Character building: Improving interactions in computer games

In recent years there has been great progress in the development of human interface devices for computer entertainment, some of which allow users to simulate direct physical interactions with game characters. For such interactions to be realistic, the game characters must exhibit a large number of different reactive motions, and this requires a lot of hard work and creativity from game designers.

Now, Hironori Mitake and colleagues at Tokyo Tech and The University of Electro-Communications have invented a new method for generating realistic character reactions in real-time. Their method combines keyframe animation with a full simulation of the physics involved in the interactions.

The researchers achieved this by developing a real-time physical simulation of a rigid body, comprising a simplified model of character body with an ‘inverted pendulum control’ to simulate motion. They tested the software on several different users, and found that it eliminated 90 % of previously troublesome tasks found in these sorts of motion designs. What’s more, the generated motions were realistic and attractive.

This type of invention could start up a new era of computer entertainment, where players enjoy physical interactions with the virtual world that could be considered similar to playing with pet animals.

• Authors: Hironori Mitake, Kazuyuki Asano, Takafumi Aoki, Marc Salvati, Makoto Sato and Shoichi Hasegawa.
• Title of original paper: Physics-driven Multi-dimensional Keyframe Animation for Artist-directable Interactive Character.
• Journal, volume, pages and year: Computer Graphics Forum, Vol.28, No.2, pp.279-287, 2009.
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2009.01367.x
• Affiliations: Tokyo Institute of Technology.
• Department website: www.pi.titech.ac.jp

The software combines a physical simulation of a rigid body with keyframe animation to produce realistic motions and interactions in computer game characters.