoque aprovecha la arquitectura en paralelo de la GPU a la hora de determinar en tiempo real las hojas visibles del árbol. Los datos a visualizar no necesitan ser transmitidos a través del bus, debido a que son generados en la misma GPU. Esto hace que se reduzca de forma notable el tiempo de extracción y visualización del follaje.